Unusually, I feel that I should begin this review with something of an apology, as I am about to tell you how good they are without explaining exactly where or how you can acquire them.

Noctails, are cocktails that are made for the night, but to be honest, they will taste pretty good at any time.

The Nocturnal Cocktail Kit only available in their sporadic competitions but when you see it advertised, I advise you to act quickly as they are well worth winning.

This is the best advice I can give you is that these Noctails will be popping up throughout the year, so make a note and you can thank me later.

The full-bodied Sexton, Irish Single Malt Whiskey is definitely worth seeking out and is available from Amazon as well as Waitrose and other selected outlets):  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sexton-Single-Malt-Irish-Whiskey/dp/B07L15WVCS , and even if you can’t get hold of the kit, you can always get the constituents to make some seriously delicious cocktails.

Unconventional and edgy, The Sexton Whiskey satisfies even the most restless of spirits. A single malt to be drunk however you like…even in the dark.

I can thoroughly recommend the Rhubarb Sour, which was a clever balance of sweet and sour, but beware I found it to be addictively moreish, even the Maraschino cherry, (words that I thought that I would never write.)

The Noctail mixologists have really mixed things up (see what I did there?) so if you manage to get hold of the cocktail kit it contains all the ingredients that you need to make two exclusive cocktails made from ingredients that thrive in the darkness scientifically -proven to be sweeter than those grown in the daylight.

From forced rhubarb to dried mushroom, each ‘Noctail’ kit contains all the nocturnal ingredients needed to create two signature ‘Noctails’ – The Rhubarb Sour and the Umami Old Fashioned

The Umami Old Fashioned, a revision of the classic Old Fashioned, containing mushrooms, maple syrup, Angostura bitters and of course, The Sexton Single Malt Whiskey

The Rhubarb Sour, a midnight-take on The Whiskey Sour, featuring forced rhubarb, organic cinnamon, maraschino cherries and apple cider vinegar.

Hopefully, you know me better than to think that I would just tease you about Noctails so here is a link to the recipe for the Rhubarb Sour. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMUu_HTF9di/

Our eyes are incredible, aren’t they? Just close them for two minutes and try to walk around your house, or read, or work on the computer or even make a cup of tea … I rest my case.

Yet, often, we don’t treat these irreplaceable beauties with the care they deserve, so these sunglasses tips from eye expert Dr Andy Hepworth from www.essilor.co.uk  are essential.

Thinking of buying new sunnies for this great weather? What influences your choice? How much you’ll resemble an A-lister, or best protection for your eyes? Be honest.

I see? So, over to Dr Hepworth I think:

As well as a fashion accessory, sunglasses should protect eyes from excess UV light that can lead to premature ageing, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. It’s also been linked to corneal sunburn and retinal tissue damage, plus eye strain and headaches. For optimum eye health you should be wearing sunglasses all year round.

Check UV protection of your sunglasses

1. Check the label and paperwork. Look for a minimum UV 400 protection, with both UVA and UVB protection. A sticker on the lenses saying ‘blocks UV’ is not good enough.
2. An eye care professional or optician can measure the UV filters.
3. UV light may filter through scratched lenses so chuck damaged glasses.  
4. Price doesn’t always indicate quality and UV protection.
5. All sunglasses sold in the UK should have a CE mark to indicate compliance with regulatory standards, blocking out 95% of all UV rays below 380 nanometres.

Your Vision

1. Get an eye test if you may need prescription sunglass lenses or specialist coatings.
2. Larger frames and wrap-arounds can provide better UV protection.
3. Glare can be distracting and dangerous and aggravates light sensitivity (photophobia). Xperio Polarised technology can help by only allowing vertical light through the lens – making safer driving and providing a high level of UV protection.
4. Maintain clarity, contrast and colour perception with tinted lenses. For example, Essicolour Tints will reduce distortion to give good clarity. Graduated tint can give a trendy finish.
5. Just because lenses are ‘dark’ doesn’t automatically mean they offer the right protection.
6. Photochromic lenses adapt to changing light conditions, whether you’re indoors or out.

Remember, your eyes are extremely valuable and some damage can be irreversible so consider visiting your optician for your next pair of shades. If you’ve any eyesight worries the Essilor website has great information and advice 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.

