White Rose Bookcafe is bustling with brilliant ideas again.

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What a feast of literary events from award winning White Rose Book Café in this month of February. Such a great example of an independent bookshop, and the cakes are great too.

Following on from the highly successful Ann Cleeves evening the BookCafe is featuring a monthly  spotlight on a particular genre, author, or selection of titles that take their interest – or why not make a suggestion of your own?

This month they are featuring New Crime Writers on the bloc, as recommended by Ann Cleeves (can’t get much better than that).

Emma Flint – Little Deaths. Abir Mukherjee – A RisingMan, Jane Harper – The Dry, Mick Heron – Slow Horses.

                                     

All of which are in stock from 2nd February.

Poetry is not being ignored. Why not head for Sofas in the Café everyThursday from 8th February. Just bring along a poem, explain why you chose it and read it aloud. I think I’d choose Vernon Scannell’s Walking Wounded which resonates profoundly, especially as I founded and run the charity, Words for the Wounded, which raises money for wounded and unwell veterans through providing opportunities for aspiring writers.

Timing: 2pm for 30 minutes.It’s FREE

Children’s Story Time is on Fridays, at 10 – 10.30. For pre-school children, and again this is FREE

Valentine’s Special in the café is Red Velvet Hot Chocolate or White Chocolate and Raspberry milkshake.

 

Can it get any better? Well yes, lovely Thirsk is playing host to the equally lovely Joanna Trollope on 21 February at 7.30 St Mary’s Church. The entry is £10 redeemable against a signed hardback copy of Joanna’s latest book An Unsuitable Match.

Tickets: 01845 524353 email: sales@whiterosebooks.co.uk

 

Margaret Graham also writes as Milly Adams for Arrow. Penguin/Random House UK.

 

Why do women love thrillers?

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From the international bestseller The Girl on the Train to last year’s The Breakdown, the psychological thriller has become society’s favourite means of escape – and women have long made up the majority of readers. But their appetite for crime and suspense is no mystery, writes Rex Richards.

When it comes to literary thrill-seekers, women are at the front of the rollercoaster queue. But why the hunger for suspense when female characters are routinely killed off (or otherwise abused) at the hands of a male villain? To understand the attraction, let’s take a look at what makes a good thriller.

Lots of thrillers have the same basic plot: A beautiful young woman with the best years of her life ahead of her is brutally killed. Things go downhill from there until, finally, everything gets resolved at the end. Quite often, scary and perverted things happen in the interim, and in the most successful thrillers, there are insights into the killer’s mind that are just as chilling as the acts themselves.

I have to confess, in the new thriller I’ve written, The New Prophet, that’s exactly how it starts but not exactly how it ends. I see writing thrillers like baking a cake. There’s a basic recipe that it makes sense to follow, but why not sling in some chocolate too and maybe some chilli for a real surprise? Normally a thriller sets itself apart by the dreadful details of the killer’s acts. My book, The New Prophet is different to other thrillers because it’s also very funny in places, and full of social comment, taking serious digs at TV news and celeb culture. Of course, it’s got loads of suspense, amazing female characters and a seriously chilling bad guy who thinks he’s possessed by a living fire that tells him who to kill.

So, given the formula and the likelihood of a female victim, why are women so hungry for goosebumps? I think the obvious answer is because women are more creative thinkers than men. Men prefer to have things laid out for them, and see order restored. Women are more imaginative and artistic, and like to piece it all together themselves. In my book, The New Prophet, there are clues as to why the killer does what he does. I’ve written it in just such a way that your ingenious mind will start whirring early and wondering what the real truth about his childhood and background is.

Another reason is all the emotions. Women are generally more in touch with their emotions than men. The older men get, quite often the more rigid and closed-up they become, whereas women understand their emotions more as they travel through life. In my book, women can read the quiet despair behind my main character Jack’s life. Yes, he’s funny, but some men might just miss why he is that way; women will know. When there are moments of utterly concentrated experience, such as when The New Prophet kills his first victim, there’s an emotional intensity to it that some men might miss. Women won’t.

The final reason women love thrillers is because these twisted tales are so different to their own lives. Seeing the bad guy get away with something really naughty appeals to a side of all of us that wants to break the rules too. Who doesn’t want to escape from the monotonous routine of their day-to-day lives?

