Arabella was born on 30 October 1949. She is the granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, the daughter of Winston' s only son Randolph and his second wife June Osborne. She was "Deb of the Year" in 1967. She worked for a while at London Weekend Television and then ran the Biafra Ball. She became Public Relations officer for LEPRA the British leprosy Relief Association and traveled to Tanzania and Zambia to see the work that LEPRA was doing in the field and then gave talks about this to groups all over England.
In 1970, during the days of Flower Power, she "dropped out" and helped run the 1st Glastonbury Festival in 1971. In 1972 she married a teacher, Jim Barton, and in 1973 had a son, Jake who is now 26. They had a sheep farm in Wales for a while. Arabella and Jim separated in 1975 and late divorced. Arabella moved back to London and was involved in various charity events and then in the 1979 Glastonbury Festival in aid of the Year of the Child. In 1980 she moved to Glastonbury to live and, with a friend, started the Glastonbury Children's Festival and the Children's World Charity.
Since 1982, the Children's World Charity has been working continuously with special schools throughout Somerset and Avon, providing drama participation workshops, music, and dance workshops, puppetry and creative play tours for children with special needs (severe learning difficulties, emotional and behavioral difficulties, etc.) The work of Children's World is greatly valued by the staff of the special schools, who believe that its work is of very great benefit to their children in so many different ways.
Children's World undertakes
a lot "integration" work, taking tours to special schools
and their neighboring mainstream schools to encourage strong relationships
between them, and to ease the passage of special needs children
into mainstream schools without bullying. The Charity has just
completed a "Living History" Tour on the Tudors, and
is just commencing its Summer Term Schools Festival Tour working
with 4 sets of special schools and their neighboring mainstream
schools, working with groups of 60 mixed-ability children at a
time on the theme of "Relationships". This Tour will
be followed by special schools Festival Days and then, at the
start of the summer holidays, by the annual Glastonbury Children's
Festival, which is a unique and wonderful event, providing high
quality entertainment, participation and fun for children at a
very reasonable all-in fee. All proceeds from the Children's Festival
help fund the work that Children's World undertakes in special
schools. Children's World
will be running a music tour for children with moderate learning
difficulties, a movement tour for children with severe learning
difficulties and a tour on bullying in the coming months, and
in the year 2000
has been granted a Millennium Festival Award to increase the size
of its summer School Festival Tour so that more schools can participate
on the theme of "Aspirations for the New Millennium"
and to run a Children's Festival in Bristol as well as in Glastonbury.
Other projects, currently being worked upon, include the building
and equipping of a "Sensory Dome" which will tour special
schools throughout 3 counties providing drama/sensory journeys
and stimulating sensory sessions for children with severe learning
difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties.
Arabella is the Director of Children's World, as well as it's founder. She is responsible for the day to day running of the Charity, its personnel and the planning and implementation of its tours. She is also responsible for the fund raising of the Charity, which spent 45,000 pounds in 1998/1999 and which needs to raise 75,000 pounds for its work in 1999/2000.
As well as her work for Child World, Arabella is still involved with the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. This Festival, which started as a small free event in 1971, has grown to become the most successful music and arts festival in Europe. Not only do the best bands play there each year, but it has become far more than just a rock festival. In 1979, Arabella set up the Children's Area and also the Theatre Area. She now runs the Theatre and Circus Fields, staging more than 1000 Theatre and circus performances, workshops, and events over the Festival weekend for its 85,000 customers.
In 1987, Arabella met her second husband, Haggis McLeod, a brilliant juggler who is one of Britain's best performers and teachers, and in 1988, they had a daughter, Jessica who will be 11 in May, 1999. They live on the outskirts of the town of Glastonbury in Somerset, England in a simple house, overlooking the beautiful countryside.
For Information,
Please contact:
Michael Sands
310-271-4755 Office
310-415-4528 Cel
Sandsmedia@aol.com E-Mail