July 1969, saw a spellbound thirteen-year-old boy, sat in his pyjamas in front of a flickering black and white television, to watch the first moon landing, and whilst he never grew up to be an astronaut as he planned that evening, he never lost that sense of wonder whenever he looks up the night sky.

From the technology of an oversized black and white television to Blu Ray, the intervening years have not diminished that sense of wonder.

Searching for Skylab, is an award-winning documentary from director Dwight Steven-Boniecki about the NASA space station.

It is a story that has largely been forgotten. However, the Skylab missions were responsible for an incredible array of scientific discoveries before it dramatically crashed into Western Australia in 1979. The missions have provided the scientific community with countless and invaluable information about our planet, the sun, space and the universe itself.

Occupied by three separate teams for 24 weeks between 1973 and 1974, Skylab is the forbearer of the International Space Station (ISS) and is one of mankind’s greatest engineering feats.

Using stunning re-mastered and never-before-seen footage, Searching for Skylab reveals the incredible feats of science and technology achieved by the space station and the NASA astronauts upon it.

Ed Gibson with Al Shepard

Additional interviews from the engineers and their families tell the story of those behind the scenes, and reveal the human side of what it was like to live through one of the most exciting times for space exploration in human history.

This is riveting stuff, a fascinating untold story /documentary, including all the history of the project to create the first American Space Station. It includes lots of interviews with the engineers, astronauts and scientists that were involved with it.

Ed Gibson just egressed Eva Hatch

It tracks from the early moments, through issues to fix, to its final days. It holds the attention so that it is easy to overlook some loose editing in the section around engineering, but perhaps people devoted to engineering would disagree.

This will appeal to space nerds everywhere and anyone even slightly interested in space.

There are so many tales of which I had no knowledge, and I loved the fact that it is a personal story with plenty of endearing anecdotes from the astronauts who spent time on the space station.

It is a very human story with lovely candid interviews.

Runs for 98 fascinating minutes that made me wish that I had become an astronaut after all.

Images courtesy of NASA

https://searchingforskylab.com/the-movie/

“If this kind of show floats your boat – you’ll love it”

Strictly Come Dancing professionals perform their own live touring shows with startling regularity. And why not? Without the status and popularity that the television show brings them, how many people would honestly say they would go and watch a 2-hour dance show? This has resulted in making dance a must-see theatrical event – the bonus being that fans get to see their favourites live on stage.

Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara have created their own franchise. Their first touring show was Remembering Fred, then came Remembering The Movies. Last year they were set to tour this show – Remembering The Oscars. Sadly, of course, all the venues closed. But they haven’t been twiddling their thumbs during lockdown! Instead, with an imaginative production team, they have planned the live tour for 2022 and produced this taster for online streaming.

With a strong ensemble of eight excellent dancers, Aljaž and Janette trundle through some of their favourite Oscar winners, sometimes creating medleys like the Disney routine – because there is so much to choose from!

I really like Strictly, yet always get annoyed when the cameras zoom around the dancers, thereby not allowing me to see the actual dancing. Sdaly, this does happen a lot in this show – but, when you do get to see the routines and the exciting choreography by Gareth Walker, it’s worth it. Special mention must go to the singers Giovanni Spanó and the gorgeous Janine Johnson.

Of course, as this is a taster of the live show to come next year – the full show will be amazing! If this kind of show floats your boat – you’ll love it.

Photography Show photographs – Ryan X Howard       Oscar photograph – Colin Thomas

Partner Venues Birmingham Symphony Hall, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Northampton Derngate, The Bridgewater Hall, Edinburgh Festival Theatre,

Cambridge Corn Exchange, Theatre Severn, Llandudno Venue  Cymru, St David’s Hall Cardiff, Marlowe Theatre, Octagon Theatre  and Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre.

Starring Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara  Producer Steven Howard for The TCB Group

Show Director & Choreography Gareth Walker   Musical Supervisor Rob Eckland

Tickets Tickets are £15 per stream and can be purchased online at

www.rememberingtheoscars.com.

You can purchase additional content such as, In Conversation

with Aljaž and Janette and Behind the Scenes with Aljaž and Janette for £5 each.

Performances Streamed until Saturday 17th April 2021   Running Time Just over 1 hour

Twitter @AljazSkorjanec, @JManrara, #RememberingTheOscars

It has been a truly exciting week for Joffe Books  who are thrilled to share  that they’ve been shortlisted for TWO awards at The British Book Awards this year.

