The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 36

36 OBSERVER SUNDAY 12 MARCH 1989 JOHN WIUXIOOSC Unwanted pregnancies An all-party group of pro-cholee MPs wants NHS clinics all over the country for earlier abortions. Helen Axby would like to see a move in the direction of 13 other European countries where abortion is on request in the first 12-14 weeks. 'The worst thing about some late terminations is that in many cases it is a prostaglandin induction, where the waters are broken and then the woman is conscious throughout a drug-induced labour. 'Whereas in our clinics we do a simple dilation and evacuation under anaesthetic, or in the very early stages an augmented anaesthetic. Our staff do not wear white coats.

Most women are dazed and we try to make it less traumatic. 'Ultimately women must be responsible for their own bodies, and we give a back-up of birth control advice. Success is not seeing the woman here Ann Morecraft, secretary of the Exeter District Community Health Council, which has forwarded a report to the local Family Practitioner Committee calling for a change in attitude to women seeking abortion in the Exeter area, says, 'We are sure that in some cases women have been forced to go through with their pregnancies because of the attitude of their One such girl went ahead and had her baby as a result of pressure from her GP to produce a baby for adoption to help a childless couple: 'It was the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life. Having gone through with the pregnancy, which I didn't want to do, I was frightened and alone. I was only 16 and my mother had just died.

I knew I couldn't possibly give a baby a reasonable life. 'I know my baby was adopted locally, and she would now be six years old. I think about her all the time. I can't get it out of my mind. I look at little girls wherever I go, wondering if they are her.

I am almost certain I saw her picture in the local paper recently. I have cut it out and I have it in my purse. I don't think I will get over it. 'Having had the baby, I wish I had moved heaven and earth to keep her. I suppose a man can't imagine what it feels like to give up your new-born baby when your body is screaming to cuddle it and look after She is now married, with two children.

'If it happens to my daughter, I hope they tell me or have a sensible GP with a bit of imagination. If a woman has made her mind up and wants an abortion, that is a responsible decision and the GP should accept it. What he should be worried about is preventing another unwanted pregnancy in the future. Abortion for any woman is a tragedy. It does not help to turn it into a VANESSA HAN NAM because I didn't want to worry her.

I thought if I went to our local GP he would sort it all out for me. I had missed two periods, but I am irregular, so it was only when I started being sick that I knew. 'The doctor said he couldn't do a test for another two weeks. I went back two weeks later and he did the test and he said it would be a week before he got the result. A week later he said the results were positive.

Jenny lives with her mother and stepfather in a council house. Her stepfather is unemployed and there are three other younger children, the youngest 18 months old. There are only three bedrooms and the family is on supplementary benefit. Jenny was also unemployed at the time. 'I told him I could not possibly have the baby.

I wanted an abortion and I didn't want my Mum to know. The doctor said it was too late, I was too far gone, and that anyway it was a lovely time for a girl to have a baby and I would get a lot of help from the Social Services and be well looked after, and how would I feel in 10 years' time? And anyway, my Mum could help care for it. 'I cried and pleaded with him, but he made me feel like a criminal. Finally I went home and told my Mum Jenny's mother telephoned her sister in London. Jenny's aunt took charge of the situation and took her to the Raleigh Nursing Home in Brixton, one of the Marie Stopes clinics.

"The nursing home was quite small, and there were lots of other girls in the reception who were all there for the same reason, and that made me feel better at once, because they all looked normal and not like criminals. 'The lady who saw me explained that I had to have a scan and talk to the doctor and come back for the abortion the next day, because that was the law. The doctor who saw me and who did the scan told me I was nine weeks pregnant and that I did not have to have a full anaesthetic as it was so early. I went in the next day and they were all kind and friendly and I never felt frightened. My aunt paid 190 in four post-dated cheques and I am paying her SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Mary, 10 weeks pregnant, was brought to a London abortion clinic by a friend.