But it’s not just a spirit of rebellion that makes these stories so compelling. Reading about another woman coming to an unfortunate end plays on our own insecurities. We can lose ourselves in the intensity of it, imagine ourselves in that position, even wonder if the character deserved it, then we can come out the other side in one piece and back to our normal lives. Phew!

The New Prophet by Rex Richards is out now, priced £9.99 in paperback and £2.39 as a Kindle eBook. It is available for sale on Amazon UK

We have 3 copies of The New Prophet by Rex Richards to win. Just send you details to frostmagazine@gmail.com to enter.

 

RedBellyBlack Theatre presents OK, Bye VAULT Festival.

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OK, Bye – The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN

A busy times in the theatre world as winter begins to fade – oh please…

Following an award-winning run at VAULT Festival 2017 with A Year From Now, RedBellyBlack Theatre returns with the world premiere of OK, Bye – a fierce and fresh take on saying goodbye.

Whether you are saying goodbye to a person, an addiction or a place, everything you part ways with is concluded by the final farewell ‘OK, Bye’. Using their signature combination of physical theatre and dynamic storytelling, RedBellyBlack explores the very simple premise that saying ‘OK, Bye’ can mean thousands of different things: ‘I love you’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I never want to see your stupid face again’ or even just the end of a phone call. Using live music, lip syncing and movement, this production showcases raw, real-life stories from the general public.

Director Vicki Baron comments, I am absolutely thrilled that the first production of OK, Bye will be part of the VAULT Festival 2018. Quite frankly, I am giddy about staging my work there again. We had an amazing experience at VAULTS last year because this festival has everything that brings out the best in our work: supportive audiences, wonderful production staff and an inspired programme of events. The Vaults always champions the very best that London fringe theatre has to offer and I cannot wait to be part of this exciting event all over again.

RedBellyBlack Theatre describe their style as theatrical tapas, taking the best of their resources and using them to make intimate, all-encompassing theatre. This includes tales from their own lives, writing, improvisation, music and movement.

Beautifully honest…storytelling at its most unlimited (London Theatre1 – A Year From Now 2017).

Title OK, Bye

Performance Dates Wednesday 7th – Sunday 11th March 2018 Wednesday – Sunday, 7:45pm Saturday matinee, 3:15pm

Running time 60 minutes

Twitter @Red_Belly_Black, #okbyeshow

Location VAULT Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN

How to get there The Vaults are located underneath Waterloo station (on the Northern, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines). Leave Waterloo Station via Exit 1. Turn right onto Station Road Approach and keep on the right hand side of the road. Walk all the way to the bottom of the road and go down the first set of stairs you come to and turn right at the bottom of the stairs. The entrance to the VAULT Festival is 10 meters down the graffiti tunnel on the right hand side.

Box Office Tickets are available priced £8 from http://www.vaultfestival.com/.

Guildhall Art Gallery’s alternative celebration of Valentine’s Day

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Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London EC2V 5AR Date: Friday 16th February 2018, 7pm – 10pm

Exhibition dates: Thursday 7th September 2017 – Monday 2nd April 2018

Guildhall Art Gallery is offering an alternative Valentine’s Day experience, inviting you to celebrate something that we all have in common: life and death. Inspired by the core themes in Nature Morte, this Late event promises an enjoyable night of music, art, drawing, and cocktails.

There’s to be a Victorian entertainment show, with a variety of activities (including still life drawing, flower pressing or tote bag making) and hear a talk about ‘ethical’ taxidermy with Jazmine Miles-Long. DJ Museum of Vinyl’s life and death-inspired playlist will provide the soundtrack to the evening.

Nature Morte, one of the largest exhibitions ever presented by the City of London Corporation at Guildhall Art Gallery, illustrates how leading artists of the 21st century have reinvigorated still life. With over 100 pieces from different disciplines going beyond the two-dimensional, including sculpture, digital, and sound, Nature Morte displays works by artists including Mat Collishaw, Michael Craig-Martin, Gabriel Orozco and Marc Quinn.

