This looks like a good ‘un. This Christmas, internationally acclaimed Royal Ballet Prima Ballerina, Natalia Osipova will lead the world premiere of The Mother, a new piece of dance based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Story of the Mother.

Staged only for two exclusive nights at Pleasance at EICC in Edinburgh, this production offers a chance to see world-renowned Natalia Osipova as she performs alongside Jonathan Goddard, winner of the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Male Dancer.

The Mother is a compelling, instinctive story about motherhood.  With an original score by Frank Moon and Dave Price, this avant-garde production conjures a dangerous, kaleidoscopic world, combining narrative dance and drama.

Natalia Osipova, one of the ballet’s biggest stars…dazzling audiences with her superlative technique, athleticism and bravura (Financial Times).

Director and choreographer, Arthur Pita comments, It’s a dark tale which grabs you powerfully.  To me, Natalia is at her best when she is fully lost in her character on stage.  Natalia is a very instinctive performer, she does not hold back and allows herself to be fully possessed by the character she is portraying.  I am thrilled to explore this wonderful poignant story.  There is something so powerful about motherhood, and the extremes a mother will go to which resonate in all of us – themes which are so personal, yet also universal.   

The Mother  Performance Dates Friday 21st – Saturday 22nd December 2018, 7.30pm

Pentland Theatre, Pleasance at EICC, 150 Morrison Street,  Edinburgh EH3 8EE

Box Office Tickets are available from www.pleasance.co.uk or 020 7619 6868, from £20.00

Leonardo Da Vinci – 500 years on: A Portrait of History’s Greatest Artist by Matthew Landrus

This compelling and beautifully illustrated biography of Leonardo Da Vinci is a timely study of the life and astonishing achievements of a man who was a great civil and military engineer and also an extraordinary painter.

In his introduction Matthew Landrus, a specialist on the early modern history of art, sets out to demystify the man and his work for general audiences. Since there is no autobiography to draw from,  the sources available are in the main the works of Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Landrus uses time well and puts everything into the context of history and the development of early modern art as it happened.

He provides a real sense of immediacy. Apprenticed as a young boy to  Verrocchio, Leonardo quickly learnt his trade, and has been credited with a hand in the painting of the Angel in his master’s painting, The Baptism of Christ. Leonardo learnt from nature and boldly did not copy from those who went before. He left around 6000 sheets of original documents and sketches.

Throughout the work there are informative insets in blue which add to the accessible text.

Leonardo worked until, the end of his life, producing drawings and design projects even after ill health had curtailed his painting ability. In 1518 he developed a canal system and continued to be as active as possible until his death in May 1519.

He left paintings, notebooks, drawings and some vineyards, and was generous to family and even his cook. The book provides extensive further information which in particular lists collections of manuscripts, drawings and notebooks to be found all over the world. However, this work alone goes a very long way to doing justice to the great Leonardo Da Vinci.

500 Years on: A Portrait of History’s Greatest Artist by Matthew Landrus. Andre Deutsch £25.00

Trespass in Heaven by David Bruce

One for the boys we initially thought because of the technical detail included, but is it? Set in January 1944, with secret D-Day preparations underway – secret being the operative word. So when an untouchable German reconnaissance aircraft threatens to blow the whole shenanigans open, the race begins… Somehow a small team, including ace night fighter pilot Fl Lt Alec Keats must attempt to solve the technical problems dogging Britain’s last hope – an interceptor capable of challenging the interloper.

But is there just the one interloper? Is a WAAF who seems to be far too close to the unit’s CO quite what she seems?

So, though Frost initially thought, as I said that this is one for the boys because of the technical details, there is more than enough plot for all genders, if one dares use that term anymore.

David Bruce has written a novel about a vital operation, with a sense of time and place, and a cutting edge plot. Bravo.

Trespass in Heaven by David Bruce: Kindle but pb arriving soon.

A Life Lived Remotely by Siobhan Mckeown

At Frost, many of us work from home. So this was of interest, particularly the blending of work/life and how to mark a difference between the two.

Part memoir, part theory, A Life Lived Remotely follows the author’s journey from a 9-to-5 out to work life, to freelancing and working remotely, which is so much more possible in this digital age. But that is as maybe, what about the sense of a team, or lack of it? What about living with our work, how do we separate the two? How do we make people understand it is a REAL job, and actually, though we’re home, we’re not able to babysit during ‘our’ office hours, and more importantly, how do we, the worker, work out this life/work relationship without steam coming out of our ears?

A Life Live Remotely  reflects on these and also tackles larger questions like What happens when we take our lives online? How are we being changed by immersion in the internet? The digital world is a fast paced communicating tool, so how do we pause it, or our lives at least?

The book to me was composed of many questions the author has asked herself, with no pedantic answers given, merely some reflections pertaining to herself. But the questions are important for us all to enable us to reflect upon our freelance world, and perhaps the discipline needed to organise a sensible balance.

Interesting. We’re still talking about it.

A Life Lived Remotely by Siobhan McKeown

Hope on the Waterways by Milly Adams is launched on 20th September.