She was in acute pain. Having failed to obtain an abortion in her local area, she had tried to abort herself with the help of a mirror and a knitting needle. The gynaecologist in charge was able to give her the abortion she had tried so hard to achieve, but the damage to her cervix will endanger her chances of a normal pregnancy in the future. As the nurse in charge put it, 'Cervixes are tender little things, and she had really mashed hers Ann Widdecombe's second failed attempt on 3 -March to reduce the 28-week abortion limit by a Private Member's Bill (she says she will go on trying) yet again focused attention on the wrong end of the spectrum. It is widely assumed that any girl can obtain abortion in the early stages, but this is not the reality.

Many MPs from both sides of the House are sure that the time has come when the 1967 Act should be looked at again and the whole problem aired in official Parliamentary time, instead of being left in the grey area of Private Members' Bills. Three MPs (Andrew MacKay, Conservative, Jo Richardson, Labour and Rosie Barnes, Social Democrat) recently launched the All-Party Umbrella Group a pro-choice alliance which will seek to move the debate away from how the existing law should be restricted and concentrate on making early abortion easier to obtain, with NHS clinics all over the country. At present, the limited choice, apart from the NHS hospital via your GP, and various private clinics, includes the five British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinics (in Bournemouth, Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds and Liverpool); two Marie Stopes clinics, both in London; and alternatives offered by the London Pregnancy Advisory Service, with a clinic in Richmond. These are all charitable clinics, covered by their charges and by donations. Another 17-year-old, Jenny, illustrates just how stuck the inexperienced can be.

'When I thought I was pregnant I did not tell my Mum takes the decision to have an abortion uncaringly or Helen Axby works for the Marie Stopes clinics. 'No woman doctor's signature from her local GP accepting responsibility for her for emergency cover if she comes as a day patient, so in effect we are talking about three doctors. 'The operation must be carried out a day after the scan and consultation, which means an overnight stay in London, plus another night if the local doctor will not co-operate, which all adds to the from their local GP. Helen Axby would like to see some of the obstacles put in the way of women seeking early abortion knocked down. 'The later the pregnancy the greater the risk, especially to pregnancy in the future.

The single one-off first trimester (first 12 weeks) abortion is not a great risk, but at the moment two doctors have to approve the abortion and the woman has to have a third ground. As she puts it: 'I know of no greater tragedy than the birth of an unwanted baby, and the assumption that any woman takes the decision to have an abortion uncaringly or lightly is wrong. What concerns me most is that there is such a variation all over the Marie Stopes welcomes women from a huge area, many of whom have had unsympathetic treatment As Jenny says, 'It was just a fluke that my Mum rang my aunt who could help. I know lots of girls who have not been so lucky. I suppose you only hear about these things through word of mouth.

Your doctor certainly isn't going to tell Helen Axby is the director of clinic services for Marie Stopes, an SRN with four years' experience in this field. Her feet are firmly on the My life as a misfit Briton at the stove A Swedish film shows a child coming out of his shell. Its authenticity has evoked a powerful response from audiences. 'I HA ths this a Hidlsttomi. whose film ends iwith" film its uratiorial moments, its 'I had a happy child hdodvoeisanallv.

but -more and. funny httle Lasse My Halbtrdm, direct PAUL LEVY meets the post-hopurtfelie culinary talent of the Capital Hotel. MY FIRST introduction to what has- become the nquVelle cuisine was' almost 20 ago; A -girlfriend told me that: something amazing aV, happening in the Capital Hdtel, chic but tiny estabhshmentv: in Basil beside' Harrods. I blued a week's spending' 'money taking, her to nrare: I how much; of myself I put in: i'. lot of weird things happened to me too.

There was a specific eccentric I related to as a child, a very strange painter who usedto blow up his biceps by blowing on his thumb. My father (a dentist and amateur, film-maker) was; on the roof of our house: He didn't as a Dbg. 'Making the film-; was very fun. trunk back to it and I really long for said Anton Glanzelius, its child star, now rising 14. 'Fun, Ulla, cautions the boy's film uncle one wWte summer night when his wife yells at Philip Britten: Capital chef at 31.

them from her window to. stop making such a racket and come believe jn fixing it for good, he in. Ill --2fc in to bed. She takes the did it for the day, like a painter Brut Reserve, we shall sit down to a terrine of rabbit -and ibie gras, its richness counterpointed by a luscious Vouvray demi-sec 1986 of Daniel Jarry (from Yapp Bros, 0747 860423). Then a refreshing jellied comsomme of crab and tomato with caviar cream, daringly paired with Don Zoilo Fino sherry (Michael Druitt Wines, 01-493 5412 for stockists).

