The first full-size bronze statue of Virginia Woolf, by acclaimed sculptor Laury Dizengremel, will be unveiled in a stunning location on the Upper Terraces at Richmond Riverside on Wednesday 16 November at 2.30pm (1430hrs) by Virginia’s great niece Emma Woolf with her 2 year old son Ludovic Cecil Woolf (Ludo.)

An icon of the 20th Century, Virginia Woolf lived and worked in leafy Richmond with husband Leonard for ten years between 1914-1924. Virginia described Hogarth House as “the loveliest house in England.” There, they set up the Hogarth Press in 1915 and Richmond proved to influence Virginia’s life and work.

Aurora Metro Arts and Media Charity has dedicated five years to fundraising and campaigning to raise £50,000 to erect a statue of Virginia Woolf in Richmond to celebrate her, her literary legacy and her strong connection to Richmond. Dozens of volunteers helped with the project and the public expressed overwhelming support with literally 100s of individual donations.

The result is the extraordinarily beautiful work, featuring a life sized Virginia Woolf in a relaxed repose on a bench, where people can sit next to her, whilst enjoying the gentle views of Richmond.

The world-famous writer and champion of women's rights Virginia Woolf grew to love the tranquil life that Richmond offered her away from London. Richmond gave Virginia the freedom in her writing, freedom to grow as a person and the freedom to think for herself again. She wrote: “I ought to be grateful to Richmond and Hogarth, and indeed, whether it’s my invincible optimism or not, I am grateful.”

Attending the unveiling of this historical addition to Richmond will be the sculptor Laury Dizengremel: "Being asked to create the first ever full figure statue of Virginia Woolf, and to portray her happy side was a total thrill.”

Also attending will be Sophie Partridge, the great-great niece of Virginia Woolf and great grand-daughter of Virginia’s sister Vanessa Bell.

Many people have supported the campaign by writing or contributing short videos including: Mark Haddon, Sarah Gristwood, Anne Sebba, Claire Tomalin, Philippa Gregory, Kit de Waal, Jackie Kay, AS Byatt, Frances Spalding and Sarah Waters. Online endorsements have come from many including: Margaret Attwood, Jodi Picoult, Deborah Frances-White, Elizabeth Day, Caroline Criado Perez, Phillip Pullman and Neil Gaiman.

The charity’s sister company, Aurora Metro Books is a small publishing house in the heart of Richmond, poignantly similar to Hogarth Press. Here, Cheryl Robson has just opened their first independent book shop on site, Books on the Rise. During the campaign Aurora Metro published Peter Fullagar’s book Virginia In Richmond, to excellent reviews.

The last words, should of course, be left to Virginia Woolf describing Richmond: “Nowhere else could we have started the Hogarth Press, whose very awkward beginning had rise in this very room, on this very green carpet.” FULL MEDIA AND PHOTOCALL

WEDNESDAY 16 November 2022 1430hrs (2.30pm) - UNVEILING of Virginia Woolf statue & bench Upper Terraces, Richmond Riverside, (via Whitaker Avenue) Richmond TW9 1EH 1500hrs (3pm) - Refreshments at The Victoria Inn - 78 Hill Rise, Richmond TW10 6UB 1600hrs (4pm) - Talk by Peter Fullagar author of Virginia In Richmond at Books on the Rise next door (ticketed event**)

THE SCULPTOR – LAURY DIZENGREMEL Award-winning sculptor Laury Dizengremel was commissioned Aurora Metro Arts and Media to create the artwork. The piece features Woolf in repose on a bench, where people can sit next to her while enjoying the Richmond riverside. Another of Laury’s recent public artwork commissions is the life-size bronze sculpture of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown – 18th century’s greatest landscape designer which is located near Hammersmith Bridge. Other notable artworks of Laury’s include the Tennis Terracotta Warriors (in Wimbledon Museum), memorial statues in honour of Tony Socks Byrne and Joey Maher in Drogheda, Ireland, Ken Jones in Blenaevon, Wales, Sir George Carteret in Jersey, David ‘Bomber’ Pearce in Newport, Wales and a bust of Mary Church Terrell for the National Association of University Women in the USA.

Laury Dizengremel working on the Virginia Woolf sculpture

AURORA METRO ARTS & MEDIA CHARITY - Charity number 1055116 Aurora Metro Arts and Media is a registered charity led by Cheryl Robson, based in Richmond-upon-Thames, championing diversity and equality through arts and educational projects both locally and globally. The charity is sister company to Aurora Metro Publications, a local publisher with three decades of publishing original voices, championing diversity and equality, and promoting work in translation. The charity is located in a new local bookshop, Books on the Rise, where all things related to Virginia Woolf will be available, including books, maquettes, and merchandise.

** Tickets £5 from: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virginia-woolf-in-richmond-a-talk-and-book-signing-by-peter-fullagar-tickets-441629253987

Website: www.aurorametro.com Twitter: #VWoolfstatue Facebook: VirginiaWoolfStatue

REGENERATE: Lost Songs from the Musicals FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR ONLINE CONCERT Olivier Award Winners ADRIAN LESTER, JANIE DEE, DOUGLAS HODGE, and GEORGE MAGUIRE Ex – SIX Queens NATALIE PARIS and GRACE MOUAT Plus DUNCAN JAMES, ANITA DOBSON, ALICE FEARN, LUKE FRIEND, FRANCES MAYLI MCCANN and many more!

On Sunday 18th September 2022 at 7.00pm GMT (1900hrs), greats of the West End and Broadway join together for a unique night of musical theatre at REGENERATE: Lost Songs from the Musicals. The concert will be livestreamed online in support of charity Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) and Musical Theatre Network (MTN). Tune in for free and donate at: www.regeneratemusicals.com

Titans of musical theatre are supporting emerging musical theatre talent, gifting their favourite songs cut from classic shows, or chosen stunning songs from their new projects; culminating in an incredible evening of 16 never before-heard-songs, for one night only!

REGENERATE Livestreamed Online Gala Fundraiser is free for everyone to join and watch – and whilst watching the audience can donate via online or text. Everyone who donates will be entered into a prize draw to win tickets to SIX in the West End or on Broadway**. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to support new writing talent to present their work at BEAM2023.

Complete line up of the WORLD PREMIERES and PERFORMERS: • Tony Award-winning writers of SIX Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss gift a new composition How Far We’ve Come to be sung by an original SIX cast member and Olivier-nominee Natalie Paris. • Tony Award-winning writing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Anastasia) sent a song from their forthcoming Broadway show Little Dancer, called Life Of The Person, to be performed by Adrian Lester. • Oscar winner Don Black and Debbie Wiseman’s It’s Still Me In Here from their brand new musical Feather Boy sung by Anita Dobson. • Elton John and Tim Rice’s song I Could Not Miss You More (cut from the movie Gnomeo and Juliet) to be sung by Duncan James. • Emerging writers Kit Buchan and Jim Barne‘s jettisoned song Midtown Christmas Eve from The Season to be sung by Grace Mouat (Legally Blonde, SIX) and Dan Partridge (Danny in Grease). • Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil‘s song cut from Miss Saigon, Too Much for One Heart, will be sung by Desmonda Cathabel (winner of 2022 Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of The Year). • Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell) is gifting Leaving Myself Behind from his new project Marley. He will accompany the Broadway actor Michael McCorry Rose on the piano. • Composer / lyricist Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party, The Addams Family) gifts It Should Be Funny from musical Jerry Christmas, written with Daniel Goldfarb (The Amazing Mrs Maisel), to be sung by Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee (Follies). • Tony and Olivier Award-winning actor and writer Douglas Hodge (101 Dalmatians) will perform Counting The Hairs from his musical Wigmaker, written with dramatist Bryony Lavery. • A duet from Masi Asare (Paradise Square, recently on Broadway) How Would You Know? from new show Rishvor, sung by Alice Fearn (Come From Away, Wicked) and Aisha Jawando who is currently playing Tina in The Tina Turner Musical. • Stuart Brayson’s song You And Me Buddy, written for From Here to Eternity, will be performed by Olivier Award-winner George Maguire (Dave Davies in Sunny Afternoon) and Luke Friend (X Factor finalist). • Emerging composing talent Omar Baroud (Cliff in Cabaret) will be singing a duet Without from his new musical After Elijah with Hanna Khogali (Britannicus). Omar is the most recent recipient of the Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award in association with MMD. • Another brand-new musical song from Maury Yeston (Nine, Titanic), from his current writing project The Great Bridge about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The song For My Father will be sung by Luke McCall (Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera). • George Stiles and Anthony Drewe‘s Mrs. Me, written for a romcom movie, “which like so many projects in Tinseltown bit the dust long before the final script”, will be sung by Michael Ahomka-Lindsay (Legally Blonde). • New writer Urielle Klein Mekongo sings her song Nobody’s There from Black Power Desk. • Canadian husband and wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein (Come From Away) have gifted an early song, Subway Sparrow, sung by Frances Mayli McCann (Bonnie & Clyde, Chess In Concert).

Composer, comedian, actress and musician, Vikki Stone (The John Bishop Show, The Now Show - BBC R4) will host the Gala, creating a glorious evening of musical theatre.

Why is it so important to support & nurture musical theatre writing and composing talent? Anthony Drewe: As with all art forms, musical theatre is an evolving beast that needs fresh blood just as much as it celebrates old. Shows as innovative or daring as Hamilton, The Band’s Visit, The Book Of Mormon and Come From Away wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the legacy handed down from previous generations of song writers. You read, you listen, you learn – and then you create. Stephen Schwartz: For those of us who love the genre, it means we’ll continue to have good musicals to go see. Andrew Lippa: New musicals with original scores are friggin’ hard to get right. And they are expensive. Without support, guidance, funding, nurturing, practice, space, time, room to fail, new musicals can’t really grow. Maury Yeston: The musical theatre is now a worldwide form. It brings us together and unites so many disparate and unique national styles and techniques. Its musical and theatrical force has fostered a common bond in theatre communities all over the world. The nurturing of its creators and its traditions creates a continuing force for peace.

Theatrical Rights Worldwide are lead sponsor of REGENERATE. The event is also supported by Music Theatre International and Clintons Solicitors.

Conceived and Produced by Neil Marcus. Musical Director Nick Barstow. Studio Producer Bartek Podkowa. Supporting BEAM2023 - removing financial barriers for creatives to share their work at the UK’s biggest showcase of new musical theatre.

Join free online Livestreamed Gala Musical Theatre Fundraiser concert REGENERATE: Lost Songs from the Musicals Sunday 18th September 2022 at 7.00pm GMT (1900hrs) at www.regeneratemusicals.com Donate and support the future of musical theatre. Please give generously! **Everyone who donates will be entered into a prize draw to win a pair of Six tickets (West End, UK Tour or Broadway, depending on winner’s location) + a programme signed by the cast. TO DONATE: https://bit.ly/regeneratedonate OR Text MUSICALS followed by your donation amount to 70085 to give that amount. e.g: MUSICALS5 for £5 / MUSICALS10 for £10 etc… Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message

Link to official REGENERATE trailer: https://youtu.be/cewqtaDYPYY

REGENERATE – WILL NOT AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD OR VIEW POST LIVE EVENT

If you wish to pledge or support in advance, please contact: development@mercurymusicals.com

For further information and interview opportunities please contact Deborah Goodman on +44 (0)208 959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Notes to editors BEAM is a biennial showcase of new British musical theatre writing talent presented by MMD and MTN. The event shines a light on a fabulously diverse range of shows in a variety of stages of developments, so they can be presented to potential development partners, producers and audiences. BEAM2023 - removing financial barriers for creatives to share their work at the UK’s biggest showcase of new musical theatre. Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) is the UK’s only membership organisation dedicated to developing new musical theatre writing. They nurture and support the work of emerging musical theatre book writers, lyricists and composers through a series of initiatives including workshops, masterclasses and showcasing opportunities. www.mercurymusicals.com Musical Theatre Network (MTN) brings people and resources together to improve infrastructure and opportunities for new musical theatre in the UK. The membership is a national network of venues, producers, colleges, organisations and individuals. In partnership with its members MTN works to strengthen and diversify the new musical theatre sector nationwide. Together both MMD and MTN receive support as a Sector Support Organisation through Arts Council England. www.musicaltheatrenetwork.com

A magical journey to celebrate 25 years of one of the world’s greatest children’s books … J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Today Bloomsbury announces its publishing plans for the 25th anniversary of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – a year-long campaign celebrating 25 years of Harry Potter magic. From the idea born by J.K. Rowling on a train journey in 1990, with an initial hardback print run of just 500 copies, the series has gone on to sell over 500 million books worldwide in over 80 languages, inspiring a major movie franchise, a spellbinding theatre production and so much more. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the unforgettable first novel that set Harry Potter’s destiny in motion. This magical story has been inspiring new generations of readers ever since its publication in June 1997 – an unprecedented publishing phenomenon beloved by fans all over the world.

In January 2022, a silver anniversary makeover will kick-start a huge campaign. The classic paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, illustrated by Jonny Duddle, will be updated for the anniversary year and emblazoned with an eye-catching silver foil livery. Publication will be supported by a jam-packed anniversary campaign, focusing on children and new readers, including the biggest and best Harry Potter Book Night celebrations yet in February 2022 (with Magical Journeys as its theme) as well as promotions around World Book Day in March; extensive partnerships, digital advertising and online and social cross promotion; glorious POS, bespoke in-store opportunities and digital assets that will ensure that Harry is impossible to miss!

Celebrations continue into the summer with the publication in June of a stunning commemorative hardback edition of J.K. Rowling’s first novel featuring the original cover design from 1997 and artwork by Thomas Taylor. Including exclusive new bonus material, this promises to be a gorgeous and very special souvenir for any Potter collection. As well as a large-scale must-see outdoor installation, Bloomsbury will also be working closely with fans from around the world to generate content for a spellbinding celebratory video and social media campaign. Anniversary celebrations will continue through to Harry Potter’s birthday at the end of July and Back to Hogwarts at the start of September.

February 2022 will also see the launch of new Hogwarts House Editions Box Sets – four stunning, house-themed packages featuring the entire Harry Potter series in paperback with dazzling covers and illustrations from Kate Greenaway Medal winner Levi Pinfold. Then in March 2022, Bloomsbury will publish a paperback edition of Chris Riddell’s illustrated The Tales of Beedle the Bard, featuring a sumptuous new cover and an exclusive art print of Harry, Ron and Hermione.

And there’s more to come in autumn 2022 with further magical Harry Potter publishing, marketing and publicity adventures to be announced.

NOTES TO EDITORS: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone • January 2022 • £7.99 • 9781408855652 • Paperback Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: The Thomas Taylor Edition • June 2022 • 9781526646651 • £16.99 • Hardback with dust jacket Gryffindor House Edition Paperback Box Set • February 2022 • 9781526624512 • £80.00 Hufflepuff House Edition Paperback Box Set • February 2022 • 9781526624550 • £80.00 Slytherin House Edition Paperback Box Set • February 2022 • 9781526624574 • £80.00 Ravenclaw House Edition Paperback Box Set • February 2022 • 9781526624536 • £80.00 The Tales of Beedle the Bard • Illustrated by Chris Riddell • March 2022 • 9781526637895 • £12.99 • Paperback

J.K. Rowling is the author of the seven Harry Potter books, which have sold over 500 million copies, been translated into over 80 languages, and made into eight blockbuster films. She has also written three short companion volumes for charity, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which later became the inspiration for a new series of films, also written by J.K. Rowling. She then continued Harry’s story as a grown-up in a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which she wrote with playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. In 2020, J.K. Rowling returned to publishing for younger children, with the fairy tale The Ickabog, the royalties from which she is donating to her charitable trust Volant to help vulnerable groups affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Autumn 2021 sees the publication of The Christmas Pig, J.K. Rowling’s first children’s novel since Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honours for her writing. She also supports a number of causes through her charitable trust Volant and is the founder of the children’s charity Lumos. For as long as she can remember, J.K. Rowling has wanted to be a writer, and is at her happiest in a room, making things up. She lives in Scotland with her family.

Bloomsbury is a leading independent publishing house. The children’s division publishes books for children and young adults in print, eBook and audio. It publishes across preschool, picture books, fiction and non-fiction. Its award-winning, diverse list includes authors such as J.K. Rowling, Benjamin Zephaniah, Katherine Rundell, Neil Gaiman, Renée Watson and Sarah J. Maas, and illustrators such as Chris Riddell, Emily Gravett, Rikin Parekh, Kate Pankhurst, Jim Kay and Tom Percival. For more information go to www.bloomsbury.com

Underbelly and Highwire Entertainment Present ROUGE LONDON DEBUT
HEADLINING AT UNDERBELLY FESTIVAL SOUTHBANK First London Transfer Direct from Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Surprising, subversive and supremely sexy circus ROUGE makes its London debut at Underbelly Festival Southbank from Wednesday 28 August – Sunday 15 September 2019. Straight from its UK premiere in Edinburgh ROUGE will be the first exciting London transfer from this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Press Night: Thursday 29 August at 7.15pm.

Grown-up circus-cabaret ROUGE‘s three week run will be the climactic headline act this season at Underbelly Festival Southbank, and will give London the first chance to see the award-winning Australian sensation with its outrageous brand of adult circus.

ROUGE is a decadent and astonishing blend of sensational high energy acrobatics, soaring aerial trapeze, operatic cabaret and tongue in cheek burlesque. With love and lust the audience are sucked into the world of ROUGE to see circus like they’ve never seen before!

ROUGE loves to break conventions and is passionately performed with wild abandon by the superbly talented and entertaining cast: Isabel Hertaeg, Liam de Jong, Jessie McKibbin, Lyndon Johnson, Madison Burleigh and Paul Westbrook.

ROUGE‘s empowering soundtrack includes: Jessie J, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Shirley Bassey plus Isabel singing live opera with a naughty twist.

ROUGE creates an atmosphere that is palpable - as a sexually charged aura permeates the venue that embodies the glorious phrase, “Filthy and Gorgeous”!

Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood, Directors of Underbelly, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome the first transfer from Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019 to Southbank Festival as our final headliner of this season. Highwire Entertainment’s smash hit Rouge is another example of the exceptional circus currently coming out of Australia - we’re delighted so many international circus troupes call Underbelly their UK home. Rouge is circus like no other - uniquely for adults; it’s fun, flirty and will not be a night you’ll easily forget. London audiences are going to love it”.

Escape the everyday and abandon yourself to ROUGE for the sexiest live circus cabaret experience.

ROUGE – a passionate unforgettable night out!

Escape the everyday and abandon yourself to ROUGE for the sexiest live circus cabaret experience. ROUGE – a passionate unforgettable night out!

