THE magnificent setting of Athelhampton House near Puddletown, one of the finest Tudor manor houses in the country, hosts a Tudor household over this half-term. Families are invited to come and experience the sights, sounds and smells of 16th-century life in a re-enactment that takes the onlooker into the everyday life of the people who…
STORY Weaver Becky Burchell is inviting women (and men!) to take part in one of a series of four Dark Skies walks on Cranborne Chase, ending on 15th November. The creative arts producer originally created Women of the Dark Skies “to invite women to walk in the footsteps of the female ancestors of this land….
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…
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…
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…
JAMES May, the television presenter who owns the Royal Oak pub in Swallowcliffe between Shaftesbury and Salisbury, will be taking audiences through time and across thousands of miles in his new stage show, coming to Southampton Guildhall on 23rd October. The Top Gear and Grand Tour star is presenting a very different – and generally…
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,…
WELSH storyteller Shon-Dale Jones is back on tour with a new show, Stories From An Invisible Town, with dates until 18th November across the south and west. Shôn is first and foremost a storyteller. He’s honest, inventive, and deeply human … curious, restless, wide-eyed, offbeat and resonant. His work combines heartfelt, funny and insightful stories….
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…
PHILIPPE Sands is probably this country’s most famous and respect human rights lawyer. He comes to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis, in conjunction with the East Devon-based Shute Festival, on Thursday 25th September to talk about his latest book, 38 Londres Street, in which he uncovers some of the darkest secrets of Chile’s history,…