News
July 2025
My thanks to Richard, who kept the updates alive while I was away on the high seas. Embarking my favourite ship, Ambassador’s Ambience I left Tilbury on 5 May for a Mediterranean adventure and the cruise line never lets me down. Yes, the ship is slightly tired but it has a laid-back and quiet elegance that suits me down to the ground. The cabins, food, and entertainment are all excellent, but what really sets the ship apart from many of its competitors are the crew. They are simply the stars of the show, and while others have cut down of the staff, this ship is abundantly full of smiling faces ready to help with any request. Also unlike other lines, the Captain and his officers can always be seen walking around the ship.
The flagship of the fleet, the name Ambience was derived from the French word for ‘surrounding’, their ambition at Ambassador is to create the optimum atmosphere onboard, one that brings out the best in each of their passengers.
With an average 1,400-guest capacity and careful configuration, she offers both a feeling of spaciousness and freedom, whilst retaining that sense of intimacy and camaraderie everyone craves; it’s whatever makes you comfortable.
Entertainment-wise, she offers a great choice I can let my hair down at the Observatory and watch some great shows in The Palladium. There are numerous bars to whet your whistle, including Raffles Bar, Botanical Lounge, SW19 and The Purple Turtle Pub, where the daily quizzes are held.
Dining options are plentiful at their Buckingham restaurant or the Borough Market, and my personal favourite the Alfresco Grill which serves the most delicious burgers. Wining and dining are more than fine at Saffron*, Sea & Grass* or their deluxe Chef’s Table*, where they offer a special gastronomic experience that’s not to be missed.
You can never get bored with a gym, crafting studio, a bridge and card room, a casino, library and a shopping gallery. On deck there is a swimming pool, two hot tubs and a large screen for outdoor movies, sadly not operational on the legs I was on.
I have been on the brand’s sister ship, Ambition but Ambience is my personal favourite. Now the cruise line has announced the newest addition to their fleet, Renaissance and from what I’ve gathered, it will be sited in the Caribbean so it will be a first for the company in offering fly-cruises. I haven’t flown in years nor do I intend to – I couldn’t take the luggage I would want – so for now I’m sticking to Ambience and looking forward to being welcomed by her wonderful crew. I can’t remember where we were en route to but we were thrilled to see Renaissance as it passed us on the way back to France.
Being that I am still mostly tethered to my scooter, I took things easy but I was persuaded to take part in the ‘Build a Boat’ competition. My three team members and I spent several weeks pilfering items from the ship, including ice cream tubs, string, gaffer tape et al and amazingly, not only did it float when all the entries were launched in the swimming pool, but we won one of the categories as Best Themed. I have to say it was quite a laugh, and even Captain Egil joined in the fun by judging and awarding the prizes.
Because of my limited mobility, I only got ff the ship twice on this itinerary, once in Gibraltar and the other in Tangier. I’d been to Casablanca in the past and wasn’t impressed, but several passengers persuaded me to come out with them, and I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness everywhere, and the medina was great fun, I even bought a hat!
As you know, even when at sea, I still look at my messages and emails and once again, thanks to those of you who continue to send me your ‘finds’. Firstly, a Stars Organization for Spastics poster from 1962 with dad on the bill (spelt wrongly for a change, lol) and another fan sent in a cover from ‘June’, a schoolgirls weekly periodical. If anyone spots this at a car boot or online, please grab me a copy.
The second leg of my travels was a two-week jaunt to Norway to see the ‘Midnight Sun’. Now I’ve done 13 trips to the Northern Lights and sadly have never seen them ……… well until 1st January this year when outside my front door in Telford I had a front-row view of Aurora Borealis. Go figure.
One of the crew told me it was the start of summer in June, but boy it was cold. Although 14 days we only had six ports but that was because we travelled up to Nordkapp, the North Cape at Honningsvag, the northernmost point in Europe, purportedly the ‘Top of the World’. Far above the Arctic Circle, it is blessed with months of never-ending daylight in the summer.
The cape includes an outcrop, 307 meters above the sea, with a large flat plateau at the top where cruise passengers are taken to view the midnight sun. There is a great visitor centre at the top with a café, restaurant, museum, cinema and souvenir shop. As I’ve done the tour in the past, I chose to stay on the ship and sadly, because of the inclement weather, the sun did not have its hat on that night. Having said that at our last port the following day, at exactly midnight, we witnessed the Midnight Sun from Deck 14 and it was a beauty.
