Words! Words! Words!

The Post Office scandal on stage

IT has been impossible to ignore the story of the Post Office and the sub-postmasters, with the powerful ITV drama series and constant media reports of the hearings and the latest uncovering of lives ruined in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in English legal history. But to hear the story first hand is…

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Regional bookshop win for Folde

A SHAFTESBURY bookshop, which specialises in nature writing, has been named as the best independent book retailer in the South West. FOLDE Dorset has won the British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year competition for the South West, organised by The Bookseller magazine and judged by a prestigious panel of industry specialists, authors, journalists…

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A Tudor tragedy

MUSICIANS and storytellers Bob Whitley (guitar, tenor guitar and mandola) and Lee MacKenzie (baroque cello) take the audience back to the dangerous Tudor court of King Henry VIII with their new show, Anne Boleyn: Wolf at the Door, which has three dates with Artsreach rural touring arts charity at Milborne St Andrew village hall on…

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Reading the Land at Shaftesbury

BOOKS on nature, the environment and landscape are now among the most popular with readers, so it’s no surprise that tickets are selling fast for Shaftesbury’s nature-inspired book festival, Reading the Land, over the weekend of 15th to 17th March, which has an impressive line-up including some of the country’s top writers in this field….

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Beaton – out from behind the camera

FOR decades during the 20th century, Cecil Beaton chronicled the lives and fashions of the world’s most beautiful and famous people. He also kept diaries and these extraordinary documents provide the content for actor Richard Stirling who brings his acclaimed one-man show to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 22nd February. It is a peep behind…

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Taking tea with William Barnes

A CELEBRATION of the Dorset dialect poet, linguist and polymath William Barnes has become an annual fixture in the calendar of Dorset’s rural touring arts charity Artsreach and the Ridgeway Singers and Band. This year the event, Tea with William Barnes, will be at The Exchange at Sturminster Newton on Sunday 25th February at 3pm,…

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Festival will inspire Curious Minds

A NEW arts festival for Bath from 7th to 28th March kicks off the region’s arts festival calendar. Curious Minds will champion the importance of curiosity for all, with more than 30 book talks, live performances, film screenings, writing workshops and walking tours. Described as “a festival to ignite ideas,” Curious Minds, curated by Bath…

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Forgotten women composers at Wells

A LECTURE-concert exploring the work of neglected women composers will help to raise funds for the restoration of the 15th century Bubwith Chapel at Wells’s Almshouses. Soprano and harpsichordist Sara Stowe will give the talk at the chapel on Tuesday 27th February. An exceptionally versatile musician, Stowe’s repertoire ranges from medieval song through the baroque…

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Story of a former slave

AN important new display at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery reveals the little-known story of John Brown, who escaped slavery in the USA and lived in Dorchester during the 1860s. On show until 30th May, the exhibition has been curated by Jordan Cole, a student at Bath Spa University, and uses research from a number…

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