THERE are some things, like the legendary film Casablanca, that have no right to be successful. Writers brothers J and P Epstein were continually rewriting the script, sometimes delivering changes on the day of shooting. At least three different endings were envisaged, producer Jack L Warner so disliked the final iconic ending with Humphrey Bogart…
CERAMICIST Yo Thom and painter Vanessa Gardiner do not immediately have much in common, but when you see their work together – as you can at Sladers Yard gallery at West Bay until 14th July – you see synergies and a shared sense of structure in the clean lines of their very different artworks. North…
FOLDE Dorset, the specialist nature bookshop in Shaftesbury, has been certified as a B Corporation (B Corp), continuing its founders’ commitment towards operating as a force for good, while becoming a go-to destination for nature writing, and locally sourced art and craft. The attractive shop at the top of Gold Hill joins a network of…
ARTWORKS by members of an international artists’ community, who are focusing on ways in which we exploit and nurture the earth’s resources, will be at Amanda Wallwork’s studio on the top floor of The Old Timber Yard, West Bay, over the weekends Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June and Friday 7th to Sunday 9th…
SEAHORSES are enchanting, magical creatures – but they are vulnerable to many forces, human and natural. There is an important but fragile population ion Britain’s two native seahorse species – the spiny and short snouted seahorse – in the Studland seagrass meadow, which itself is a threatened habitat. The meadow is a voluntary no-anchor zone…
THE historic setting of Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury, with the ancient tithe barn, is the setting for a showcase of artwork by 13 printmakers living and working in Somerset, from 25th May to 1st September. Somerset Printmakers are a group of professional artists dedicated to creating original prints and pushing the boundaries of…
DAVID Grieg’s new “play with songs,” Midsummer, made a triumphant premiere at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre, and now plays at the Barn at Cirencester until late June. I can’t urge you enough to go and see it. Musicals are strange things these days. Some of them gain immediate cult status and continue for season after season…
ORLANDO is a figure from distant myths and epics, a source of creative inspiration and fascination – never more so than in Virginia Woolf’s extraordinary novel, Orlando: A Biography, which was the key focus for a Bath Festival concert featuring guitarist Sean Shibe and mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovaska. One of Virginia Woolf’s most popular novels, Orlando…
YANN Martel’s magic-realist philosophical story Life of Pi, winner of the Man Booker prize in 2002, is all about a boy from Pondicherry, named Piscine (which he has abbreviated to Pi), brought up in a zoo, with his family and other animals escaping violent uprisings on a Japanese ship that goes down in a storm…
BATH Festival has always had music at its heart, with performances by many of the world’s leading soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including some of the finest interpreters of early music. This year’s festival, running to 26th May, saw the Bath debut of Stile Antico, a 12-strong a cappella ensemble dedicated to performing the vocal music…