Modern toys are amazing, but sometimes it’s great to revisit old favourites – there’s a good reason why they’ve survived for generations. As usual, Hape have some beautiful traditional baby toys – with all the fun and familiarity of one’s own childhood, but with some novel twists.

Let me introduce Mr Frog.  Based on the time-honoured stacking rings, this delightful toy will enchant your baby. It’s not too big, so easy for small hands to hold, and the endearing froggy face has an open mouth which forms a clapper.  Each ring is different – various bright colours, and patterns – some smooth, some with ridges and one ring even contains small balls, creating a rattle. The rings are made of strong plastic and can double up as teething rings. The little frog head and base are wooden – characteristic of the attractive Hape toy range, and the base is a rocker so Baby can have fun pushing it over and watching it spring back. Of course it has all the educational benefits of any stacker – encouraging coordination, learning colours, the fun of different noises and, as your little one becomes more adept, sorting different sizes.  I am completely charmed by it. And if you are tempted, you can buy it on Amazon for  £22.05

The perfect partner for Mr Frog is the Hape Shape Sorting Box. Once again, Hape have taken a traditional toy and simply made it better. Constructed with wooden sides and strong plastic edges it’s attractive both to look at and to touch.  It’s light and easy for Baby to hold and has a garden creature theme, with snails, ladybirds, butterflies and caterpillars –perfect for introducing your baby to summer, and bug hotels.

Like Mr Frog, it helps Baby develop fine motor skills. It encourages coordination, learning colours, and of course shape-sorting. Hape always put thought into their designs and I particularly like the neat elastic bands, which span the base of the box – they keep the shapes in the box, but are easy to pull apart to release them when needed too. In fact Baby will soon learn to release the shapes without your help – which I do find allows grandma to have an uninterrupted cup of tea. So if you like drinking tea in relative peace too, check out Amazon for this little gem at just £14.64.

By Dr K Thompson, 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

It was whilst listening to some undeniably talented authors at Destination HQ,  that I had a rare damascene moment.

You see for too long I have thought of reading as a guilty pleasure. A reward when all the chores are completed, an opportunity for self-improvement when undertaking a long journey or passing the time in a waiting room or so on.

However, listening to these passionate authors speak about their latest books I decided there and then, that a rethink was long overdue.

Reading is quite simply a pleasure and I have a lot of catching up to do

Furthermore, who in their right mind would deny themselves such pleasure? Well certainly not me.

Fortunately, those clever folk at Destination HQ have timed the release of several fantastic books from now to late spring which means that I will not have to waste any time deciding which books to read, where, or when.

If this current cool and wet weather persists, I will be sat in an armchair, cat on lap, immersed in ‘About That Night’ by Elaine Bedell which reveals that sometimes it only takes one night to change everything.

Hopefully there will be better weather for the summer when you will find me sipping chilled white wine in the garden and reading ‘The First Time Lauren Pailing Died’ by Alyson Rudd and ‘Nightingale Point’ a working-class tale of a community in crisis.

For the holiday in August I shall be by the pool, on my balcony or indeed sat up in bed from where I can devour ‘The Last Concerto’ by Sara Alexandra who draws on her roots to transport us to Sardinia in the late 60s. and ‘What Happens Now’ by Sophia Money- Coutts a humorous romantic tale for the modern day.

In the autumn with a fire in the grate and a cup of Earl Grey tea by my side I look forward to reading ‘The Day We Meet Again’ by Miranda Dickinson a story of how one decision can change your life and ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ by Adele Parks, a mesmerising tale of a marriage and the secrets therein. Finally perfect for those longer evenings, a story of a haunted house, ‘The Lost Ones’ by Anita Frank.

Surely Christmas was made for reading new books and no letter to Santa would be complete without a book list. Mine is sure to include ‘A Wedding in December’ by Sarah Morgan which promises a Christmas that nobody will forget and ‘The Move’ by Felicity Everett, a new story of nightmare neighbours only this time in the countryside.