Venue: Underbelly Festival Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX. Located in-between Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens and the London Eye.

Dates: Wednesday 28 August - Sunday 15 September 2019 - 3.5 weeks only!! Times: Wednesday 28 August: 7.45pm Thursday 29 August: 7.45pm Showtimes then move to: Tuesday – Friday: 7:15pm Saturday: 4.30pm and 7.15pm Sunday: 4.30pm and 7.15pm No shows on Mondays

Running Time: 60 mins – no interval

Tickets: from £15 Plus £1.50 booking fee online or over the phone Recommended for ages 18+, contains sexual themes and nudity.

Box Office: www.underbellyfestival.com or 03333 444 167.

ROUGE UK premiere takes place at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 at Underbelly Circus Hub (Venue 360): 3 - 24 August 2019.

The inaugural NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES will take place in care homes countrywide on TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2019 – an exciting day to highlight the great work in the arts going on in care homes and encouraging more! And today (11/06/19) sees the launch of the brand new ARTS IN CARE HOMES website - www.artsincarehomes.org.uk - for the first time joining all arts resources together and providing everything you need to get involved.

The first ever national day dedicated to the benefits of the arts in care homes will provide a focus to create arts activities for care home residents and staff. With support programmes from art galleries, museums, schools, individuals and arts organisations – NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES will be a special day in care homes to show how important and fun the arts are. From the everyday creative activities organised by the care staff to the large-scale projects with visiting professional production companies performing theatre, music and dance; all are equally important for the residents.

NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES will encourage all care homes to become creative communities on Tuesday 24 September and onwards into the future. With that in mind two brand new arts projects are being launched especially for the NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES giving residents access to the arts:

Only Connect – is a creative letters and pen pal project. There will be an unique resource pack with ideas, writers’ circle, local contacts, in-home post boxes and even original letters actually written & dated 24 September from the Royal Archives and Royal Albert Hall, including a letter written by Vincent Van Gogh on 24 September 1883.

Arts Fund Voucher Scheme – is a new initiative to help relatives and friends become more involved in the life of care homes and to encourage more arts provision. Purchase an Arts Fund Voucher and the care home then uses the voucher to pay towards an arts related project of your choice. Maybe something long term like setting up an inhouse choir, or smaller like an art workshop or an actor coming to read - creativity that your friend / relative would enjoy in the latter part of their lives learning new skills and sharing stories.

The brand new ARTS IN CARE HOMES website www.artsincarehomes.org.uk is the first website to create a user friendly resource for anyone wanting to set up arts activities in care homes. A much needed tool for everyone to share and use from care staff, relatives, volunteers, artists and arts organisations, with contacts, how-to guides, research, case studies, news, ideas, advice, conversations, training and initiative opportunities. Plus everything you need to get involved in the lead up to Tuesday 24 September 2019**.

NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES will involve many arts organisations including: the Royal Albert Hall who will present a Songbook concert with members of their band (care home TBC); the renowned full mask theatre company Vamos Theatre will hold their innovative workshop Listen With Your Eyes for care staff in Kineton Warwickshire and the intergenerational arts charity Magic Me will deliver their pioneering work, bringing school children and older people together in care homes, with delightful results.

Musician and sound artist Nick Jones will be setting one of the special Only Connect letters to an original piece of music – and will be the first Only Connect song to be performed on the first NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES.

Sunrise and Greensleeves care homes staff have already had training for the new Only Connect arts project and have set up their own writers’ circles - and are reaping their rewards as they hear their residents amazing stories. With letters being written, spoken, and painted arts in care homes is getting ready for NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES.

Alison Teader, Project Manager, Arts in Care Homes says: “The arts can bring new life, energy and happiness into care homes. We want to fill the walls of every care home in England with music, colour, words and dance. We can learn so much from supporting people to share their stories and the arts is a powerful means of communication, enabling people to interact and express themselves. Our aim is to ensure that the latter part of people’s lives is fulfilling and stimulating and that they have the chance to make happy new memories to add to a lifetime of experience.”

NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES is jointly funded by The Baring Foundation and The Rayne Foundation.

David Cutler, Director of The Baring Foundation says: “We believe that everyone has a right to participate in arts and culture right up to the end of their lives and wherever they live. Many care homes are becoming increasingly creative places, which is wonderful to see – but there’s room for much more! We hope that National Day of Arts in Care Homes will convey the joy that the arts can bring to residents, staff and families and be an opportunity for as many care homes as possible to get involved in small ways and large.”

Here’s to making NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES an annual event!

Website: www.artsincarehomes.org.uk Twitter: @artsincarehomes #artsincarehomes

**In July the full Only Connect resource pack will be available; as well as the launch of the Arts Fund Voucher Scheme to buy vouchers to make the arts happen in care homes.

For further information, photo and interview opportunities around NATIONAL DAY OF ARTS IN CARE HOMES please contact Deborah Goodman on +44 (0)208 959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Notes to Editors: Alison Teader, Project Manager has over 20 years’ experience of providing arts activities in care homes, working as Arts Co-ordinator for a London based housing provider and as project officer, evaluating arts projects for organisations including Green Candle Dance and Magic Me.

The Baring Foundation is an independent foundation which protects and advances human rights and promotes inclusion. Since 2010, the Foundation’s arts programme has focused on supporting participatory arts with people over the age of 60, particularly those facing disadvantage or discrimination. Over the last nine years, we have funded across art forms (from theatre, to music, to painting, to the circus, to the digital arts) and sought to promote high-quality arts provision in both care homes and in the community.

The Rayne Foundation is a grant-making organisation which looks for creative ways of tackling entrenched social issues through the arts, health, wellbeing and education. It supports projects that can be replicated and led by people with vision. It supports many varied organisations but has three areas of special interest: young people’s mental health, arts as a tool to achieve social change and improved quality of life for older people and for carers.

CHINGLISH is the hilarious and tragic diary of a girl and her utterly bonkers family who live above their Chinese takeaway, written and illustrated by Sue Cheung, to be published by Andersen Press in September 2019.

CHINGLISH is a page-turning account of Sue Cheung‘s own adolescence - a first generation Brit growing up in 1980s Coventry above her parents’ Chinese takeaway. A one-of-a-kind illustrated novel about family, food, being different and finding your own way.

‘“Where are you from?” Will there ever be a day when they don’t mention my Chinese’ness?’

Jo Kwan is a teenager growing up in 1980s Coventry with her “devil spawn” little sister, too-cool older brother, a series of very unlucky pets and parents who don’t speak English (and Jo was never taught Chinese) who “know more about quantum physics than they do about their own kids, which is sod all.” Mum never leaves the kitchen. First aid is always soy sauce. And never upset snooker mad dad…. But unlike the other kids at her new school or her posh “best in show” cousins, Jo lives above her parents’ Chinese take-away.

And things can be tough – as she tries to find her way between being bullied at school for being different and “tossing the woks” and dealing with unruly customers at night in the takeaway. Even when she does find a BFF who actually likes Jo for herself, she still has to contend with her erratic dad’s behaviour. All Jo dreams of is breaking free and forging a career as an artist.

Told in diary entries and doodles, Sue Cheung‘s brilliantly funny observations about life, family and cooking the best char siu make for a searingly honest portrayal of life on the other side of the takeaway counter.

SUE CHEUNG says: “You know when you want to pretend some things just never happened…? Like Yin and Yang, good can’t exist without bad – we didn’t know any better but a voice in my head always said there must be something more. At least the experience of illustrating and writing about my past has saved me paying for an expensive course of therapy – so that’s a plus. The other plus is I’ve learned that ultimately, my story needs to be heard, so others going through the same things can think ‘Oh, so I’m not the only crazy kid here... phew.’”

CHINGLISH by Sue Cheung published by Andersen Press. Publication date: 1 September 2019 Paperback £7.99 ISBN: 9781783448395

ChinglishBook

Sue Cheung was born in the Midlands and spent her early years clowning about and busily scribbling and drawing. At the age of 16 she seized her chance to become an artist by winning a scholarship to the London College of Fashion. Later, Sue went into advertising and worked her way up to Art Director. She now freelances as a designer from her home in Bournemouth, where she illustrates children’s books.

Andersen Press is a leading independent children’s publisher, and home to some of the biggest names in the world of children’s books, including the much-loved picture book characters Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and the Little Princess. Andersen Press is the publisher of many award-winning authors and illustrators including Melvin Burgess, Rebecca Stead, Susin Nielsen, Julian Clary, David Roberts, Tony Ross, David McKee, and Jeanne Willis. The company was founded in 1976 by Klaus Flugge.

Explosive Inaugural Season PERFORMANCE LAB Bringing the arts and scientific research together at UCL’s Bloomsbury Theatre and Grant Museum of Zoology

Experience eleven energetic live performances created from eleven experiments in science and the arts, as they explode onto the Bloomsbury Theatre’s stage and the Grant Museum of Zoology in the first exciting PERFORMANCE LAB season from Monday 29 April 2019 – Thursday 20 June 2019.

Commissioned by UCL Culture, PERFORMANCE LAB brings a radical and bold theatrical season of ground-breaking discoveries to the stage. Brought to life by artists, dancers, opera singers, stand-up comedians and UCL academics – a season of symposiums, live performance, discussions and full theatre and musical performances.

Free performances and a top ticket price of £10 makes this exciting new enterprise even more genius!

UCL has a long history of supporting the creative crossover between research and the arts, and now for the first time the hugely innovative PERFORMANCE LAB season explores how research can inspire creativity in the arts and how live performance can animate the cutting-edge research at UCL, one of the world’s leading universities.

Highlights of the season include a full production of the rarely performed Kurt Weill comic opera The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken (4/5) casting young opera talents including baritone Edmund Danon (Tsar), Anna Sideris (False Angele), Patricia Auchterlonie (Angele) and Joanna Harries (Leader); with full orchestra conducted by Johann Stuckenbruck, produced by UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies. The Science of Laughter (2/5) is a high octane evening with UCL neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott experimenting with the audience and multi-award winning standup comedians Tim Key (This Time With Alan Partridge), Stuart Goldsmith (Like I Mean It - Dead Parrot) and Maawan Rizwan (who has amassed 18 million+ views of his comedy YouTube videos.) Discover the secrets of why we laugh and having a good giggle! MUSO (7/5) an unique comedic evening of opera with UCL academics Subhadra Das (Curator of UCL Science Collections), Dr Chiara Ambrosio (UCL Science & Technology) and Dr Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies) as they are joined on stage by Impropera, creating opera on the spot inspired by the untold stories behind some of the exciting research taking place at UCL. Deconstructing the Dream (15&16/5) developed in collaboration between Kelly Hunter’s Flute Theatre and Professor of Social Neuroscience at UCL Antonia Hamilton, this performance takes you inside Bottom’s brain as he dreams the dreams of Shakespeare. This project inspired the research and enabled new approaches to imaging technologies used by the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience - which will reveal activity in the performers’ brains to the audience. The Grant Museum of Zoology will open its doors to Vigil, an exciting new performance by award-winning artist Tom Bailey in response to the museum’s unique zoology collection. What’s a Cinnamon-coloured Cryptic Tree Hunter, a Problematic Flasher, a Dusky Seaside Sparrow, or a Fire Millipede from Hell? Vigil is a wild, playful encounter with internationally threatened species and excavates the moving, poetic, often comic qualities in these names, exploring the human experience of mass animal disappearance in a poignant and artistic way. City Imaginaries (17/5) in the Bloomsbury Studio includes an evening of artists in performance and conversation including Melz (grime MC) and Shama Rahman (sitar singer-songwriter); exploring how different music and dance cultures shape diverse neighbourhoods and urban narratives in large cosmopolitan cities.

Sylvia Kluczewski, Producer (Theatre), UCL Culture says: “Performance Lab is an exciting new programme from UCL Culture, which will make public the university’s cutting edge research in a creative experiment with some of the UK’s most innovative artists, musicians and theatre-makers. The university’s recently refurbished Bloomsbury Theatre and world-class museums will welcome academic and artistic communities to develop and to share their work with peers, students and the general public. This first season will generate new ideas and ways of working through workshops, talks and new collaborations, as well as presenting an eclectic range of public performances. At its heart, the programme unpicks the relationship between academics, artists and live performance, investigating how these collaborations can help us to see the world more clearly. How does live performance animate research and research inspire great art - we invite the audience to explore with us.”

PERFORMANCE LAB is an exciting new fixture at UCL’s venues including the Bloomsbury Theatre - the home of innovative performance.

PERFORMANCE LAB’s Autumn Season 2019 will continue to develop and grow with more live performance and creative experiments highlighting the extraordinary synergy between culture and research pumping through the veins of UCL - bringing the arts and scientific research together.

See full listings information below……

Experimenting with Art & Research Monday 29 April, Bloomsbury Theatre 10.00-15.00 - Free A free symposium on how performance can animate research – and how research can inspire art.

The Science of Laughter Thursday 2 May, Bloomsbury Theatre 19.30-20.30 - £10 With neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott plus comedians Tim Key (This Time With Alan Partridge), Maawan Rizwan (who has amassed 18 million+ views of his comedy YouTube videos) and Stuart Goldsmith (Like I Mean It - Dead Parrot.) Discover the secrets of why we laugh and having a good giggle!

The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken Saturday 4 May, Bloomsbury Theatre 19:30 - £10 Rare performance of Kurt Weill comedy opera. Paris in 1914, and five anarchists infiltrate the studio of Angèle. The plan: impersonate her / place a gun in her camera / assassinate the Tsar. Followed by discussion with researchers from UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies shedding new light on this rarely performed comic opera. Cast includes baritone Edmund Danon (Tsar), Anna Sideris (False Angele), Patricia Auchterlonie (Angele) and Joanna Harries (Leader), with full orchestra conducted by Johann Stuckenbruck.

MUSO Tuesday 7 May, Bloomsbury Theatre 19:30 - £10 The world’s only improvising opera company, Impropera, reveals the untold stories of objects from UCL museums.

The Dionysian Friday 10 May, Bloomsbury Theatre, 19:30 - £5 German-Syrian actress Corinne Jaber (My Sweet Land – Young Vic) performs in the new play The Dionysian by theatre director Gregory Thompson based on the work of Professor of Philosophy Dr Tom Stern. An exploration of Philosophy and Theatre that examines the desire to understand and the need to feel. Dionysians want to experience life fully. Can we do that in a theatre? From Moliere's death onstage during The Miser, to Tommy Cooper's heart attack live on television, the real and the staged are for some time indistinguishable. This show starts with Socrates via Nietzsche - let's get our tragedy on.

Deconstructing the Dream Wednesday 15 & Thursday 16 May, Bloomsbury Theatre 19:30 - £10 A Shakespeare performance with Flute Theatre like no other, with new technology that shows what’s happening in the actors’ brains.

Acoustic Cities: London and Beirut Wednesday 15 May, Bloomsbury Studio 17.30-19.30 - Free to attend, RSVP required Artists and scholars from Lebanon and the UK present a free evening of soundscapes inspired by the city. Cities Imaginaries Friday 17 May Bloomsbury Studio Free Studio panel discussion 14.00-17.30 - Free Studio evening performance 19.30-21.00 - £10 Discuss the relationship between music and the city followed by a live performance. Afternoon of panels brings together academics, artists and researchers to discuss the relationship that music has to the city as socio-cultural, economic, historical and political. Evening presents artists in performance and conversation including Melz (grime MC) and Shama Rahman (sitar singer-songwriter); exploring how different music and dance cultures shape diverse neighbourhoods and urban narratives in large cosmopolitan cities.

Man & God Saturday 18 May, Bloomsbury Studio 19.30 - £10 An original musical about the inventors of Kodachrome, Mannes and Godowsky - the incredible story of the birth of colour photography taking in Gershwin, Einstein and Hitler.

Vigil Thursday 6 & Friday 7 June at the Grant Museum of Zoology 18.30 - £5 A wild encounter with internationally threatened animals, devised by artist Tom Bailey with UCL researchers A Cinnamon-coloured Cryptic Tree Hunter. A Problematic Flasher. Dusky Seaside Sparrow. Fire Millipede from Hell… Vigil is a wild, playful encounter with internationally threatened species. In collaboration with UCL researchers, performer Tom Bailey explores today’s mass animal disappearance.

Every Body is an Archive Thursday 20 June, Bloomsbury Studio 19.00 - £6 Artist Liz Orton explores medical imaging technologies to see the body as a new kind of archive.

Notes to editors: About UCL Culture From art to zoology, Egyptology to performance, science and beyond: UCL Culture cares for the university’s world-class spaces and collections. We are home to the Grant Museum of Zoology, Octagon Gallery, Pathology Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and UCL Art Museum, as well as the Bloomsbury Theatre and art in the public realm. Nearly all our venues and opportunities are free to enjoy and open to all. Come and play a part in our ground-breaking research and learning at UCL. ucl.ac.uk/culture | Twitter @ucl_culture | Instagram @uclculture About UCL (University College London) UCL was founded in 1826. We were the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to open up university education to those previously excluded from it, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. UCL currently has over 41,500 students from 150 countries and over 12,500 staff. www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV Image credit: Skeleton audience Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL

Songs of Love and Life with Marek Rymaszewski

An evening of the most beautiful and extraordinary songs by musician Marek Rymaszewski – whose remarkable life has experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows. For 3 performances only in the West End’s intimate cabaret room Above The Arts, Arts Theatre, 12-14 February 2019 at 8.30pm.

“David Bowie meets The Eagles on a very dark night and Marek’s as good as both of them. There is an eerie haunting quality to what he does and a shameless love of beauty and excess in life and art." - Robin Millar CBE, one of the world's most successful record producers with over 150 gold, silver and platinum discs, 44 No1 hits and 55 million record sales to his credit.

An unique opportunity to hear the inimitable musician Marek Rymaszewski perform his songs which have never before been performed live in concert - and now must be heard.

Highest of Highs Lowest of Lows Songs of Love & Life with Marek Rymaszewski, is a revealing concert of Marek‘s rollercoaster life and career as he muses on success, failure, life, love and survival through his songs with Marek singing at the piano, plus cello and guest vocalists.

Marek’s unbelievable world segues through his songs like The Pretenders’ Death Is Not Enough (“you wrote a classic” - lead singer Chrissie Hynde) to songs he recorded with Steve Gadd, Simon Phillips, Kiki Dee & Pino Palladino and No1 hits in Europe. Along the way donning the corporate suit as Head of Digital at BT and consultant at the cutting edge of Internet technology.

