Let’s get you into the Christmas spirit with, er … Christmas spirit. Gordon’s gin are giving away 45 festive hampers which each contain things to help your Christmas sparkle at home – rich velvet table runners, baubles and Christmas lights, festive candles, gorgeous coasters and wrapping paper. Of course, there’s also mini bottles of Gordon’s to hang from your tree, assuming they make it that far, AND a full-sized bottle of Gordon’s, plus beautiful glassware – how fabulous.

To enter, all you need to do is complete your details on the competition landing page between 12:00 on 23rd November 2020 and 12:00 on 30th November 2020: Instagram: @gordonsginuk ; Facebook: @GordonsGinUK  or : https://competition.gordonsgin.com/

The competition is open to those aged 18 and over nationwide. Terms and conditions apply.

So let’s just contemplate on the gin treats you could be winning in the hamper:

Gordon’s London Dry Gin, (70cl, RRP £15.50) – the original London Dry gin it’s triple-distilled with carefully selected botanicals including oodles of juniper.

Gordon’s Sicilian Lemon Distilled Gin – 100% natural flavours, it’s perfectly crafted to balance the juniper notes of Gordon’s with the zesty hit of the finest Sicilian lemons.

Gordon’s Premium Pink Distilled Gin – the perfect drink for someone who loves a colourful, fruity G&T, it balances the refreshing taste of Gordon’s with the natural sweetness of real raspberries and strawberries, and tang of redcurrant.

Gordon’s Sloe Gin – made from the finest hand-picked sloe berries from English and Northern European Mountains, creating a dry, yet fruity taste.

Oh, a word of caution – JLS’s Aston Merrigold does not come with the hamper (I already checked).

By Dr K Thompson, award-winning author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk

Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.

In a year where sun-drenched Caribbean beaches was more of a dream than a reality, She Hot Pepper Sauces make that dream just a little more real.

The business was started by Sheliza Thompson (no relation), who wanted to recreate the Trinidadian and Mauritian household in which she grew up. She remembers as a child waiting for relatives to bring fresh supplies home from trips to Trinidad, and the ‘Chubby bottle’ containing homemade Pepper Sauce. Thankfully sourcing ingredients such as authentic West Indian Scotch Bonnet chillis is a little easier these days.

The three sauces – Trini Pepper, Line Pepper and Tamarind – are made in small batches in the Doubles Kitchen, London, so it’s the nearest thing to home-made and I can confirm they taste amazing. The Lime Pepper is stuffed with finely-chopped fresh chillis and lime and each fabulous flavour hits your taste buds separately. If you prefer something milder, the tamarind sauce is simply delicious and slightly sweet.

Only real ingredients are used, with no artificial additives or stabilisers – also no monosodium glutamate or animal products. You should keep the jar in the fridge once it has been opened, where it will last for a long time.

You can order from the website She Hot Pepper Sauces, and my jars arrived very quickly by Royal Mail and were well-packed. If you live in Enfield you can even request free local delivery, and look out for it at local farmers markets. Just £5.50 per jar, with a deal if you buy two together. And look out for their Festive Bundles which contain lots of other goodies too and make great Christmas presents.

Go on, treat yourself and your family, the sauces are delicious and they actually taste like they’re doing you good too.

By Dr K Thompson, award-winning author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk

Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.

Digital:

Much-loved company Sleeping Trees will bring the magic of panto to your living room with their epic Christmas adventure The Legend of Moby Dick Whittington. Streaming throughout December, this exciting production, filled with original music, will ensure the whole family has a whale of a time. Available from 1^st December  – 5th January

Tickets:  here

Polka are giving a free gift to give to their supporters this Christmas with a digital family reimagining of Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. Created by the team behind the lockdown hit I Want My Hat Back, comes a visually imaginative short film made almost entirely from recycled and recyclable Christmas materials!

Available from 19^th December to those who sign up to the Polka newsletter: here

Social Media: @ polkatheatre

Constella aim to raise money with their upcoming Christmas Gala to continue their incredible Connecting Stars initiative which provides free one-to-one virtual performances to isolated care home residents. Constella’s Christmas Gala will see the musicians enter a Christmas wonderland. Since their launch earlier this year, they have reached over 50 care homes and over 2,000 residents with 150 virtual performances; the Gala will bring festive joy to even more residents, and raise money to continue this vital programme. Available from 8^th December.  Tickets and further information here

London’s Old Red Lion Theatre’s first piece of digital work will be a brand new filmed production inspired by Bob Cratchit. Written and directed by artistic director Alexander Knott, December will be filmed on the theatre’s stage and will be available to watch online this December.

