I chaired a panel of historical fiction authors last year at the lovely Yeovil  Literary Festival (Diney Costeloe was one of the speakers) and met up with Diney for lunch first. Great fun was had but what about the books?

The Married Girls  is the sequel to A Girl With No Name.and those readers who love Diney Costeloe’s novels, and there are many,  will love this follow on. And those who haven’t yet read them, do so. There are lots of twists and turns in The Married Girls, which is well researched and evocative of the period, just what we have come to expect from this author.

Set in the small Somerset village of Wynsdown in 1949. Charlotte Shepherd is happily married and settled into her adopted home having arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war.

However, the squire’s son, Felix, returns to the village with a fiancee in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming but, much  the same as Charlotte, has secrets. But secrets as we all know have a habit of being unearthed. Characters enter, disruption occurs, how will it all end?

I have no intention of telling you. Read it, immerse yourself, and then, if you haven’t already read all of Dyney’s novels, do so. They’re belters.

Best to read The Girl with No Name first.

The Married Girls by Diney Costeloe. pb £7.99

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Adapted by Nick Lane

presented by Blackeyed Theatre, in association with South Hill Park

UK Tour: September 2017 – March 2018

Greenwich Theatre from Wednesday 4^th to Saturday 7^th October.

This sounds a thrilling, chilling new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s noir psychological fantasy, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is adapted by Nick Lane, and presents a unique take on this  classic Gothic horror story..

Doctor Henry Jekyll is a good man. Successful within his field and respected by his peers, he’s close to a neurological discovery that will change the face of medical science forever. However, his methods are less than ethical and when a close friend and colleague threatens to expose and destroy his work, Jekyll is forced to experiment on himself, whereupon something goes very wrong…or very right. Suddenly Jekyll has a new friend, the brutal Edward Hyde.

This gripping production is particularly interesting as it takes inspiration from Lane’s own personal journey. Injured by a car accident at the age of 26 that permanently damaged his neck and back, Lane imagines Jekyll as a physically weakened man who discovers a cure for his ailments, a cure that also unearths the darkest corners of his psyche. Lane says, If someone offered me a potion that was guaranteed to make me feel the way I did before the accident, but with the side effect that I’d become ruthless and horrible – would I drink it?

Combining ensemble story-telling, physical theatre, movement and Lane’s razor-sharp script, alongside a new musical score by Tristan Parkes, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde remains true to the spirit and themes of the original novella while offering modern audiences one or two surprises, including a major female character, Eleanor, who drives Jekyll on in the same way Stevenson’s wife urged her husband to complete the novel.

Lane, who was Associate Director and Literary Manager at Hull Truck from 2006 to 2014, comments, I’m incredibly excited to be working with Blackeyed Theatre on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. To be given the opportunity to revisit a book that I love and adapt it for four terrific actors is an absolute gift for me, and I couldn’t think of a better venue to launch the tour than the Wilde Theatre. I hope people book their seats, and then spend the entire show on the edge of them.’

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (

Running time 120 minutes (including an interval)

Notes Ages 11+ Box Office Tickets are available from individual theatre box office. See www.blackeyedtheatre.co.uk.

Twitter @Blackeyedtheatr, #JekyllandHyde

As a child I had dreams of swooping and gliding across the stage as a world famous ballerina. All rather a damp squib for one utterly without talent and let’s face it – someone who moved rather like Dumbo the elephant. However I must tell you  I was a scarecrow in a school production,  the one who stays motionless in the centre, whilst others perform around them.

Well, far more inspirational than this tale of my ballet adventure  is the collaboration between London Russian Ballet School (LRBS) and the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet and Theatre.

On 18^th September Romantic Revolution is to be  performance at the London Palladium. 800 children from Lambeth, Brent, South West and West London, who have never visited a theatre to see ballet and most of whom have never heard of the Bolshoi Ballet, will join the audience for free, with transport provided.

You can see the result of this collaboration in a rather fine video, filmed last month when  LRBS brought a performance to the indoor space at the Kia Oval to entertain local schools with the power of dance and music. Tune into this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NlFfbyZhbo) and see just how much children appreciated this opportunity and how important LRBS’s philanthropic endeavour is to engage these young children in ballet and impart the richness of this art.

I can’t dance but I love watching. I reckon you will too. We need more of these collaborations.

• Tickets available from London Palladium Box Office and www.londonpalladium.co.uk .