Anton Glanzelius, 10, was too young for the part, so the script was rewritten is what is most fun right My Life as a Dog got two Our main course of roasted new season lamb encrusted with mixed herbs set on a shallot sauce is served with a glorious Oscar nominations and won six prizes last year, somewhat to its burgundy, Corton Clos des Cor tons' 1982 of J. Faively (from Metzendorff, 01-222 2S22 for -Nico went off on his terrible tangent tp Shinfield, near Reading, he left Britten in charge of the Battersea Chez Nico, The pupil served his master well by getting "a Michelin star in 1986, as Nico himself was getting his second star. David Levin, the subtle Scottish owner of the Capital Hotel (who is the best teller of Jewish jokes in London), then snapped Britten up as successor to Richard Shepherd and Brian Turner to name just two chefs who have gone on from the Cap-i ital to make great culinary careers. The ever more fashionable Capital remains one of London's hottest tables, and I shall be surprised (and a bit annoyed) if Britten does not regain its Michelin star this year. If you're interested in the changes that have taken place since the scallops and raspberry sauce era, Philip Britten has agreed to cook dinner for 40 readers here at The Observer on Tuesday 4 April.

The menu I have devised with him is the delicious opposite of nouvelle cuisine excessive, though we have been quite adventurous about our choice of wines. (Many readers have remarked that it is the quality and variety of the wines that make these stockists). And the praline par The company now owns four London cinemas the Camden Plaza, the Chelsea, the Renoir and the Lumiere and imports a dazzling range of films: all of post-war Bunuel, Bresson, Res-nais, the Taviani brothers, Tar-kovsky, for instance. They take risks no commercial company would. Our cultural life would be poorer not to say Dogless without them.

CYNTHIA XEE 'My Life as a Dog" is at the Renoir, Bloomsbury, London WC1. fait with which we finish the seriously; blows them a kiss and pulls down the blind. This remarkable Swedish film, first shown here in 1987, reopened for a limited run in London on Friday. It is a modest work 'not a high-concept movie' set in 1959, the year Ingemar Johansson beat Floyd Patterson as heavyweight champion of the world, an event with many reverberations in the film. But it works with such acute sensibility on so many levels that seeing it is a curiously satisfactory experience.

Rather banal on the face of it, the film explores familiar themes (misunderstood youngster, dying mother, nascent sexuality, healing country life) with such integrity that they become fresh and surprising in a most moving way. 'If you tell a joke and no one laughs, it's a said Lasse Hallstrom, 'If no one was moved, this film would be a Artless as it seems, the film is in fact carefully constructed, based on a novel by Reidar Jons-son to be published this summer by Faber, who have also just published the script (4.99). It all really happened to the author, but took 30 years to work through in real life: "That was a falsification I had to make dinner a young chef called: Richard Shepherd, rnakihg a pre-Lahgan's Brasserie name for himself. Bizarre though it seems in retrospect, I remember that the dish catching everyone's attention at the Capital was a mousse of scallops served with two sauces. One was horseradish.

The other, says my memory, had something to do with' 'raspberries. Naturally, it caused a sensation. Food fashions change, but the Capital remains a haven for culinary enfanis terribles. Take, for example, Philip Britten, the present chef of the Capital Hotel. Philip is only 31, and 10 years younger.

He didn't even mean to become a coofe, but says he was 'not academic enough' to fulfil his ambition- to be an architect. Trainee cooks work even harder than trainee architects, but Philip only learned that in his four years as an infant apprentice in the kitchens of the Dorchester, first under Eugene Kaufeler and then under Anton Mosimann. While still in his 20s, a variety of alarmingly impressive jobs as sous chef followed, most notably when he opened Hambleton Hall as number two prodigy to the scarely older Nick Gill, and then worked with Nico Ladenis in the Golden Age of Chez Nico. When. touching up a portrait.