Elizabeth Scott, Head of Guildhall Art Gallery & London’s Roman Amphitheatre, said, Nature Morte celebrates the age-old themes of life and death and yet, when you reflect on these themes, love isn’t very far away. Life, death and love go hand in hand, and what better way to explore these themes than an alternative Valentine’s Day Late that celebrates the romantic, morbid and life-affirming?

The events programme includes :

Talk on ‘ethical’ taxidermy with Jazmine Miles-Long (7pm and 8.15pm, Basinghall Suite) Described as an ‘ethical’ taxidermist, Jazmine Miles-Long produces work using only animals that have died from natural causes. This is an exciting opportunity to discover and understand the techniques used to create her work.

The audience will be able to handle objects and tools that show the process of taxidermy in different stages, while Jazmine also reveals some of the romantic stories in taxidermy historically. [please note: no dead animals will be used during the talk.]

Yep not your usual Valentine’s pursuit, but that’s no bad thing.

Memento Mori Still Life: Death Drawing workshop with Art Macabre (7 – 10pm, Undercroft) Join London’s purveyors of death-positive creativity, Art Macabre, to create your own unique memento mori collage. Be inspired by a contemporary twist on a traditional still life set up in the space, with objects from fruit and bones to symbols of modern life. Cut and paste a DIY design that will remind you of your own mortality. A reflective, creative activity to help you explore and draw inspiration upon looking death in the face.

Don’t go into the Cellar present ‘Tea with Oscar Wilde’ (split into three acts, taking place at intervals throughout the evening, Amphitheatre) A chat show with a difference brought to you by Don’t Go Into The Cellar! Theatre Company – the British Empire’s finest practitioners of top-notch Victorian entertainment. Join Oscar Wilde as he interviews a leading celebrity of the Victorian era, recounts a story or two and invites his audience to get ‘Caught in the Act’! Jonathan Goodwin plays the famed Victorian wit, in a show packed with comedy, music and audience participation.

These are only a few of what’s on offer. To find out more:

Website http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhallartgallery

Location Guildhall Art Gallery and London’s Roman Amphitheatre, Guildhall Yard, London EC2V 5AR, 020 7332 3700

Admission Tickets are available priced £15 (plus booking fee) from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nature-morte-late-tickets40714482112?aff=efbeventtix

Getting there The closest tube stations are Bank (on the Central, Northern, District and Circle and DLR lines), St Paul’s (on the Central line), Mansion House (on the Circle and District lines) and Moorgate (on the Northern, Hammersmith and City, Circle and Metropolitan lines). The nearest rail station is Liverpool Street.

Twitter @GuildhallArt

Website http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhallartgallery

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Mads Mikkelsen: ‘The Snobbery in The Acting Business is Enormous’

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snobbery in acting industry, snobbery, acting, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has told Rolling Stones Magazine that a lot of actors are snobby towards actors who do blockbusters. The actor has done a mix of indie and big budget films.

“The snobbery in my business is enormous. I did not grow up on deep Czechoslovakian dramas or French art films, I grew up with pop culture. So I would be a hypocrite saying I don’t love James Bond, and that I don’t love flying kung fu – ’cause I f**king love it.”

“I don’t think I would want to fly around on wires eight films in a row, but I love doing it, and I’ll do it again, at a certain point, though, you want to go the other way: ‘Please give me The Hunt again.’ Something small…, but if I do eight of those films, then I’ll go, ‘Please let me fly around with a sword again!'”

Their is a downside though, Mikkelsen said his audition for the Fantastic Four was embarrassing. He was asked in the casting office to pretend to extend his arms like a rubber man, he was so embarrassed that he thought, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Luckily he now says he does not have to audition anymore and generally books his job through simple phone calls.

 

 

Lola Makeup by Perse – Review by Talia Lee-Skudder

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LOLA Makeup by Perse is the luxurious yet affordable cosmetics brand and the official make up partner for top TV show ‘Britain’s Next Top Model’ presented by Abbey Clancy. Each week the wannabe models would have their faces painted using LOLA products, showing the versatile looks that can be created with a combination of the different cosmetics available.

