Speaking to the Church Times newspaper ahead of her appearance at the Greenbelt Christian arts festival back in 2004, Dame Anita Roddick - who died yesterday - declared at the time: “What’s wonderful about being my age is having to face your prejudices."

She continued: "I had no idea how big Greenbelt was. I had no idea how organised it was; how free it was; how joyful it was. And I had no idea that there was such a strong activist, trade justice plank in its platform."

The Body Shop founder, whose untimely death at the age of 64 yesterday (10 September 2007) has led to tributes from across the globe, first spoke at Greenbelt in 2003. She was so enthused, she immediately returned the following year.

She said: “It’s really hard, when you have had your antennae up for most of these movements, to have completely ignored it. I have fallen for the zeitgeist that says anybody who has a religious inclination has no sense of rationale or intellectual understanding and therefore should be dismissed."

“I am cheering the Greenbelt festival from the top of every bloody mountain…for me, it’s like a heartbeat. And it’s youth. I’m ashamed of my bloody prejudices, but I’m delighted to be a convert. I find it wonderful.”

---

Tributes pour in for Roddick: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/5678