Not only have they been shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year for the second year in a row, but … but … THE PATIENT MAN by hugely popular bestselling author Joy Ellis has been shortlisted as Book of the Year in the Fiction: Crime & Thriller category.

This past year has been one of growth for Joffe Books and how brilliant that such a hard working team with an unerring knack for picking readable excellent novels has been recognised in this way.

The message from Joffe is  Thank you so much for supporting us, following us and loving our authors as much as we do. www.joffebooks.comWe’re so grateful to our lovely readers.

Now, more suggestions for Joffe Books this week.

BLOODSTAINED. by Rebecca Bradley 99P / 99C
“Tense, tightly written and I couldn’t put it down until I was done. A definite five stars” Angela Marsons, author of Twisted Lies
“Honestly one of the most gripping – and thoroughly disturbing – things I’ve read in a while. It’s like watching a mind slowly unravel.” Cass Green, author of The Killer Inside

THE DETECTIVE CALLADINE& BAYLISS mystery series by Helen H Durrant: Books 1 – 9 a great value box set –  99P / 99C!
Durrant, the bestselling author  has sold over one million books worldwide. Her bestselling Calladine & Bayliss series is phenomenal with great characters, intriguing plots and plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.

I SEE YOU by Patricia MacDonald 99p/99c
Page turning thriller from a bestselling author:  The Whitmans seem to be the perfect family and that’s just what they want you to believe.Desperate to put their past behind them, they relocated to a small town and although they had to leave everything behind, at least they’re safe. Until now . . .

MURDER IN PEMBROKESHIRE  by Gretta Mulrooney.99P/99C

Meet Detective Tyrone Swift. He takes the cases that the police have given up on. Now he’s been invited to stay with a friend, Afan Griffith, in rural wales. There’s no wifi, no phone signal, and when he arrives there’s no Afan either.  He’s gone missing and Swift is unable to locate any witnesses. Things get much worse when a body is discovered the next day . . .

MURDER AT THE CASTLE by Jeanne M.Dams  £1.99 / $2.99

Amateur sleuth Dorothy Martin is back and once again she’s become embroiled in a tragedy.  Rehearsals for a local music festival are barely underway when one of the singers falls to her death before Dorothy’s eyes.
Her solo turned into a scream. Can Dorothy uncover if this was simply an accident or something more sinister?

And finally:

Three audio books featuring Detective Maddie Ives, a firm favourite – enjoy.  And Frost Magazine will keep you posted on The British Book Awards, but now we’re off  for a glass of bubbly to celebrate Joffe Books‘ success so far.

www.joffebooks.com 

“For a script about a clown there is a distinct lack of fun”

Scaramouche Jones is a clown. He’s 100-years-old and has a need to tell his life story – which he has split into seven parts. Although it is never made clear why he speaks to us or, for that matter, why he is recording it on numerous cameras, Justin Butcher’s script takes us through a century of events which, implausible or not, go some way to explain the man before us.

Shane Richie revels in the part – ninety minutes of performance that would be a challenge for any actor. Playing all the parts, including an array of tremendous accents, Richie proves he is a deep and thoughtful performer with Scaramouche being as rounded as any Shakespearaean role. Except in one aspect: humour.

Surprisingly for a script about a clown there is a distinct lack of fun and joy from Scaramouche. It is, instead, a dark play. It resides in the shadows and gives Richie little opportunity to make us laugh. Rather, we have to take his word for it that he is a clown at all. If I’m not convinced that he is a clown, can I really believe his incredible story?

The design is simple and affecting – a subterranean world that is both a dressing room and rehearsal room. It feels cold, damp and lonely down here. It is a place where the imagination can run free, untouched by the real world upstairs and outside. So, again, can I really believe Scaramouche’s incredible story?

Co-produced by Ginger Quiff Media, this follows on from last year’s play Rose starring Maureen Lipman. Rose managed a life story that had its fair share of light and shade in the telling, something lacking in Scaramouche Jones. Directed by Ian Talbot, Shane Richie is as interesting as he can be with a script stuck in one gear and it being a virtual experience. Because, let us never forget, this beast of a play would be very different if Richie could bounce off a live and appreciative audience.