 

I was sent a number of their products to try out including the piel perfecta primer, the concealer pen, a matte long lasting lipstick and the ultra high shine gloss. The products are all packaged in slick matte black boxes with white writing, creating a high-end illusion that the products are much more expensive than they really are. With prices as low as £5.95 we can all own a little bit of luxury without breaking the bank.

 

The piel perfecta illuminating primer is a mineral infused base using diamond luminescence. I loved this primer, it was super light and a little product really goes a long away. It creates a glowy and brighter complexion and is fab for when your skin needs a little pick me up but you don’t want to layer on the foundation. It is also perfect worn under foundation, giving your skin that luminescent look whilst also providing the ideal canvas on which to apply foundation. Following the tips on the back of the tube, I also used the primer as a highlighter and was pleasantly surprised. It gave my skin a natural glow that is sometimes difficult to achieve with heavier liquid based products and powder highlighters. I loved this product, as the weather gets warmer it will be my go-to primer for creating that summery-glowy look with a product that does not make my face feel like it is caked in make up.

The concealer pen, similar to the consistency of the primer, was incredibly light and blendable. Again the serum is illuminating and instantly adds a touch of youthful radiance. This is the perfect product for light everyday colour coverage. If you have dark circles under your eyes and you prefer a heavier coverage, then you can use this product as a liquid highlighter on the tops of your cheekbones and on your brow bones. Alternatively, if you’re a fan of contouring then this product is great for highlighting the bridge of your nose and the middle of your forehead.

Next is the matte lipstick in colour Merry Berry. This too comes in slick, black matte packaging. Initially the colour in the tube appears to be a deep red, however on application it becomes clear that it is a berry colour with more of a pink tone as opposed to red. The colour is long-lasting but if you are looking for a dramatic lip then I would advise applying two layers of the colour. I wore the lipstick all night and with only a few top-ups the colour remained as vibrant as when I first applied it.

Finally, my favourite, the ultra high shine gloss in clear. I am not a huge lip gloss fan and usually prefer a matte lip but I think this product may have just converted me. I love that this gloss can be worn over any lip colour to vamp up your make up look. The gloss truly makes your lips appear more volumised and seductive due to the conditioning active vitamin complex. Worn on top of your lipstick the gloss really emphasises the cupids bow and creates the illusion of a plumped up pout and does not require frequent reapplication to maintain its glossiness. The ultra high shine lip-gloss is now a staple in my cosmetics bag.

 

From foundation primer to false eyelashes and nail polish, LOLA caters to every make up related desire. Head over to their website at www.lolamakeup.com to check out the huge range of products they have on offer. You will not be disappointed!

 

Ken at The Bunker Theatre, Southwark: reviewed by Paul Vates

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‘He was a maverick, a clown, a genius’

 

This play is about Ken – Ken Campbell – the force of nature who passed away some ten years ago.

Written by the incredibly successful, versatile and witty Terry Johnson – it’s more of a lecture and eulogy to Ken, whom Terry first met in 1978. It’s how Ken took a rag-tag collection of talented people to perform a 24-hour-long play in Edinburgh and other extraordinary adventures. It’s about Ken’s magnificently bizarre and inspiring character. It’s about hope.

 

Ken – Jeremy Stockwell (image courtesy of Robert Day)

Ken is played by the tour de force that is Jeremy Stockwell with an impression that is quite unnervingly accurate. How do I know? Did I meet Ken Campbell? No. But I studied him because I had the pleasure of performing in his play Old King Cole in Glenrothes many years ago. I played Baron Wadd – the weediest man in the entire world – and that character description alone gives you some idea of his approach to all things. Subtlety very rarely gets a look-in.

 

Terry’s view is eye-opening. It’s honest, loving and funny. As he informed us: some of the story is true – mainly the more incredible parts.

 

Terry Johnson

(image courtesy of Robert Day)

 

The audience enter to find the auditorium decked out with chairs and sofas and cushions. We’re encouraged to recline and have our own flashback to the hazy 70s. This stunning, carpeted design is by Tim Shortall.