Marek’s career started as a 7 year old piano prodigy taught by Jean Johnstone (Mrs Lloyd Webber) and onwards to Marek’s successful 2007 Profumo Affair musical A Model Girl – also a subject tackled by one of Mrs Lloyd Webber’s sons with Stephen Ward - highest of highs lowest of lows…..

Highest of Highs Lowest of Lows Songs of Love & Life with Marek Rymaszewski - in 75 minutes the audience will understand how passions can lead to laughter and ecstasy but also to despair and destruction.

The perfect antidote to Valentine’s Day

Harry Nilsson: "Thanks for that, you're a better story-teller than John Lennon.”

Produced by The Stable and script by Nikki Racklin (multi award winning web series Cuckoo, Love Me To Death - Barbican Pit).

The Stable presents 3 NIGHTS ONLY! 12, 13, 14 FEBRUARY 2019

An evening of the most beautiful and extraordinary songs by musician Marek Rymaszewski – whose remarkable life has experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows. For 3 performances only at the intimate cabaret room Above The Arts Theatre.

TUESDAY 12 FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY 13 FEBRUARY THURSDAY 14 FEBRUARY (VALENTINE’S DAY)

Time: 8.30pm - 9.45pm

Venue: Above The Arts, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport St, London WC2H 7JB

Box Office: 0207 836 8463

artstheatrewestend.co.uk

Tickets: £10 - Cabaret seating and bar (capacity 60)

Download PDF Press Release... HIGHEST OF THE HIGHS - LOWEST OF THE LOWS - FINAL RELEASE.pdf

Marking 35 years of one of the most enduring picture books of all time, a new special edition of BADGER’S PARTING GIFTS by Susan Varley includes a child friendly sharing guide from charity Child Bereavement UK, published by Andersen Press on Wednesday 30 January 2019.

BADGER’S PARTING GIFTS is the beautiful, sensitive and accessible multi award-winning picture book about losing a loved one which has become a children’s literary phenomenon: translated into 16 languages and used by schools, bereavement counsellors and families worldwide.

Badger is so old that he knows he must soon die, so he does his best to prepare his friends. When he finally passes away, they are grief-stricken, but one by one, and season by season, they remember the special things he taught them during his life. By sharing their memories, they realise that although Badger is no longer with them physically, he lives on through his friends.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, this special new edition of BADGER’S PARTING GIFTS features a helpful reading guide from Child Bereavement UK. The charity celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2019 and has always used BADGER’S PARTING GIFTS to help “provide young children with a means to understand grief.”

BADGER’S PARTING GIFTS was illustrated and written by a very young Susan Varley whilst still studying art at Manchester Polytechnic, creating badger soon after her grandmother died. Her tutor, illustrator Tony Ross (best known for illustrating the Horrid Henry series by Francesca Simon and the works of David Walliams) encouraged her work, and sent the book to Andersen Press – and over 4 million copies later, the rest is history!

'Sensitive, comforting, gentle. One sensible and honest approach to death for the young' - Elaine Moss, T. L. S. 'I bow down to this one. It left me with a lump in the throat, and I would have no qualms at all about recommending it to any child. Tender, poignant, touching' - Martin Waddell, Irish News

Publication date: Wednesday 30 January 2019 Price: £6.99 ISBN: 9781849395144 Edition Type: Reissue number 2 in paperback

Share what the book means to you using the hashtag #BadgersPartingGifts

Susan Varley is an award-winning artist who has illustrated many books for Andersen Press. Her picture book Badger’s Parting Gifts is one of the most enduring of all time, winning many prizes, including the Mother Goose Award in 1985.

Child Bereavement UK supports families and educates professionals when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement. Every year we train around 10,000 professionals, helping them to better understand and meet the needs of grieving families. In 2019, Child Bereavement UK celebrates its 25th anniversary. The charity will be holding a series of events to mark 25 years of supporting families and training professionals, rebuilding lives together. www.childbereavementuk.org National helpline: 0800 02 888 40

Andersen Press is a leading independent children’s publisher, and home to some of the biggest names in the world of children’s books, including the much-loved picture book characters Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and the Little Princess. Andersen Press is the publisher of many award-winning authors and illustrators including Melvin Burgess, Rebecca Stead, Susin Nielsen, Julian Clary, David Roberts, Tony Ross, David McKee, and Jeanne Willis. The company was founded in 1976 by Klaus Flugge.

Download PDF Press Release... BADGER'S PARTING GIFTS FINAL PRESS RELEASE.pdf

By Leonard S Marcus & illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

“It is impossible to be too much on the side of the child” – Helen Oxenbury

Few can match the impact that the beloved illustrator Helen Oxenbury has had on the world of children’s literature with her wise and superbly drawn picture books. One of the finest English illustrators of our time and celebrating her 80th birthday this year, her extraordinary body of work is exquisitely presented in this timely biography HELEN OXENBURY: A Life in Illustration by acclaimed writer Leonard S. Marcus and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, an elegant large hardback, published by Walker Books on Thursday 1 November 2018.

In a remarkable career Helen is renowned as a pioneer of children’s literature with 88 joyous and compelling books for babies, toddlers and children - and (wisely) their parents. From her very first book Numbers of Things (published in 1967) her timeless, truthful and humorous illustrations have always been recognised for their natural diversity and inclusivity. This fascinating and definitive biography showcases the astonishing breadth and variety of her art.

Helen’s unique career in children's books began in 1964 and is still going strong today. Almost every page of this biography features artwork from her picture books, from Oxenbury classics (We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Farmer Duck, So Much and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) to her more recent titles (Time Now to Dream, Captain Jack and the Pirates and The Giant Jumperee), with detailed descriptions as to how the imagery came to life.

Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration illuminates Helen’s life behind the pictures, too; as a child, a student, a mother and as an artist. With never before seen portraiture art, archive family photography (including Helen as a teenage tennis player who made Junior Wimbledon); new photography by friend and renowned photographer Nobby Clark and generous and funny stories from Helen‘s collaborators, this is a gift book for readers of all ages – nostalgic for followers of Helen’s career, picture book enthusiasts, art students, illustrators, teachers, scholars, librarians and children and an introduction to her body of work for a whole new audience.

Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration is a beautifully designed, printed, cloth bound classic and collectable book for everyone to delight in and cherish Helen Oxenbury’s life and enchanting books.

Walker Books are proud that their first biography, Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration, is and inspiring celebration of one of their original and beloved multi-award winning illustrators – Helen Oxenbury, who is absolutely part of the Walker Books history, not least because she illustrated Walker’s iconic bear logo.

All of Helen Oxenbury’s Walker books have constantly remained in print. In 2018, Walker are publishing brand new editions of Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox, for the 10th anniversary, and of the ground-breaking board books Clap Hands, Tickle Tickle, Say Goodnight and All Fall Down, in a fresh case bound format.

HELEN OXENBURY: A Life in Illustration by Leonard S. Marcus and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury - Walker Books Publication Date: 01 November 2018 Price: £30.00 Binding: Hardback (coffee table size) ISBN: 9781406357943

About Helen Oxenbury

Helen Oxenbury is among the most popular and critically-acclaimed illustrators of all time, and has sold over 35 million books. Married to fellow author John Burningham they were jointly awarded the Booktrust’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year 2018. Her many award-winning books for children include: We’re Going On a Bear Hunt, written by Michael Rosen; Farmer Duck, written by Martin Waddell; There’s Going to Be a Baby, written by John Burningham; So Much, written by Trish Cooke; and The Giant Jumperee written by Julia Donaldson; as well as her classic board books for babies. Helen has won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal twice – in 1969, for The Quangle Wangle’s Hat and The Dragon of an Ordinary Family and in 1999, for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She lives in North London. Find her on Twitter as @HelenOxenbury.

Helen Oxenbury’s significant awards

1969 – Kate Greenaway Award for The Dragon of an Ordinary Family and The Quangle Wangle’s Hat 1989 – Nestle Smarties Book Prize for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 1991 – Nestle Smarties Book Prize for Farmer Duck 1991 – Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards for Farmer Duck 1994 – Kurt Maschler Award for So Much 1994 – Nestle Smarties Book Prize for So Much 1999 – Kurt Maschler Award for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1999 – Kate Greenaway Award for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1999 – Booktrust Early Years Award for Tickle Tickle 2003 – Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Big Momma Makes the World 2018 – Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award

Leonard S. Marcus is one of the world’s leading writers about children’s books and their illustration. His many books include Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing; Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy; and Show Me a Story! Why Picture Books Matter. His essays, interviews and reviews appear in the New York Times Book Review and the Horn Book magazine. He teaches at New York University and the School of Visual Arts and lectures around the world. Leonard lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Walker Books UK Home to books for all ages, Walker Books UK publishes many award-winning authors, illustrators and brands including Anthony Horowitz, Cassandra Clare, Lucy Cousins, Anthony Browne, Polly Dunbar, Patrick Ness and Where’s Wally? Walker Books UK is part of the vibrant international Walker Books Group that includes Candlewick Press in America, Walker Books Australia, the Walker Group Licensing division, and Walker Productions, developing Walker content for other media platforms, including Hank Zipzer for BBC. The Walker Books Group enjoys a unique ownership structure which includes all of its employees worldwide and more than 150 authors and illustrators. Walker is the world’s leading wholly independent publisher of English-language children’s books. Further information can be found at www.walker.co.uk

Download Press Release... Helen Oxenbury A Life In Illustration FINAL 12July18.pdf

Underbelly & Briefs Factory Presents

The world’s hottest all-male boylesque group will grab Christmas by the baubles in their dazzling headlining show BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS as it smashes into the stunning Leicester Square Spiegeltent for the festive season from 9 November 2018 – 3 January 2019 (press night Wednesday 14 November 2018 at 7.30pm – runs 100 minutes).

BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is an insanely uplifting show as the Briefs boys blend and bend the rules with their out of this world circus skills, drop dead gorgeous drag, raucous comedy, and trademark punkish swagger. Briefs: Close Encounters is unique, magnificently slick and genre-defying spectacular show that gloriously breaks all the rules as it takes its audience to the third dimension! Seriously, the perfect night out for everyone 16+ over the festive season!

This masculine troupe of seriously gorgeous guys from Oz is led by the beautiful, sassy and fabulous emcee, Shivannah, aka Artistic Director Fez Fa’anana. The cast of buff characters includes: one of Australia’s leading circus showmen Captain Kidd (2011’s Las Vegas King of Burlesque); acrobat and clownish time-hopping rabbit Dale Woodbridge-Brown (Kamilaroi boy and proud of his Aboriginal heritage); superstar aerialist Thomas Worrell, defying gravity and tying himself in knots above the crowd; the magnificent dancer Brett Rosengreen who is Briefs’ very own James Dean meets cheeky cherub; and the youngest member of Briefs, the loveable rogue and boy wonder Louis Biggs, who steals the hearts of audiences throughout the show. Finally, a Brit has landed in the hallowed troupe: Harry Clayton-Wright is the Blackpool boy done good, an anarchic provocateur, performance artist and so much more!

Briefs Factory celebrates 10 years by breaking through the glass ceiling and explode on London’s West End scene with the life affirming BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, as the Briefs warriors journey through space to the future where there is a place for everyone. What more could you want from a joyous and celebratory festive show?!

BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS = Christmas with a glitter ball on top!!

As if that wasn’t excitement enough for the festive season Briefs Factory are also presenting two other shows in Leicester Square Spiegeltent: CLUB BRIEFS and BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL - their truly high octane children’s show featuring members from the Briefs Factory Family including cast members from Hot Brown Honey.

BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL – is a high-energy super fun variety show for all the family from tots to teenagers (4+). Mischief makers Briefs have created a noisy, fun show for kids who love spectacle, top notch circus skills, flying acrobatics, edgy dancing, pumping music and cheeky clowning antics. This show holds its young audience in high regard with nothing wishy-washy: this is something unique, involved and inclusive. Put on your party outfit and express yourself with a boogie (on stage!) at the BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL! The 45 minute children’s show will play during the daytime from Saturday 10 November – Saturday 30 December 2018.

CLUB BRIEFS – the seriously X-rated, sexcellent, weekend trash glamour disco circus cabaret club! The late-night variety show with ridiculously brilliant performances from the Briefs boys who are joined by world class cabaret and circus special guests. Get down, dirty and wet at the debaucherous disco after party - for 18+! CLUB BRIEFS runs weekends from Friday 9 November – Saturday 29 December 2018 (90 minutes).

And finally CLUB BRIEFS: NYE EXTRAVAGANZA! – the only place to be on New Year’s Eve! Trash, glamour, disco, circus and guaranteed hilarity from the Briefs boys and spectacular special guests. Dress code: extravagance! Live your best life and feel the fantasy as Club Briefs countdown in the capital to 2019!

The festive season starts in the magical Leicester Square Spiegeltent with BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS – where all your Christmas wishes come true!

And enjoy as Christmas in Leicester Square is transformed into a wintery haven - the destination for all your festive fun with Santa’s Grotto, Christmas market, bars and food!

"Spectacular" — ★★★★★ Time Out WINNER “Best Circus” — Perth World Fringe Festival 2018

BRIEFS: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Director: Fez Fa’anana Musical Director: Busty Beatz Lighting Design: Paul Lim Costume Design: Dallas Dellaforce Executive Producer: Linda Catalano

Cast includes: Host: Fez Fa’anana Captain Kidd Thomas Worrell Louis Biggs Harry Clayton-Wright Dale Woodbridge-Brown Brett Rosengreen

Download Press Release... BRIEFS CLOSE ENCOUNTERS lands in LEICESTER SQUARE SPIEGELTENT - Press Release.pdf

A fantastic cast are lined up to star in BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL, as it arrives in London for the first time in November! The acclaimed high-octane children’s show, headlines the children’s live shows in the magical Leicester Square Spiegeltent from Saturday 10 November – Sunday 30 December 2018.

BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL is a high-energy super fun variety, burlesque, cabaret show for all the family, from tots to teenagers. Mischief makers Briefs Factory have created a noisy fun show for kids who love spectacle, wild circus skills, flying acrobatics, edgy dancing, pumping music, spectacular aerialists, eye popping party tricks and cheeky clowning antics. A show where the audience gasp and laugh out loud at the world class ridiculous acts of amazement.

The multi-talented cast of BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL includes: Lisa Fa’alafi insanely smart and sharp theatre-maker (co-creator/director Brat Kids Carnival + Hot Brown Honey) hosting is the award-winning cabaret artist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Vicky Falconer Pritchard with her joyous musicality and wicked sense of humour; Mr Monkey (Second Coming, Las Vegas King of Burlesque 2012) escapes from the USA to bring his naughty clowning, magical fire and exciting acrobatics; Luke Hubbard (Briefs: Close Encounters, ABC3 kids TV You’re Skitting Me) brings his award winning circus acrobatics, tumbling and hand balance performance; Crystal Stacey (Hot Brown Honey) shines from up high with her super fun aerial routines and hoops; the role of Marjorie giant puppet alien and Party Panda is played by Yami “Rowdy” Lofvenberg (Hot Brown Honey); plus world renowned cyr wheel artist Rowan Thomas with his comedic and amazingly unique acrobatics on the cyr wheel.

Expect jaw-dropping skills from the cast alongside warmth and excitement for all the brat kids! Put on your party outfit and express yourself with a boogie (on stage!) at the fun and inclusive BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL!

The brilliant Australian Briefs Factory has created their 45 minute children’s show specially to get youngsters excited about circus and getting on stage. BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL will play during the day in the stunning Leicester Square Spiegeltent and features members of the Briefs Factory Family including: the naughty acrobat Mr Monkey all the way from New York, circus supremo Captain Kidd from Briefs: Close Encounters and the girls from the award-winning Hot Brown Honey, ready to raise the roof with circus skills and vocal prowess! A fantastically noisy, fun, silly afternoon for all ages – not just for mum and dad – but they can come too! So grab a hula hoop and join the carnival!

'It’s a rare thing that a children’s piece holds its young audience in such high regard... no wishy-washy storytelling: this is as hardcore as you get for children. ★★★★★' - The Irish Times

“Best Kids Shows” Melbourne Comedy Festival 2018 – Herald Sun

The festive season starts in Leicester Square with BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL – where all your Christmas wishes come true. Christmas in Leicester Square is transformed into a wintery haven and is the destination for all the family’s festive fun including: Santa’s Grotto, a European-style Christmas market, yummy drinks and food and BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL!

Underbelly & Briefs Factory Presents In the stunning LEICESTER SQUARE SPIEGELTENT Plus Santa’s Grotto, Christmas market, food and drinks all at CHRISTMAS IN LEICESTER SQUARE (09/11/18-06/01/19)

Venue: Leicester Square Spiegeltent, Leicester Square Gardens, Leicester Square, WC2H 7NA

Leicester Square site open: 09/11/18-06/01/19. Monday - Friday 12pm - 10pm, Saturday - Sunday 10am - 10pm

For full programme information on BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL and all shows + Santa’s Grotto, European-Style Christmas market, drinks and foods:

Box Office: www.christmasinleicestersquare.com 0333 344 4167

BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL – high-energy super fun variety show for all the family Dates: Saturday 10 November 2018 – Sunday 30 December Times: Saturday: 11am and 1pm Sunday: 1pm and 3pm Wednesday – Friday from 12 December: 3pm Running Time: 45 mins – no interval Age: Tots to teenagers – recommended 4+

Ticket Prices: Saturday and Sunday – Stalls £15.50/ Family Price £13.75 (per ticket. 4 tickets required) Wednesday – Friday – Stalls £11.50/ Family Price £10.25 (per ticket. 4 tickets required)

Download Press Release... BRAT KIDS CARNIVAL boogies into the magical Leicester Square Spiegeltent_.pdf

Featuring Dame Cleo Laine, Germaine Acogny, Richard Alston, Alfred Brendel, Cheryl Campbell, Lavinia Co-op, Christopher Green, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Judith Kerr OBE, Zandra Rhodes, Nawal El Saadawi, Valda Setterfield and many more

(B)old festival: Monday 14 – Sunday 20 May 2018

Southbank Centre today announces (B)old, a brand new festival celebrating age and creativity, supported by The Baring Foundation. Championing new and established artists aged 65 years and over, (B)old features a week of vibrant programming from Monday 14 – Sunday 20 May 2018 taking place across Southbank Centre’s 17 acre site including the newly reopened Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room.

(B)old explores and challenges cultural perspectives of age and the role it plays in arts and society, as well as the impact of creating and experiencing art at a later age. The new festival offers something for all ages and showcases work from artists across dance, music, theatre, visual art and literature. The programme features free events and activities, and an array of engaging workshops, talks and debates bringing the idea of ‘age’ into discussion.

Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre said:

(B)old is just that, a bold new festival showcasing the work of older artists, and celebrating age as a powerful force in arts and culture. We're looking forward to exploring and challenging cultural perceptions of growing older - both in the arts and in modern society.

We are very grateful for The Baring Foundation’s support in making this festival happen. Their work in the field of ageing is exemplary and leads us into powerful conversations and ideas about age and creativity.

David Cutler, Director of The Baring Foundation said:

The Baring Foundation has been championing creative ageing across the UK since 2010. There could be no better climax to this support than the Southbank Centre’s (B)old festival. It will make ageing a highpoint of the arts calendar.

(B)old highlights include:

• Fashionista Zandra Rhodes will open the festival on the morning of Monday 14 May, by raising the flags that she has designed exclusively for the roof of Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

• Legendary reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson delves into his journey from Black Panther to internationally acclaimed poet, and a career spanning more than 40 years, in a special in conversation with Robin Denselow (14 May, QEH).

• Dame Cleo Laine - one of the world’s most original and loved jazz singers steps out on stage for An Evening With Dame Cleo Laine, an intimate evening looking at her extraordinary career, with vibrant conversation, music and song with her band and a special guest appearance from Jacqui Dankworth (18 May, RFH).

• (B)old – International Symposium Of Creative Ageing looks closely at how other countries and their societies are leading the way when it comes to how they treat their aging population, with keynote events and performances from attending artists from countries including Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Netherlands (18 May, Level 5 Function Room).

• New York dance legend Valda Setterfield performs Lear, a deeply personal and riveting interpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, choreographed by John Scott (20 May, QEH).

• Up Yours! a vibrant new commission about queer life over the last half century, as the legendary Drag Queen Lavinia Co-op, performs, dances and shares memories and reflections of her extraordinary career (19 May, Purcell Room).

• Acclaimed writer and illustrator Judith Kerr OBE, best known for The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog series, discusses her life, career and her creativity in later years, in conversation with Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly CBE (19 May, Purcell Room).

• BAFTA award-winning actress Cheryl Campbell performs Moving The Goalposts, a moving new monologue and true story about surviving cancer after having said goodbye, by Juliet Ace and directed by the renowned Shared Experience’s Nancy Meckler (20 May, Purcell Room).

• Southbank Centre will be the venue to celebrate Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding with a free 7 hour party extravaganza 21st Century Tea Dance Party including: tea and a giant wedding cake, wedding outfit catwalk, circus acts, tea-trolley dance troop, DJ and live coverage of the wedding in Windsor on the big screen. This will all be hosted by the glamourous Ida Barr, played by Olivier-award winning Christopher Green (19 May).

• Poet and Playwright Tony Harrison – who began his performance career in the 1960s as part of Southbank Centre's Poetry International – reads his acclaimed elegy Polygons followed by an in-conversation and Q&A with Jude Kelly CBE (16 May, Purcell Room).

• Nawal El Saadawi, one of the most important writers to come out of the Arab world, discusses her life and drawings (19 May, QEH).

• Olivier award-winning writer and performer Christopher Green invites participants to attend a welcome meeting for residential care in this experimental theatre piece Welcome to the Home (20 May, Level 5 Function Room).

• The formidable pianist Alfred Brendel talks about the music that inspires his life and work (20 May, Purcell Room).

• Renowned choreographer and Artistic Director of The Place Richard Alston discusses his extensive career in dance (19 May, Purcell Room).

• Choreographer and performer Liz Aggiss explores sexual taboos and mature womanhood in the provocative dance and performance piece Slap and Tickle (18 May, Purcell Room).

• Mother of contemporary African dance Germaine Acogny performs the explosive new work Mon elue noir (My Black Chosen One): Sacre #2 (18 May, QEH).

• From their beds, older performers from Entelechy Arts share glimpses into the secret lives of so many of their generation, in their street performance Bed. Performances scattered across outside areas of Southbank Centre (19 & 20 May).

• Panel discussions explore issues including the impact age has on artistic practice, and how to stay relevant. Age and sex are liberated in Sex After Dawn; the idea of an optimal age is dissected in Prime and Fashion Fades Only Style Remains sees a discussion of bold confidence or seeming invisibility in older age in beauty, fashion and style.

• A multitude of free events throughout the festival include the late night (B)old’s After Show Party celebrating growing old disgracefully; and a scientific experiment with artist Charlie Murphy and neurological biochemist Dr Selina Wray at the Neuronal Disco – creating the extraordinary patterns of brain cells, with disco dancing.

For more information or to buy tickets please visit the Southbank Centre website
or call 020 3879 9555

Join the conversation @southbankcentre

Press images for (B)old can be downloaded here
Full Listings can be viewed here

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 17­ acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

About The Baring Foundation
The Baring Foundation is an independent foundation working to improve the quality of life of people experiencing disadvantage and discrimination. We aim to achieve this through making grants to voluntary and other civil society organisations and by adding value, including through promoting knowledge and influencing others. Since 2010, the Baring Foundation has focused its arts funding on work with older people. This has included partnerships with the UK’s four Arts Councils and the British Council. More details can the found in our publication Towards the End.

Listings

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON IN CONVERSATION Monday 14 May 2018, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15-£25, 14+ Hear Linton Kwesi Johnson, the living legend and father of 'reggae poetry', share his journey. Johnson joins us as we delve into his career spanning more than 40 years, from his time in the British Black Panthers to internationally acclaimed poet.

TONY HARRISON: POLYGONS
Wednesday 16 May 2018, 7pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15, 14+
One of most significant British poets of the late 20th century, Tony Harrison will read his acclaimed elegy Polygons and be joined by Jude Kelly, Artistic Director Southbank Centre, for a post-reading Q&A.

AGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Wednesday 16 May 2018, 8.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15, 14+
Age against the machine will look at the careers and practice of renowned artists, looking at their journeys to becoming artists and the evolution and continued innovation in their practice. Speakers include artist, activist and Artistic Director of Daily Life Ltd Bobby Baker, with more to be announced.

(B)OLD – INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF CREATIVE AGING Friday 18 May 2018, 11am-4pm, Southbank Centre’s Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, £15
A showcase from artists and organisations leading the way on how the arts can have a positive impact on older lives. With keynotes, performances and case studies from Korea, The Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and the UK, The (B)old International Symposium will see inspiring examples of how getting older is not a barrier to creativity, but a benefit and tool.

FRIDAY LUNCH: WEST LONDON RHYTHM KINGS
Friday 18 May 2018, 1pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Central Bar, free
West London Rhythm Kings will bring the sounds of early New Orleans jazz to the Southbank Centre. With a repertoire of lively, old-school tunes, they pay tribute to the iconic sounds of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and other early 20th-century American greats.

(B)OLD MOVES
Friday 18 May 2018, 3pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, free
A newly choreographed piece that invites dance companies geared towards over-65s to perform together alongside a choir of older voices.

NEURONAL DISCO
Friday 18 May 2018, 5pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, free
Artist Charlie Murphy and neurological biochemist Dr Selina Wray will explain the behaviours and patterns of different dementias at molecular level, all through the power of disco. Neuronal Disco is a playful and interactive workshop that will see people guided around the dance floor with ravers’ finger lights, disco ball headpieces, an obligatory smoke machine and the odd white lab coat, to create and understand the extraordinary patterns and molecular mechanics of brain cells, all set to disco dance tracks. Murphy and Ray are part of Created Out of Mind, a multidisciplinary team working to explore, challenge and shape perceptions and understanding of dementia through science and the creative arts.

FRIDAY TONIC: JULIE FELIX Friday 18 May 2018, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free Julie Felix has been in the music business for over 50 years, travelling the world with a suitcase and guitar in hand. She found fame in the 1960s and scored many firsts – her own TV show, which was syndicated worldwide, a solo gig and a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and a string of Top 20 hits.Her guest slot on The Frost Report became iconic, and she appeared with Bob Dylan at the Isle of Wight Festival. TV pioneer and broadcaster Ned Sherrin said of her: ‘every day is Julie Felix day.’ Whether she is the UK, Scandinavia, the United States, Australia or Europe, she attracts an enthusiastic following of long-standing fans as well as an ever-growing new audience.

MON ELUE NOIR (MY BLACK CHOSEN ONE): SACRE#2
Friday 18 May 2018, 7pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15
An explosive new work from the mother of contemporary African dance, Germaine Acogny. Created especially for her, by Ballet du Nord provocateur Olivier Dubois, this scenically minimalist, emotionally maximalist solo performance draws deep from Acogny’s prodigious well of experience. As the performance opens to the strains of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), a soft glow pulses and the smell of pipe tobacco wafts through the darkness. Confined atop a brutally lit platform of black walls, Acogny confronts the audience with her furious presence, fearlessly carving out a space for her artistry in the deepest trenches of Western modernism.

AN AUDIENCE WITH DAME CLEO LAINE Friday 18 May 2018, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £25-35 Dame Cleo Laine is celebrated worldwide as a singer, famous for her fascinating voice with its extraordinary subtlety of colour and range. As well as jazz, she has performed opera, lieder, and popular musicals and is also a serious actress. Dame Cleo is part of the Southbank Centre's long history of music. Join us as we celebrate Dame Cleo’s extraordinary career in an evening of conversation and music with one of the world’s most celebrated jazz singers. With a special guest appearance from Jacqui Dankworth.

SLAP AND TICKLE
Friday 18 May 2018, 8.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room,£15, 15+
Dance meets performance in this provocative and moving one-woman show exploring sexual taboos and mature womanhood, by choreographer and performer Liz Aggiss. In this exploration of girls and ladies, women and mothers, bitches and dogs, pensioners and senior citizens, Aggiss places herself centre stage. The performance moves from spoken word to expressionist movement, from costume change to prop manipulation and from the personal to the historical.

(B)OLD ROYAL WEDDING 21ST CENTURY TEA PARTY!
Saturday 19 May 2018, 11am-6pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
A tea party like no other. Entelechy Arts takes the traditional form of a tea dance kicking and screaming into the 21st Century with a royal wedding-themed bonanza of dance, music, song and royal fun. Co-curated with members of Entelechy’s Elders Theatre Company, members of Meet Me at the Albany, and artists in the care homes programme Walking through Walls, the event will include music from Jive Five, the Meet Me Choir and a guest performance from older Heart ‘n’ Soul artists, spoken word performances from older poets, aerialist dancers performing with their mothers, sing-alongs, catwalks, dancing and a big screening of Harry and Meghan’s wedding. The tea party will be hosted by Christopher Green and his alter-ego, the unforgettable Ida Barr.

FASHION FADES ONLY STYLE REMAINS
Saturday 19 May 2018, 11.30am, Southbank Centre’s Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, £8
What is the significance of style and beauty in our later years? Does the public gaze wane as we age? Is there liberation to be found outside of trends and fashion? Whether it’s celebrating the bold confidence that can sometimes come with age or challenging the seeming invisibility that can also come with it, Fashion Fades only Style Remains will see a panel discuss the importance of fashion, beauty and style in our later years.

BED
Saturday 19 - Sunday 20 May, 12.30-2.30pm and 3.30-5.30pm,Mandela Terrace at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, free
A street, an abandoned bed, an older person in their nightclothes; this bold, new street performance has been devised by older performers from Entelechy Arts.

PRIME
Saturday 19 May 2018, 1pm, Southbank Centre’s Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, £8
With changes in health, medicine, work and society, what exactly does it mean to be in your prime? Is the idea itself just a fetishisation of youth? Is creativity a function of youth and naivety or time and experience? Prime will see a panel discuss ideas around physical, mental and creative peaks, highlighting and celebrating the work of older people in arts and society while also interrogating the effects of life expectancy.

RICHARD ALSTON LIVE AND IN CONVERSATION
Saturday 19th May 2018, 3pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15
Legendary British choreographer Richard Alston CBE will come to the Southbank Centre for a night in conversation. His achievements as a choreographer and teacher span over four decades. In 1980 he became Resident Choreographer with Ballet Rambert and was later appointed Artistic Director, creating 25 dances for the company. In 1992, Alston was invited to create a full evening of his own work, including Boulez’s Le Marteau Sans Maitre, for the Ballet Atlantique in France. He made another full evening for London Contemporary Dance Theatre at the 1994 Aldeburgh Festival going on to form his own company when he became Artistic Director of The Place in 1994. Over the past 24 years he has made over 45 dances for the company. Alston was made Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 1995, received the CBE in the New Year Honours list in 2001 and also received the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in 2008.

NAWAL EL SAADAWI IN CONVERSATION
Saturday 19 May 2018, 4pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15, 16+
One of the greatest writers to come out of the Arab world, Nawal El Saadawi will come to the Southbank Centre to discuss her life and writings. Born in a small Egyptian village in 1931, El Saadawi has shown a unique ability to create new worlds in the fight against oppression. In the face of censorship, imprisonment and exile, she has refused to accept the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. A Daughter of Isis is the first part of El Saadawi’s autobiography. In it she paints a sensuously textured portrait of the childhood that produced the freedom fighter: from the trauma of female genital mutilation at seven years old to eluding the grasp of suitors at the age of ten. Walking through Fire takes up the story of her later, extraordinary life. We read about her as a rural doctor and an activist for female empowerment, and the authorities that try to obstruct her.

SEX AFTER DAWN
Saturday 19 May 2018, 4.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, £8
Does sex and desire transform with age? What does a healthy sex life look like in our older years? And why don’t we talk more about it? Sex after Dawn will see a panel discuss both our personal and societal attitudes to sex in our later years, from its representation in arts and culture to personal feeling of love, lust and desire.

JUDITH KERR IN CONVERSATION
Saturday 19 May 2018, 5pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £12
Acclaimed writer and illustrator Judith Kerr OBE, best known for The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog series, discusses her life, career and her creativity in later years in conversation with Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly CBE. In 1945, Judith won a scholarship to the Central School of Arts and since then has worked as an artist, television scriptwriter and, for the past 30 years, as an author and illustrator of children’s books. Judith is renowned for a trilogy of autobiographies on her experiences of escaping Hitler’s Germany when she was younger and for the children’s character Mog. Her Mog books have appeared on bestseller lists for over 30 years and have sold more than four million copies. An exhibition of her work toured the UK including the V&A Museum of Childhood, and she received an OBE for services to literature and Holocaust education in 2013.

LAVINIA CO-OP: QUEEN OF ENGLAND
Saturday 19th May 2018, 8-9pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £12
67-year-old drag legend Lavina Co-op will come to the Southbank Centre to talk about her queer life as a dancer, comedian, activist, artist and storyteller over the last half century. From her early days as an experimental dance artist in 1970s London to her celebrated escapades in high heels on both sides of the Atlantic, Lavinia Co-op has been raising hell and eyebrows for longer than she cares to remember. Her fascinating onstage life is matched only by her lived experience of the sexual revolution, the AIDS crisis, and the LGBT rights movement, in which she was instrumental as an activist and artist.

(B)OLD AFTER PARTY
Saturday 19 May 2018, 9pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
A late night DJ set hosted by a musical maverick guaranteed to be over 69 with no sign of slowing down or getting to bed early with a crossword and a cup of cocoa.

(B)OLD LIVING LIBRARY Sunday 20 May 2018, 12-5pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
An interactive event that allows people to hear stories from people aged 70 years and over. (B)old living library will give people the chance to gain direct access to someone else’s lived experience through listening to the reflections of older people from different cultures and backgrounds.

(B)OLD MARKET
Sunday 20 May 2018, 12-5pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
The stalls at (B)old Market will display a range of creative products and activities from artists aged 70 years and over.

WELCOME TO THE HOME Sunday 20 May 2018, 12-5pm, Southbank Centre’s Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, Free
Olivier award-winning writer and performer Christopher Green invites participants to attend a welcome meeting for residential care in this experimental theatre piece Welcome to the Home. This will be a taster for the full project, which is set to be staged in 2019 and is made in association with Entelechy Arts and The Albany.

(B)OLD COMMUNITIES WORKSHOP Sunday 20 May 2018, 12-12.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
The (B)old Communities workshop will be led by artists creating some of the most innovative performance work with older communities around the country. It is aimed as a taster session to give participants and idea of what joining their local arts project might be like.

(B)OLD COMMUNITIES Sunday 20 May 2018, 2-5pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, free
(B)old Communities is a celebration of people who are challenging society’s perception of age through arts and creativity. The afternoon will feature performances from artists and communities who are showing what work created and performed by older artists can be. There will also be talks with the creators of the performances about what drives their creativity and how their projects are impacting people’s day-to-day lives and the wider community.

MOVING THE GOALPOSTS(https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/128356-moving-goalposts-2018#events ) Sunday 20 May 2018, 3pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £12
BAFTA award-winning actress Cheryl Campbell takes to the stage to perform the fourth monologue in Juliet Ace’s popular radio drama series for Radio 4, with direction from Nancy Meckler. Juliet began writing the fourth monologue, Moving the Goalposts, five years into her cancer diagnosis. She originally wrote it in her head as she had no energy or stamina to write it down. One day, in an isolated spurt of determination and propped up by pillows, she managed to get it all down on paper.

LEAR
Sunday 20 May 2018, 5pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £18
New York dance legend Valda Setterfield takes to the stage in this deeply personal and riveting interpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece by John Scott. Setterfield gives a moving performance that explores the unravelling of a universe, parental love, fear of death, enlightenment, ageing and dementia. Toppling the gendered hierarchy, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia are portrayed by three virtuosic male dancers. Lear was originally commissioned by Kilkenny Arts Festival 2014 and subsequently performed to full houses at New York Live Arts and Dublin in 2016, and at Dance Base Edinburgh 2017 where it won a coveted Herald Angel award for Setterfield’s outstanding performance.

ALFRED BRENDEL – MY LIFE IN MUSIC
Sunday 20 May 2018, 5:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £12
Until his retirement from public performance in 2008, Alfred Brendel was one of the world's truly great pianists, renowned for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Liszt in particular. Brendel will present a survey of his musical life, considering what stimulated, formed and amused him, and to point out how it is feasible in this profession to remain largely independent.

HONEY B MAMA
Sunday 20 May 2018, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Free
‘Queen of the Blues’ Honey B Mama makes her debut at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Following in the footsteps of the greatest early-American blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Memphis Mini and Ma Rainey, Honey B Mama will perform a high octane performance of classic blues and boogie. She will be joined by Pete Spence on the guitar, Max Eves on saxophone, Tim Penn on keyboard, Mick Scriven on bass and Mick Parker on drums.

For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The Stable announces the full cast of THE RHYTHM METHOD, an extraordinary new contemporary British musical in the making. A show about the stuff that’s difficult to talk about - sex, relationships and contraception.

