Sometimes I have the real pleasure of reviewing a novel I would have bought myself. Not often it has to be said, and but for life, Covid and work I would have got to this sooner. (I have a pile of books to review)

What a treat, Hot to Trot, M C Beaton’s latest and A Death in the Medina – one after the other:

A Death in the Medina by James Von Leyden is set in Marrakech, in the stifling heat of August at the start of Ramadan. A heat which exceeds anything in living memory. Most foreigners head for the hills, or preferably the Arctic to cool down. One who remains is an impossible woman, or so I thought, who owns a riad (a traditional house built around a courtyard, and which is a form of hotel) She has a French boyfriend who is an architect. There is an English girl who has lost her bag, passport etc. All these pawns cross the path of 24 year old local detective Karim Belkacem, who of course is fasting. Who has a sister’s wedding to pay for. Who takes a job as a night watchman. So not only is he not eating or drinking during the intense sleep, but neither is he sleeping.

A Moroccan girl is found murdered. Another detective takes the case. But Karim knows the girl and fears it is a sloppy investigation, and all the while the heat is rising. Is the murderer one of the pawns? If so, which one? Or is it none of them?

As the heat builds so does Karim’s confusion. We feel it, we put on the fan though in reality it’s cold outside. We drink water , feeling as parched as he. I can’t say my confusion rose as his did, because I seem to live a life of chaos, but oh, dear, I felt his. And who on earth is the killer?

Slowly, delicately, elegantly it comes together. A grain of sand on the body – from the desert? But it’s salty? So where has Amina been? All the time, the hotel is rising, but too quickly. All this concrete to mix…

It’s unputdownable. See how I multi-tasked so I didn’t have to stop reading.

So, turn yourself into a dog’s bed if it gives you a few more precious minutes  with James Von Leyden in Marrakech. Read, learn, and finally understand ‘who did it.’ A Death in Medina is more than a mystery, it is an experience.

A Death in the Medina by James Von Leyden pub by Constable (who are publishing some great books) paperback

In these stressful and uncertain times many of us are turning to new hobbies as a way to let off steam and learn a new skill. Create you is a local group based in Highbridge Somerset and was founded in 2019 stemming from a long held and widely practised belief of therapeutic art.

Create You founder Leila Browning says : “After struggling with mental health issues myself I started on my creative journey to finding a way to use art as a form of self-help.

Having found something that worked for me I wanted to share this with others who also struggled with their mental wellbeing, I then conducted lots of research until the idea was born.

Creating art relieves stress, encourages creative thinking, increases brain function by using problem solving skills and imparts other mental health benefits. Creating art provides a distraction, giving your brain a break from your usual thoughts, and you may find yourself in what is known as ‘the zone’ or a state of ‘flow’ which is what ties it in nicely with mindfulness

It was important that Create You was an all-inclusive company, having worked in the autistic sector for a while, I realised the how important it was that anyone visiting and joining groups would be able to feel part of something regardless of their abilities.

Create You has been designed especially to be a safe and welcoming space for all.

In these unusual and stressful times people need that escape and we’ve found our classes more in demand than ever.

We believe that during lockdown people were given time to be creative and have a new understanding of the importance of taking some time out for ourselves.”

Create You offers a wide range of groups. There is something for everyone from Adults to children from beginners to more advanced artists. This is what they have to offer on a weekly basis;

Monday Art for Adults 10.00 – 11.30am,

Creative Kids 5.00 – 7.00pm

Tuesday Art for Adults 7.30 – 9.00pm

Wednesday Men Only! 11.00 – 12.30pm

Young Artists 5.00 – 7.00pm

Thursday Home Education Group, Art 10.00 – 12 noon

Friday Artists and Crafters Unite 10.30 – 12 noon

Create You also offer workshops ranging from china decoration, beading, pyrography, felting and printmaking, to name just a few.