In Person

Throughout December the crème de la crème of London’s Queer cabaret scene, Ginger Johnson, Bitten Peach, Pecs Drag Kings, and the Cocoa Butter Club, are taking over the Pleasance’s transformed auditorium for some festive fun – ‘tis the season to be Queer! The venue will follow up-to-date safety regulations with e-ticketing, enhanced cleaning and table service with drinks and pizzas from their neighbours, The Depot.

More information here.

The thrilling adaptation of Joan Aiken’s classic children’s novel, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, brings festive magic south of the river. Injecting some Christmas joy into the local community, the production will see the return of Greenwich’s favourite panto villain Anthony Spargo (Horrible Histories). With unforgettable characters, snowy wastelands and ferocious wolves, this promises to be a winter adventure the family won’t forget! Available from 18^th December – 10^th January.  Tickets and more information here.

18th December to 10th January 2021

Come along to the Old Royal Naval College this Christmas to celebrate the festive season with pop-up festive theatre performances for children in the beautiful riverside grounds, a local arts and crafts market and live-streamed and in-person carol services. Admire the magnificent Christmas tree with a glass of mulled wine and explore the beautiful Wren architecture illuminated with colourful lights and projections.

For unique and special gifts this Christmas season, go straight to Shapero Rare Books – the internationally renowned rare and antique bookshop. Gift buyers can head online to their bookshop for the ultimate gift. Their incredible and wide-ranging collection has beautiful and unusual books on every topic, for everyone including beautiful first editions of Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh and Dr Seuss, as well as favourites like Charles Dickens to Daphne Du Maurier’s thrilling Rebecca, to Ernest Hemingway.

More information here

Produced in Kent is a comprehensive, reliable, and exciting go-to resource for finding the best local food and drinks producers in Kent. It is a dynamic network of the best independent food and drinks entrepreneurs in the county and they have come up with the imaginative ideas of the virtual hamper.

There is something about a hamper that appeals to my inner child. Maybe it is the array of delectable goodies that I wouldn’t necessarily treat myself to, maybe it just appeals to my inner glutton. Whatever it is, a hamper of whatever content, is a very welcome gift in my household.   However, come the New Year, there is the problem of what to do with the empty hamper. Too nice to throw away and too big to store.

Fear not, because those wizards of ‘Produced in Kent’ www.producedinkent.co.uk have come up with the perfect solution. Thanks to their scheme it is possible to order exactly what you want to make up your own hamper or even cut out the Hamper and fill a box or bag of your choice, maybe re use an empty hamper after all it is the contents that we are mostly interested in. Here is the perfect way to fill a virtual hamper. Follow Produced in Kent (PinK) on Instagram Twitter or Facebook.

I began with the Fudge. Until now I have always maintained that fudge is fudge, very pleasant, but one piece is as good as another. I don’t know quite how to explain this, but this fudge really does taste of Christmas and my wife agrees. I mention this because I stupidly said that she could try a piece. It was whilst she was waxing lyrical about the fabulous flavours that I realised that we had different definitions of ‘a piece.’  The Luxury Fudge Kitchen Christmas Crackers: £3.50 each come as three generous squares contained in a Christmas cracker shaped box. With Sea Salted Caramel, Chocolate Orange and Speculoos : https://www.fudgekitchen.co.uk/en/products/luxury-red-and-bronze-christmas-crackers-set-of-6

If we are going to avoid the divorce courts, we are going to have to buy much more of this before Christmas.

If you are Vegan and cooking for yourself then I can thoroughly recommend the Vegan mixed herb mayonnaise to enliven anything and everything that is served for lunch or dinner.  If you are invited to dine away from home, then I would most certainly have this stored upon my person. This would be fantastic with salads, nut roasts and vegetarian wellington – so versatile and so tasty and even as a stocking filler for the vegan or vegetarian in your life. A Little Bit Food Co Mixed Herb Vegan Mayo £3.75 https://alittlebit.co.uk/products/mixed-herb-vegan-mayo

I suspect that this is a Christmas must have and I will be serving this chilled to anyone who doesn’t like alcohol and anyone who needs a rest from alcohol. I would be very happy to toast Christmas with this rather than a fizzy wine. It is crisp, refreshing and tastes as if each glass is crammed with fresh apples. It feels suitably celebratory, not too sweet and not too fizzy. This 100% sparkling apple juice is the first of its kind! Made using 100% apples with a light spark https://biddenden.myshopify.com/collections/juices/products/biddenden-sparkling-apple-juice. Sparkling Apple Juice from Biddenden Vineyard: £43.32 Case of 250ml x 24 bottles. Cheers.

