Anthea’s grave confession
It’s almost Halloween – just in time for TV presenter Anthea Turner to open up about a slightly unusual pastime…
Anthea Turner has revealed she has a bit of an unusual interest – wandering around graveyards! And far from creepy, the TV presenter finds the experience of wandering past headstones ‘strangely peaceful’.
‘I’ve never been spooked by graveyards,’ she confessed. ‘Even as a child, I’d be fascinated, wandering around with my dad, any time the family went to church.’
‘ We look at all these dead people’s stories and say things like: “Ooh, that poor girl was only 12 when she died – I wonder what happened to her?”
‘ You see some lovely old-fashioned names, like “Fanny”…
‘And did you know, Beatrix Potter, when she got stuck on names for her stories, would go and visit graveyards for inspiration?’
As a child, Anthea was obsessed with the idea of finding a skeleton in a graveyard – seeking them out at night, armed with her dad’s torch and accompanied by her best friend, Philip – convinced that one day, they’d see one.
‘Needless to say, we didn’t. But there’s just something about churchyards. There’s great tranquillity, and it’s fascinating reading. Lives, stories.’
Her advice to others? ‘Don’t feel scared – they have a nice energy about them! A bit like churches. You don’t have to be religious, they’re calming.’
Anthea’s unique passion has continued to this day. She and her fiancé, Mark Armstrong, often go for walks in London’s Brompton Cemetery.
Mark’s pet Russian dwarf hamster, a present from his son on Father’s Day this year, was even given the name of a Russian doctor they’d seen on a gravestone – Perepilichnyy!
Most recently, the pair ended up doing some detective work linked to the home they share.
‘Our house has a blue plaque on it, of a now-famous artist,’ she revealed. ‘ We were always troubled by him a little, he’d had a tough life – and I was convinced he was still in the house.
‘My dog, Soho, would sit at the foot of the stairs, gazing up into the middle distance… It wasn’t frightening, but I’m quite intuitive, and I could definitely feel a presence.’
The couple set out to discover where the late painter was buried – and visited his grave. ‘ We cleaned it, told him it had all worked out well, he was now very famous, laid some flowers there. We made our peace with him, made him feel loved.’
And Anthea believes that, rather than being macabre, a stroll through a graveyard is a reminder to live life to the full.
‘Just look at some of the names and dates on these gravestones, some died before their time. None of them wanted to die.
‘It reminds you life is short – enjoy every moment.’
‘Churchyards have a great tranquillity, and make for fascinating reading’