When asked what impact Covid has had on the creative groups that they host. Leila Browning said;

“Like most businesses, Covid has made this a challenging year. we’ve been running groups and live events on Facebook, even doing paint-alongs via Facebook live! We have managed to rearrange our creative centre to comply fully with government guidelines, and we expect to be able to continue our groups as planned.”

2021 is going to be a extremely exciting year for Create You here is what they have planned for the new year;

“2021 will see us expanding our repertoire, adding new classes in even more diverse areas, and we are even going to be able to offer a space for graffiti artists! We are also going to be offering corporate team building events and giving hen parties the opportunity to create some beautiful beaded decorations they can wear to the wedding. We are always working on new ideas, and we have no shortage of them”

If you are interested in what Create You has to offer but do not live locally then do not fear

“Going forward, we envisage franchising Create You into other parts of the country, so watch out, we may be coming to you soon!”

If you have any creative activity in mind, please feel free to contact us, we would be delighted to discuss your ideas.

Create You; tel 01278 767411

Email; www.createyou.art@outlook.com

Facebook/Insta @createyou.uk

web www.createyou.uk

Facebook Groups: CreateYou-Creative community

CreateYou-online gallery

Oh, be still my beating heart – Aggie is back. Snakes and B……..s – thank the Lord. I have had the most enjoyable couple of days reading, laughing, wondering just ‘who did it?’ in this village mystery. God bless this creation of M.C. Beaton’s, though, of course, I believe Agatha Raisin really exists. She simply must, because she is as grumpy as I am, and makes me feel less alone in my role as the politically incorrect old duck of the universe.

The blurb the publisher sent talks about an eccentric Cotswolds-based detective with an erratic love life and a penchant for G and Ts. Yes indeed. But she is ever willing to leap to the defense of those accused by the dastardly Wilkes, who seems even more determined than usual to close the murder case, whether his chosen perpetrator/s are guilty or not.

And did Sir Charles Fraith really murder his quite dreadful show-jumping wife? And was Agatha his accomplice? What tosh- surely?

And will the glorious Agatha – with the  help of her team of private detectives – end up attempting to hunt down the real murderer. Well, yes, for a price.

Each page glides into the next, evocative scenes are established, pictures are painted, laughs conjured up to  empathetic nods from the reader. Quick, quick, turn another page. Really? Oh, surely not him? Or her? Well, perhaps, and shove off Wilkes, you horrid little twerp.

On and on we go, from a trot to a canter, a canter to a gallop as we are transported to the vineyards of Bordeaux, and back to dear old Carsely. And what about James? Will he enter Agatha’s life again?

Up and over the jumps we go then, cheering on Agatha, loving her, laughing with her, wishing we too lived in Carsely. What romps we’d have, sitting in the pub with Agatha and probably Roy, in his jodpurs, (what a vision)  chewing the cud, or perhaps it should be oats… or, well, whatever horses eat.

Read Hot to Trot. Love it. Live it. Be the better for it. Far more invigorating than a tonic.

Hot to Trot by M.C Beaton. Pub. Constable hb and eBook

Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT Friday 26th March – Saturday 26 th June 2021

How absolutely fascinating: who knows anything about Archie Brennan, pop artist, weaver, bodybuilder and former Mr Scotland, who changed the course of modern weaving and is considered one of the greatest unrecognised pop artists of the twentieth century?

No, nor me either. Unrecognised because he chose to work in tapestry. Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! tells the story of Edinburgh native Archie Brennan (1931-2019) in the first-ever major retrospective of his work. Bringing together over 80 tapestries and works, in a thematic exhibition exploring 60 years of prolific tapestry making, as well as archive material, this is a chance to delve into the world of a master of modern tapestry. A number of the works in the exhibition have never been on public display.

Sharp, witty, and immensely talented, Brennan began his 60-year weaving career as an apprentice at Dovecot, before becoming Artistic Director in 1963. He was an innovator and iconoclast who inspired weavers all over the world from Papua New Guinea to Australia. He dedicated his life to teaching and his influence on weaving can still be felt to this day. What many don’t realise is that while Brennan was a leading force in twentieth century tapestry, he was also a central, and largely overlooked force in the development of Pop Art in Britain.