Even as a lover of cherries I was a little perplexed at how I would use 1 litre of Dalloway’s Kentish Cherry Juice, but I needn’t have worried, as Shakespeare might have said ‘let me count the ways.’ Certainly, at Christmas there is a preponderance of heavy, rich foods, and quite right too, but equally at times there is the desire for something light, fresh and tasty. Poured over vanilla ice cream, the effects are transformative, added to tonic water or sparkling water will provide a delicious non alcoholic drink and added to a cocktail, will provide a delicious alcoholic one. I have yet to try adding to fruit destined for a crumble or pie, but it is only a matter of time. It could also be drunk neat, to get the full benefits of the juice of 3 kg of pressed cherries with nothing added, because the flavour is perfect. The cherry juice comes in 1 litre bottles Dalloway’s Kentish Cherry Juice. £7 https://rentacherrytree.co.uk/farm-shop/cherry-juice

It seemed strange to be trying the Macknade Christmas Pudding: £7.75 450g in November but I was very glad that I did. This is the traditional Christmas dessert, classic, delicious and jam-packed with vine fruits, generously soaked in rum & brandy. I have to confess that after just one mouthful I was well and truly in the Christmas spirit and you will not be at all surprised to learn that I didn’t stop at one mouthful. https://macknade.com/shop/macknade-larder/macknade-christmas-pudding/

If anything, I probably associate hops with Kent, more than anything else, so I was looking forward to trying the Foundry Man’s Gold – Flagship Golden Ale-£21.99 per case of 12, £13.99 for 6 or £10 in beer gift packs. 500ml bottles. Made from hops named Cascade and Magnum, this ale has the taste of spice, some citrus and grapefruit and is finely balanced with a subtle low-level bitterness with biscuit and caramel flavours. This ale will be great for Christmas but equally tasty throughout the year. Loved it. https://www.thefoundrycanterbury.co.uk/beers/foundry-gold/

I am of all things an aficionado of Gin, but like any aficionado I have my trusted favourites and am content not to interfere with the pecking order. That is, until I tried George Bishop London Dry Gin by Maidstone Distillery:  £39/£15/£5 which is a perfect balance of 15 exotic botanicals, warm Mediterranean orange combined with delicate spice.  Sweet citrusy notes from coriander and air-dried peels are balanced with the tangy piquance of tellicherry pepper, ambrette (musk mallow) and perfumed chamomile. This gin is delightful with a mixer, or in a cocktail. Each bottle is finished by hand, with handwritten batch and bottle number. https://themaidstonedistillery.com/george-bishop-london-dry-gin/

Produced in Kent www.producedinkent.co.uk have worked a Christmas miracle, bringing the Garden of England to the Christmas Hampers and Christmas Stockings of England and, I for one am rather glad that it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

“If songs from roughly a hundred years ago are your thing – this is a show for you!”

If songs from roughly a hundred years ago are your thing – this is a show for you! Conceived and written by the brilliant Peter Polycarpou, Falling Stars is a jam-packed hour full of songs familiar and, perhaps, unknown from the 1920s – many written by Charlie Chaplin! There are also numbers by Irving Berlin and Meredith Wilson, plus many more.

Peter (best known to fans of Birds Of A Feather as Chris Theodopolopodous) is joined by Sally Ann Triplett (most recently seen in Viva Forever! at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End). Together and individually they embrace the songs with gusto and style. Full of factual information in-between the numbers, the production is directed by Michael Strassen, keeping a tight rein on the whole event. The show was originally planned as a live experience, but during lockdown a decision was made to create this filmed version – which can be viewed by following the links on www.stream.theatre.

Planned and executed over three days, with only one day of rehearsals, the show is a little rough at the edges, but more than makes up for it in energy. For all its bravado, for me the highlight is Peter’s touching rendition of Rose Of Picardy. However, the two do perform Yes, We Have No Bananas where the song actually makes sense!

Although thoroughly enjoyable, I feel this show really needs a live audience to respond to. However, at the moment, we’ve all gotta take what we can get!

.Photography Paul Nicholas Dyke

Producers Ginger Quiff Media and Union Theatre

Writer Peter Polycarpou

Director Michael Strassen

Music Mark Dickman

Running Time 60 minutes

Tickets www.stream.theatre

Shows Sunday 22nd to Sunday 29th November 2020 at 7.30pm

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th November 2020 at 2.30pm

Price £15 (plus booking fee)

Twitter @Gingerqmedia, @TheUnionTheatre, @stream_theatre

Instagram @Gingerquiffmedia, @theuniontheatre

Turning a much-loved story on its head with an intriguing modern twist, Tea Break Theatre will present their new re-working of Sleeping Beauty?.

This live and interactive epic Zoom adventure will feature puppetry, original music and comedy. Everyone knows the story: in a faraway time and a faraway place, a beautiful Princess is asleep in a castle. But this time, it’s 2020, and that faraway tale is happening here and now. Prince wants to save the Princess, so sets off on an adventure with his faithful dog, Puff. Can he save the Princess and defeat the evil villain, Dreaver, who is determined to turn your own dreams against you, all in time for Christmas?

