SURPRISING PASSIONS

The Royal Memorabilia Collector

Jan Hugo’s passion is the British Royal Family. He has been
collecting royal memorabilia since 1981 and today four rooms in her
house, which is now a museum, host the collection. Her passion
started by chance when someone gave them a commemorative coin
for Prince Charles and Diana’s engagement.
David, his husband, has started giving tours of their house. Jan’s
favorite piece is a doll of the newborn Prince George.

The Coca-Cola Can Collection

Davide Andreani is a famous collector of Coca-Cola cans. He hosts a
huge collection in his house and garage. He has been collecting the
cans since he was 15, but his passion started when he was just five.
Today he has over 20,000 cans, each one is different. He has been
given the Guiness World Record award for the “Largest Collection
of Soft Drink Cans” and he still holds the title.
He has xanax from all over the world but not Cuba and North Korea
where Coca-Cola isn’t sold. He has a website that he uses to swap
and search worldwide for the rarest.
There are a lot of Barbie Collectors in the world but Bettina
Dorfman has the biggest collection. She has been collecting them
since she was ten. She has Barbies all over her house and has a
special room called “Barbie’s Kingdom” for her favorite ones.
She has a Barbie from 1959 now worth 5000$.
Bettina is also a Barbie doctor, she runs a Barbie hospital in her
kitchen and repairs broken dolls from all over the world. Her
daughter Melissa doesn’t have the same passion.
Jian Yang is a man from Singapore. He loves Barbies, but when he
was young he wasn’t allowed to have one. His passion grew and he
started to collect them. There’s a National Barbie Day on March
9th!

WELCOME TO YORK
The city of York in the north of England is nearly 2000 years old.
The Romans built a fortress there called Eboracum. When they left,
the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain. They changed York’s name to
Eoferwic and it became an important religious center with the
spread of Christianity. Later Vikings made the city their capital,
renaming it Jorvik.
When William the Conqueror came to York, he caused a lot of
destruction, killing people and burning the land. The city slowly
recovered and became a profitable center of trade.
York was the second biggest medieval city in England and many
kings and queens visited it. It was a social and cultural center. Its
development continued with the growth of factories, banks and
offices and it became a famous railway center.
Today is an important tourist destination and attracts 7 million
tourists each year,

The golden girl of the digital age

MARTHA LANE FOX - co-founder of lastminute.com

She has been named one of the 20 most powerful people in

technology today. She is a multi-millionaire who believes that
internet access should be for everyone.
She was born in Oxford. After university she worked in digital
technology where she met Brent Hoberman.
They founded an online travel company called lastminute.com
which they later sold for 577£ million!
In 2004 a tragedy happened. Martha was driving in Mexico with
friends and they had a car crash. She spent six months in a hospital
and had 28 operations. However, she hasn’t stopped working and
has been doing a lot of charity work. She had an amazing career.
She was made a life peer in the House of Lords. She has been
chancellor of the Open University since 2014 and director of twitter
since 2016. She now lives in London with her partner.