The cast of top West End actors are: the award winning Fra Fee (The Ferryman – Royal Court, West End and now Broadway bound, Candide – Menier Chocolate Factory, Les Miserables – West End and film); Melanie Marshall (Guys and Dolls – Royal Exchange Manchester, Jane Eyre – National Theatre, FELA! – National Theatre & Broadway); Emile Ruddock (5 Guys Named Mo – Marble Arch, The Scottsboro Boys – Garrick Theatre); Jennifer Caldwell (Mamma Mia, Shrek The Musical) and Annie Wensak (Half A Sixpence - Noel Coward & Chichester Festival Theatre, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Regents Park Open Air Theatre).

THE RHYTHM METHOD headlines Fertility Fest (12-13 May) at The Bush Theatre – and the show then transfers to The Landor for a run of just six performance showcases with audience discussions from Monday 14 - Friday 18 May 2018.

THE RHYTHM METHOD tells the emotional and physical journey of the friends that meet at Lady Pearl Grey’s (Melanie Marshall) cosy little Tea House, where the brew is hot and the eggs are freshly laid – and all served with love and understanding. After all, the Tea House sports a weathered green plaque outside, for it was once the first Marie Stopes’ Mothers’ Clinic founded in 1921.

As the welfare state fades and austerity kicks in, the Tea House is a life line for the ever-changing facts (and fictions) of life. Pearl and her dearest friend Mimi (Annie Wensak) have shared a life-time of experience in family-planning, and now they are needed more than ever. When grand-daughter Flick (Jennifer Caldwell) arrives and meets Fra Fee's young scientist Sol who is on the brink of medical greatness, can each find their true rhythm and the best method by which to live it?

With only 7 performances at The Landor, the audience will be given an unique musical theatre experience to see THE RHYTHM METHOD showcase, directed by Titania Krimpas. The audience will then play an important role themselves in helping to inform and evolve the musical to the next stage of the show’s life, by joining the creative team and the fertility experts contributing to the development of the project, for a lively discussion!

THE RHYTHM METHOD is the small and perfectly formed chamber musical, by the writing partnership of singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Gwyneth Herbert and playwright Diane Samuels. Their first musical collaboration was The A-Z Of Mrs. P, about the pioneering Phyllis Pearsall mapping an entire city into her 1936 pocket-sized A-Z Street Guide of 23,000 streets + house numbers(!) – Southwark Playhouse (2014). Gwyneth is currently touring Letters I Haven’t Written with her band, and Diane Samuels' hauntingly moving play Kindertransport is currently on national tour. THE RHYTHM METHOD is the headline show at the Fertility Fest 2018 at The Bush Theatre.

THE RHYTHM METHOD is produced by The Stable with development support from The Wellcome Trust.

Fertility experts joining THE RHYTHM METHOD discussions include: Lesley Hall (retired curator at the Wellcome Trust, specialist in Family Planning history); Alana Harris (Catholic academic specialising in religion and contraception); Ann Eady (pioneering family planning nurse, coil specialist) and John Guillebaud (academic in reproductive medicine / population activist).

THE RHYTHM METHOD — Bringing arts and science together.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

THE RHYTHM METHOD – a musical love story (with contraception)

MONDAY 14 — FRIDAY 18 MAY 2018
THE LANDOR (70 Landor Rd, London SW9 9PH)

Monday 14 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)

Tuesday 15 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)

Wednesday 16 May 2018, 2.30pm (14:30hrs) matinee performance
Wednesday 16 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)

Thursday 17 May 2018 7.30pm (19:30hrs)

Friday 18 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)

Box Office: www.landorspace.com/rythm-of/
All Tickets: £11.00

The Rhythm Method photography can be accessed here

THE RHYTHM METHOD is produced by The Stable — developing & producing new musicals.

For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Water, water everywhere as the slick, wet, headliner German Circus SOAP, splashes into The Spiegeltent at Underbelly Festival Southbank from Thursday 3 May — Saturday 16 June 2018.

Hot, wet, funny and very sexy, SOAP is a breath-taking fusion of world-class acrobatics and water – bath time will never be the same again!

For the first time SOAP is performing in the round, to create a splash-filled and riotously fun new spectacular; as the seriously crazy and multi-talented international cast splish-splash through aerial, trapeze, juggling, mop ballets and a spectacular rainy finale — in, on, above and around bathtubs filled with… water! Plus SOAP‘s silly slippery comedy, including their cheeky female clown.

SOAP’s live music and electric soundtrack includes: The Doors, Sia, Tool, Gnarls Barkley, Goldfrapp, Beethoven, Mozart and The Beatles — and singing live, is the Soap Opera Diva (Jennifer Lindshield — Carnegie Hall, NYC) – taking singing in the bath to a whole new level!

As bodies get wet and physical the frothy clean fun begins! (Suitable for all ages.)

Headlining in The Spiegeltent

SOAP Soaks Southbank! – a breath-taking fusion of world-class acrobatics and water
– bath time will never be the same again!

Suitable for all ages... It's good clean circus fun!

Underbelly Festival is back for its tenth year on the Southbank.

Venue: The Spiegeltent, Underbelly Festival Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX.
Located in-between Southbank Centre, Jubilee Gardens and the London Eye.

Dates: Thursday 3 May – Saturday 17 June 2018 – 6 weeks only!!

Times:
Tuesday – Friday: 7:45pm | Saturday: 7pm & 9:30pm | Sunday 7pm
No shows on Mondays

Running time: 70 mins – no interval

Tickets: from £20 (plus £1.50 fee when booking online).
A limited number of Cheap Seats will be available on the day for £12.50 (during previews), £15 (weekdays) and £18 (weekends).

Box Office www.underbellyfestival.com or 03333 444 167.

Dropbox link: to access SOAP to production shots here...

SOAP TRAILER on YouTube — cleared for use on all media.

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For further information, press tickets, and interviews
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Master storyteller Robert Muchamore returns with his first stand-alone novel with his new publisher Hot Key Books on Thursday 6 September 2018.

KILLER T is explosive, defiant and deadly.

Set in Las Vegas in the very near future and spanning 10 years, KILLER T is an unsentimental rollercoaster of human resilience and the powerful love story of two teenagers.

Harry is an investigative journalist in the making, and a Brit out of water. Charlie is an unlikely friend – she is a super strong, super clever scientist in the making, who’s wanted for mixing a batch of explosives that blows up their high school quarterback.

That moment triggers their epic journey together in a society that’s shifting fast as gene-modding technology starts to explode.

In the wrong hands, underground gene editing is the greatest genocide threat in human history as terrorists unleash the synthetic mutant virus KILLER T, holding the world to ransom and wrecking the global economy...

Muchamore’s characters are real, troubled and loveable, immediately flying off the page as their new world comes to life – KILLER T is a world of checkpoints, genetically modified purple wasps with fatal stings, illegal cheap garage labs to tweak a few genes for a year-round tan or become a champion athlete, quarantine, genetically-enhanced criminal gangs, law enforcement, starvation and fake news.

Always grounding his work in reality Muchamore penned KILLER T whilst staying in Las Vegas. YA Author Robert Muchamore’s career took off as soon as his first book was banned in school libraries – and has since sold 13.5 million books in 13.5 years!

Muchamore continues to break all the YA literary rules with KILLER T, by also penning the novel for his very first fans, now in their mid-20s who grew up with 10 years of CHERUB. A definite nod to those fans as the characters in KILLER T – grow up too.

First time children’s cover artist Chris Malborn AKA Melbs has used his unconventional filmic approach for KILLER T.

KILLER T – It Could Happen…

Download photography of Robert Muchamore, wasps and front cover of KILLER T here...

KILLER T coming to a book shop near you on Thursday 6 September 2018.

KILLER T by Robert Muchamore
Price: £12.99
ISBN: 9781471407178
E-book: 9781471407185
Age range: 12+
Binding: Hardback   Extent: 416 pages

www.muchamore.com
@robertmuchamore

About Bonnier Publishing

Bonnier Publishing is the fastest-growing major book publisher in the world with group sales of £128m. Inspired by the aim to ‘publish for everyone’, the group creates entertaining content across all genres, formats and price points. It is ultimately owned by Bonnier Books, a top 15 world publisher with global sales of £650m.

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For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

A new Southbank Centre exhibition, Concrete Dreams, is announced today, bringing to life the creative spirit of iconic arts venues, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room and celebrating their public reopening after two years of extensive restoration and redesign.

The immersive audio-visual backstage journey sees a discovery of the rich history and behind the scenes secrets of the venues, including Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery which opened in January this year, through previously unseen archives. Free hourly tours will take place from Tuesday 10 April — Sunday 29 April 2018. The exhibition culminates in a special three days of performances by artists who share a history with Southbank Centre’s venues, in a Concrete Dreams Weekend from Friday 27 — Sunday 29 April 2018.

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, and designed by innovative theatre company Klanghaus and design practice LYN Atelier, the exhibition investigates the history of these cutting-edge, creative Brutalist buildings with an exclusive glimpse into the world of the performer, on intimate tours transforming the audience into the artist. Entering through the Queen Elizabeth Hall artists’ entrance, audiences will follow in the footsteps of all the legendary artists who performed on these stages at the start of their careers in the swinging 60s, with a soundscape roll call from Pink Floyd to Cleo Laine and Daniel Barenboim. After collecting their stage pass, visitors are given rare access backstage, travelling through the working scene dock, visiting an artists’ lounge, experiencing pre-concert jitters in the dressing rooms and ending on a surprise finale.

Audiences will discover unique archives in the most unusual places, and a flow of voices from the past and present. Highlights include 60s and early 70s archives of live performance footage, poetry recordings and print materials from stars including Deep Purple, London Sinfonietta, Imrat Khan, Tyrannosaurus Rex, David Bowie and dancer Celeste Dandeker, founder of Candoco Dance Company. Also featured will be special live film footage of the very first performance of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (1973) and the seminal performance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet in 1967, featuring Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim, all historical moments revealing these buildings’ diverse artistic work. Original architect Denis Crompton gives his personal account of constructing the conceptually experimental venues, added to by present day architect Richard Battye of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios who has led the recent two year restoration.

Concrete Dreams captures the spirit and heritage of Southbank Centre’s 1960s buildings and their artistic beginnings - from a bathroom where Hayward Gallery’s Kinetic psychedelia shines through into dressing room mirrors, to previously unseen terse correspondence between London County Council and the venues’ young architects, and early original photography and architect blueprints from 1961. Over 1000 images of personal dressing room door signs are revealed, made exclusively for the first performances of up and coming stars. Audiences will encounter a very young bongo playing Mark Bolan with John Peel, and will be able to leaf through production notes scribbled on programmes from the very first concerts by John Williams, Itzhak Perlman and the evolving folk revival including The Spinners, exhibiting the creative curiosity, collaboration and experimentation that are the ethos of these venues.

Stuart Hobley, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund London said: “From Bowie to Brutalism, this exhibition, funded by National Lottery players, celebrates a triumphant age of post-war ambition for a new tomorrow... writ large! Truly, a festival building as pioneering as the musicians it inspired. And Southbank Centre is just that; a gloriously confident concrete jewel for us all to savour.”

Rachel Harris, Creative Producer Southbank Centre says: “Concrete Dreams is a celebration of the vision of these unique buildings that were at once ground-breaking and pragmatic, emerging from the idea that the artists and audiences were a living part of the architecture. It tells the stories of the individuals who poured their passion to do things differently into the concrete and remembers the artists who have contributed to the site's history, leaving a thrilling legacy. To complement the exhibition, a selection of performers whose work is intrinsic to the buildings – our artistic family – join us for the Concrete Dreams Weekend. Over three days of live performance and participation established artists and next generation innovators lay down the blueprint for the next 50 years.”

Concrete Dreams Weekend, Friday 27 – Sunday 29 April, encapsulates three full days of inspiring live performances and participation, with every inch of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room filled with music, dance, workshops and talks celebrating the dynamic and vivid performance history of the 1960's buildings, whilst looking firmly to the future.

A multitude of free events includes 60s Big Sing, a participatory vocal performance workshop celebrating songs of the 60s – from Bowie to Pink Floyd. Sitting side by side with iconic historic performances are new works inspired by the refurbished venue, including responses to the new foyer area. These include a new collaborative contemporary dance and music piece Our Veranda, performed by Freddie Opoku-Addaie, a new music composition Echoes in Time: Drake Music and dance company Corali’s new work 9 Windows Reimagined.

Other Concrete Dreams Weekend highlights include:

an in-conversation with folk singer Sam Lee and folk legend Shirley Collins

a late night concert of Sam Lee’s unique Singing With Nightingales

Rambert Dance, who originally rehearsed in the foyer of QEH in the 60s, returning to the foyer for a family workshop

Fifty Poems from Five Decades – with ten of the finest poets writing in the UK today, including Simon Armitage and Caleb Femi

performances of South Asian dance, electronica, pop, Indian classical music, western classical music and jazz

The Concrete Dreams exhibition opens to the public on Tuesday 10 April and Concrete Dreams Weekend runs from Friday 27 – Sunday 29 April. Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room reopen to the public on Monday 9 April.

CONCRETE DREAMS PRESS TOURS: TUESDAY 10 APRIL Press tours – to book please email publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Full details on Southbank Centre's website

For more information or to buy tickets please visit the Southbank Centre website or call 020 3879 9555

For images relating to the Concrete Dreams Exhibition and Weekend please refer to this link

For further press information and interview requests please contact Deborah Goodman, DGPR publicity@dgpr.co.uk / 020 8959 9980 / 07958 611218

Join the Conversation: @southbankcentre

NOTES TO EDITORS

Both Concrete Dreams and the Southbank Centre archive are possible thanks to generous funding from players of the National Lottery, through the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England also funded the restoration of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery along with donations from Southbank Centre friends, trusts and foundations supporting the Let The Light In campaign.

About Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 17-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

About Heritage Lottery Fund Thanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. www.hlf.org.uk. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #HLFsupported and #NationalLottery.

About Klanghaus KlangHaus re-invites the gig-going experience as a site-responsive close-up promenade theatrical performance that regenerates for each building it occupies. Akin to a duet with the building, it confronts the conventions of audience and musician separation, a 360-degree, immersive experience bringing (often disused or little seen) buildings to life through live music, sound design, projected images and glimpsed vignettes. KlangHaus sold out at the Edinburgh Festival, 41 shows at the Royal Festival Hall and memorable performances in Colchester and Norwich. Plans are currently being finalised for further dates in 2018. KlangHaus is a partnership between art-rock collective The Neutrinos and visual artist Sal Pittman. klanghaus.co

'The most innovative presentation of live music I’ve ever seen’ The Guardian ‘Throbbing art-punk noise and sexy urgent energy’ Time Out New York   

About LYN Atelier LYN Atelier is an architecture and design practice, creating engaging buildings, structures, narratives and environments. We have designed exhibitions, interactive installations, buildings, commercial interiors and environments for the public realm. We bring particular understanding of the built environment and the public realm to the arts and culture sector. Clients include: Southbank Centre, The Royal Academy, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The LLDC, The British Library and The Barbican Centre amongst others. www.lynatelier.com

What if your world goes wrong? KILLER T is the epic story spanning 10 years, following a group of teenagers drawn together as the world falls apart...

KILLER T is set in the very near future — gene editing is changing the world fast.

KILLER T is unsentimental — a believable rollercoaster of human resilience with a powerful love story.

KILLER T is explosive, defiant and deadly — a novel for our time.

KILLER T is the first stand-alone novel by multi-award winning, multi-million selling YA Author Robert Muchamore (sold 13.5 million copies in 13.5 years!) – as he moves to a new publishing house Hot Key Books.

KILLER T will be published on 6 September 2018 by Hot Key Books.

KILLER T
6 September 2018

UK Price: £12.99

Age range: Young Adult

Format: Hardback and E-book

UK Hardback: 9781471407178

E-book: 9781471407185

Export: 9781471407505

For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The third series of Paul Abbott's award-winning Channel 4 series continues shooting on location in Manchester until the end of March 2018.

The brilliant and unbreakable crime fighting family of Friday Street coppers return with 6 brand new episodes.

The extremities of DI Viv Deering’s (Joanna Scanlan) world are governed, not only by thugs, but politicians. Same goes for all of us. In our crowded world enemies can be almost invisible. Deering and her team adopt equally covert tactics to expose a few bare-faced truths.

Paul Abbott says: “Series 3 is about the void left by political parties, clusters of ignorance streamlined in to soldier ants. Whether it’s a real or perceived void doesn’t matter. Predators will always exploit a weakness. Viv Deering really earns her wages in making her voice heard to diverse cultural factions.”

The fabulous three return: “let’s not pigeon shit all over the facts” Deering (Joanna Scanlan), impulsive DC Dinah Kowalska (Elaine Cassidy) and astute DS Joy Freers (Alexandra Roach). At their sides in the crumbling Friday Street cop-shop are the adrenaline fuelled team: moral compass DC Spike Tanner (Will Mellor), genius Miller (Paul Ritter); and the uniforms big hearted Jonah (Ste Johnston), switched on Stuart (Tom Varey), force of nature Tegan (Saira Choudhry) and gentle office manager Gavin (Conor MacNeill). Swooping in to micromanage the Friday Street team is the sharp new Superintendent Marilyn Merchant (BAFTA-nominated Claire Rushbrook — My Mad Fat Diary, Home Fires, Whitechapel). They’re having to play smarter than ever to keep the lid on a city at fragile breaking point.

Mayoral hustings in Cinderly, an inner-city area of Manchester, is a tinderbox ready to ignite following race riots kicked off by an arson attack on a mosque. Fuelling the chaos in the community is leader of the extreme Far Right group Albion, Dennis Caddy (Neil Maskell – Utopia, Humans, The Mimic), his outspoken girlfriend Bonnie (Tamara Lawrence – Cordelia, Ian McKellen’s King Lear CFT; Viola – Twelfth Night RNT) and his mouthy sister Faye (BAFTA Scotland-winning Sharon Rooney – My Mad Fat Diary, Two Doors Down, Brief Encounters).

The febrile atmosphere in Cinderly ignites as the mayoral candidate anti-establishment, local girl-done-good politician Caroline McCoy (Lisa McGrillis – Inspector George Gently, Mum, Hebburn) goes head to head for the high-stakes electoral ward, with woolly liberal Mayor Karim Hassan (Ace Bhatti – Love, Lies And Records, EastEnders). In their midst is the master puppeteer, mercenary Far Right fanatic Ralph Beckett (Darren Connolly – Moorside, Peaky Blinders), forcing Viv and the team to fight toe to toe as he wages his war on both the cops and culturally-vulnerable targets - with devastating consequences.

