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As chronicler of her own legend, she claims she fell in love straight away. Then there was a gap of some years before the romance was rekindled in London.In her book, The Inner Life of Jimi Hendrix, published last year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Hendrix’s drug-induced death, the couple are described as living anything but a life of sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll. There was apparent domestic bliss in a rented flat in Notting Hill Gate where Hendrix talked about “life and death for hours”. She says they were engaged and she wore a massive golden serpent that wrapped round her finger.She was wearing the ring at the High Court last week when she was convicted of contempt of court for continuing a libel against another of the rock star’s women. Eric Clapton, for some, was his white equivalent, but with one crucial difference Eric is still alive and ageing. Now both Hendrix and his final girlfriend are gone.Hendrix’s extraordinary technique attracted a cult following. More often than not the song is Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changing.” But for Monika Danneman, the archetypal rock chick and one time girlfriend of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, time just never did change.In the undefined mid-1990s, with youth culture struggling for an identity, the retro-fashion of the decade of Timothy Leary and the Beatles, youth protest and freedom, looks appealing.Then Jimi Hendrix was the resident atonal, psychedelic freak; a black musician become rock hero.

It is against this background that Cunard last year lost pounds 16.4m.. JAMES CUSICK

and NICOLE VEASH
On any corner of Greenwich Village in New York or Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, strains of the Sixties can usually be heard, performed by an ageing hippy and his guitar. The Disney Corporation has moved in too.It is currently building two mega-liners in Italy, which will be based in Florida. British holidaymakers are to be offered “stay and cruise” holidays split between Walt Disney World and a Caribbean voyage.The more established shipping lines say they welcome the new entrants, since awareness of cruising is stimulated Both P&O Cruises and Fred Olsen Line report strong sales. While mainstream package summer holidays from Britain continue to suffer from bookings below tour operators’ worst expectations, the cruise business last year expanded by more than 25 per cent in passenger numbers to over 350,000. One reason is the entry of Airtours to the market, bringing low- price, high-volume expertise to a sector which had previously been the preserve of the wealthy.
Lancashire-based Airtours began cruises in the Mediterranean a year ago.

Despite some initial hiccups such as the on-board beer running dry, its operation has been a success. Those Airtours passengers visiting the Canaries and Morocco over Easter have paid pounds 479 each, compared with pounds 21,500 for a world cruise on Royal Viking Sun. A much larger company, the US-based Carnival Cruise Line, has now taken a substantial holding in Airtours.Britain’s biggest tour operator, Thomson, is about to enter the cruise market with a programme mirroring Airtours’ approach in Europe. Garth first went to a circus when he was three and became captivated by the idea of appearing in the ring. Tonight he will make his debut with Zippo’s circus in Islington, north London, in the company of Zippo the clown, Stiffy and Tweedy, and Clown Alexis.
Zippo’s, which describes itself as Europe’s largest all-human circus, featuring 12 acrobats, will also be presenting horses for the first time in its 10-year history, featuring palominos.Photograph: Geraint Lewis. But each end of the cruise spectrum, from budget to “five-star plus” luxury, provides evidence of the boom in cruising over the past year. The plane-load of passengers that took off from Gatwick last night to join an Airtours ship in Tenerife have little in common with the people evacuated from the stricken Royal Viking Sun.