The Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film and Music will return to the stunning grounds of Blenheim Palace from Thursday 13^thOctober to Sunday 16^thOctober this year. Events so far confirmed will cover the   fields of literature, music, politics, religion and film, and this year the festival is making a new departure with a fascinating range of food-and-drink themed events, including dinners and cookery demonstrations.

Perfumer and businesswoman Jo Malone and the internationally acclaimed Chef Ken Hom will discuss the significance of smell, taste and food in their lives and how they rose from modest beginnings to international fame, whilst Former Deputy Master of the Royal Household Edward Griffiths will speak about his experiences serving Her Majesty the Queen and his new book of recipes from Buckingham Palace which he has co-authored with Royal Chef 3 Griffiths spent 14 years working for the Royal Household and has been involved in many royal and state occasions including the wedding reception of TRH Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Italian journalist and food writer Eleonora Galasso will invite the audience to experience the culinary delights of Rome by sharing traditional Italian recipes from her cookery book As the Romans Do alongside a cookery demonstration. Alice Lascelles, columnist on spirits and cocktails for The Times and founder of the award-winning magazine Imbibe for bartenders and sommeliers, will recount the more than ten years she has spent endeavouring to find the perfect cocktail. The talk will be accompanied with a tasting.

The festival will also include a series of unique dinners overseen by acclaimed international chefs and food experts. Ken Hom will open the festival with his Chinese-themed Festival Opening Dinner, and restaurant-owners and chefs Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi will present a Sicilian-themed menu for this year’s closing dinner.

The Royal Black Tie Literary Dinner, Dior at Blenheim will be hosted by their Graces The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and Harper’s Bazaar editor Justine Picardie will present a talk about the inspiring influence of Blenheim Palace on the great fashion houses after dinner.

To check availability and book tickets and to keep up to date with speaker and event announcements visit www,blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com  or tickets may be booked on 0333 666 3366 or in person at Oxford Visitor Information Centre, Broad Street, Oxford and at The Feathers hotel, Woodstock.

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It isn’t often that one realises that we are standing at a particular time in history, a moment after which things will change forever. Fortunately Kois Miah, a photographer, understood the importance of what was happening to an iconic landmark in a neighbourhood where he had grown up, tucked away in the shadow of Canary Wharf.

‘Evening rain, west building. Contrary to the oft-repeated story that the aerial ‘streets in the sky’ failed as social spaces, most of the residents interviewed spoke of them with enthusiasm; as thresholds between domestic interiors and the intensity of open sky; as places to chat or play...’ Kois Miah

Of course I knew Robin Hood Gardens, I had walked by it regularly when I worked in the East End of London . I had witnessed countless numbers of architecture students asking for directions cameras and notebooks poised and one couldn’t read an article about Brutalism and Brutalist Architecture (think the Barbican) without some reference to Robin Hood Gardens.

In the last two or three years Robin Hood Gardens has been in the news again, only this time there was a fight to save the buildings, the architecture and for some, the community. The fight was eventually lost and a programme of moving people out of their homes was begun.

I now realise that I had fallen into the trap of considering the architecture but not sparing a moment’s thought for the individuals and families that lived there. It took an artist like Kois Miah to open my eyes.

True to the people it represents, this exhibition is off Poplar High Street within walking distance of Robin Hood Gardens. The Poplar Docklands Light Railway is one stop from Canary Wharf and from there it is less than a 5 minute walk.

‘On the walkway of the east building, November 20-15. The mother of this young boy explained that he liked to walk visitors to the lift at the end of the deck, which he was doing here, until something in the view caught his attention.’ Kois Miah

Set amongst the architecture of the restored St Matthias Community Centre each of the 35 pictures tell the story of those on whom commentators have traditionally imposed their narrative.

I went around the exhibition three times each time seeing something new. The little girl peeking through the glass whilst her sister sits wrapped in a blanket on a sofa; the man smoking defiantly beneath the no smoking sign; and the old man who tends the vegetable plot is clutching a small plant in one hand and a stick to make the planting hole in the other.

‘Pat and her husband John have lived in the east block since 1977 in a two bedroom maisonette which, like any other up and down the country, they have made their own…  ‘We were living in Tottenham with John’s sister’, Pat recalled on how she was housed by the council. ‘I didn’t like it when we moved in but it gradually got better. I am a Catholic and my neighbours are Muslim and they are lovely…’ Kois Miah

The exhibition is a collaboration between Kois Miah and and Nick Thoburn, Senior Sociology Lecturer at Manchester University and local campaigning groups SPLASH (South Poplar & Limehouse Action for Secure Housing) and Docklands Outreach is open until the 21st of October.

