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A GOOD NEWS STORY

YOU DON´T NEED WORDS TO SAY   Throughout the past four years, whilst I have been living here on Lanzarote, a former member of a writing group I ran in the UK has stayed in touch via e mail and her prodigious facebook outpourings.…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT AFTER FESTIVAL

FOOD FESTIVAL & A TASTE OF THE FUTURE The Annual Festival Enogastronomy Saborea Lanzarote: 2019 A gastronomical event was always included as part of the annual Rochdale Feel Good arts and cultural Festival in the years I spent covering…

NOT FOLLOWING THE MAP

HOW WE GOT HERE FROM THERE I spent the first half of what I laughingly call my ´career´ in the UK, writing songs with my musical partner Colin Lever. Calling ourselves Lendanear we played the folk circuit in the North West of England and…

ARTS AND POLITICS: THE ODD COUPLE

ARTS AND POLITICS: THE ODD COUPLE With the UK holding an election in December that, even if the parties each try to address social issues, will inevitably be about Brexit and November 10th the date of a general election being held in Spain…

ARTS, CULTURE, CUSTOM & CHURCH

CHESTNUTS AND OLD SPANISH CUSTOMS All Saints Day in Spain (Todos Los Santos) takes place on November 1st. It is a very important national public holiday throughout Spain, when people, from all over the country, return to their town or village…

ROCHDALE LITERATURE & IDEAS FESTIVAL 2019

LITERATURE AND IDEAS IN ROCHDALE The title of the festival reflects the wishes of the benefactors who, a few years ago, left a significant bequest to the borough library services. It also reflects the fact that history reminds that at least…

UNFORGETTABLE FESTIVALS

FESTIVALS I HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED I felt enormously privileged to serve as host of The Annual Literature and Ideas Festival in my home town of Rochdale during the first four years of the festival before I ´retired´ over here to Lanzarote.…

ARE FIREWORK DISPLAYS AN ART FORM?

SKY ROCKETS IN FLIGHT The worlds of art and technology are moving ever closer towards each other. If you have already listened to my audio file interview with Evelin Toledano you will have heard us contemplating whether or not graphic design…

LOOKING FOR LAUGHS? THE CHASE IS ON !

At all across the arts we often speak of the synergy between poetry and comedy as one art form often feeds the other. We were pretty amazed though when we discovered more links in the chain:  general knowledge and quizzing skills. We…

PLAYING CUCKOO ON TH´EDGE

A ´playing out scheme´ recently devised by Alice (not Alex) Ferguson, a young mother, who wanted her own children to be able to play outdoors has produced benefits that surely should not surprise us. Now the scheme has been studied by…