Next year, regardless of an unseasonably warm, cold, wet or dry (delete as appropriate) I give fair warning that I am not to be disturbed whilst enjoying such titles as

‘She’ by HC Warner, featuring Bella a woman who transforms Ben’s life but not necessarily for the better and ‘The Dilemma’ by BA Paris that poses the moral question of when is the right time to break devastating news.

I am also looking forward to reading ‘The Family Tree’ the debut novel of Sairish Hussain a story of a journey undertaken by members of one family which may bring them together or keep them apart.

I will have to wait until March to read ‘This Lovely City’ by Louise Hare based in London after the Empire Windrush has docked and the passengers are the latest inhabitants trying to make sense of it all.

‘Precious You’ a first novel by Helen Monks Takhar which is not out in Hardback until 30^th April 2020 but looks to be well worth waiting for. A story of when the lives of a Millennial and an older woman collide with disturbing consequences. I can’t wait.

So, if reading is a guilty pleasure then please lock me up and throw away the key as I have a reading list to get through and all those chores, long journeys and waiting rooms will just have to take their turn.

#DestinationHQ

@HQSTORIES

“The cast never ease up, pushing forever onwards to the tragic ending”

Exchange Theatre are celebrating their tenth anniversary by resurrecting this, their  original adaptation of Jean Paul Sartre’s The Flies (or Les Mouches in its native tongue).

Written in 1943, it is based on the Greek classic tale of Orestes, with his newly rediscovered sister Electra, seeking to avenge the death of their father Agamemnon, king of Argos, by killing their mother Clytemnestra and her husband Aegisthus, who had deposed and killed Agamemnon

[Samy Elkhatib as Orestes – Meena Rayann as Electra]

Such fun! Or, rather it would be, if it wasn’t all so earnest and stuck on the one tragic, plodding level of trauma and angst. This is Greek melodrama at its usual intensity – full-on and earnest.

The cast never ease up, pushing forever onwards to the tragic ending. The 2014 National Theatre production of Medea showed how to tackle this material. It achieved so much with depth, humanity, comedy and tragedy by doing little in the staging, thereby allowing the actors and the words to be prominent.

The Flies Director David Furlong, I think hides behind gimmicks. The multi-screened video design adds nothing, the Flies/Furies crawl around the stage and are undressed only to be found in ridiculous fishnets and high-heels and some characters, at random, burst into song.

[David Furlong as Aegisthus – Fanny Dulin as Clytemnestra]

The highlight of the evening is the music supplied by three-piece A Riot In Heaven, adding an almost constant raw soundtrack of electric rock, creating a weird and appealingly metallic air to the play, with subtle whining and vamping. When they burst into full rock backing mode for the odd song, the whole production lights up. Orestes’ final burst of a Meat Loaf-esque finale shows the potential. Advertising the show as a thrilling rock-opera, though, is a tad over-the-top, but does hint at what could have been. A new Godspell is waiting in the wings, but it is only teased at here.

Perhaps that is the problem – is this rock opera, physical theatre, melodrama, anarchic, cutting edge political theatre? I don’t know. There is too much going on. Less can be so much more satisfying at times.

Photographer     Camille Dufrénoy

Director              David Furlong

Producer            Fanny Dulin

Designer            Ninon Fandre

Music                 A Riot in Heaven

Guidance           12+

Performances    Until 6th July – Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm

Performances in English, except these in French:

15th, 27th, 28th, 29th June and 2nd, 3rd, 4th July

Venue                The Bunker, 53A Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU

Nearest Tubes   London Bridge, Borough and Southwark

Tickets               Box Office 020 7234 0486 or online at www.bunkertheatre.com

Price                  £16 (£14 concessions) – Ten £10 tickets available for each performance for under 30s

Running Time    2 hours 10 (including an interval)

Twitter                @ExchangeTheatre @BunkerTheatreUK #TheFlies #LesMouches #TheFlies10Years