THE 2026 programmes of Banff Mountain Film Festival screenings are touring the UK, and local dates continue throughout the year. The short films range from extreme climbing and kayaking to mountain biking and other dazzling adventures in wild places. With extreme climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and the one of the world’s most gruelling races, the…
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…
WHEN we were young, salt came in an instantly recognisable tin, with a cute little pouring “beak” and a drawing of a child chasing a chicken and pouring salt on it. Nowadays, a tin like the one illustrated here is a collector’s item! Salt has been an essential in the human diet since the earliest…
HUMAN rights and peace activist Zohar Lavie brings her first-hand experience of working for justice and peace to the next Help Our Planet (HOP) talk at Sladers Yard contemporary art and craft gallery, West Bay, on Thursday 4th April at 7pm. The devastating suffering and violence we are witnessing in Gaza, the West Bank and…
LIKE most regions of Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia has no shortage of attractions for visitors but one of its most appealing is what is NOT there … hordes of tourists. Friuli, as it is known – if it is known at all – is sometimes called ‘Secret Italy’ because of its location, perched at the…
FROM wild geese to the night skies, Shaftesbury’s Folde nature and art bookshop, has lined up a fascinating series of writers’ talks for the spring and early summer, continuing with Taking Flight on Thursday 18th May. It will feature Lev Parikian talking about his new book, Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the…
TOLLARD Talks return to the village on Cranborne Chase on Friday 14th October with an unusual and exciting event, Chinese Boxing, a performance by Mark Kitto, an expert on the vast but mysterious country. The play is also being performed at Martock’s beautiful parish church on Thursday 13th October, at 7.30pm. The event is organised…
HAVE you ever wondered how Saffron Walden got its name? Or why Saffron cake is one of Cornwall’s most famous dishes? Nowadays most saffron is grown in Spain and Iran, but for centuries, England had a flourishing saffron industry, whose roots are largely lost in time and myth. In her new book, Fool’s Gold: A…
THINK of Devon and food and you instantly picture cream teas and the finest fresh fish, but the county has a lot more to offer on the culinary front, from brewery tours to wine tasting to food festivals. Here’s a taste of what’s available across the county this spring and summer: Brewery Tour at Salcombe…
AS the second season of Gentleman Jack returns to our screens, the interest of the audience will once again turn to Shibden Hall, the beautiful Tudor house where Miss Anne Lister grew up, and where she lived with her aunt, uncle and sister – when she wasn’t travelling, usually with her lover and wife, Ann…