Photography Bonnie Britain

Producers Thomas Hopkins & Michael Quinn for Ginger Quiff Media, Amy Hart,

Guy Chapman and Bailey Harris-Kelly with Stream.Theatre

Director Ian Talbot

Writer Justin Butcher

Production Designer Andrew Exeter

Tickets Tickets are £15 per stream (plus booking fee) and can be purchased

online at www.stream.theatre

Performances Streamed until Sunday 11th April 2021

Running Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Twitter @Gingerqmedia, @realshanerichie, @stream_theatre

Easter signifies Spring, sweet treats and an occasion for families to get together now more than ever after what seems a long darkish time at the coalface of Covid-19 restrictions. Restrictions, sensible though they are – which  are now easing. Hooray…

For Easter, ‘international farmers market’ Delicario (www.delicario.com) are introducing a festive variety of gift boxes and hampers of authentic artisan flavours from sustainably minded small-scale and family producers in different European regions, as well as a range of fine chocolate Easter eggs. With a ‘farm to table approach’, Frost Magazine’s regular readers will know that Delicario’s  emphasis is on high quality natural ingredients reliant on organic generational farming methods and natural preservation.

Delicario was set up by a small team of specialists working in the luxury services industry with a passion for food and travel to source outstanding delicacies to sell in their online shop as individual items, gift boxes and hampers. The new Easter range features biscuits, cakes, chocolates and Easter eggs made to  artisan recipes by small Italian chocolatiers and bakeries, accompanied by fine tea and Premier Cru Rosé Champagne from family vineyard Damien-Buffet. From Belgium there’s an elegant selection box of eye-catching praline eggs handcrafted by Frederic Blondeel.

EASTER GIFT BOX AND HAMPER RANGE  is well worth thinking about. 

Delicario Easter Essentials Hamper  is filled with gluten-free artisan treats from Italian chocolatier Autore, including milk chocolate mini eggs with sticky but crunchy croccantino, a signature Easter egg crusted with pistachios from Bronte, a chocolate bar made with traditional hazelnut paste, accompanied by fine and delicate Darjeeling tea.

https://www.delicario.com/hampers-gifts/p/delicario-easter-essentials-hamper

Delicario Sweet Easter Hamper is for all the family to enjoy, including hand-crafted mini eggs of fine milk chocolate and a single source Madagascar dark chocolate egg from Italian artisan chocolatier Autore. Also included are a melt-in-the-mouth sourdough Pear and Chocolate Bauletto cake, fragrant lemon cookies and crunchy rich dark chocolate and hazelnut Goloso biscuits made to authentic Italian recipes by Olivieri 1882 and Kucino.

https://www.delicario.com/hampers-gifts/p/delicario-sweet-easter-hamper

The egg is an ancient symbol of new life and Delicario have selected artisan chocolatier Autore from the picturesque Italian village of San Marco dei Cavoti in the Campania hills for their handcrafted chocolate eggs and also Frederic Blondeel from Belgium, creating an elegant selection box of handmade chocolates eggs with organic cocoa sourced from India, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador and Vietnam.

My  particular favourite is  Autore’s ‘miracle’, or so I call it.  Honestly, it’s glorious; an egg made from extra fine chocolate, crusted in origin-protected crunchy hazelnuts from Avellino in Italy and there’s another in Bronte pistachios also of protected origin. Honestly, these must be savoured – slowly. And then let’s do an Oliver Twist: ‘More please, Sir.’ And for heaven’s sake let’s forget the diet.

There is more, so you’ll need to go to the very friendly and slick website and b-r-o-w-s-e, making sure you check out the INDIVIDUAL EASTER EGGS  https://www.delicario.com/chocolates/easter-eggs

Delicario’s aim is to bring families together  around the dining table. From daily deli needs to cherished presents for celebrating special dates and events, their individual items, artisan meal boxes, gift boxes and hampers capture the very best of authentic ingredients to create a ‘dining out experience’ at home. Each gift box and hamper can also be individually tailored by selecting products from the Delicario range. Gift vouchers and personalised greeting cards offer a personal touch. Delicario offer a 24-hour delivery service across the UK and advance delivery can also be scheduled. And trust me, their deliveries are speedy, and all is as they say.

Founder Marco Rosa commented, “We constantly search for innovative flavours to please  shoppers who are looking for the combination of outstanding taste and texture in sustainable and often organically grown foods. Our producers are perfectionists who move with the times but remain dedicated to the artisan techniques and recipes passed down through family generations.”

No more to say really except take yourselves along to the website. And enjoy.