Through tapestry, an output more often associated with stately homes, the court and monumental ecclesiastical works, he explored the key concerns of pop – ephemera, popular imagery and culture, 2 and questions of value. A fascinating component of Brennan’s engagement with Pop Art is his interest in celebrity culture and media representations of individuals. Throughout his career he was drawn to public figures such as Princess Diana, and boxer and activist Muhammad Ali.

Often Brennan used small images cut from newspapers and magazines or sketched from the TV to translate pop culture imagery to tapestry. One of the keystones of Brennan’s practice is the tension between high and low art, throwaway culture and the time intensive process of tapestry weaving. Tapestry Goes Pop! gives a unique insight into this undisputed master of modern tapestry..

Celia Joicey, director at Dovecot Studios, says Archie Brennan is the most significant tapestry weaver of the 20th century.

Archie’s life and work will be celebrated at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, where his career flourished. Through his innovative technique, international collaborations and his commitment to weaving as a fine art, Brennan’s legacy to contemporary tapestry is unparalleled.

Exhibition co-curated with National Museums Scotland.

Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! Exhibition Dates Friday 26th March – Saturday 26th June 2021 Monday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm Location 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT

How to get there:  Infirmary Street is a short walk from the hive of Princes Street where you can connect via the many bus and tram routes. It is an eight minute walk from Edinburgh Waverley station.

Social Media @dovecotstudios Website www.dovecotstudios.com

Exhibition supported by the Cordis Charitable Trust. 3 Dovecot Studios Dovecot is a world-renowned tapestry studio in the heart of Edinburgh and a landmark centre for contemporary art, craft, and design.

Images courtesy of Archie Brennan Estate

Let’s consider Lockdown and the new normal. For surely it is a new normal, in which businesses can be born,  built, and to which those already in existence must respond, and quickly. With this in mind, one of the UK’s most experienced networkers, Ladey Adey, has created one of the first books dedicated to online networking.

Adey uses a combination of contributors, and topics,to take the daunting mystique  out of online networking, and replaces it with a clearly structured  resource that will inspire and sustain those embarking on utilizing the seemingly limitless opportunities of the digital age.  But to use these opportunities one must have clear goals, and the knowledge of how to make it all work for them.

Adey, the author of Successful Business Network Online – Build your Business using Powerful Online Connections told Frost Magazine: “Turning to the internet for business networking has been a direct response by business people continuing to trade through times of pandemic and lockdown. Our businesses need to survive and thrive or ‘bounce back’ and continue. A networking marketing strategy is a superb way to do this.”

Just imagine a pandemic such as the Spanish Flu which decimated the population after a hideous war, struggling to get back on its feet, with no help from a digital age and compare it to today, with this enormous advantage. Salutary, ah? So, be glad of this comprehensive book by Ladey Adey, which is a clearly presented guide for businesses, and takes us step by step through the principles required to move a business forward using online networking covering:

• How to become successful using Online Networking post Covid-19.
• Discover the secret strategies to online networking and avoid common online mistakes.
• How to Beat Zoom Fatigue.

Using interviews with many innovators, successful business owners and seasoned networking professionals and including  her own insights  we come to understand that online networking has  tipped into the commonplace, though, as Anthony Thomson, co-founder of 86 400 and Metro Bank, opines as he ‘talks’ with Adey, that it is our children and grand-children who are already digital natives, immersed in digital technology and  in tune with this medium in a way that previous generations are not.

Though, let’s face it,  we’d be advised to get on the bandwagon pretty quickly, and for a neanderthal like me, this book is an  essential tool, as I run a small charity, as well as everything else.  And it does seem to me to be a truly ground breaking resource, one which even I can understand and appreciate.

