Monthly Archives: February 2018

Reared:  Theatre503, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW

Posted on by

 

 

Sounds intriguing. Frost thought the Rapid Write Response such a good idea.

But what is Reared about?

She wiped his arse as a child, surely he should be wiping her arse now?

 

BAFTA-nominated John Fitzpatrick’s brand new play Reared will debut at Theatre503 this April. With unfailing humour, Reared tackles intergenerational conflict, postnatal depression, and the role of the Irish mother in the ‘sandwich’ generation caught looking after both their children and their parents.

 

Under one roof, three generations of Anglo-Irish women try to find space for a fourth. As Caitlin waits for life to begin, her grandmother Nora fears the end and Eileen frets about them both. Between her mother-in-law’s incipient dementia and her daughter’s struggle for independence, Eileen finds herself battling to adjust her household and wrangle her husband.

 

The Constitution of Ireland holds that the family is the cornerstone of society and at the heart of the family is the mother. As Eileen struggles to find some sort of control over her life she begins to see that the enemy might not be a controlling mother-in-law or an ineffectual husband but rather the roles they have been forced into.

 

Writer John Fitzpatrick comments, At the heart of this play, I hope there are warm, funny, hardworking women. Society has set them against one another and yet, through their resilience, they manage to deeply care for and protect each other. Reared had to be funny because the women I’ve grown up with in Ireland are the wittiest people I know and I’d be doing them a disservice if my characters didn’t at least try to match their level of humour.

 

Reared will also take part in Theatre503’s Rapid Write Response. Writers are invited to see the new work and write a 10 minute play in response to it. These will need to be submitted by Monday 9th April. The company will read and choose between six and eight short plays which will be read and partly staged on Sunday 22nd and Monday 23rd April.

 

Performance dates  Wednesday 4th – Saturday 28th April 2018

Tuesday to Saturday evenings, 7.30pm

Saturday Matinee, 2.30pm

Chilled Performance Wednesday 11th April, 7.30pm

Parent & Baby Performance with Coffee and a Chat, Wednesday 18th April, 12pm

Chilled Performance with Coffee and a Chat, Wednesday 18th April, 2.30pm

Rapid Write Response, Sunday 22nd April & Monday 23rd April, 7.30pm

 

Running time   90 minutes

 

Location   Theatre503, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW

Tickets are available at priced £18 – £12; Previews £10; Early Bird Offers are available from Theatre503 box office and  www.theatre503.com or 020 7978 7040.

 

Twitter    #REARED @boldandsaucytc @Theatre503

 

TAKE FOUR WRITERS: LAUNCHING, DRAFTING, EDITING & MULTI-TASKING

Posted on by

FEBRUARY UPDATE FROM OUR FOUR WRITERS…

CLAIRE DYER… LAUNCHING

January and February have seen much excitement in the run up to and the actual launch of ‘The Last Day’. I have been overwhelmed by the love and support of my publishers, bloggers and fellow authors during this time, especially as no one knows the joy and despair of times like these like they do.

I’ve come to learn that it’s all about letting go. We tend to write in the privacy of our own homes and, for a long while, it’s all about just the two of us: ourselves and our book. And then if we’re lucky, we send it to our agent and, if we’re even luckier, thence to a publisher and eventually, if we cross our fingers and toes tightly enough, it goes out into the big wide world.

And this is where the joy and despair comes in. Will the world like it? That’s the despair. And, the joy? Well, that’s easy: the book I wrote is an actual real thing with pages and a cover and everything!

.

ANGELA PETCH… DRAFTING

I am almost three quarters through my writer’s draft of “Mavis and Dot” and I use walks along the sea to plan out the final chapters. There is something scary about finishing off a novel. In the meantime, I have been busy hunting for an illustrator. Unfortunately, my first three candidates dropped out, for reasons varying from cold feet and time factors. I hope I have at last found someone to work with. She is a very supportive editor of a local magazine and after tea and cakes (and discussion), she is on board. I am trying not to be too distracted from M & D but the publisher of my two first novels recently went into voluntary liquidation. It means a return to indie publishing but there is relief in the return of control. However, it entails more work. My other concern is to which cancer charity I should donate my profits. A writer’s work is never done…

 

JACKIE BALDWIN…EDITING

Hello, February has been a rather grim month. I have been completely immersed in my structural edit. Day after day I have sat at my desk from first thing in the morning until last thing at night editing. Then, eat, sleep, repeat. You get the idea! It’s a bad state of affairs when your characters have a better social life than you do. However, by the time you read this, I will be done! Hurrah!

