Anthea Turner: Her part in the slave trade

What an offhand celebrity comment can tell us about the legacy of empire

Anthea Turner perkily stands in front of a dungeon in a Ghanian slave fort. She points her thumb at the sign about the door -‘Male Slaves’- then, grinning at the camera, she quips:

‘I can think of a few fellas I wouldn’t mind putting in there!’

My wife didn’t want me to write this article. Her view is that to investigate an offhand comment that Anthea Turner made in 1999 would be…somewhat creepy. But I am not a stalker and I have very little interest in Anthea Turner per se. What I am interested in is exploding tiny, insignificant moments into issues for investigating. It is in the micro that the macro reveals itself to us.

I am also interested in memory. Sometimes a moment can be experienced as trivial as it happens but it is only over time that its true significance becomes apparent. By tugging at those gossamer threads of memory we can, perhaps, untangle the knots of existence.

So, here goes…

Back in the days before Netflix, I used to enjoy watching the ITV travel show ‘Wish You Were Here?’ Light-as-a-feather entertainment, it was immensely comforting in its own way; depicting a world of pleasant (but never challenging) voyages…