So, buy it, read it  but, like like Anthony Thomson says, as he and Adey discussed the need for physical and digital balance:  ‘I still enjoy meeting people face-to-face.

Exactly, and surely this is where hospitality will flourish, as some, not all of course,  remain in their home offices within four walls, alone… and out they’ll go, to meet in a hub,  face to face with others in localised towns. I daresay  the metro-centric way of life will respond and release its grip   as people spread out of cities into the country.  But that’s a whole other subject. Or is it, because we are talking about the new normal.

 Successful Business Networking Online by Ladey Adey  has received endorsement by networking gurus from around the world, Dr Ivan Misner – BNI Founder, Brad Burton – 4N, Networking Authors: Andrea Nierenberg, Andy Bounds and Michael Heppell and Professor Gary Bosworth, Newcastle Business School who said “This book should be an essential resource for all Business School Libraries”

Well, quite.

Available in e-Book and physical at Amazon.co.uk
and all good book stores.

https://www.ladeyadey.com/

Annie Clarke: author of the Home Front Girls series, the latest of which is Wedding Bells on the Home Front. 

‘Busy day?’ asked my wife when she found me in the kitchen surrounded by 7 opened bottles of wine.

I did worry that her eyebrows would hit the ceiling, as I tried to explain, that I was in fact helping to save the black and white Rhinoceros threatened with extinction.

Let me explain…

Darren Gough, renowned cricketer, who together with his wife, are ambassadors of the Rhino Sanctuary, chose World Rhino Day (September 22^nd) to launch an exciting range of charming South African wines.

You can easily identify the wines by the beautiful labels which feature a Rhinoceros and not just any Rhinoceros, Odin and Arthur, named after two of the Rhinoceros who are currently resident in the Wild Rhino Sanctuary. Each label is a work of art, but then again so is the wine.

The Care for Wild Wine Collection will be available to purchase online from 22nd September, 2020 on www.slurp.co.uk after which a launch is planned with the major UK grocery and On Trade chains. Twenty percent of all the profits from sales of wine from this range goes directly to the Save the Rhino Sanctuary in South Africa.

Now, it is at this point, I have a confession to make. I have spent years dismissing Rose wine, and I was already convinced that Pale Rose was not going to be to my taste. Instead, it became my damascene moment. It was glorious, a hint of raspberries but not sickly sweet, this was clean fresh and delicate with good acidity, ideal for summer by the pool, in garden or at a picnic, though I can’t promise to wait until next summer. Priced around £10.00 – £12.00.

The whites were no less impressive beginning with the crisp Sauvignon Blanc, priced around £7.00 with soft citrus and tropical fruit and a hint of gooseberries on the palate, an easy drinker, which would go well with chicken or fish at a very affordable price. A South African wine which would give New Zealand wine a run for its money.

Staying with Sauvignon but this time, a zingy wine blended with Semillon to offer tropical fruit flavours with subtle mineral notes. The wine is smooth and satisfying and priced around £10.00 – £12.00 this over delivers, and one could easily pay another £5.00 for this wine and not feel short changed.

However, if I was going to treat myself, I would be plumping for the Chenin Blanc, which should be served fridge cold, not ice bucket cold if you are going to fully appreciate the apricots and peaches on the palate. A perfect accompaniment to Dover Sole or Pea Risotto and even with a good cheese. This wine is priced at £20.00 – £25.00 a bottle so something of a treat but we all deserve a treat from time to time.

Having sampled some delicious whites I hardly dare think what the reds might deliver.

Red Blend is a versatile blend of Pinotage and Shiraz which benefits from 20 minutes in the fridge before serving. Great with Chicken and Fish or perhaps a tomato- based pasta. It’s not pretending to be complex, but priced at £7.00 a bottle, this is a great everyday wine.