I did get one overnight pass which was a wee trip to Newcastle to read at Noir at The Bar. It was the first time I had read the prologue from Perfect Dead. I also met loads of new crime writers and readers which was fun. During the day, I edited at the Lit and Phil which is a fab library. It even sells cake!

See you next month!

 

LUCY COLEMAN… MULTI-TASKING

February TO DO list:

Set up new office and new computer equipment in new house.
Online celebrations for launch day of first book with Aria Fiction, under new pen name.
Daily social media activity to support TWO book tours running concurrently for new arrival.
Produce new graphics to celebrate latest book baby.
Complete and submit Aria book no. 3 manuscript to my agent for comments.
Complete round one of structural edits for my other publisher.
Action suggested revisions by my agent for book no. 3.
Keep up with normal daily social media for my other books and write blog posts etc.
Get through February with your sanity intact.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating a little because I did survive the month, but only just! My new laptop seemed to get slower by the day after its first round of software updates. If I action a retweet on Twitter it times out! The battle continues.

If only it was JUST about the writing …

Behind the Lawrence Legend: The Forgotten Few Who Shaped the Arab Revolt Book Review

Posted on by

T. E. Lawrence became world-famous as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, after helping Sherif Hussein of Mecca gain independence from Turkey during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. His achievements, however, would have been impossible without the unsung efforts of a forgotten band of fellow officers and spies. This groundbreaking account by Philip Walker interweaves the compelling stories of Colonel Cyril Wilson and a colourful supporting cast with the narrative of Lawrence and the desert campaign. These men’s lost tales provide a remarkable and fresh perspective on Lawrence and the Arab Revolt.

While Lawrence and others blew up trains in the desert, Wilson and his men carried out their shadowy intelligence and diplomatic work. His deputies rooted out anti-British jihadists who were trying to sabotage the revolt. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Lionel Gray, a cipher officer, provided a gateway into unknown aspects of the revolt through his previously unpublished photographs and eyewitness writings. Wilson’s crucial influence underpinned all these missions and steadied the revolt on a number of occasions when it could have collapsed. Without Wilson and his circle there would have been no ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

Yet Wilson’s band mostly fell through the cracks of history into obscurity. “Behind the Lawrence Legend” reveals their vital impact and puts Lawrence’s efforts into context, thus helping to set the record straight for one of the most beguiling and iconic characters of the twentieth century.

Philip Walker is an historian and a retired archaeologist who spent many years working for English Heritage. He has travelled in Libya, Palestine, Morocco, Xinjiang (the Muslim far west of China), and other parts of Central Asia. He lives in Cambridge and this is his first book.

This is an enlightening and riveting read. Fascinating and fun. 

Behind the Lawrence Legend: The Forgotten Few Who Shaped the Arab Revolt is available here.

 

‘Sand & Vision’ Exhibition Launch: by Paul Vates

Posted on by

 

Stash Gallery, Vout O’Reenees, The Crypt, London E1

“How do you photograph freedom?”

 


(© Mohamed Mouloud Emhamed / Olive Branch Arts)

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that controls a thin strip of area in the Western Sahara. Morocco controls and administers the disputed territory. The Sahrawi Republic maintains diplomatic relations with 40 UN states, and is a full member of the African Union.


(© Emma Brown)

Olive Branch Arts offer a broad range of art-based experiences and training programmes and have been creatively engaging with the Sahrawi refugee community since 2012.

(© Tumana Buzaid Mohamed Salem / Olive Branch Arts)

Last October, creative director Becky Finlay Hall and associate artist Emma Brown returned to the Sahrawi refugee camps in SW Algeria to run a participatory photography training programme – empowering the people themselves to take their own images through workshops and mentoring – under the title ‘How do you photograph freedom?’


(© Tumana Buzaid Mohamed Salem / Olive Branch Arts)

This ‘Sand & Vision’ Exhibition is one of the results. Stunning images from award-winning Emma Brown (her photograph of of two Sahrawi women recently won the UN World Food Programme ‘Food for Life’ Category at the Food Photographer of the Year Awards 2017) hang alongside photographs taken by some of the Sahrawi refugees.


(© Emma Brown)

The pictures have an emotive balance between the bleakness of a sun-drench terrain with the warmth and familiarity of home. These are normal, happy people in a tough and dry environment. The subjects reach out and feel so close and neighbourly, expressing exactly the same emotions as we do, proving the point although they live far away from us, with just the one click of a camera, they are just the same as us.