 

The buzz before the play even starts is positive and upbeat, even though many there weren’t even born in the 1970s. The play itself continues that atmosphere and, although it lasts ninety minutes without an interval, it certainly doesn’t feel it. Director Lisa Spirling keeps the action flowing at a cracking pace and it only occasionally droops. There are references to things which the younger audience may need to ask about, but overall this is superb escapism from the dull real world, back into the fantastic brain and theatrical approach of Ken. He was a maverick, a clown, a genius. Terry Johnson is, in the simplest of ways, proving it.

 

(image courtesy of Robert Day)

 

Could the play be more touching and sentimental? Probably. Would Ken himself approve if it did? Maybe not. But I felt I wanted to touch a little more on the shadows of his darker side, not just the light. As he is quoted as saying: ‘funeral’ is an anagram of ‘real fun’.

 

Ken is the first in a series of four plays in The Bunker’s Spring Season. This one was first performed at the Hampstead Theatre and they are co-producers. The next three are: Electra by Sophocles, a new version produced by Dumbwise; Devil With The Blue Dress by Kevin Armento, produced by The Bunker; Grotty by Izzy Tennyson, produced by Damsel Productions. Check their website for further details. If Ken is anything to go by, the next three should all be brilliant.

 

 

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Photography:           Robert Day

Performances:         until 24th February 2018

Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm – Saturday & Sunday at 3pm

Venue:                     The Bunker, 53a Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU

Nearest station:       London Bridge

Tickets:                    www.bunkertheatre.com and 020 7234 0486

£19.50 (concessions £15) and U30s £10

Age:                         18+

Twitter:                     @BunkerTheatreUK, #Ken

Facebook:                /bunkertheatreuk

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TAKE FOUR WRITERS – INTRODUCING ANGELA PETCH

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Hi! … can’t believe I’m on here. I’m excited, apprehensive and honoured to share in this venture.

I love reading. I don’t think you can be a writer without being a bookworm. I panic if I’m coming to the end of a good book and feel bereft until I’m lost in another story. Although I loved English at school, my degree is in Italian. I lived in Rome as a child, worked in Sicily, met my half-Italian husband there and now, in our retirement, we spend six months of each year in Tuscany, where we run a small holiday business. Although I’ve always written, only now that our three children are independent have I been able to settle seriously to the craft. I self-published two novels set in Tuscany and they’ve been taken on by Endeavour Press. Last year I had seven stories accepted by women’s magazines and I enjoy the discipline of this genre too, so hopefully I will sell more in 2018.

However, this year I am becoming a hybrid author and returning down the indie route to self-publish “something completely different”.

In 2006 my best friend discovered she was suffering from ovarian cancer. We did lots together, including hunting for bargains in charity shops and at auctions, nicknaming each other Mavis and Dot. She was extremely brave, but she had her darker moments too and I tried to cheer her up by writing silly stories about Mavis and Dot. They made her laugh and she drew cartoon sketches of the characters, which I still have hanging on the back of our loo door. Sadly, she didn’t recover from this silent killer and I filed away my anecdotes. A couple of years ago I pulled one out to read at a writing group and raised a laugh. So, I decided to develop the stories and put together a novella. There will be illustrations and I’m busy searching for the right artist as I type.

I feel rather wobbly about Mavis and Dot, but I dearly want them to succeed as I intend to donate any profits to Cancer Research. Humour is notoriously hard to pull off and my usual style is literary, so I have to banish the goblin from my shoulder telling me I am writing drivel that nobody will find amusing. My launch date is mid-November, but I know time whizzes by faster than a bargain snatched off a charity shop shelf. So, I need to get down to business. And that is the main cause of my wobbles. Going indie again means getting my act together with social media and marketing. When I see telecom engineers at the side of the road working on control panels, plugging wires into holes, it makes me think of me procrastinating over algorithms, metadata, BISAC codes, author platforms and networking. Which hole should I connect with, – when and how? However, I have also made virtual friends on-line with a whole bunch of supportive authors and bloggers in the past months and, although there’s a mountain to climb, I want to scale this peak.

Time is the thing, isn’t it? And discipline. We are blessed with three children and four very young grandchildren (with another on the way), and when we are in England during our six winter months they keep us busy.   I will stop bleating about that because I know there are many authors who burn the midnight oil and squeeze their writing into fewer hours than I have. Wish me luck, nevertheless. “Live where you fear to live”, said the 13th century poet, Rumi.