Say cheese! (From Free Press Series)

Say cheese!

A toy mouse in a pink tutu 'hides' on a shelf in one of Monmouthshire's most unusual shops - a tongue-in-cheek reference to the proprietor's past and present careers.

McBlain's of Usk is a foodie's paradise - the only shop in Wales specialising in British cheeses. Five hundred different kinds have been promoted there already and new ones are being introduced all the time.

For former dance teacher and choreographer Lorna Simpson, turning little-known cheeses into star performers has become the ultimate challenge.

Born in Linlithgow, Lorna trained as a classical ballet dancer in Edinburgh (the mouse was a gift to mark her first professional performance).

She then emigrated to Canada, initially performing and teaching in a remote region of Saskatchewan and subsequently working as a choreographer at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Much of her time in Ottawa was devoted to choreographing dance sequences for operas, culminating in a production of Eugene Onegin starring Thomas Allan. She also created a series of dance routines to illustrate music through the ages played by the National Orchestra of Canada and on one occasion choreographed a new number for Bette Midler.

But her strangest assignment was arranging a dance routine to herald the arrival of the candidate at an election rally.

"I was presented with 50 'dancers' many of whom could barely put one foot in front of the other and given two hours to teach them the steps. It was utter chaos - all captured on network television!"

Lorna eventually returned to the UK, when her husband David, the NAC's administration manager, was offered a job at the Royal Opera House.

She worked for a time as a classical ballet teacher at the Bush Davies School near London. That experience - coupled with her knowledge of the work of modern choreographers like Bob Fosse - led on to a job teaching jazz dance at the Royal Academy of Dancing.

But her life was turned upside down when David died of cancer in his late 30s. Still coming to terms with his death and unsure of how to move forward in her career she decided to start a new life in Bath.

It was there that she later met Tim Simpson who was to become her second husband.

Lorna confesses that she was so keen to carry on working after starting a family that she dragged her first baby off on a three-month tour of Canada with six classical dancers 'naively believing that babies just sleep and eat!'.

"I was so exhausted by the end I decided my career was going to have to be put on hold until the children were old enough to go to school."

The Simpsons and their three 'school age' children - Douglas (12), Arabella (11) and William (8) - now live on a farm at Little Mill and Lorna is energetically 'choreographing' an entirely new venture.

She says she was inspired to open a specialist cheese shop (McBlain is her family name) after visiting the British Cheese Awards.

"I've always been a foodie. My parents nicknamed me Mouse because I used to pinch cheese from the pantry

"My father had three butchers shops in Linlithgow where he also sold cheddar from a local farm.

"When a former butcher's shop in Usk came up for rent I thought it was meant to be. Before we opened for business on December 3rd 2001 I did a lot of research into the subject and carefully planned how the shop would look, how I would promote British cheese, how I would deal with customers.

"We source all our cheeses directly from the producers and I'm constantly on the lookout for new ones.

"One of my favourites is Wigmore - a washed curd sheep's cheese from Berkshire. There's also an excellent brie from the west coast of Scotland, a parmesan from Sussex, a British buffalo mozzarella. In fact the only cheese that has no British equivalent is gruyere.

"Many of the cheeses we sell are seasonal. Some have a long history like Stinking Bishop, a washed-rind cheese originally made by Cistercian monks.

"Britain, of course, is renowned for its cheddars. I bought a 26kilo cloth-bound Montgomery cheddar last year, matured it for six months and opened it on our second anniversary. We sold it all within a week.

"I'm currently maturing a Westcombe cheddar to open on our third anniversary." Lorna's enthusiasm has persuaded many restaurants in the area to jazz up their cheeseboards with British produce.

Meanwhile the shop, which also specialises in olives, chutneys and oils, is now licensed to sell selected malt whiskies and a range of wines that complement the cheeses.

For children the highlight of a visit to McBlain's may be finding the mouse in the pink tutu (which Lorna hides in a different place every day) but for many grown-ups a visit to McBlain's has become a highlight in itself.