ONE of the world’s favourite authors, Alexander McCall Smith, the man behind The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, is coming to Bridport on Thursday 23rd October, as a curtain-raiser event for this year’s Bridport Literature Festival, which runs from 2nd to 8th November. The best-selling author, who was knighted last year for services to…
CELEBRATE Voice, Salisbury’s exciting autumn music festival, returns this year, from 22nd October to 1st November, with a programme that ranges from a new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to the golden era of Hollywood, from a singalong Mikado to the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and his quest to retrieve his wife from the…
YEOVIL Literary Festival, now in its 12th year, has become one of the most eagerly anticipated book events in the region. This year the festival runs from 17th to 27th October, at venues including Westlands, Yeovil Library and St John the Baptist Church. The line-up of best-sellers, Booker Prize-winners and exciting new and established writers…
SHERBORNE International Film Festival returns over the weekend 16th to 19th October at the Powell Theatre in Abbey Road, with the usual compelling mix of classic and new foreign films, including the multi Oscar winning Korean black comedy Parasite and Indochine, an epic drama set in south east Asia in the years before the Vietnam…
EXETER’s Northcott Theatre has announced its first 2026 Made By Exeter Northcott production – Forever Young by Erik Gedeon is a musical play that blends big laughs, heartfelt moments and iconic songs. The cast will include South West actors from past Northcott productions and pantomimes and the production will be the first musical play to…
FROM a history of Afghanistan to new books inspired by Jane Austen, whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year, Wells Festival of Literature’s 2025 line up is as exciting and eclectic as ever. Running from 17th to 25th October, the festival features some hot-off-the-press books, none more so than Entitled: The Rise and Fall of…
ILLUSTRATOR Gabrielle Parker’s delightful, surreal and whimsical creations will be celebrated at this year’s Arts by the Sea, the South West’s biggest free celebration of art, culture, people and place, returning to Bournemouth from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September. Gabrielle Parker, the 2025 Artist in Residence, is an Arts University Bournemouth graduate, who creates…
LOVERS of early and baroque music are in for an absolute treat with the first Salisbury Musick early music festival, from 3rd to 5th October, at some beautiful and unusual venues, ranging from Fovant Chapel to Salisbury’s magnificent St Thomas’s Church. The new festival, which brings together many talented local musicians and some visiting professionals,…
SOMERSET Art Weeks returns from 13th to 28th September with an enthralling range of art works by painters, printmakers, sculptors, potters, print-makers and multi-disciplinary creators. From the artists studios at Watchet’s East Quay to a music and sound-scape installation in the atmospheric grounds of Shave Farm, Brewham, there is a dazzling display of the talent…
THE dramatic Jurassic Coast provides a unique backdrop for the annual Shute Festival, based in West Dorset and East Devon. Throughout its ten years, it has focused on celebrating the natural world, the environment and performing and literary arts. This year’s festival is based at the Marine Theatre and the Peek Chapel, in Lyme Regis…