And can relate very, much to a child not being able to make contact with his mother. Mine was a writer. I couldn't get through to her. I made cakes to get her In the film, the 12-year-old protagonist, a misfit in the pent-up confines of his own home ('But he always seems completely says the first aunt he is taken to stay with when his mother goes into hospital) finds release in the accepting village community where his uncle lives. 'All these local eccentrics kind of save his said Lasse Hallstrom.

'They make him lose his superficial tensions and open him to some kind of 'I didn't think about it at all. I just opened my mouth and something came said Anton Glanzelius, who was 10 at the time. The son of a music critic and an actress, he was initially turned down as too young for the part. But he was so good the script was rewritten for him. Shooting took 80 days: 'Work gets boring for a 10-year-old he said.

'Lasse Hallstrom was extremely good wonderful. He knew exactly how "he should treat me. The guy in the film was a bit grown-up for me. The sex parts were probably meal will be accompanied by the rare and exquisite vintage rose, makers surprise, lnat we can see it here is due to another idiosyncratic outfit, the distribution company Artificial Eye. Run 'on a personal basis' by Pam and Andy Engels, Artificial Eye grew out of Polit Kino, a radical distribution company formed by Andy Engels in 1969.

It fills the gap left by the Academy when it closed in 1986. laittinger Oomtes de Cham pagne 1982 (Matthew Clark, 01-253 7646 for stockists of both Taittinger champagnes). accurate for him and he wasn't so interested anyway I think you saw that. I hope you He plays the part, already subtly written, with miraculous control, holding the whole film together. But fife has not been easy for him since: 'When I came back I was much more grown-up.

It was hard to make he said. 'A lot of people say a lot of shit to me. I don't say anything. I can hold it for three months, then I cry for a whole day. I still live with the film, because everybody else does.

I would love to work for Lasse Hallstrom He has done one television film since, in which 'everything was wrong', and made one new friend, Michael Jackson, who saw the film when it was released in America and rang him up. They have been friends ever since, but Anton does not like to talk about it. 'I wanna play he said. 'Football lhe dim is the same as always. Places will be allocated by ballot to the first 40 readers whose cheques of 60 per person favour ot lhe Observer Ltd are received by the last post on Monday, 20 March.

Send them to Gillian Arger, The Observer, Chelsea Bridge House, Queen- stown Koad, London SW8 4NN RAYMOND BLANC Pain de vlande souffle avec une sauce tomato Meat loaf souffle with tomato sauce Sunday roast leftovers will do this simple recipe for four. It takes 25 min to prepare and SO min to cook. You will need a mouli-legumes or food processor and a round earthenware bowl, 8 In (20 cm) in diameter and 7 in deep. No parties larger than four, and please enclose a note of the name and sex of each guest so we can dinners such good value.) Following a glass of Taittinger in the said make a seating plan. Well-known slut, poet and Papist For the tomato tract: 2Tbtp ofeve oU; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 crashed clove garlic; 4-S tarragon leaves (optional); 1 sprig thyme; 300 (11 oz) tomatoes, cat halt, seeds removed, roughly chopped; 2 large Tbsp tomato puree; tatt and pepper.

Greer, Fraser, Duffy and American Behnftes gathered round Aphra Behn's new tombstone In Westminster Abbey last week. For the meat loaf souffle 300 (11 oz) leftover lamb, beef, veal or pork, diced brio 1 cm (i In) cubes; 40 (1 oz) finely chopped parsley; 8 chopped tarragon leaves (optional); 1 crashed dove garBc; 4 egg yMkt; 7 egg whites; 1 tap lemon lutes; tatt, pepper. For the garnish: 1 Tbtp chopped parsley. Aphra Behn! A unique place. Dr Greer puts it, 'a well-known slut, poet and Papist'.

Her poem oh Thomas Creech's translation of Lucretius, the 'basic text of libertinism', was an 'extremely injudicious piece of work' which Creech censored when he printed it in the second edition of 1683. Behn published it herself in 1684 and 'put back all the naughty bits'. Aphra Behn, Dr Greer explains, was very political, known to be. pro-French, pro-Papist, and wrote 'reams of propaganda for which she should have been paid through Charles IPs secret service accounts', but 'there are so many contradictory things about her. According to the Abbey records, they buried Astrea Behn.

