DURING the 1960s and 70s, if you were a music fan living in Bournemouth or Poole, or could get there easily, there was one shop that you would always make for, Jon’s Bus Stop Records, next to the Grand Cinema in Westbourne. Here you could not only find the latest chart hit you were looking…
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…
HELEN Hermanstein Smith’s parents came to Britain from Guyana in the late 1950s. The rich tastes of the Caribbean infused her mother’s cooking and influenced Helen, who has just published her first book, The Acorn House Bakery Recipe Book. Helen lives in Wincanton and her home-baked cakes are sold direct to customers and at Coles…
A MAN whose career has spanned a seat at the Cabinet table, a love of ballroom dancing and a passion to help Britain reach net zero, Sir Vince Cable is coming to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Friday 1st December at 7.30pm. It is easy to see politicians as one-dimensional, walking egos, ambitious…
THE November event in the Tollard Talks series at Tollard Barn in Tollard Royal, on Thursday 30th November, is a serious look at the arguments for and against a plant-based diet. The speaker, Jayne Buxton, poses the question, “What if removing animal foods from our diet was a serious threat to human health, and a…
ANCIENT Scandinavian forests are mysterious places full of voices and sounds from the past – the folklore of these vast dark woods provides the atmospheric background for Mara, a storytelling tour-de-force by Dominic Kelly, who comes to Dorset with Artreach, at Milborne St Andrew on Saturday 25th November and Sandford Orcas on Sunday 26th, both…
FORMER university lecturer Kate Rawles comes to Sladers Yard at West Bay on Thursday 23rd November, as part of the Help Our Planet (HOP) series. Her talk, Adventure in the Andes: The Life Cycle biodiversity bike ride, is the story of her extraordinary journey the length of South America on a bamboo bike she built…
THE November event in the Guardians of Martock Church programme is a talk rather than a concert, looking at life on the Channel Island of Jersey during the Nazi occupation in the Second World War. The talk is at the Martock Fellowship Hall on Thursday 16th November at 2pm. The Nazi occupation of the Channel…
FIRST generation farmer, chef and internet star, Dorset-based Julius Roberts comes to the Butterfly House at Castle Gardens at Sherborne on Wednesday 8th November at 7pm to talk about his newly published, first book, The Farm Table at Castle Gardens The event is being held to conjunction with Winstone’s Bookshop in Sherborne, and will include…
CRANBORNE Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has inspired generations of artists, and now the AONB team is also hoping this vast ancient landscape will inspire writers too with a Festival of Words, running to Sunday 29th October. With free and online workshops, storytelling walks and performances, the festival is themed around the idea of…