Further casting includes: Patrick Baladi (Marcella, Stella, The Office), Phil Dunster (Murder On The Orient Express), Dave Johns (Title role in I, Daniel Blake), Bethany Black (Cucumber, Banana and Tofu), Charlotte Harwood (Deep State, Doctors), Kate Coogan (Emmerdale), Nigel Lindsay (Victoria, Four Lions), Elizabeth Lomas as Dinah’s now wayward teenager Tessa and 15 year old Sophie Andrews as Miller’s daughter Lena.

NO OFFENCE is written and created by Paul Abbott and produced by his company AbbottVision. Executive Producers are Paul Abbott, Martin Carr and Paul Coe for AbbottVision; with Philip Leach as Producer. Directing episode 1 and 3 is Catherine Morshead (No Offence, Fungus The Bogeyman), Rob Quinn (DCI Banks, Jekyll and Hyde) directs episodes 2 and 4 and Misha Manson-Smith (Kiss Me First, Barbados) directs episodes 5 and 6. Head of Channel 4 Drama is Beth Willis and Commissioning Executives are Lee Mason and Jonny Richards. Writers: Paul Abbott, Paul Tomalin, Tom Grieves and Julia Rutterford.

NO OFFENCE films on location in Manchester until the end of March 2018.

For further information, set visits and interviews please contact Deborah Goodman @ DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The highly anticipated, powerful and brave debut novel by Ele Fountain about a child refugee publishes on Thursday 5 April 2018 by Pushkin Children’s Books for readers 10 years+.

Award-winning author Sarah Crossan (Apple and Rain, One, Weight Of Water) says: “BOY 87 is an original and beautifully written page-turner of a novel about love, survival and the strength that can be found in a hopeful human spirit.”

Seen through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Shif, BOY 87 is the moving story of one child refugee’s challenging adventure in search of a better life. Shif has a happy family life, enjoys playing chess with his best friend Bini and both have bright futures at school. Then their world implodes and a terrifying and unforgettable new life begins. To escape the enforced army conscription, their mothers quickly plan how their children will travel alone across the desert to the Mediterranean and onwards to England to a new life with relatives, leaving behind all they know. But a “giffa” troop arrests them, wrenching them from their families and takes them to a remote desert prison. So begins the boys’ unforgettable and dangerous journey.

Ele’s highly successful career as a top publishing editor (working on many multi-award-winning children’s books) was on hold, as her husband’s Foreign Office job took them to live in Ethiopia with their very young family. “Our family move coincided with one of the largest refugee crises in modern history, reflecting in many heart-breaking reports of over-crowded boats sinking off the Mediterranean. But what of the stories that led these people to risk their lives on those boats in the first place? As an editor, I'd spoken to many authors about their inspiration, never thinking I would have any of my own, but now there was a story which wouldn’t let me go. The story I wanted to share was BOY 87.”

Ele initially submitted BOY 87 under a pseudonym, as her name was well-known in the world of children’s literature - just not as an author! Sarah Odedina (Editor-at-Large for Pushkin Children’s Books) says: “BOY 87 is beautifully written, it has a huge heart and it is an important book. A story that will give young readers a deeper understanding of the world by showing them that the people that they see on the news are people just like them. A story about friendship and trust, that is full of hope and kindness – it is a fantastically assured debut.”

BOY 87 transports us into the world of one child refugee, Shif — bringing to life and giving humanity to the thousands of children forced to flee their homes every day.

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BOY 87 by Ele Fountain published by Pushkin Children’s Books

Please use this Dropbox link for BOY 87 book cover and photos of Ele Fountain

Publication date: Thursday 5 April 2018
Price: £6.99
Age: 10yrs+
Format: Paperback Original
ISBN: 9781782691976

Pushkin holds World Rights in all languages.

Notes to Editors

Sarah Odedina is Pushkin Children’s Books new Editor-at-Large.
Sarah has worked in publishing since 1989 and most of that time in the world of books for young readers. She was the Publisher of Bloomsbury Children’s Books for 14 years where she worked with J.K. Rowling on the Harry Potter series as well as commissioned the first children’s books by Neil Gaiman. During her career she has published four Carnegie winning titles as well as Prinz Award, Costa, Guardian and Smarties prize winning books. As an editor she looks for great characters in wonderful plot driven stories. She reads widely and enjoys everything from baby board books to teen historical fiction, adult crime novels and literary fiction.

She likes to travel and has for the last decade had a particular interest in visiting Brazil, particularly the North East of the country. Sarah is the co-founder of SCOOP, a monthly magazine for young readers and has just been made a trustee for the Poetry Translation Centre. Sarah’s first acquisition for Pushkin, The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy was published in July 2017; her second, Dog by Andy Mulligan was published to huge acclaim in October 2017. Ready to Fall by Marcella Pixley arrives in March 2018. BOY 87 will be the fourth Sarah Odedina book for Pushkin.

Pushkin Children's Books — www.pushkinchildrens.com
Pushkin Children's Books launched in spring 2013 and is perhaps best known for the outsized success of the rediscovered 1962 Dutch classic The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt followed by the sequel The Secrets of the Wild Wood, both of which appeared in English for the first time ever with Pushkin. Other key children's titles from Pushkin include The Beginning Woods by Malcolm McNeill, Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff as well as The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017, and new editions of classics including From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg and The Parent Trap by Erich Kästner. Most recently, international bestseller The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius was a huge critical and commercial hit in autumn 2017.

For proof copies of BOY 87, interviews and further information
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Due to popular demand Sam Winston's unique participatory immersive installation Darkness Visible at Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library has been extended to Sunday 25 March 2018.

Plus acclaimed artist Sam will present, with his artistic collaborators, a one off live-performance event of the creative richness that is darkness at the Whitechapel Gallery on Thursday 11 January 2018.

Sam’s new Dark Room on Level 5 of the National Poetry Library, Royal Festival Hall is completely covered in text, writings and drawings by SAM during his revelatory week alone in complete darkness – with soundscape by poets Kayo Chingonyi, Emily Berry and George Szirtes whose new poems, on what they could not see, were also created out of complete darkness residencies. The public are invited into the dark to experience the creative impact of darkness – FREE

Timed tickets must be booked in advance, as the Dark Room only accommodates 5 guests for each session throughout the day!

Watch the Darkness Visible trailer here.

Sam’s latest project develops even further in the New Year, with a 90 minute one off live-performance event at Whitechapel Gallery on Thursday 11 January 2018. Developed with BAFTA award winning filmmaker Anna Price, expect an immersive cinematic collage of the arts — exploring darkness, perception and poetic narrative. The event features Sam's insights in collaboration with musician Jamie Perera, photographer Andy Sewell and spoken word with live performances by poets Kayo Chingonyi, Emily Berry and George Szirtes. The evening also includes periods of complete darkness and silence — offering the audience reflection and interpretation on the potent but frequently overlooked world beyond vision. Only 100 tickets available on sale now!

Darkness Visible, both at Southbank Centre and the one off event at Whitechapel Gallery invites the audience to engage with what happens beyond the visible — and to place the darkness at the centre of your perception…

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Dates: runs until Sunday 25 March 2018

Times: 11am—8pm
Unique participatory installation and Dark Room by artist Sam Winston

Venue: National Poetry Library, Level 5 Blue side
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, SE1 8XX

Entrance: Free. Tickets for timed hourly sessions every hour on the half hour, starting 11.30am with last slot at 6.30pm throughout the day, must be booked: southbankcentre.co.uk

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Sam Winston
Bologna Ragazzi Award, NYT bestseller, Art V&A, Wellcome, MoMA, Tate, Getty Institute. Sam and Oliver Jeffers wrote and illustrated the award winning children’s book A Child Of Books

Emily Berry
Forward Prize, Hawthornden Prize, editor of The Poetry Review

George Sirtzes
Faber Memorial Prize, Man Booker International winner, T. S. Eliot Prize

Kayo Chingonyi Penguin books, ICA poet in residence

Andy Sewell
Photography

Anna Price
Film maker / Editor — BAFTA winning Life & Death Row, Louis Theroux, Storyville, BBC, Channel 4

Jamie Perera
musician / sound design (Serpentine Gallery, BBC, Greenpeace, Amnesty)

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For further information, experiencing the Dark Room + interviews
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

A real-life Christmas fairy tale with a happy ending as 10,000 copies of Chris Riddell’s Mr Underbed, the original friendly blue monster picture book goes to the printers...

Like The Grinch that stole Christmas, arguably the most highly anticipated advert of the year, John Lewis’s creation Moz The Monster bore striking similarities to Mr Underbed written and illustrated by the multi-award winning children’s author Chris Riddell. Chris posted his thanks for devoting their Christmas ad campaign to promoting his 1986 picture book - igniting the plagiarism tinderbox. But with true Festive spirit, the former Children's Laureate had no interest in legal action but was purely concerned in highlighting the need when referencing creative’s work, to properly credit the source.

The Monster Mash between Mr Underbed, the original big blue unthreatening hairy monster that lives under a little boy’s bed — and Moz, resulted in the public once again falling in love with the 30 year old book — and across the Kingdom, every last printed copy of Mr Underbed sold out…. All’s well that ends well, as Mr Underbed with his bulbous nose and two fangs, who lives under a little boy’s bed, which shakes and shudders as he emerges, snores so loudly to require the little boy to wear earmuffs and deprives him of sleep – the classic picture book arrives hot off the printing press across the land for all to enjoy!

And do they all live happily ever after? As Chris Riddell says: "I have been so heartened by the wonderful support that my picture book, Mr. Underbed has received after I pointed out similarities with the John Lewis Christmas ad. I think this has sent a powerful message to John Lewis who I hope will work more directly with picture book authors in the future. This Christmas, why not visit a bookshop and buy a picture book as a gift for someone you love? Sharing a book is a gift that keeps on giving." But reader take heed, with pre-orders for Mr Underbed rocketing, Andersen Press are looking into a further reprint but not in time for Christmas — so the search is on across the UK in each and every book shop to discover those 10,000 copies of the big blue friendly monster!

Check out Chris Riddell's own heart warming christmas ad:
@chrisriddell50

Book Details

Mr Underbed
paperback publisher: Andersen Press

ISBN: 9781842709429
RRP: £6.99

About Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children’s Laureate, is an acclaimed artist of children’s books and a political cartoonist for the Observer. Amongst other titles, Chris illustrates the Ottoline young fiction series and the Goth Girl series, as well as working closely with Paul Stewart on the Edge Chronicles and Wyrmeweald. He has won many awards for his work, including the Nestlé Gold Award, the UNESCO Award for Something Else and the rare honour of two Kate Greenaway Medals. Mr Underbed was his debut children’s book.

Today, magic really did happen at Discover Children’s Story Centre...

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler enjoyed their visit to see Discover’s new and enchanting immersive exhibition A World Inside a Book: Gruffalos, Dragons and Other Creatures that brings 12 of their delightful picture books to life.

They flew on the witch’s broom, visited the Snail and the Whale, found the Gruffalo in the dark wood – and even met The Highway Rat in the wonderful immersive A World Inside a Book: Gruffalos, Dragons and Other Creatures. Entering through a secret porthole they joined local children as they stepped into the magical worlds created from their joyous children’s books.

Discover Children’s Story Centre’s: A World Inside a Book: Gruffalos, Dragons and Other Creatures runs until September 2018 – including a year- long programme of extra Julia and Axel inspired events for 0-3s, film screenings and regular visits from The Gruffalo, Stick Man, Zog and The Highway Rat.

Enter the imaginative world spread out over three floors at Discover – where you will discover innovative new characters and stories, well-loved characters and landscapes to explore… and a world to create your own stories. The jewel in the crown of children’s literature in Stratford London.

Please use this Dropbox link to access photography of Julia and Axel

Supported by: Telford Homes, Macmillan Children’s Books, Scholastic and Magic Light Pictures.
Artwork by Axel Scheffler. Copyright © Julia Donaldson and A. Scheffler Ltd 2017

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For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR
+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

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About Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

The latest book by Julia and Axel is The Ugly Five (published 7th September 2017, Scholastic). Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are the creators of some of the world's best-loved children's books, many of which are considered to be modern classics, from The Gruffalo to Stick Man.

In 1993, Julia and Axel embarked on their acclaimed partnership when a song Julia had written for the BBC – ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ – was turned into a picture book illustrated by Axel. The duo have gone on to become the UK’s number one picture book pair with titles including The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, Stick Man, Zog and Superworm. Six of Julia and Axel’s books have each sold over one million copies in the UK alone and have been awarded Specsavers Platinum Bestseller Awards. The latest books by Julia and Axel are The Ugly Five (published 7th September 2017, Scholastic) and A Treasury of Songs (Macmillan Children’s Books).

Magic Light Pictures has made award-winning animated films of The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, Room on the Broom and Stick Man. In 2017, The Highway Rat will be on television at Christmas time. Many of Julia and Axel’s picture books have also been turned into successful stage shows.

Both Julia and Axel enjoy international renown for their work. Julia was the UK Children’s Laureate 2011-13 and honoured with an MBE for services to Literature. Axel’s artwork is exhibited internationally; he has illustrated for many charities, and designed the Royal Mail Christmas stamps in 2012.

Julia Donaldson divides her time between Scotland and West Sussex where she lives with her husband. Axel is from Hamburg, and has lived in the UK since 1984. He lives in London with his family but travels extensively.

For more information visit
www.juliadonaldson.co.uk
www.axelscheffler.com
www.gruffalo.com

Acclaimed artist, illustrator and typographer Sam Winston’s new immersive work Darkness Visible opens in the newly commissioned Dark Room at Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library.

This unique participatory installation documents the artist SAM WINSTON living and creating in absolute darkness for seven days and nights and explores perception and the spoken word – with soundscape by poets KAYO CHINGONYI, EMILY BERRY and GEORGE SZIRTES whose new poems, on what they could not see, were also created out of complete darkness residencies...

SAM says: “I make things out of looking – the idea of going ‘under’ or without images fascinated me. What landscapes are available to the image maker and writer when they are only given an internal view for 168 hours? I had set off into the dark looking for views by which to draw but what was most striking was the absence of pictures and how revealing a landscape that was……”

The public are now invited into the dark to experience the creative impact of darkness in the newly commissioned Dark Room on Level 5 of the Royal Festival Hall. The National Poetry Library is completely covered in text, writings and drawings by SAM during his revelatory time in the dark: the often overlooked world beyond what we see.

SAM’s project extends and develops even further in the New Year, with a 90 minute live, immersive cinematic event exploring darkness, the written word and poetic narratives at WHITECHAPEL GALLERY on Thursday 11 January 2018 developed with BAFTA award winning filmmaker ANNA PRICE. As the event unfolds traditional cinematic forms break down into a collage of soundscapes with musician JAMIE PERERA, photography from ANDY SEWELL and spoken word with live performances by poets KAYO CHINGONYI, EMILY BERRY and GEORGE SZIRTES. The evening also incorporates periods of complete blackout and silence.

DARKNESS VISIBLE invites you to engage with what happens beyond the visible - and to place the darkness at the centre of your perception…….

over for full listings information……

Trailer to DARKNESS VISIBLE: https://vimeo.com/238785386 Photography request publicity@dgpr.co.uk

DARKNESS VISIBLE by SAM WINSTON Immersive Participatory Installation

Dates: FRIDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2017 – END OF JANUARY 2018 Press Day Thursday 16 November 11.00am – 3.00pm Opening Ticketed Event Thursday 16 November 2017 at 7.30pm

Times: 11am-8pm (1100hrs-2000hrs) Unique participatory installation and Dark Room by artist SAM WINSTON

Venue: National Poetry Library, Level 5 Blue side, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, SE1 8XX

Entrance: Free. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

DARKNESS VISIBLE by SAM WINSTON Screening and Event

Date: Thursday 11 January 2018

Time: 7pm – 9pm (1900hrs-2100hrs) Venue: Whitechapel Gallery 77-78 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX Tickets & Box Office: £9.50 / concessions £7.50. www.whitechapelgallery.org

SAM’s project extends further into a 90 minute live, immersive cinematic event exploring darkness, the written word and poetic narratives. As the event unfolds traditional cinematic forms break down into soundscape, photography and spoken word. The evening also incorporates periods of complete blackout and silence – a collage of poetry, photography and soundscapes. Sam Winston (Bologna Ragazzi Award, NYT bestseller, Art V&A, Wellcome, MoMA, Tate, Getty institute. Sam and Oliver Jeffers wrote and illustrated the award winning children’s book A Child Of Books) Emily Berry, (Forward Prize, Hawthornden Prize, editor of The Poetry Review) George Sirtzes (Faber Memorial Prize, Man Booker International winner [translation] T. S. Eliot Prize) Kayo Chingonyi (Penguin books, ICA poet in residence) Andy Sewell - photography Anna Price - Film maker / Editor (BAFTA winning Life & Death Row, Louis Theroux, Storyville, BBC, Channel 4) Jamie Perera - musician / sound design (Serpentine Gallery, BBC, Greenpeace, Amnesty)

For further information, experiencing the Dark Room + interviews please contact Deborah Goodman at DGPR on +44 (0)208 959 9980 publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The new 50th anniversary production of HAIR, the iconic rock musical runs at London’s fully immersive Off-West-End theatre, The Vaults, from Wednesday 4 October 2017 and is now to run to Saturday 13 January 2018...

The genuinely youthful cast will bring the original protest musical to life, in the intimate theatre seating just 200, revealing every emotion up close and personal through HAIR‘s drug fuelled journey.

HAIR changed the face of musical theatre and is still ground-breaking at the age of 50. HAIR opened off-Broadway in 1967, and to open this new production off-West-End in 2017 is the perfect move for Hope Mill Theatre’s acclaimed production, directed by Jonathan O’Boyle — as relevant now as it was in the 60s.

1967 and HAIR‘s hippie-hood youngsters live as The Tribe, in the East Village of New York: yearning to change the world, questioning authority and the American flag. They are wild, colourful, free, sexually liberated beautiful people who join in protest and song — under the shadow of the Vietnam War. Featuring classic hit songs: Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In and Good Morning Star Shine — and the story of youth and war still resounds throughout the world making this a topical musical for the millennial generation. 2017 vividly sees the world protesting and marching, fighting for freedom of speech; from Trump to Brexit via Syria – the core spirit of HAIR.

Like a mini Woodstock, from the moment the audience arrive, The Vaults is transformed into a fully immersive 60s venue, with psychedelic, innovative creatives and hippie flower power, 60s themed drinks and snacks – everything needed for a legal high. The audience then move through to the seated theatre space for HAIR — the musical that changed the face of the modern musical.

85 year old Tony and Grammy Award winning writer/lyricist of HAIR, James Rado has penned some exclusive topical lyrics for this new 50th anniversary production including a line for Berger in his number Be In:

Keep America strong.
Make America stronger.
May God bring our nation victory

A thinly veiled reference to Trump.