Reverend Theatre’s new double bill of two one act plays, Nerve and Jekyll & Hyde, both written by Charlie Howitt, are two distinct but interwoven plays set within the same apartment block. Pertinently, they both explore morality in contemporary Britain. This double bill embarks on an exciting UK tour in Autumn.

Nerve follows a disparate group of people as they work to find their own authenticity. Sam edges closer to her magnetic new housemate Danny, inspired by his bold, decisive approach to life. But, after a violent dispute with their neighbour, she is left struggling to locate her moral centre.

Her best friend, Tess, is overwhelmed by anxiety as she approaches the 24th week of her pregnancy. While, local policeman Greg is too lost trying to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife to notice that their neighbour from Flat B is missing.

Inspired by the Gothic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Reverend Theatre’s Jekyll & Hyde blurs the lines between good and evil, insane imaginings and real life monsters. Brilliant surgeon Ellie Jekyll is feeling the strain of caring for her terminally ill brother. Luckily, a newfound friendship with her neighbour proves to be just what the doctor ordered. But, when a young girl dies unexpectedly during surgery, Jekyll’s world begins to unravel around her.

Tickets are available from individual theatre box office See http://www.reverendproductions.com/

@ReverendTheatre

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10th – 11th October       Greenwich Theatre
Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES

13th October                  Fisher Theatre
10 Broad Street, Bungay NR35 1EE

21st October                  The Old Fire Station
40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze) Expedition         

I am Meg Cannell and decided a few months ago that I would do the DofE Bronze. For this I have to have a skill. Well, I play the flute. I also have to have a sport, and I have chosen Pilates, which seemed the best option because I have scoliosis. Scoliosis is curvature of the spine and that means a limit to the sort of physical sports I can play.

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards are designed to give millions of 14 to 24 year olds the opportunity to be the very best that they can be. One of the requirements of the Bronze category is to take part in an expedition.

There is a concessionary backpack weight for those with scoliosis. I have a partial fusion, which means I have rods holding some of my vertebrae in line, and soon will have a full fusion.

We sorted out our kit at Ashridge Estate Visitors’ Centre, before setting off on 1^st October in the pouring rain. We had to share out the tent, small gas cookers called trangias, and sleeping bags. Thoroughly cold and wet we set off to walk 17 kilometres that day.

We met marshalls at points along the route, just in case anything was wrong, but nothing was. On we trudged and squelched over fields, and along roads until finally we reached our over-night spot. Then we had to erect our two tents, and cook some supper on our trangias. Then we tried to sleep, going to bed really early because we were so tired. And we did sleep, though we were so cold and wet.

Breakfast the next morning was still not a picnic in the sun. As the rain fell we cooked up some breakfast on the trangias, and then set off on the last 13 kilometres heading for Wendover Woods. Again it was a hike across fields. Once there was a bull, and we didn’t dawdle across that one. In another were alapacas which we all loved.

Finally we arrived at the finish, exhausted, wet, but really excited to have actually achieved our aim.

The expedition taught us the value of teamwork, and sometimes we didn’t get this right, but that’s how you learn. I think it’s a lesson that will be valuable when we do the Dof E Silver expedition (after my final operation). And actually, it will be valuable for the rest of our lives because we know that we have to endure if we want to achieve our goals.

Halloween is coming soon, bringing with it trick or treat time. So treat yourself to Living Death which is another in the Katie Maguire crime series. It’ll scare you, see if it doesn’t. Of if not scare, perhaps intrigue you, and get your pulses racing.

I do like Masterton’s writing. It is crisp, confident, and zaps along with satisfying clarity. His plotting is meticulous and exciting from the moment a girl with green hair stumbles out of a club and we just know she’s in jeopardy.

DS Katie Maguire and her team are up to their neck investigating dognappers (as a dog owner, how dare they?) drug trading and now a missing girl.

Masterton weaves his web with his usual touch. He really thinks through his characters and plot. Will the green haired girl be saved? Or not.

Graham Masterton is a bestselling author who spent twenty or so years writing horror and thrillers before turning to crime. I’m glad he did. I don’t like horror – I’m a hide behind the sofa kind of girl when there’s anything like that going on, and crime is more painstaking than thrillers or so I feel. Probably wrong, but there you go.

I enjoyed Living Death. I think you will too.

Living Death     Graham Masterton.   Pub. Head of Zeus.   £18.99