The winner of the ADHD Foundation Partnership Award in 2017, Art with Heart returns with a brand new tour of Declaration, a comic and candid look at Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

Developed in consultation with medical professionals and mental health support groups, Declaration challenges the stereotypes of mental health and gender in the 21^st century.

Declaration is a vibrant and daring adventure of school day survival tactics, super-hero alter-egos and the stumbling blocks to self-acceptance.  Filled with great tunes, dancing and humour, Declaration is an upbeat autobiographical piece about the challenges Sarah Emmott faced as she sought diagnosis in her 30s.

Instinctive, curious, bold and bouncy, Sarah is a mighty proud square peg – which wouldn’t be such a problem if the hole wasn’t so damn round.  Her childhood doctor thought it was sugar.  Her current doctor thinks its ADHD. Sarah still feels different, so what will a label do? Declaration is a vibrant and daring adventure of school day survival tactics, super-hero alteregos and the stumbling blocks to self-acceptance.

Performance Dates  Tuesday 12th October – Thursday 22nd November 2018

Running Time   70 minutes   Box Office Tickets are available from individual theatre box office. See www.artwithheart.org.uk 

Twitter  @artwith_heart, #ADHDeclaration

With the A level results just in, a poem to enlighten, or perhaps warn, all  ‘packhorses’ (and indeed lecturers) as they help deliver their off-spring to their halls or residence: by Milly Adams, author of The Waterway Girls series (Arrow)

In the Corridor of a College Lodgings by Milly Adams

‘Who’s this?’ the lecturer asked my daughter.

She said, all bare midriff with tattoo peeping,

‘Only Mum. She’s carrying my plants,

Helping to move me in.’

‘Hello, Mum,’ he said, not looking, just

Brushing

The leaves of the ornamental fig as he passed.

A plant, my daughter felt, would make her room

Look familiar, lived in. ‘Like you,’ she’d joked.

At her doorway I placed it in her arms,

But it was his bustling back I watched

As he turned this way and that

Distributing greetings to other beasts of

Burden.

Not waiting for their replies, either.

I called, too loud perhaps, ‘My name is

Rosemary.

I usually wear stiletto shoes, and pink jackets.

When not camouflaged as a removal man

I have cycled the Alps for charity. If you’d

Looked

You’d have seen highlights in my hair.

I belly dance and have a name.

My name, again, is Rosemary.’

‘Way to go, Mum,’ my daughter whooped,

And up and down the corridor’s length and

Breadth

Plants. laptops and kindles were handed

Over.

Students were kissed with love. And left.

‘Yes, we have names,’ we all said.

As thoughts of achievements big and small

Lent wings to trainers. ‘And places to go. And

Lives to live.

Fashion statements to make, and parameters

To break.’

Goodbye, Lecturer,’ we smiled, as we passed by.

Hope on the Waterways, the final in the Waterway Girls series, is published on 20th September.

The Waterway Girls, and Love on the Waterways are available now. 

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Frost Magazine’s has learned with great pleasure that the Words for the Wounded’s recent winner of the Young Adult Fiction Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award, Oliver Eade (with The Kelpie’s Eyes) has done it again. He has won the Segora one-act Play Competition 2018 with The Other Cat.

Fiona Frazer was placed second with Gloop.

The judge, Gordon Simms says: It has been such a pleasure to read this year’s entries, including as they did a wide range of themes and styles. Radio and television plays as well as some that would lend themselves to film came in alongside stage plays to make an intriguing mix.

Gordon Simms has been a Head of English, Head of Performing Arts and a Drama Advisor. He has written several full-length and one-act plays. His ten-minute play Zero Contract was presented in August 2017 at theCharroux Literary Festival where he led a workshop on writing ten-minute plays. He goes on to say:  I was struck by the quality of dialogue in many entries. If substance was a little short in some examples, at least the dialogue was entertaining and convincing.

So close was my decision that I felt I could not ‘abandon’ either, so rather than share first prize I have introduced a second. This addition also reflects the largest number of entries yet received in this section of our competitions.
Once again the judging experience has been informative and uplifting, and I thank again all those who entered to make it so.

Oliver Eade: The Kelpie’s Eyes. 

Words for the Wounded

Rob Keeley is the 2nd place winner in the WforW Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award for Independent Authors: Fiction for Young Adults Category with his sharp and evocative novel High Spirits.

No one ever thinks I have a real job.  One thing I’m asked all the time as an author – even by friends – is what I do all day.  I list everything that goes into writing, producing and promoting a book, and tell them I’m always at my desk by nine (earlier if possible) and there until five.  They never believe me.

For the last four years much of my working life has centred on the ghostly time-travelling adventures of Ellie, the main character in my Spirits novels.  Having written books based around the Victorian, Georgian and medieval eras, with High Spirits I wanted to explore modern history.  I was keen to advance Ellie from upper primary age to teenager, and to show how her life had moved on since her accidental altering of history in The Sword of the Spirit.  She is now a young adult herself, with a crush on a young man called Luke, and her family situation has been turned on its head.

