Tanni Grey-Thompson
One of Britain’s greatest Paralympic athletes, Tanni Grey-Thompson competed in five Paralympic Games over 16 years, winning a total of 16 medals – 11 gold, 4 silver, and 1 bronze – and breaking 35 world records.
In recognition of her extraordinary achievements, she was made a Dame in 2005 for her services to sport, and in 2010 was appointed a Life Peer as Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham.
Beyond her sporting career, Tanni is a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, where she works across a range of subjects including physical activity, sport and transport. She also serves as Chair of Sport Wales and Chair of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Gyles Brandreth
A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End.
A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute and Wordaholics to QI and Have I Got News for You), an award-winning interviewer and columnist (principally for the Telegraph and Daily Mail), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, he has published two volumes of diaries: Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries (‘By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s’, The Times) and Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime (‘Witty, warm-hearted and deeply poignant’, Daily Mail).
He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage and Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair, and a series of Victorian detective stories, The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, now published in twenty-two countries around the world. His recent Sunday Times best-sellers include Word Play, a celebration of the English language, and The 7 Secrets of Happiness – No 1 on Amazon. His on-line course on Happiness is available from Gravy For The Brain together with a course co-authored with his son, rhetoric coach and barrister, Benet Brandreth QC, on Mastering Public Speaking. His one-man shows have won multiple five star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and tour regularly throughout the UK.
As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen in the West End in Zipp! One hundred musicals for less than the price of one at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in Twelfth Night: The Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2011/12 he played Lady Bracknell in a new musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest and in 2017 appeared in Hamlet at the Park Theatre in London.
Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards, as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony and Royal Television Society), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy). He has featured on This Is Your Life and Desert Island Discs and is a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association. In 2017 he succeeded the late Duke of Westminster as Chancellor of the University of Chester.
He is married to writer and publisher Michèle Brown, with whom he co-curated the exhibition of twentieth century children’s authors at the National Portrait Gallery and founded the award-winning Teddy Bear
Museum now based at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. His son, Benet, is a barrister, award-winning speaker, authority on rhetoric – www.artofrhetoric.com – and author of two acclaimed novels about Shakespeare’s lost years: The Spy of Venice and The Assassin of Verona. His daughter, Aphra, is an environmental economist and local politician. With his daughter Saethryd and grandson Rory, he is the author of a compendium of family games, The Lost Art of Having Fun. With Saethryd, he has also created Novelty Knits, a celebration of the colourful jumpers he was noted for wearing on TV in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gyles Brandreth’s forebears include George R Sims (the highest-paid journalist of his day, who wrote the ballad Christmas Day in the Workhouse) and Jeremiah Brandreth (the last man in England to be beheaded for treason). His great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Brandreth, promoted ‘Brandreth’s Pills’ (a medicine that cured everything!) and was a pioneer of modern advertising and a New York state senator. Gyles Brandreth has been London correspondent for “Up to the Minute” on CBS News and his books published in the USA include the New York Times best-seller, The Joy of Lex, as well as The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries (Simon & Schuster) and The 7 Secrets of Happiness (Open Road Media).
Eddie Scott
Eddie Scott was crowned winner of MasterChef UK in 2022. Known for his creative cooking style that blends classical French technique with bold Indian influences, Eddie was raised in a food-loving family in the heart of Leicestershire. He developed an early passion for cooking, inspired by his love affair with France where he spent summers with his family as well as his Punjabi heritage, where he learned the foundations of spice-led cuisine from his grandparents.
Before entering the culinary world full-time, Eddie worked as a Marine Pilot in the merchant navy. Since winning MasterChef, he has trained in some of the UK’s most respected kitchens, including The Pipe and Glass near his home in Beverley and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. In 2024, Eddie published his debut cookbook, Misarana, an exciting fusion of his two culinary worlds.
Eddie is now chef-proprietor of his own French restaurant, L’Opaline Bistrot. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling through France and India, researching the history and culture of these two great cuisines.
Amy Willcock
Amy Willcock is a successful writer of nine cookery and entertainment books. Born in Chicago, she moved to the UK in 1980 when her parents began their new life as hotel owners. On her finishing her education and secretarial school, Amy joined the family hotel business.
Looking after fascinating, extremely private high net worth clients are key to luxury businesses and that is what Amy did in her parents hugely successful country house hotel in Wales, at The George on the Isle of Wight, (then owned by her husband, herself and their business partner) which had a Michelin star for over twelve years and continues to do day to day at Warter Priory where she runs the shoot office.
For many years Amy held Lifestyle, How to run a B&B, Cookery and Aga Workshops at home and all over the UK teaching people to cook, arrange flowers and set beautiful tables along with how to run a house and a B&B. Her lifestyle and Aga workshops have been described as ‘finishing schools for people in their 30s’. Nigella Lawson wrote in Vogue, “Amy Willcock, hand holder to Aga owners everywhere”.
Specialising in life in the country, Amy wrote a monthly column for The Shooting Gazette for over 19 years first writing about food and lifestyle and then in 2014, the world of gundogs, called “Field Trials and Tribulations”, recounting her experiences running Labradors in Retriever Field Trials.
During Lockdown in Spring 2020 the only way she could “send a slice of home” to her children serving in the forces and at University, was to send them a cake. “Nothing says “I’m thinking about you” more than a homemade cake. Everyone needs a little morale booster every now and then” says Amy.
She was a founder member of the Yarmouth Women’s Institute, which became the largest WI in the country and was the subject of a BBC 4 documentary, and is a WI Cookery and Preserves judge. Amy has appeared on Market Kitchen, Kirstie’s Homemade home, Celebrity Masterchef, and judged the perfect Sunday Lunch on Masterchef and was a regular Food and Lifestyle contributor to local radio.
Amy is 58, divorced and lives in Yorkshire where she runs the shoot office on the Warter Priory Estate which also holds a charity clay shoot in May. Amy is going into her fifth season at Warter Priory and since she started has more than doubled the money given to the various charities.
Warter Priory Estate Charity Clay Shoot- 14 and 15 May 2026
Bushbeater’s Ball – 16 May 2026
all in aid of the Special Reconnaissance Regimental Association (SRRA) and the Countryside Alliance.
The Warter Priory Estate Charity Clay Shoot through generous support, donated more than £300,000.00 to the Countryside Alliance and the Clocktower Foundation in 2025 and are hosting their annual Charity Clay days on Thursday 14 May and Friday 15 May 2026.
The event will be held at Warter Priory Estate, East Yorkshire. All the proceeds from the clay days and Ball will go to the SRRA and the Countryside Alliance.
Warter Priory Estate are extremely proud to have helped raise over £1 million for various charities in the last 10 years. These charities include the British Heart Foundation, RNLI, ABF, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Parkinson’s UK and the Countryside Alliance. Warter Priory is primarily a shooting estate, and in order to safeguard field sports principles, especially in this present political climate, the money raised will be split 50:50 between the Countryside Alliance who deliver fearless and effective action dedicated to ensuring a future for field sports and the special forces military charity the Special Reconnaissance Regimental Association. The SRRA finances and supports activities and initiatives promoting the well-being, heritage, and cohesion of the Regiment, former members, and for their immediate families in times of need. This includes respite and welfare-related events, regional activities to foster connection and camaraderie among members, access to medical care and mental health counselling supporting those facing emotional or psychological challenges. In addition, SRRA plays a vital role in preserving the history and legacy of the Regiment, ensuring the achievements and sacrifices of its members are honoured and remembered by future generations.
Over 1400 attended throughout 2 days at the 2025 Clay Shoot Days
Over 320 attendees at the Bushbeater’s Ball in 2025