Searching for a more long-term home, the exhibition aims to highlight the story of this African region and its people, as well as bringing their plight to an international audience.

As well as the exhibition, there was music from Matt King Smith and special performances from Sahrawi Hip Hop artist Yslem Hijo Del Desierto. Plus, there were poetry performances from Sam Berkson as he launches a new print of Settled Wanderers published by Influx Press – a collection of original works alongside interpreted poems from some of the greatest poets of the Western Sahara.

Organiser: Olive Branch Arts
Website: www.olivebranch-arts.com
Twitter: @OliveBranchArts

Emma Brown’s stunning photography book Sahrawi Spirit – People, Proverbs and Poems of the Sahrawi is available from the Olive Branch website.


(Image © Emma Brown)

www.emmabrownphotography.com

 

Bettys hand made chocolates and Easter Eggs anyone? I should say so.

Posted on by

 

 

Oh dear, oh dear, Frost has been at the chocolates again, but it is Bettys  chocolates and eggs, handmade in their Craft Bakery, They are totally  exceptional chocolates so no apologies for indulging. Let’s just remember folks – Easter cometh, not to mention Mother’s Day

Perhaps I should shout: Mother’s Day and hope my children are listening.

Forget the diet, give a box of Bettys for goodness sake, or buy some for yourself.

Of course we had to test drive these potential gifts. So, what did we think?

Smooth, creamy Swiss chocolate and a bit like a good book, one that you can’t put down – let’s read just another page. or eat another chocolate, perhaps just another one, and another, but really, it is best to pace yourselves and savour… Restrict yourself to a few a day, to make them last just that little bit longer. Fabulous, all of them.

Let’s look at the chocolates first, but just a reminder that there is not ONE calories in any of these products, and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything but they’re so worth the jog round the block if you feel guilty at any stage, though this is something that has not occurred at the Frost Magazine office

 

Hand-Painted Ganache Eggs BOX OF 8 | 22.5 X 3.5 X 2.5CM | 80G | £9.95 A collection of eight milk and dark chocolate eggs, each filled with Bettys rich Venezuelan chocolate ganache and hand-painted with a luxurious finish.

Caramel – Filled Chocolate  Easter Selection 22.5 X 3 X 2CM | 70G | £6.50 A delightful collection of seven caramel-filled white and milk chocolates, including butterflies, flowers, a duck, an Easter bunny and a speckled egg.

Champagne Truffle Eggs BOX OF 9 | 9 X 9 X 2CM | 90G | £11.50 Individually hand-decorated with Royal icing spring flowers, these dark, milk and white Swiss chocolate eggs reveal a rich Champagne and Marc de Champagne truffle filling.

 

 

Pink Shimmer Egg 10CM HIGH | 85G | £7.50 An individually-wrapped pink Easter egg, made with milk chocolate, finished with silver shimmer and hand-piped with a white chocolate woodland fern design.

These are just a few of the products produced in Harrogate at Bettys, so have a look at their other spring offerings:

Online www.bettys.co.uk Telephone 0800 456 1919 or 01423 814008

Visit one of our six shops in Harrogate, Ilkley, Northallerton and York.

Corporate Gifts Service: pr@bettysandtaylors.co.uk or telephone 01423 814186.

Deliveries & Charges:  Bettys delivers to homes and businesses across the UK, as well as to Europe, North America, Australasia and the Far East.

Delivery charges start from £3.95 for the UK and from £12.95 internationally. Last order dates for Easter UK, Highlands & Islands – Friday 23 March UK, Mainland – Tuesday 27 March EU & Rest of world – Tuesday 20 March

 

 

Euler’s Pioneering Equation: The most beautiful theorem in mathematics

Posted on by

In 1988 The Mathematical Intelligencer, a quarterly mathematics journal, carried out a poll to find the most beautiful theorem in mathematics. Twenty-four theorems were listed and readers were invited to award each a ‘score for beauty’. While there were many worthy competitors, the winner was ‘Euler’s equation’. In 2004 Physics World carried out a similar poll of ‘greatest equations’, and found that among physicists Euler’s mathematical result came second only to Maxwell’s equations. The Stanford mathematician Keith Devlin reflected the feelings of many in describing it as “like a Shakespearian sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting which brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler’s equation reaches down into the very depths of existence”.

What is it that makes Euler’s identity, e]iPi + 1 = 0, so special?