And new lyrics in Sheila’s Easy to be Hard:

from

And don't you wonder how long we can take it
The way that we play and make fun of each other

to

I'm readin' the headlines, the world bloody brutal
The terrible torture, the horrible warfare

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For further information
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The Old Laundry Theatre are delighted to announce the full cast, led by Bill Champion and Nadim Naaman, of the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn’s light-hearted, fun musical BY JEEVES...

Opening on Friday 6 October - Saturday 4 November 2017 and directed by Alan Ayckbourn. Andrew Lloyd Webber says: "I confess that this is the musical that I privately look forward most to seeing."

Currently starring as Raoul in Lloyd Webber‘s 30th Anniversary cast of The Phantom of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Nadim Naaman will play loveable chump and bachelor Bertie Wooster (Anthony in Sweeney Todd - Harrington’s Pie & Mash Shop, Shaftesbury Avenue, One Man, Two Guvnors - NT at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket, The Sound of Music - The Palladium, Titanic - Princess of Wales, Toronto and Southwark Playhouse, Chess – Union. Nadim has recorded two studio albums; most recently Sides (2016), which topped the iTunes UK Vocal Chart.)

And long term Ayckbourn collaborator actor Bill Champion will pay the titular role of the faithful and longsuffering manservant, Jeeves (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Broadway and West End including: Henceforward, A Chorus of Disapproval, Arrivals and Departures, Woman in Mind, Damsels in Distress Trilogy, Absurd Person Singular, Comic Potential; also Calendar Girls, Sunset Boulevard, Fame.)

—

Bill and Nadim are joined by a cast of iconic Wodehouse characters in BY JEEVES with:

Jamie Baughan – as clergyman Stinker Pinker (Kinky Boots – West End, Chicago - Amos Hart, UK tour)

Katie Birtill – as the cute and spoiled Madelaine Bassett (Monique in The Boy Who Fell Into A Book written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn - Stephen Joseph Theatre, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Dreamboats and Petticoats - UK tours.)

Howard Chadwick – as Madelaine’s controlling father Judge Watkyn Bassett (Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Brassed Off - Oldham Coliseum)

Joshua Manning – as villain and jelly tycoon Cyrus Budge (The End Of Something – Old Vic, title role in Roald Dahl's The BFG – Birmingham Rep);

Oliver Mawdsley – as reclusive scientist Gussie Fink-Nottle (Where Is Peter Rabbit? – Old Laundry Theatre, Godspell - Jesus, Frinton Summer Theatre)

Naomi Petersen – Bassett’s sweet ward Stiffy Bing (The Sorcerer's Apprentice – West End, The Witches Of Eastwick – Watermill)

Nigel Richards – as nerdy friend Bingo Little (The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, Martin Guerre, Les Miserables – all West End) and

Melle Stewart – as hedgehog lover Honoria Glossop (Goodnight Mr Tom – West End, Assassins - Menier Chocolate Factory).

—

A rare opportunity to see Alan Ayckbourn’s first revival in over 20 years of this jocular musical – from Broadway to Bowness! BY JEEVES will bring back together the original creative team from 1996 including: Olivier and Tony winning Alan Ayckbourn who will direct; set designer Roger Glossop (also owner of the Old Laundry Theatre), designs a new set for the intimate 200 seat theatre and choreographer Sheila Carter. Joining the production team is musical director Steven Edis, costumes Caroline Hughes and lighting Jason Taylor.

The Old Laundry Theatre’s Directors, Roger and his theatre producer wife Charlotte Scott say: “We are really delighted to be putting on this revival of By Jeeves to be directed by Alan Ayckbourn. The original show, which re-opened the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1996, transferred to the West End and moved across the waters to Washington, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Broadway was such a fulfilling theatrical enterprise for all the creative team, cast and crew, that the idea we can re-visit this piece, with its wit, pace and beautiful songs and present a large scale production at the Old Laundry Theatre (10 in the cast + a six-piece live band) is a fitting celebration for our 25th.”

Set in the 1920s and keeping the dottiness of the original PJ Wodehouse stories, BY JEEVES brings to life a cast of colourful characters, who include Bertie Wooster with his unquenchable optimism and his wonderfully supercilious butler Jeeves, renowned for his deadpan digs. The colourful characters continually and hilariously swap identities as they battle to salvage love and cover up embarrassing errors, causing confusion and mayhem galore!

Alan Ayckbourn, a man of, literally, many words with 81 plays and musicals to his name says: “BY JEEVES is a party. It’s a celebration of theatre. I was always attracted by the innocence in Wodehouse and love the simplicity and characters, which I still find so refreshing.”

—

For 25 years the Old Laundry Theatre has been bringing professional theatre to the Lake District – here’s to the next 25!

Please find a Dropbox link to BY JEEVES cast photography and logo here

THE OLD LAUNDRY THEATRE
Crag Brow, Bowness-on-Windermere, LA23 3BX Box Office: 015394 40872 / www.oldlaundrytheatre.co.uk Twitter: @OLTheatre

—

For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR
+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

STUFISH has designed the Rolling Stones new NO FILTER European Stadium Tour – which will take 59 articulated lorries to deliver the show to each stadium on its tour! The 13 shows kick off in Hamburg on 9 September 2017.

The STUFISH set for the Rolling Stones NO FILTER tour is a cool display of clean and modern simplicity.

The stage design is a whopping 52m wide x 24.5m deep – making a staggering deck area of 1,600sqm. Plus a simple T shaped catwalk and a B-stage takes the action deep into the audience.

Giving the set its clean and unique silhouette are the 4 huge monolithic towers with 22m high x 11.6m wide LED screens; with a total LED screen area of 915sqm and 5,930,496 LED screen pixels. These awesome slabs encase the multitude of moving lights giving the fire power required for a spectacular light show.

The band wanted a very clean modern look focused on the giant slab like screens, which have been designed to give them a unique 3D perspective.

The 2 outer towers rotate outwards moving away from conventional flat back drops.

A lightweight transparent clear span roof 24.5m wide x 10.5 deep with a 12m cantilever hovers above the band, with minimal impact on the view of the screens behind.

NO FILTER tours with:

15,000kg of audio equipment 9,500kg of lighting equipment
36,000kg of LED screen
134 x flown speaker cabinets
282 x moving light fixtures
4 x LED screens, each screen is 22m high x 11.6m wide

STUFISH is proud to have been working with the ROLLING STONES since 1989!

—

For further information
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Top publishing editor hid her identity when submitting her debut manuscript...

BOY 87 is Ele Fountain's powerful and brave debut novel about a child refugee, to be published on Thursday 5 April 2018 by Pushkin Children’s Books for readers 10 years+.

Sarah Odedina (Pushkin Children’s Books Editor-at-Large) says: “BOY 87 is beautifully written, it has a huge heart and it is an important book. A story that will give young readers a deeper understanding of the world by showing them that the people that they see on the news are people just like them. A story about friendship and trust, that is full of hope and kindness – it is a fantastically assured debut by Ele Fountain.”

Seen through the eyes’ of fourteen-year-old Shif, Boy 87 is the moving story of one child refugee’s challenging adventure in search of a better life. Shif has a happy family life, enjoys playing chess with his best friend Bini and both have bright futures at school. Then their world implodes and a terrifying and unforgettable new life begins. To escape the enforced army conscription, their mothers quickly plan how their children will travel alone across the desert to the Mediterranean and onwards to England to a new life with relatives, leaving behind all they know. But a “giffa” troop arrests them, wrenching them from their families and takes them to a remote desert prison. So begins the boys’ unforgettable and dangerous journey.

BOY 87 was inspired by Ele‘s three years living in Ethiopia: “Moving to Ethiopia with a small baby and toddler might not seem like the most sensible decision – a thought which occurred to me as I waved goodbye to my final Ocado van for three years. Our family move coincided with one of the largest refugee crises in modern history. On the news countries including Ethiopia were mentioned, as another boatful of people sank off the Mediterranean. But what of the stories that led these people to be on those boats in the first place? As an Editor, I'd spoken to many authors about their inspiration, never thinking I would have any of my own, but then an idea arrived and I couldn't shake it, and that's when I began to understand the need to write. There was a story which I very much wanted to share, and it was BOY 87.”

Ele‘s highly successful career as a Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury, working on multi-award-winning children’s books was on hold for three years, as her husband’s Foreign Office job took them to live in Ethiopia with their very young family. Ele knew her name was well-known in the world of children’s literature - just not as an author! Ele created a nom de plume, Florence Orton, to anonymously send BOY 87 to a prospective agent, saying that Florence was a pseudonym, as she did not want her real name to colour any decisions, as she worked in publishing. Within days renowned agent, Charlie Viney, responded saying “I don’t care who you are, I want to sign you.” Ele ‘fessed up’ and Charlie was genuinely delighted that Florence was indeed Ele.

Award-winning author Sarah Crossan (Apple and Rain, One) says: “Boy 87 is an original and beautifully written page-turner of a novel about love, survival and the strength that can be found in a hopeful human spirit.”

Ele's young family has just returned to the UK, and Ele is busy renovating a Georgian house in Hampshire before starting back in the world of children’s publishing – she hopes as a Commissioning Editor again…. and as an author too!

Pushkin holds World Rights, all languages, and expect huge interest when the book is submitted internationally later this month – September 2017.

BOY 87 by Ele Fountain published by Pushkin Children’s Books
Publication date: Thursday 5 April 2018 Price: £7.99 Age: 10yrs+ Format: Paperback Original ISBN: 9781782691976

Notes to Editors

Sarah Odedina

Pushkin Children’s Books new Editor-at-Large, Sarah has worked in publishing since 1989 and most of that time in the world of books for young readers. She was the Publisher of Bloomsbury Children’s Books for 14 years where she worked with J.K. Rowling on the Harry Potter series as well as commissioned the first children’s books by Neil Gaiman. During her career she has published four Carnegie winning titles as well as Prinz Award, Costa, Guardian and Smarties prize winning books.

As an editor she looks for great characters in wonderful plot driven stories. She reads widely and enjoys everything from baby board books to teen historical fiction, adult crime novels and literary fiction. She likes to travel and has for the last decade had a particular interest in visiting Brazil, particularly the North East of the country.

Sarah is the co-founder of SCOOP a monthly magazine for young readers and has just been made a trustee for the Poetry Translation Centre. Sarah’s first acquisition for Pushkin, The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy was published in July, while her second, Dog by Andy Mulligan is out in October.

Pushkin Children's Books - www.pushkinchildrens.com

Pushkin Children's Books launched in spring 2013 and is perhaps best known for the outsized success of the rediscovered 1962 Dutch classic The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt followed by the sequel The Secrets of the Wild Wood, both of which appeared in English for the first time ever with Pushkin.

Other key children's titles from Pushkin include The Beginning Woods by Malcolm McNeill, Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff as well as The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017, and new editions of classics including From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg and The Parent Trap by Erich Kästner.

For proof copies of BOY 87, interviews, photography and further information please contact:

Deborah Goodman at DGPR +44 (0)20 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The design for the Video Music Awards 2017 is the 26th design by UK based STUFISH for the MTV network – and the 3rd Video Music Awards (VMA). The show is a fantastic collaboration with MTV‘s creative team and STUFISH.

• The VMAs return to The LA Forum with the largest MTV VMA show yet, and that includes the gargantuan STUFISH set design, filling the arena floor and sky space with scenery to create a fully immersive environment.

• The design developed from the concept of creating a transformative and intimate environment in the LA Forum. By using metallic and mirrored surfaces, the set reflects and multiplies the performers and audience to create a continual visual language throughout the room.

• The STUFISH set is 60m at its widest and 15m high, creating a landscape that expands the full length of the arena, connecting all levels from the very top down into the bottom of the arena bowl.

• It took 2 weeks to load in the full set into The Forum, for this amazing one night only VMAs on Sunday 27 August 2017.

• Fabricated by 4 different LA scenery companies, the multi-levelled silver textured set creates a folded origami mirrored and metallic landscape. It wraps a series of catwalks and stages, merging the audience and talent together at every turn. The floor is made from white & black shiny laminate.

• STUFISH has designed 2 large main performance stages 12m x 12m each, 2 smaller performer stages 10m x 7m and 2 catwalk stage areas 20m x 4m – each with its own identity, with different backgrounds, videos, scenes, floor finishes and lighting formations, to accommodate the largest number of live performances that the VMAs have ever had.

• 15m above the audience hangs a massive scenic canopy of 18 large triangular facets varying in size up to 14m long & 5m wide - filling the sky space with scenery, incorporating lighting + sound.

• The landscape of the room is delineated with a total of over 2500m of LED lines which contain over 100,000 individual LEDs that can be programmed to chase, flash and change to any colour. There are thousands more in the video screens and in the LED screen floor areas.

• There are over 20 cameras and a fully 3D automated spider camera system built into the set, to capture the amazing show, huge set and energy of the audience from every angle.

• With all the amazing talent performing on the night, the stage has integrated performer flying, bungee, flying tracks, flying scenery, fire, rain and smoke – in preparation for the acts delivering their exclusive and unbelievable performances on the night!

Website: www.stufish.com

Twitter: @stufishstudio

Instagram: stufishstudio

Facebook: Stufishstudio

Andy Coxon has been cast in the iconic role of Berger, in the new 50th anniversary production of HAIR...

Rock musical HAIR opens at London’s fully immersive Off-West-End theatre, The Vaults, from Wednesday 4 October 2017 and is now to run to Saturday 13 January 2018.

The genuinely youthful cast will bring the original protest musical to life, in the intimate theatre seating just 200, revealing every emotion up close and personal through HAIR's drug fuelled journey.

Andy Coxon (Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, Les Misérables – West End) is currently starring as Mitch in the acclaimed London production of Yank! (Charing Cross Theatre.)

The cast for this thrilling, young and moving production of HAIR is: DANIEL BAILEY (Motown The Musical – Shaftesbury Theatre, The Lion King – Lyceum Theatre), Berger - ANDY COXON (Mitch in Yank! - Charing Cross Theatre), ADAM DAWSON (Jet in West Side Story RSC Live – Stratford), Margaret Mead - PATRICK GEORGE (Cats – UK tour), Hud - JAMMY KASONGO (Beautiful The Carole King Musical – Aldwych), Jeanie - JESSIE MAY (Fiona in Blondel – The New Union Theatre, Rock Of Ages – UK tour). Returning to the production from the acclaimed Manchester run are: Cassie - NATALIE GREEN (Wicked – UK tour), Sheila - LAURA JOHNSON (Rizzo in Grease – UK tour), Dionne - SHEKINA MCFARLANE (Parade – Hope Mill Theatre, The Lion King – UK & International tour), Claude - ROBERT METSON (Ryan in Bear - Southwark Playhouse), Woof - LIAM ROSS-MILLS (Les Misérables – West End, Ben in Ushers: The Front of House Musical - Charing Cross Theatre), Mary - KORYANN STEVENS (West Side Story – Live Nation) and Chrissy - KIRSTEN WRIGHT (Our Seasons End - The AC Group).

HAIR changed the face of musical theatre and is still ground-breaking at the age of 50. HAIR opened off-Broadway in 1967, and to open this genuinely new production off-West-End in 2017 is the perfect move for Hope Mill Theatre’s acclaimed production, directed by Jonathan O’Boyle - as relevant now as it was in the 60s.

1967 and HAIR‘s hippie-hood youngsters live as The Tribe, in the East Village of New York: yearning to change the world, questioning authority and the American flag. They are wild, colourful, free, sexually liberated beautiful people who join in protest and song - under the shadow of the Vietnam War. Featuring classic hit songs: Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In and Good Morning Star Shine - and the story of youth and war still resounds throughout the world making this a topical musical for the millennial generation. 2017 vividly sees the world protesting and marching, fighting for freedom of speech; from Trump to Brexit via Syria – the core spirit of HAIR.

Like a mini Woodstock, from the moment the audience arrive, The Vaults is transformed into a fully immersive 60s venue, with psychedelic, innovative creatives, iconic artwork and hippie flower power. With a 60s themed pop up restaurant and themed drinks; plus stalls including: vintage 60s and tie dye clothes, 60s smiley badges and memorabilia, hippie wigs and flower headdresses, vinyl’s – everything needed for a legal high. The audience then move through to the theatre space for HAIR - the musical that changed the face of the modern musical.

HAIR - book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, music by Galt MacDermot. Produced by Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment, Ollie Rosenblatt for Senbla, Joseph Houston and William Whelton for Hope Mill Theatre and Associate Producers Guy James and Joe Brown. Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle (Ass. Director An American In Paris – Dominion, Ass. Director The Scottsboro Boys - Young Vic & West End, The Judas Kiss - Toronto & New York, This House - West End, Bull - Young Vic, Pippin – Hope Mill Theatre); Musical Director - Gareth Bretherton (The Verb, To Love - Old Red Lion, Seasons of Larson - Lyric Theatre); Choreographer - William Whelton (Our House - Union Theatre); Set & Costume Designer - Maeve Black (Adam & Eve…and Steve - Kings Head Theatre); Sound - Max Perryment (Start Swimming - Young Vic) & Chris Bogg (Yank! The Musical - Charing Cross Theatre); Lighting Designer - Ben M Rogers (Jesus Christ Superstar - Scandinavian Tour) and Casting Director - Ben Newsome.

COME JOIN THE TRIBE – HAIR.

See below for full listings information…….

ARIA ENTERTAINMENT, SENBLA and HOPE MILL THEATRE Present

HAIR 50th ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION

COME JOIN THE TRIBE – HAIR The 50th Anniversary production of HAIR transfers to London from its critically acclaimed run at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester.

VENUE: THE VAULTS (7AD, Leake St, London SE1 7NN)

PERFORMANCES: WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER 2017 – SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE FOR FINAL PERFORMANCE NOW BEING 13/01/18. Previews: Wednesday 4/10 7.30pm, Thursday 5/10 3pm & 7.30pm, Friday 6/10 7.30pm, Saturday 7/10 7pm & 10pm and Monday 9/10 7.30pm.