High Spirits could have told a very different story.  I always planned to send Ellie back to Inchwood Manor (where the series began in Childish Spirits), but I was originally going to set the book in the Second World War, with Ellie time-travelling to 1940.  There, she would have become mixed up with the evacuees mentioned in Childish Spirits, while being haunted by the ghost of an RAF officer who had been billeted at Inchwood.

A rethink was needed.  I realised there had already been many books for young people about evacuees, and I felt there weren’t many ways to make this into a ghost story.  Instead I turned to researching the abdication crisis of 1936, and the lives of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.  I decided we would not actually meet them, but two shaping-changing ghosts impersonating them sounded like a lot of fun, offering potential for drama as well as humour and social commentary.  I felt it would be unusual and original to revisit this period in a YA novel, and since it saw a rise in racism, anti-Semitism and right-wing activity, it seemed a worryingly appropriate subject for today.  Young people are taught in schools that the British were the automatic good guys in World War Two, and may not realise how many people in this country in the 1930s supported Hitler.  It was a good time to open their eyes.

I kept the RAF officer and made him a ghost from the future, warning of the coming war.  Add in Ellie, the other regular characters and Viewpoint, the government’s ghostly watchdog, and we had a story!  The threat of a Nazi Britain could also be continued into the final book in the series, The Coming of the Spirits, and it’s here we’ll pick up with Ellie when that book is published.

I’d like to thank the judges of the Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award, and I hope that children, young adults and older adults will enjoy my book.

Rob’s books are available from www.amazon.co.uk 

Learn more about Rob on his website: www.robkeeley.co.uk 
Twitter: @RobKeeleyAuthor 

 http://www.authorhotline.com/robkeeley

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk 

Images used with the permission of Robert Keeley

“A wonderful evening’s entertainment”

Ingredients: use a famous storyline, employ seven actors, put into an unusual location. Mix them together, adding a handful of joie de vivre with a splash of sword-fighting and a pinch of pantomime. Et Voilà! A wonderful evening’s entertainment.

This is the third time I have seen Iris Theatre this year. The brilliant new musical H.R.Haitch was followed by the disappointing production of The Tempest. But Daniel Winder’s company are back on form with this 17th Century romp.

The play has eight scenes and it is a promenade performance – so the audience are shuffled around the gardens and into the church, but director Paul-Ryan Carberry’s brilliant ensemble of actors keep the pace up to such a high degree that the play whizzes by, even though it is of Shakespearean length, coming in at over two and a half hours.

The story we think we know is given a contemporary twist: d’Artagnan is a woman in disguise and, along with the baddie of the piece, Milady de Winter, the two ladies present opposite sides of the same coin – both struggling as strong women in a crazy male world. Jenny Horsthuis plays d’Artagnan, Ailsa Joy plays Milady. The rest of the strong and energetic cast play a range of parts with the ebullient Stephen Boyce playing four characters.

Albert de Jongh, Elliot Liburd and Matt Stubbs play the Musketeers and also double up as Lord Buckingham, the King of France and Cardinal Richelieu respectively. This sumptuous dish was then topped off by Bethan Rose Young playing Constance and the Queen of France – as well as a joyous variety of pub landladies!

It ticks all the boxes, sadly let down by the acoustics in the final scene: the denouement slightly lost as, amidst the sword fighting, the characters’ speeches are simultaneously fighting against the church’s cavernous interior.

This is certainly a piece of theatre that the children in the audience enjoyed as much as the adults. A young boy, standing on a bench, exclaiming ‘Will someone tell me what’s going on?’ during a battle scene, did not diminish his, or our, enjoyment…

Photography:  Nick Rutter

Producer:        Iris Theatre

Director:          Paul-Ryan Carberry

Composer:      Nick Hart

Designer:        Abby&Alice

Venue:            St Paul’s Church, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9ED

Dates:             Running until Sunday 2nd September 2018

Times:             2.30pm and 7.30pm – check booking website for exact performance schedule

Booking:          www.iristheatre.com

Tickets:           £20 (children under 16 are £14)

The White Rose Book Cafe have their hands full as August cools and September and October hove into sight.

The Art of Reading by Damon Young is a celebratory tribute to the power of one of our must undervalued skills – an ideal gift for the avid reader. ‘An engaging enquiry into the transformative power of reading: Melissa Harrison, author of Rain.

Tel: 01845 524353 to reserve a signed copy of the book. A Free Event.

Ripon Festival in September

White Rose BookCafe is delighted to host a couple of events in association with Ripon International Festival.

Tickets are available at the bookshop.