She signed herself A. Behn, Mrs A. Behn or Astrea There are three extant portraits Of her, all of apparently different people. She called herself Astrea after a virgin goddess, and writes at every opportunity about the 'bitter injustice of marrying young women to old men. It was an idee fixe with As Germaine Greer says, was a 'DRAMATIST, novelist and wit' was how the Dean of Westminster Abbey described Aphra Behn to the two dozen people gathered at her tomb in the east clofeter last Wednesday.

It was the eve of International Women's Day in the tercentenary year of her death. Two contemporary English women writers, both of whom have written about Aphra Behn, were present as the male American Behn specialist, Professor Missenheimer from Indiana State University, placed a wreath of blue iris and yellow daffodils on her simple marble, slab. Maureen Duffy, one of her biographers, added a bunch of white dafhile Anitbnia Fraset stood by; The' professor made a short speech. Aphra Behn is the only professional woman writer buried in the abbey, he said. Borri in 1640, she lived longer than Keats, less time than: Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dryden.

'Her genius gave her a unique place in the annals of literature. She was a pioneer in a man's world and let the world know that the female writer had come to He MaTTHOD 1) Making the tomato sauce. In a medium-sized saucepan sweat onion in olive oil for 2-3 min. Add garlic tarragon (If used), thyme and chopped tomatoes. Cover and sweat for a further 5 min.

Add tomato puree. 200 ml (7 fl oz) water and cook slowly for 30 min without a lid. Taste and season wtth salt and pepper. Pass through the fine plate of a moulWegumes and reserve in a small saucepan. 2) Making the meat loaf souffle.

Finely mince meat, place in bowl and add parsley, tarragon (if used), garlic, egg yolks, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Beat egg whites until very stiff, adding tsp of lemon juice as peaks form. Season with salt and pepper. Add of egg whites and combine thoroughly.

Carefully fold in the remainder of egg whites and check seasoning again. from 'Chill Canon Corner', the coldest spot in the grounds according to a cleric present, is in front of one of the side doors leading out of the church, and the inscription had been worn away over 300 years. It has been recently recut and reads: 'Mrs Aphra Behn, Dyed April 16 AD 1689 Here lies a Proof that wit can never beDefence enough against Mortality'. Germaine Greer is becoming a publisher (Stump Cross Books), and her first Venture will be-an edition of the uncollected verse of Aphra Behn in April. 'It is a bit of a coup her being in the she says, 'even though she is buried not with the poets but with the actors.

Her nearest neighbours are the Bettertons and Anne Bracegirdle. I don't know how they swung She was to some contemporaries, as called her a 'rebellious non-conformist of the reformation, with all the broad, passionate vigour of the Her plays were hugely popular in her own day, and The with Jeremy Irons, played to packed houses last year at the Mermaid. It was the perception of her contemporaries that she was a' loose woman. Professor Missenheimer said that though 'invidious vilifi- cation was heaped upon her, and her reputation was scandalous, her place has been newly defined and newly He quoted her American biographer Mary Ann O'Donnell: 'It is time to restore to Aphra Behn the fame she longed for, the fame she worked for and the fame she deserved. Not because she is a woman writer, but because she is.

an important Heir monument, a few yards away libertine Catholic in the Continental Thomas Spjratt, wiis Dean of Westminster, had) been a member of Aphra Behn's coterie and 'may have scooped her up for old times' sake. She had no pension, which she really deserved. Burying a known agnostic and cynic in the Abbey may have been a PR exercise for religion. Burying her as a Protestant was stretching a point. She is lucky to be CLAIRE CLIFTON 3) Preheat oven to 180 (350 mark 4).

Generously butter the bowl and pour in the souffle mixture. On the hob, place the bowl in a roasting tin and pour around hot water to half its depth. Bring to boil and place in oven for 40-45 min. 4) Serving. Warm a large serving dish.

Reheat tomato sauce. Remove meat loaf souffle from oven and free the loaf with the blade of a knife. Shake the dish gently and tum on to large warmed serving Pour sauce over and sprinkle With paisley..