‍SHE WAS Switzerland’s answer to Shirley Valentine, the fictional movie character who seizes the chance to enjoy new love and change her life forever on a holiday of self-discovery in a faraway land.

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‍Her newspaper love story captured the hearts of women around the world. But it was to end in tears after discovering her new lover, a Masai warrior, was addicted to a strange chewing obsession that ruined lives.

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‍Swiss businesswoman Corinne Hofmann, 27, had travelled to Northern Kenya in late 1986 for a holiday with her boyfriend and while touring she met Lketinga Leparmorijo, a young Masai warrior who won her heart and mind. It was instant love.

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‍When she returned to Switzerland, she couldn’t forget him, as much as she tried. So, she sold her successful clothing boutique and nearly everything she had and relocated permanently to Kenya to build a life with the man she loved.

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‍At first, the couple’s life was full of love and passion as they settled in the remote Samburu village of Barsaloi, embracing a way of life vastly different from anything Corinne had known in Europe, the National Geographic magazine reported. And she couldn’t speak their language.

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‍She married Lketinga, moved into her mother-in-law’s manyatta (mud hut compound), and learned the daily responsibilities of a Samburu woman —fetching water, collecting firewood and cooking with leaves.

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‍She adopted Samburu traditions, dressing in their bright fabrics, building a mud hut, and eventually giving birth to her daughter, they named Napirai.

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‍But gradually, as the first flush of lust and love wore off, Corinne began to see a new raw picture of life and her husband’s obsession spending long hours of continuously chewing Miraa. It was transforming his personality.

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‍Miraa is a flowering evergreen shrub, also known as ‘Knat’, found in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. People chew the fresh leaves and young stems to release natural chemicals that act as stimulants.

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‍Heavy use can lead to swollen cheeks from holding the fibrous leaves in one side of the mouth, and frequent spitting of saliva and plant residue. It can also lead to impotence and erectile dysfunction and cause cancer. 

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‍The habit can disrupt normal routines, reduce appetite, and create a lingering smell many people find offensive. Marriages and other relationships are often ruined by it.

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‍Corinne tried to concentrate on a little business venture in the village area, setting up a small grocery shop to help support the family. But her husband’s growing dependence on chewing Miraa gradually transformed his personality.

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‍The rows grew as Lketinga made repeated accusations about other men and deeply mistrusted his wife. At one point he questioned if Napirai was his daughter. The strains of cultural differences, jealousy, and illness finally eroded their bond.

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‍What began as an all-consuming love slowly turned into a struggle to survive, a story that was to make headlines around the world.

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‍After four years, realising that passion alone could not bridge every divide, Corinne returned to Switzerland with Napirai and later, she shared her story in a bestselling memoir ‘The White Masai’ (1998), adapted into a film.

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‍ICE MAN WHO IS FROZEN IN TIME PATIENTLY WAITS FOR LIFE AGAIN

‍A MAN and his Time machine. Here lies James H. Bedford, 73, a retired psychology professor who died of cancer and is now waiting to come back to life.

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‍In 1967 he left $4,200 ($42,000 today) to cryonic scientists because he wanted his body preserved by freezing for later revival when a cure for cancer is found, said Time Magazine.

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‍He waits in a steel capsule with liquid nitrogen to keep his body frozen at about 200° below zero centigrade. The moment he died his physician, Dr Renault Able, packed his body in ice with help from members of the Cryonics Society of California.

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‍The process took eight hours, and they used artificial respiration and external heart massage to protect the brain from oxygen-loss damage until it was frozen solid, draining out the blood and replacing it with antifreeze solutions.

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‍Then Professor Bedford’s icy body was flown to Phoenix, where Edward Hope, a wigmaker by trade, waited with the capsule he had designed and put the professor’s remains in liquid-nitrogen storage, said Time Magazine.

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‍Now he waits.

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‍IT WAS A HARD LIFE GROWING UP ON

‍THE STREETS OF VICTORIAN BRITAIN

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‍HERE are three girl criminals jailed for their terrible crimes in 1873 who were featured in the Northern Echo. From left: Standing just 4ft 3in tall, Ellen Woodman, aged 11, sentenced to seven days hard labour in Newcastle Prison  for stealing an iron in 1873. Jane Farrell, 12, sentenced to 10 days hard labour for stealing two boots. And Rosanna Watson, who also stole an iron and got seven days hard labour. And to think, today you can steal and walk free.

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‍DICKENS GOES ON PATROL IN SEEDY BACKSTREETS WITH TOP YARD COP

‍Charles Frederick Field (1805–1874) was a pioneering Scotland Yard detective who became a close confidant of Charles Dickens and was frequently mentioned in the Press.

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‍Field was the literary inspiration for the famous Inspector Bucket in Dickens’s 1852 novel Bleak House and was the subject of the author’s journalistic sketches in his weekly magazine Household Words. It was Field who introduced the writer to many of his fictionalised characters.

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‍He joined the Metropolitan Police at its inception in 1829 and rose to become Chief of the Detective Department at Scotland Yard. During the 1840s and 1850s, the detective and the author formed a strong bond.

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‍Field frequently acted as Dickens’s “night-guide,” taking the author on late-night patrols in London’s most notorious slums and ale houses.

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‍Dickens immortalised their relationship and Field’s larger-than-life, theatrical personality in his magazine — including his method of elaborate disguises to catch criminals.

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‍STARS WHO LENT A SHOULDER TO DUKE

‍THE pallbearers at John (Duke) Wayne’s 1979 funeral included Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, James Arness, Rod Steiger, Jack Palance, and Robert Mitchum, said the LA Times.

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‍They carried his flag-draped casket alongside members of his family at the private Catholic service held at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach on June 11 that year.

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‍The Press reported that long-time friend star Maureen O’Hara was at his bedside when he died.

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‍ANOTHER GOBLET PLEASE FOR THE ROYAL GOBBLER

‍QUEEN VICTORIA was a notoriously fast eater who “gobbled her food,” newspapers reported.

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‍Dictated by royal protocol, the moment the Queen finished a course, every guest’s plate was instantly cleared — regardless of whether they were still eating.

‍She finished meals in record time, often clearing six to 10 courses in under 30 minutes. Fancy breads; smoked haddock, whisky and mulled wine quickly disappeared before the main course, said The Guardian.

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‍ACTRESS JULIA WAS A HELL OF A TINKER

‍STAR Julia Roberts had a tense relationship with director Steven Spielberg when she played Tinkerbell in the 1991 movie ‘Hook’, the LA Times reported.

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‍The two frequently clashed on set — with crew members dubbing her: Tinkerhell! Spielberg vowed he would not work with her again. He never has yet.

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‍TERRY MANNERS

‍3rd August 2026

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