Rye’s very own “environmentally friendly drag lady”, Timberlina has worked in a variety of roles across the heritage and creative sectors, nationally and internationally for 25 years, entertaining diverse crowds in venues ranging from local clubs to major institutions such as the National Gallery and National Trust. When not performing or hosting their wildly successful bingo nights, they enjoy studying Permaculture and wandering in the uniquely varied wild surroundings Rye has to offer.
What brings you to the George?
Well I’ve just popped in for a quick martini before I hit the streets with a salacious tour of this gloriously beguiling town.
List 3 things you won’t leave home without
All in one compact folding brush and mirror (does that count as one thing?), phone and… sunglasses.
What is your earliest hotel memory?
Wonderful question. The Arlington Hotel, ‘secluded yet in the very centre of Bournemouth’. Racing through the rose gardens probably wearing a Robin Hood outfit to get to the annual summer parade along the prom, circa 1975.
What is the best/most important part of staying away in a hotel for you?
Detail to cleanliness. It’s the ultimate signifier of respect.
What are you currently reading/binge-watching/listening to?
Reading ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Forever binge-watching Modern Family, and always listening to Fip, a most fantastically eclectic French radio station with no talking except for the rare and very occasional dulcet tones of an unknown, female seductress.
Do you have a hotel lobby/lift story you’d care to share with us?
Well I once met Hayley Mills in a hospital foyer in New York. We had gone to visit a mutual acquaintance who had a theatre company entertaining ill kids and we were both going to support them. I had no idea who she was all the way up in the lift and we chatted about everything but. Once we got to the ward, a bunch of homosexuals who happened to be in the theatre company and knew precisely who Hayley Mills was, erupted in a frenzy of high camp fan club drama! Recounting lines, regaling Hayley with praise, while I smiled politely at the back of the room like the wall flower I often am, slightly embarrassed by the whole thing, not least because Whistle Down The Wind is one of my all-time favourite films. Oh and I once shared a lift with Oliver Reed when I worked at the National but that’s another story. I’ll stop now.
What do you always forget/lose when you go away?
Keys. I am absolutely terrible with keys.
Hypothetically, who would you most like to discover is a fellow guest?
Well to be honest, when John Goodman was sat on the John Izod bench opposite the George that year, the universe aligned, and Rye had a Hollywood moment. That kinda did it for me, give or take George Clooney and Matt Damon, who were staying at The George and lurking in the background. I couldn’t speak.
What helps you get to sleep at night? (keep it clean!)
Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent.
My secret Rye discovery is…
If it’s not the new, tiny and delicious 8note coffee bar, then to be honest it’s my own secluded back garden which is a constantly evolving secret source of unadulterated Permacultural delight in the middle of Rye that no-one knows is there.