Kate Atkinson: 14th September. Tickets £10 each (student £5) – £5 off the purchase of the book ‘Transcription’

Salley Vickers – 9th September at 2.30  Tickets £7 each

Tickets also from the Festival website where further details can be obtained.

http:www.riponinternationalfestival.com

Books can be reserved at the bookshop

And also, – a roll of drums if you please, maestro – two of my favourite ‘lads’:

The stars of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet will be talking about their books. I’ve read and loved Julian’s so am thrilled to see a third, and having listened to Peter’s whimsical humour it’ll be a good one – who can forget him cornering the cat, I was on the floor laughing, just as much as he was, on the floor I mean, not  laughing.

Julian you can meet in September, date to be advised, and Peter’s book is launched in October, and the party will be at – roll of drums… White Rose BookCafe 18th  October.Author  Milly Adams aka author  Margaret Graham, who will be a new resident of Thirsk by then, will be there, notebook in hand to report on it for the international Frost Magazine.

(Images courtesy of White Rose BookCafe)

Milly Adams is the author of The Waterway Girls series (Arrow)

The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation (JTYAF) Hospitality Day at the Bournemouth Air Festival will be held on Sunday 2^nd September. The charity is offering a fantastic VIP experience at the heart of Bournemouth’s premier event. Why not treat yourself, or buy tickets as a gift for someone special? There are just a few left.

The Air Festival Hospitality marquee is the only hospitality venue located on the beach directly under the central flight line, providing the perfect setting to watch the action.

The VIP package includes:

• Exclusive marquee and viewing area
• Glass of bubbly on arrival
• Two course lunch
• Afternoon cream tea
• Access to VIP bar and viewing deck throughout the day
• Private toilets
• There may also be the opportunity to meet passing display teams who pop into the marquee for refreshments!

All proceeds from the day will be donated to the JTYAF.

The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation (JTYAF) was established in 2008 to honour the memory of John Thornton, a young Royal Marines Officer from Ferndown who was tragically killed, at the age of 22, whilst serving in Afghanistan.

 John had achieved so much in his short life, so the provision of opportunities for local young people to achieve both their ambitions and potential in life was a fitting legacy of which John would be immensely proud.

The JTYAF supports young people from a number of youth organisations providing them with scholarships and bursaries which give them access to opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Recipients of the awards are selected for their commitment to their chosen activity and also their demonstration of the Foundation’s key values: courage, determination, unselfishness and cheerfulness in adversity.

The JTYAF has now made awards of £600,000 to more than 1600 young people. The Trustees are all volunteers.  The JTYAF has no paid staff and no premises and by keeping running costs to a minimum ensures that the maximum amount of funds raised are directly invested in young people.

Thanks to the overwhelming support of the board of trustees and ambassadors, the patron Simon Weston OBE, and the incredible backing of the local community the JTYAF has succeeded in the provision of opportunities for many local young people to fulfil their dreams in life and to really develop as individuals.

The JTYAF has supported young people on expeditions to Tanzania, India, Ecuador, Peru, Grenada, Cape Town, China and the Pyrenees, supported Olympic hopefuls in ice skating, swimming, power lifting, cycling, horse riding, badminton, and given awards for trombones, telescopes, cameras, educational support for dyslexia, music tuition, sailing expeditions, the list is endless and demonstrates the diversity which the JTYAF encourages.  In an age where young people can be commonly misconceived as causing only trouble for society, the JTYAF thrives on proving that there are some amazing youngsters out there who, given the opportunity, can make a genuine difference to not only their own lives, but also to those of other individuals and to the wider community.

John touched the lives of many people and now his legacy lives on making a real difference to the lives of local young people.

More information and  to buy tickets  www.jtyaf.org

Image courtesy of Michael Rowan

The one good thing to come out of the searing summer temperatures is the opportunity it has created to sit in the garden, on a beach or at a picnic and drink chilled white wines. Given the number of hot days, there is room to try out some different wines, which is how I came to discover Zalse, Bush Valley Chenin Blanc.

It seems that the UK is not alone in experiencing unseasonably hot weather this year, and the South African wine producers reported a dry winter, combined with an early spring; leading to an early bud break with warmer than normal temperatures throughout January. This meant one of the earliest harvests in memory.

Whilst admiring all the hard work and planning that goes into producing Zalse, Bush Valley Chenin Blanc, it is the nose and taste that should concern us most.

That first deep inhalation reveals aromas of lime and citrus zest, mixed with some tropical fruits which are also discernible on the palette. The elegant minerality ensures that there is a very long finish.

Zalse would be a great companion to a variety of food but to be honest, it is just as good drunk on its own and at only £10.00 a bottle from Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda, you could try it both ways, strictly in the name of science you understand.

The producers advise that the wine will mature gracefully over the next 3 to 5 years, but with wine

as tasty as this I am not sure that I will ever have the self-discipline to find out.

Zalse Bush Valley Chenin Blanc: £10.00 Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda

www.kleinezalse.co.za