In Euler’s Pioneering Equation Robin Wilson shows how this simple, elegant, and profound formula links together perhaps the five most important numbers in mathematics, each associated with a story in themselves: the number 1, the basis of our counting system; the concept of zero, which was a major development in mathematics, and opened up the idea of negative numbers; π an irrational number, the basis for the measurement of circles; the exponential e, associated with exponential growth and logarithms; and the imaginary number i, the square root of -1, the basis of complex numbers. Following a chapter on each of the elements, Robin Wilson discusses how the startling relationship between them was established, including the several near misses to the discovery of the formula.

A beautiful book which is a love letter to Euler’s Pioneering Equation. The book is not for beginners but if you have a love of maths this is a well-written and imaginative book. 

Euler’s Pioneering Equation: The most beautiful theorem in mathematics is available here.

 

Death of an Honest Man by M.C. Beaton is published  – my life is complete

Posted on by

 

 

I adore M.C.Beaton’s books and her latest Hamish MacBeth is out in hardback, so I have had many hours catching up on life at Lochdubh, in Sutherland, the northwest of Scotland, but all the while trying not to finish it too quickly.

It features an honest man, you know, the type that destroys your confidence by feeling they must be honest and tell you that you look dreadful in that skirt, or quite frankly, you are boring. Well, I’m sure no-one has said that to you, but you know the sort I mean.

You want to kill them.

Aahhh. And someone does, but who?

As usual Hamish, that most laid back and unambitious of policemen digs away until he sees beyond the smoke churned up by the ghastly Blair, and sometimes aided, sometimes not by his sort of pal, Jimmy Anderson. And don’t forget Charlie who has resigned, and what about the animals… Well, his big cat, Sonsie, is no longer part of the pack, and instead Sally the poodle keeps Lugs company.

So what’s Death of an Honest Man about?

This review is a taster, because like all good things, it must be read slowly and lovingly, savouring every page.

Paul English the honest man has set about the inhabitants of the villages from Lochdubh to Cnothan with his brutal tongue. Harsh feelings are aroused, but who takes their fury to  heights that leads to the murder of his horrid little man, who ‘speaks as he finds’.

Who indeed? As Hamish struggles to come to terms with his big cat, Sonsie’s departure, the chaos of his hunt for a murderer, Charlie’s love life, and the lack of Hamish’s own, we drift along with him, noting the glorious descriptions of the highlands, the depth of love for a pet that can trick you into believing something that all others feel is not the truth, and of course, the murder, the solving of which must not end up dragging Hamish away from Lochdubh to Strathbane.

Read it, love it, and hate it when it’s over, then wait for the next one, or what about the next Agatha Raisin. When, oh when is that due?

The Death of an Honest Man by M.C. Beaton. Pub Constable. Hb£16.99

Gallery of the Dead by Chris Carter is a page turner, but stay behind the sofa

Posted on by

 

 

 

This man can write, really he can, but how does he sleep at night after conjuring up these plots? Does he dream the scenarios up? Or should I say, nightmare them up? I bet people he meets think he’s such a nice boy…

It’s when you read his biography that you realise that Carter has a lot of grist to inform his mill, or indeed his writing. Chris Carter studied psychology and criminal behaviour at the University of Michigan. As a member of the Michigan State District Attorney’s Criminal Psychology team he interviewed and studied a great many criminals – it shows. He now lives in London.

So perhaps no dark dreams, just a knowledge of how the criminal mind might work. Knowing a few policeman I am aware they all have a few cases they can’t erase from their minds, so  in Gallery of the Dead when an LAPD lieutenant tells Detectives Hunter and Garcia of the Ultra-Violent Crimes unit: ‘Thirty seven years in the force, and if I was allowed to choose just one thing to erase from my mind, what’s inside that room would be it’ as they arrive at a crime scene, you know it’s going to be a bad ‘un.

It is, but such a damn good novel, and totally addictive.

The serial killer who has created this nightmare scene needs the combined forces of the FBI and Hunter and Garcia to even get close to stopping the escalating creativity of his appalling acts. This is a psychopath whose work could win the Turner Prize, it’s so artistic and weird.

For one who used to hide behind the sofa watching Quatermass and the Pit (don’t bother if you’re young, you won’t even have heard of it) this was a book I should have read in small bits, and then sniffed smelling salts. But it is so addictive, so pacey and well written that I gulped it down, page after page, but not last thing at night. Oh no, this is a daylight read for me, but you might be made of sterner stuff.

The structure is sound, tension is on overload, and the characters of Hunter and Garcia empathetic, the other characters live and breathe, except the dead ones of course and Carter ‘gets’ the women .

Gallery of the Dead by Chris Carter hb. £16.99 pub Simon and Schuster.