I’m thankful I packed my thermals so I could enjoy the fabulous scenery from Deck 12 but I have to admit it was slightly disconcerting that it didn’t get dark, and I’d often be sitting on deck after midnight, thanking it was several hours earlier than it actually was.
I was commissioned to do five talks on dad, and I was thrilled by the large turnouts at each one. I thank everyone for coming, and hopefully, they have learned something about the man behind the voice. One person who was also booked to do a talk was Eddie the Eagle and he was a great character and obviously had a great choice in music as he came to hear my last talk before flying home from Tromso.
All in all, a fabulous seven weeks and I urge anyone who doesn’t want the pomp and ceremony of lines like Cunard, P&O and Celebrity to try Ambassador. There are formal nights if you like to dress up but if you’re not a fan, you can chill and relax in any number of bars or quiet areas and the payoff are the crew. I have been fortunate to have sailed on most cruise lines but none compare to the levels of friendliness that exude from the crew and I for one look forward to boarding Ambience in the near future.
I had a lovely email from Amanda Hodges, a freelance writer who was recently commissioned to profile Matt Monro for the May issue of ‘Retro’. Her original email had stated that it was only a succinct overview of dad’s life but I was delighted that 40 years after his passing, he still warrants a mention.
‘Matt’s Kind of Podcast’ was launched on dad’s birthday last year and we are putting up one edition every month. So, make sure you pop by in the next day or two to catch the newest edition. Although we have garnered several thousand listeners each month, we haven’t had much feedback and questions have been light so if you have a topic or question you would like to see covered then please email either Richard of myself and we’ll do out best to cover it.
This month we are delving into the various biographies that have featured dad over the years, not just books, but radio, television and articles that have graced the internet.
Dad’s podcast is continuing to grow thanks to all your support and I’m really excited to announce that we are featuring our first special guest in the next few months so I’ll update you as soon as we’ve finalized our dates. It’s been hard enough trying to find a time that works for both Richard and my schedules but add a third person in the mix and we’re lucky we can fit it in this year, lol.
Quick note from Richard here. Back in 2011 at the launch of Michele’s Book I chatted to Colin Keyes for quite a while. He hated the rough mix of The Other Side of the Stars that EMI issued and I promised him that if I could rectify that, I would. It took more than ten years, but I managed to finally achieve this on Cherry Reds Complete EMI Recordings 1971 – 1984.
I really wanted him to hear it, but Michele and Matt Jnr had lost touch with him and he defied all attempts to find him. I was therefore blown away when one of Colin’s daughters emailed me a couple of weeks ago. Colin in now in his 80’s but often speaks of Matt. I arranged for a copy of the CD set to be sent to her and I’m now waiting to see what he thinks of it. Hopefully we can report more next month. – Back to Michele
Dad’s YouTube channel frequently features rare television performances, interviews and shorts but don’t worry if you weren’t with us from the very beginning as the channel still has all the ones you may have missed by not visiting yet. It’s all totally free and if you register, the site will send you a reminder every time something new is added. It would be amazing to hit the 200,000-subscriber mark so please tell all your friends to visit us and help us grow so that I can keep dad’s legacy of songs burning bright.
Later in the year we are putting together another audio compilation which will be available on dad’s YouTube channel in the near future. The working title at the moment is “Matt at the BBC Volume 2’ so watch this space.
Don’t forget to visit dad’s very own YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/MattMonroOfficial
I know you’ve all heard this before but in light of a new Argentina interview dad did which has only just landed on our desks, please, please let us know if you have any rare footage, (even if you taped it illegally, lol), jingles or photos of dad. I ranted on for years on every radio interview I did trying to trace dad’s original Camay jingle and 18 years later a fan sent it in. Asking why she had held it back for so long, she replied “I thought you would already have it”.
While I can understand that in the old days recording shows by the public was difficult, I cannot believe that there is no recording of dad’s Barbican concert from 1985, one of the last he did. There are also dozens of jingles still to be found although they are hard to find as the artist is not accredited to the product. Richard and I have spent months and months listening to product jingles that we know that dad was involved in and we, well to be honest Richard, has found several over the years so come on all you diehard fans, take a look in your attics, even if you have reel tapes we have the equipment to listen to it. Fingers crossed.
Once again, I hope you have a happy and healthy year and I look forward to touching base with you all in August. In the meantime, stay safe and keep spreading the MM legacy.
Much love
Michele xx
Past News