Written and directed by Katharine Armitage (Big Finish’s Doctor Who Audio Adventures; Funny Women Writing Award finalist, 2020), Sleeping Beauty? is a fairy-tale for the 21st century. Families will be transported into a magical fairy-tale world, while exploring the feelings of loneliness, community, and isolation that have been heightened during the Covid-19 lockdowns. This uplifting and enlightening tale will explore how being honest about our emotions and identity can help our mental wellbeing. Sleeping Beauty? hopes to help adults and children alike feel grounded and empowered, in what for many has felt like a chaotic and uncontrollable year.

Performers Felicity Sparks (Golem, BBC Four; A Christmas Carol, Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Alicia McKenzie (Blond Bombshells of 1943, Pitlochry Festival Theatre; The Wind in the Willows, New Vic Theatre), Chris Dobson (In The Night Garden Live, UK Tour; Bobbin, Little Angel Theatre) and Molly Small (A Wake In Progress, The Bunker, Pleasance and Underbelly; Beauty and the Beast, Sutton House) will engage with families directly in this live spectacle, while audiences remain on mute to enjoy this home adventure in their own individual way.

Katharine Armitage, writer and director of Sleeping Beauty?, comments, The power of theatre is that it is always there for us, whatever is happening, whatever the challenges, theatre finds a way to tell stories which both distract us and allow us to process the world we find ourselves in. By taking theatre online, but keeping it live and interactive, I hope to create something new and exciting: a form of theatre that actually would never have existed without the pandemic! I want to tell a story which will transport you and your kids to an epic adventure with all the magic, hope and joy we need right now. Ensuring theatre is accessible for all families this Christmas, Tea Break Theatre will be using a ‘pay what you can’ ticketing system, where low cost and free tickets are available for those who need them most.

Title Sleeping Beauty? Dates Thursday 17th December – Wednesday 30th December 2020

10.30am performances – 20th, 22nd, 23rd December 5pm performances – 17th, 18th, 20th, 21st, 28th and 30th December 7pm performances – 18th, 21st, 22nd, 29th December

Running Time 50 minutes

Tickets: Tickets are available as ‘pay what you can’ from £5.

Advanced booking is available here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/teabreaktheatre

Twitter @teabreaktheatre Instagram @tea.break.theatre Facebook @teabreaktheatre Hashtag #NotAsleep, #SleepingBeauty? Website https://www.teabreaktheatre.com

Age Guidance Age 3+, perfect for children aged 4 to 9.

Grand Hotel Royal Bedroom Italy

Determined to highlight how trees connect us all on a universal level, photographer Adrian Houston’s acclaimed retrospective, A Portrait of a Tree, succeeded in reaching, and indeed surpassing, his original goal.

Inspired by this success, Adrian decided to introduce these powerful and extraordinarily beautiful images to a new audience as Eclipse puts them centre stage in an exclusive and bespoke new collection of luxury murals and art pieces. Adrian spent several years photographing trees that held a very special meaning for a diverse group of individuals, among them actresses Joanna Lumley and Goldie Hawn, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and Sir Richard Branson. Locations included Madagascar, Ibiza, France and the UK. Now captured in this stunning series, the magnificence and atmosphere of each tree will create a stylish and dramatic statement for both contemporary and period properties.

A private home in London UK

It was back in the 1700s that murals were  first used as a replacement for tapestries and taken as a sign of great wealth. Since then they have been viewed as a timeless luxury interior design item, adding a distinctive look and feel to a home. This ephemeral collection will similarly transform any space.

Says Adrian Houston, “Murals have always been an important medium for communication and information. From prehistoric times onwards, they have served to educate as well as enhance the living space. I am delighted that my tree portraits will carry on this time-honoured tradition.”

Added Graham Hayhurst, MD of Adrian Houston Art: “Adrian Houston enjoys a global reputation as a photographer who sees the natural world from a very personal perspective. His powerful photographs serve as a timely reminder of the contrasts our world offers and the importance of preserving them. We are delighted to have the opportunity to translate this iconic artwork into large scale decorative murals.”

Tyringham Hall sitting room UK

Employing the latest technologies and the skills of its in-house design team, Eclipse will ensure the murals remain true to Adrian’s original vision. In line with Adrian’s own eco-friendly ethos, the electronic print process reduces plastics and solvent emissions found in more traditional printing processes.

In addition, the use of non-woven material significantly reduces the use of paper and consequently the natural wood products required to make it.

The Portrait of a Tree Collection will be produced to customer bespoke dimensions as limited edition of 50 prints.

Mural pricing starts at £330 per square metre. Art pieces measuring three metres by two metres are priced at £9000.

Images are credited to Adrian Houston

Commercial enquiries should be directed to Graham Hayhurst  ( graham.hayhurst@sky.com. )