‘In walked this big bundle of energy’: the day Dolly Parton came to Rotherham

Country star came to South Yorkshire town in 2007 for UK launch of the Imagination Library, her book donation scheme Shane Jarman was up a ladder decorating a Christmas tree at the school where he was deputy headteacher when he got a call asking him to come to Rotherham hospital ASAP. It was December 2007 and Jarman’s wife, Claire, had given birth the previous day to their first child, a girl called Emma, so of course he rushed to the phone. All was well, he was told, but that “everything wou...

By Esther Addley