The Syrah Viognier is a deliciously complex wine made up of 97% Syrah and 3% of Viognier which is just enough to soften out the Syrah, gifting the wines with soft tannins and a pepperiness and red fruits on the palate. The wine would keep for a year or two and continue to improve, but why wait when it is drinking so well? Priced at £10.00 – £12.00 and to be honest I would pay another fiver for this wine and still feel very satisfied.

The Shiraz 2018 had me smacking my lips and at 14% packs a punch, delivering much for the money. It’s a wine of great refinement that could take on the best of Australian wines, offering good length with a soft velvety finish, packed with powerful fruit flavours.

This is a serious wine which would pair well with rich meat dishes, but also strong cheese. Priced at £20- 25.00 this is worth every penny and indeed much more.

I think that it is worth repeating that twenty percent of the profit on each bottle will go towards the Rhino Sanctuary which rescues, rehabilitates and releases orphaned rhinos back into their natural habitat, which is protected from poaching and other threats.

Money is needed to upgrade their perimeter fences, purchase high quality winter gear for their dedicated anti-poaching unit and ensure that there is a stockpile of milk for all the orphan rhinos in their nursery.

This is a fantastic opportunity to drink delicious, superb wines in aid of a good cause and even my wife raised a glass rather than an eyebrow

These wines are available from Slurp www.slurp.co.uk and currently have a special offer so these wines can be bought even more cheaply until early October.

The Super Premium wines feature Odin the Rhino and the Premium Wines features

Arthur the Rhino – to find out more about their stories please click on the links below.

https://youtu.be/yTJO8W0XiHs

Website: https://www.careforwild.co.za/

​

Skin is astoundingly good at absorbing things. Hence a moisturiser can soak right in and give us a lovely peach-soft face. However there’s a downside – any harmful ingredients can pass through the skin and into our blood stream, so we need to be very aware of hidden nasties in our beauty products.

Parabens are used in many skin and hair products, because they prevent harmful bugs growing and so extend the shelf-life. However, if absorbed, they can act as ‘hormone disrupters’ by mimicking our natural oestrogens. Although more research is needed to understand the extent of this possible danger, there’s a theoretical concern that they could promote breast cancer in women and cause sex hormone problems in both teenage girls and boys. Both FDA and European regulators have restrictions on paraben use in beauty products– however if we use several products, each containing parabens, we may be absorbing more than we realise.

Some beauty companies have made a real effort to eliminate potentially harmful chemicals from their merchandise, however these are often designed for women. Teenage boys are using skin and hair products more and more, but what’s available for them?

Not much according to Stephanie Capuano, mother of two teenage boys, which is why she’s created her own range and, as a Californian, she’s called it 31^st State. It includes cleansers, anti-blemish and hair styling products and I’ve been reviewing the Foaming Face Wash and Easy Hold Styling Gel.

Visually, the packaging is attractive and understated. Both products had a pleasant but subtle perfume – nothing to cause embarrassment for even the youngest teen. All 31^st State products are free of parabens and other suspect chemicals, and are suitable for vegans. They use natural ingredients wherever possible.

As we know, teenage boys frequently suffer with acne and spots, and of course this causes as much embarrassment and confidence-issues as for girls. The Foaming Face Wash, which is formulated to gently cleanse and keep skin soft and clear, was very light, smooth and pleasant to use. It contains Tea Tree, which apparently works over a 12-hour period, decreasing chances of skin irritation and redness. Antibacterial Manuka fights spots, and Magnesium, Copper and Zinc work to prevent further breakouts.

The Easy Hold Styling Gel was clear and light to the touch and non-greasy. It contains naturally-derived ingredients, such as Tamanu Oil which provides UV protection and makes hair shiny, and hydrating Shea Butter for extra conditioning.

So if you’re looking for extra surprises for your son’s stocking, why not try the Christmas box, which includes the awarding winning Face Wash, Body Wash and Hair Putty and costs £25.

Stockists include ASOS, Amazon, Flannels, Ocado, Next and Liberty London, or you can buy direct from the 31^st State website.

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

[slide 3 my book]

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.