Bella Freud & Hoping Foundation & Hideous Kinky

I've been meaning to do a longer post on the Hoping Foundation's recent (July) charity event that raised 430,000 pounds sterling for Palestinian children. Among those who performed were: David Gilmour and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Nick Cave, Tom Jones, and Kate Moss (yes, she sang back-up and played tambourine). And maybe I will in future still do that post.

But then I came across this photo (source here) of Kate Moss and Hoping Foundation co-founder Bella Freud at the event.

I guess if I lived in the UK I might know that (a) Bella is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; (b) she is a well-known fashion designer; (c) she has been an outspoken critic of Israel and (d) she is the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Having seen the movie (but not yet having read the book), here's what I like about what I learned about Bella Freud. Hippy mom who is way into Sufism drags her daughters off to Morocco in search of spirituality and exoticism. The elder daughter, who survives this difficult ordeal, which includes a nearly-fatal bout of streptococcus, returns to the UK and...grows up to become a successful fashion designer with a political conscience.

So let's not overdo it with making fun of the "Orientalism" of all those hippy treksters and seekers after spirituality who descended on Morocco in the sixties and seventies.