Philippa’s alpine apple pie challenge

NAVIGATING airports at half term is a bit like playing a kids computer game, says the Dorset-born private chef Philippa Davis. The route from departures in one country to arrivals in another is pitted with challenges, obstacles and tasks to test your intuition and skill  – and all has to be completed within a certain…

Read more...

A kaleidoscope of 100-year-old sounds at the Lighthouse

          Chausson: Soir de fête           De Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain           Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite           Stravinsky: Suite: The Firebird (1919 version)           Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Mark Derudder           Fabien Gabel: Conductor                                                                              Frank Braley: Piano ALL four works in this richly enjoyable and varied concert were first…

Read more...

Hobson’s Choice, Bath Theatre Royal

THE received wisdom in some theatrical circles is that everything has to be edgy and dangerous and shocking and NEW! This production is a very good reason why this is a shallow and doomed policy. Hobson’s Choice is a very good play. It is described as author Harold Brighouse’s masterpiece and that’s not hyperbole. It…

Read more...

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty at Bristol Hippodrome

THERE are many reasons to honour someone in this country, from the battlefield to the classroom, and of course, on the stage, and in the old-fashioned decorous language of pomp and heraldry, “services to dance” sounds so reserved for what Matthew Bourne has achieved in the past thirty years, but that is the reason he…

Read more...

Twelfth Night, AUB at Poole Lighthouse

AS director Doug Cockle is keen to point out, the idea of reverse casting for Shakespeare’s cross-dressing comedy Twelfth Night is not new. But it IS new for the drama students at Arts University Bournemouth, and new for the audience enjoying it at Poole until 27th February. In the original, which would have been played…

Read more...

Tourism experts speaking at West Country conferences

TOURISM conferences in Wiltshire and Cornwall in March have been announced as part of the South West Tourism Growth Fund, with the aim of helping businesses in the region to do things differently and increase tourism throughout the year. The conferences are at Bowood House near Chippenham on 10th March and at the Eden Project…

Read more...

Up Down Man, Salisbury Playhouse, Salberg Studio

ABOUT half-way through Brendan Murray’s new play, Martin Butler recalls a workmate commenting on the Butlers’ four-year old son Matty. The man says what a lovely little boy he is, but adds “what a shame” that he has Down’s syndrome. Martin (Vic Llewellyn) realises that he and his wife Odette love Matty as he is…

Read more...

The cook in captivity

by Simone Sekers MY mother is now in a care home. This is very much not what she had had planned. At the age of 92 she had decided not to have her flu jab this winter; her plan was to catch flu, which would progress to pneumonia and then end neatly in her demise….

Read more...

Dorshi comes home to Bridport

DORSHI, an award-winning street food business run by friends Jollyon Carter and Radhika Mohendas, is opening as a restaurant in Bartholomew’s Hall at Bridport at the beginning of March. Jollyon and Radhika have travelled much of the UK with Dorshi, becoming firm festival favourites with their hand-made dumplings, hand-pulled noodles, salads and sauces – and…

Read more...