PRESS NIGHT: WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 at 7.30pm

Post press night performances: TUESDAY to SUNDAY (no performances on a Monday) Tuesday – 7.30pm Wednesday – 7.30pm Thursday – 3pm & 7.30pm Friday – 7.30pm Saturday – 7pm & 10pm New Saturday timings from 05/12/17 = 3pm & 7.30pm Please note: Saturday show time changes to 3pm & 7.30pm in new booking period from 05/12/17-14/01/18 Sunday – 3pm

FESTIVE PERIOD PERFORMANCES AND TIMES STAY THE SAME

TICKET PRICES: £25 - £50 Age recommendation: 14+ (this show contains nudity)

BOX OFFICE: 020 7401 9603 WEBSITE: www.hair50.com TWITTER: @Hair50London

HAIR Hope Mill Theatre production 2016 The Reviews Hub: ‘Stunning’ North West End: ‘Astounding’ The Guardian: 'Sweetly enticing' - Lyn Gardner The Stage: 'Thrilling! Jonathan O'Boyle's production left me walking on air' - Mark Shenton Northern Soul Musical Theatre Review. Notes to Editors below:

Aria Entertainment - www.aria-entertainment.com Aria Entertainment was founded in 2012 by Katy Lipson. Katy has just been awarded the Best Producer award by the Off West End Awards and is a recipient of the Stage One Bursary and Start Up Award. Katy is currently lead producer on the UK Tour of The Addams Family and the 50th Anniversary production of Hair (London Vaults), which she originally co-produced with Hope Mill Theatre in 2016 - where she is Resident Producer and co-artistic director for in-house productions. She is also producing new musical The Toxic Avenger (The Arts Theatre, West End) post a run at The Edinburgh Festival's Pleasance Theatre and new musical Yank! (The Charing Cross Theatre). Recent productions include: tick, tick...BOOM! (Park Theatre); Yank!, Parade and Hair (Hope Mill Theatre); Promises, Promises and The Toxic Avenger (Southwark Playhouse); Vanities The Musical (Trafalgar Studios); See What I Wanna See and The Return Of The Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre); Bar Mitzvah Boy (The Gatehouse); The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lizzie and The Who's Tommy (Greenwich Theatre), The House of Mirrors & Hearts supported by Grant For The Arts (Arcola Theatre) and Marry Me A Little, Jerry’s Girls and Forever Plaid (St James Studio). Katy is proud to have launched her annual From Page To Stage season of new musicals in 2014. Showcasing over 8 new musicals each year, the project was supported by Grant For The Arts in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The 2017 will take place this August at Andrew Lloyd-Webber's recently acquired theatre The Other Palace and is sponsored by RUG, TRW and RnH. Other current projects include: Pippin and Little Women (Hope Mill Theatre).

Senbla – www.senbla.com Founded by Ollie Rosenblatt, Senbla is a London a based concert promoting and production company, promoting shows and national tours throughout various venues in the UK. Their pure entertainment productions include: The Godfather Live in Concert (London Palladium), Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone in concert throughout UK and Ireland Arenas, Procol Harum tour, The Jungle Book film with live orchestra, Burt Bacharach UK tours, Nigel Kennedy UK tours, Tony Bennett, En Vogue, Itzhak Perlman, Marc Almond UK Tour, multi artist TV and Live Concerts: Don Black: A Life in Song, Tim Rice: A Life In Song, Burt Bacharach: A Life In Song. Senbla also works with artists Ron Sexsmith, Shaun Escoffery, Joss Stone, Petula Clark, David Arnold and many others as well as musicals in concert How To Success In Business Without Really Trying, Peter Pan, Of Thee I Sing, and in full production Promises, Promises (Southwark Playhouse.)

Hope Mill Theatre - www.hopemilltheatre.co.uk Hope Mill Theatre is situated in the Grade II Listed Hope Mill, a former cotton mill in the heart of Manchester. This 5-storey mill is home to a number of creatives’ studios including writers, artists and designers and now home to the award winning Hope Mill Theatre, a 120-seat fringe venue and events space, with the Engine Room Café and Bar. Hope Mill Theatre was the dream of couple Joseph Houston and William Whelton and opened in 2015. After a career in theatre and time spent living in London, they were inspired by the highly regarded Off West End Theatres and smaller producing venues which dominate the London theatre scene. With this in mind and with the growing number of creatives living in Manchester and the ever evolving theatre culture, they set out to bring a brand new theatre experience to the people of Manchester. In 2016, Hope Mill Theatre won the prestigious h.Club100 Theatre & Performance Award.

For further information, press tickets, interviews please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR on publicity@dgpr.co.uk or +44 (0)208 959 9980

The stage design is by STUFISH Entertainment Architects who have designed every show for U2 since 1992. The design for the Joshua Tree Tour 2017 continues to push all boundaries of technology and engineering.

The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 is a celebration of the original album and tour of the same name undertaken by U2 in 1987 reflecting the group’s fascination for the American landscape, its people, literature and myths. 30 years on this fascination remains particularly contemporary and revisiting the album a timely confirmation of the group’s love affair with the continent.

This is a very large and technical piece of engineering, technology and art. The statement of the set is simple but to make it happen is very complicated – and STUFISH are proud to be part of the creative team on U2’s Joshua Tree Tour 2017.

STUFISH are very proud to unveil U2’s Joshua Tree design because the creative concept is derived from the original show 30 years ago and reimagined with the latest technology. It honours the original production and reinvents it for the current climate in 2017.

The stage is 200ft wide and 40ft deep overall which is nearly the full width of a stadium.

At the back of the stage is the largest, unobscured, most high resolution LED video screen (nearly 8k) ever used in a touring show. The 200ft wide and 45ft high custom built screen is painted to look like a golden piece of cardboard with a silver Joshua tree logo painted on top of it.

Huge custom designed structural beams have been designed to hang the PA and lighting above the video screen in order to ensure the screen is not obscured: thereby removing the PA rig from the usual position in front of and side of stage. U2 and STUFISH push the limits of the engineering possibilities to redefine how these shows are done.

The tree on the screen is mirrored with a shadow tree B stage of equal size that extends into the audience from the Main Stage. This tree shaped catwalk satellite stage extends 120ft into the audience and at its widest point is 50ft wide. During the show, U2 perform on each of the stages.

34 articulated lorries will take the STUFISH designed set round the USA, then Europe (in London at Twickenham on the 8th and 9th July 2017.) Touring 100 of tons of steel, video screen, lighting and PA!

There are 3 sets of steelwork for the show that leapfrog in advance from city to city. It takes 4 days to build the steelwork before the specialised touring production arrives the day before the show. It takes a day to assemble the screen, lighting, stage, sound and video for the show. The production part can be taken down in 7 hours by a crew of hundreds.

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For further information
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The Incredible Journey – A Boy and his Dog. An adventure about trust and friendship - that will give hope to readers young and old.

The extraordinary new novel DOG, by multi-award winning author Andy Mulligan (Trash), DOG is the incredible journey of a boy and his dog, or a dog and his boy. It’s a uniquely dark adventure exploring trust, friendship and fear of rejection. DOG will give hope to readers both young and old.

When Tom meets Spider he knows he’s found a friend for life. Sadly, the friendship doesn’t run smoothly. The puppy has instincts of his own and Tom has so much on his plate: a new school, his parents’ separation and some serious bullying... Both boy and dog will need more courage and determination than anyone could have imagined.

DOG is a tale of separation and reunion. The journey starts when Spider flees after a mad morning of misbehaviour. He chases a wild, seductive cat – but soon finds that the creatures he meets are never what they seem. He’s lied to by a spider, and shown pain and loss by a moth. A fox reveals the sheer cruelty of life – a flea displays inspirational strength – and a mad bull dog teaches him about loyalty and love. Spider’s encounters are all bizarre reflections of Tom’s own troubled world as the boy refuses to accept his friend’s absence. But the world is so wide, and they’ve been torn apart! Will they ever find each other?

Renowned editor Sarah Odedina has recently joined Pushkin Children’s Books as their Editor-at-Large. Sarah has wanted to work with Andy ever since she was the very disappointed under bidder for his novel Trash! Sarah says: “Andy is that exceptional literary talent who has the ability to appeal to all. Andy pulls off a rare feat in DOG, writing a fantastic fast-paced adventure with great emotional depth. I doubt that there are many readers who will be able to resist the delights of this wonderful book.”

Andy says: “I was talking at a primary school when a little boy interrupted with the classic non-sequitur: ‘Hey, mister. I’ve got a dog.’ ‘That’s nice,’ I said, as everybody laughed. ‘No, it’s not,’ said the boy, seriously. ‘He wants to be a cat.’ That night I started writing about a pet in crisis. I invented a puppy with paralysing doubts about his instincts and orientation, and out came DOG: a troubled book, but so full of joy. It was a joy to write, anyway.”

DOG – a classic book for our time.

Notes to Editors

Andy Mulligan was brought up in south London. He has taught in the Philippines, India, Brazil, Vietnam and the UK. His first novel Ribblestrop was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Books Prize, and his second book won The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Trash was shortlisted for the Carnegie Prize, has been translated into 31 languages and the movie was directed by Stephen Daldry. www.andymulliganbooks.com

Sarah Odedina is Pushkin Children’s Books new Editor-at-Large. Sarah has worked in publishing since 1989 and most of that time in the world of books for young readers. She was the Publisher of Bloomsbury Children’s Books for 14 years where she worked with J.K. Rowling on the Harry Potter series as well as commissioned the first children’s books by Neil Gaiman. During her career she has published four Carnegie winning titles as well as Prinz Award, Costa, Guardian and Smarties prize winning books. As an editor she looks for great characters in wonderful plot driven stories. She reads widely and enjoys everything from baby board books to teen historical fiction, adult crime novels and literary fiction. She likes to travel and has for the last decade had a particular interest in visiting Brazil, particularly the North East of the country. Sarah is the co-founder of SCOOP, a monthly magazine for young readers and has just been made a trustee for the Poetry Translation Centre.

Pushkin Press and Pushkin Children's Books Pushkin Children's Books which launched with its first books in 2013. Pushkin Press was founded in 1997, and publishes novels, essays, memoirs, children’s books - everything from timeless classics to the urgent and contemporary. Our books represent exciting, high-quality writing from around the world: we publish some of the twentieth century’s most widely acclaimed, brilliant authors such as Stefan Zweig, Teffi and Antal Szerb, as well as compelling and award-winning contemporary writers, including Edith Pearlman, Eka Kurniawan and Ayelet Gundar-Goshen.

The Pushkin Children's Books list launched in spring 2013 and is perhaps best know for the outsized success of the rediscovered 1962 Dutch children's novel The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt followed by the sequel The Secrets of the Wild Wood, both of which appeared in English for the first time ever with Pushkin.

Other key children's titles from Pushkin include The Beginning Woods by Malcolm McNeill, Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff as well as The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017.

@pushkinpress www.pushkinchildrens.com

DOG by Andy Mulligan Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books Publication date: Thursday 26th October 2017 ISBN: 9781782691716 Price: £10.99 Age: 9yrs + Format: Hardback

For copies of DOG, interviews and further information please contact Deborah Goodman

DGPR +44 (0)20 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The world premiere of SOHO – a thrill ride of circus, street and theatre performance, re-creating the exciting, edgy and voyeuristic world of London’s Soho — created by rock’n’roll global power house Stufish, opens at West End’s The Peacock from Saturday 6 – Saturday 20 May 2017.

SOHO – just one word conjures up London’s world famous district full of sounds, vibes and its unique buzz: a place filled with gloriously diverse characters. SOHO — It’s not just a place, it’s a state of mind…

SOHO‘s seriously crazy and multi talented international cast tell the fast-paced story of a young man’s walk on the wild side, as the colourful characters he meets reveal an unexpected and darkly fantastical world, where glamour and sleaze rub shoulders.

Soaring aerial acrobatics on moving trapezes take the energetic world class performers on a rollercoaster ride. With the pulsating sound of the underground, and the music scene that is Soho’s heartbeat = 21st century indie, buskers, the burlesque of the 50s, the 60s love and peace Carnaby Street generation, disco and punk of the 70s, Cool Britannia pop of the 80s and rave of the 90s — SOHO has THE iconic soundtrack that is….Soho. SOHO’s soundtrack includes: The Sex Pistols God Save The Queen, David Bowie Changes, Donovan Mellow Yellow, Emily Simon The Egg, Etta James Don’t Talk To Strangers, Daft Punk Alive, Nu-Tone Beatnick, Paolo Conte Elisir and even Mozart who lived in Soho aged 8 – all seamlessly brought together with new compositions by Peter Coyte.

SOHO celebrates every inch of the magical square mile, with state-of-the-art multi-layered projections and visuals: from China Town, Gay Pride, the underground, Bar Italia and Theatreland to Madame Jo Jo’s, models’ doorbells, strip clubs, bars and its vibrant streets and dark alleys.

The hugely original ensemble cast, each with their own creative disciplines includes: Anton Simpson-Tidy (Martial Artist - UK), Kayla Lomas-Kirton (Hip Hop Dancer - UK), Daniel Ash (Drag Ariel Tissue - UK), Peter Freeman & Loric Fouchereau (Hand to Hand acrobats – Australia & France), Alessio Motta (Chinese Poles - Italy), Charlee DeBolla (Aerial Straps - UK), Rebecca Rennison (Dance Trapeze - UK), Camille Tremblay (Handstand - Canada), Leah Wolff (Hoop - Canada), Xander Taylor & Mélanie Dupuis (Doubles Trapeze - Canada).

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The name Stufish, renowned worldwide for their creative and cutting edge entertainment architecture, now bring their extraordinary production values to SOHO. Stufish design arena productions for: Lady Gaga, Madonna, Queen, Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams and shows including: Jesus Christ Superstar, Bear Grylls Endeavour, Monty Python Live (Mostly), Dragon Quest (Japan). Stufish create stunning visual performances with their innovative application of technical arts, and their talents now present the world premiere of SOHO. Creative team includes: director — Abigail Yeates, creative producer — Chris Hynes, choreographer — Eleni Edipidi, lighting designer — Richard Godin, original music — Peter Coyte, costume design — Abby Grewcock: working in association with The National Centre for Circus Arts.

As well as SOHO, Stufish also have The Pink Floyd Exhibition – Their Mortal Remains opening at the V&A on 13th May – Stufish taking London by storm in May 2017. SOHO - It’s not just a place, it’s a state of mind….

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For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

STUFISH is a unique creative power house, synonymous with world famous artists and acts, redefining the live show experience and making the studio the leading practitioner of the complete show delivery package worldwide.

As Entertainment Architects STUFISH excel at delivering every element from designing the building and set, through to show creation and production. Creating for the UK and worldwide market place, STUFISH has become the major player in the global entertainment industry.

In May STUFISH will be taking London and the UK by storm with the world premiere of their in-house produced West End show Soho (10/05/17), opening the highly anticipated Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (13/05/17) and Take That’s brand new Wonderland Live UK tour (05/05/17). Globally Stufish deliver their innovative creativity for U2’s Joshua Tree Tour of North America, Europe and the UK (12/05/17).

Following close on their heels are Queen + Adam Lambert‘s 25 city North American arena tour (23/06/17); We Will Rock You opening in Denmark and the sold out German tour of Europe’s biggest selling artist Helene Fischer (12/09/17). In September, Turkmenistan will enjoy global attention with the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games for which Stufish has designed the opening ceremony set.

Already under construction in a purpose built outdoor stadium in Ashgabat, Stufish will unveil their unbelievable set design for the opening ceremony of the Games on the 17th September 2017, with a cast of several thousand performers in a live show produced by Balich Worldwide Shows and directed by the opera director Francisco Negrin.

Another major development for Stufish is establishing Stufish Asia, a permanent presence in China and Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, the new entertainment production and producing house will continue to support existing Asian relationships and create outstanding original pieces of new work in the live show entertainment industry throughout the region, including the Asian tour of Soho – post its West End run.

The presence and work of Stufish is already renowned throughout China with recent projects including the multiple award-winning Han Show Theatre in Wuhan, Dai Show Theatre in Xishuangbanna, the massive luxury entertainment and retail centre Nanchang Wanda Mall, built as giant Chinese blue and white porcelain pattern vases, and, of course, the acclaimed Beijing 2008 Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies.

Stufish create stunning visual performances with their innovative application of technical arts, and their diverse genius talents. This is the studio that envisages and delivers the monumental and unimaginable to permanent and semi-permanent buildings and structures to live productions and exhibitions: turning 12m high mountains into water rapids; 3D flying systems and directing 20 aerialists; a permanent stage with a 15 metre wide platform that can pitch, roll and travel 24m vertically from the basement to a position high over the audience; flying airships; the largest ever portable superstructure (180 tonne + 200 tonnes of technical equipment) created for a rock & roll show; 1,183 seater theatre and a permanent acrobatic water show with swinging seats revealing a swimming pool and giant robot arms.

Stufish‘s portfolio includes long term relationships including Pink Floyd, Queen, The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Michael Bublé and One Direction.

Theatrical designs include Monty Python Live (Mostly), the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert on The Mall, We Will Rock You, Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, Jesus Christ Superstar stadium tour and Bear Grylls Endeavour which they designed, staged and directed.

Ray Winkler CEO and Design Director at Stufish says: “We are very excited about the future for Stufish. With such a diverse and talented in house team that can deliver a one stop shop of Architecture, Design and Production under one roof, Stufish is well placed to push the envelope of creativity and technical solutions even further.”

Now comes Stufish‘s world premiere of Soho – a thrill ride of circus, street and theatre performance, re-creating the exciting, edgy and voyeuristic world of London’s Soho. Soaring aerial acrobatics on moving trapezes take the world class performers on a rollercoaster ride, performing to a soundtrack of iconic hits that are Soho’s heartbeat. The show is set to tour the UK, with interest from around the globe, all looking forward to attending the world premiere at The Peacock in London’s West End on the 10th May 2017.

Stufish have been involved with Pink Floyd from their early career and so were the natural choice to design the Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains creating a fully immersive experiential journey through Pink Floyd’s world. The design is on a different scale to anything that has ever been seen in a museum before – with set pieces at the V&A up to 10 metres high! Stufish’s original model set for the iconic 1994 Division Bell tour will also be one of the memorabilia on display. The exhibition opens on the 13th May 2017.

Stufish always delivers, and the studio has exciting times ahead in 2017 and 2018. Wherever you are in the world, there are world class productions, buildings and designs to experience and enjoy created by the unique imagination and technical expertise of Stufish.

Website: www.stufish.com

Twitter: @stufishstudio

Instagram: stufishstudio

Facebook: Stufishstudio

Cressida Cowell reads from her new book! Exclusive Julian Clary workshop! Dr. Seuss Anniversary celebrations!

Exclusive media call on World Book Day with Cressida Cowell, Julian Clary and The Cat in the Hat! BOOK SWAP GETS EVEN BIGGER – up to 100 venues across London! It’s All Happening At Discover in 2017!!!

2017 will be full of major exclusive and fun events at DISCOVER CHILDREN’S STORY CENTRE – the magical building in Stratford East London will be bursting with pride!

A world exclusive and a major coup for DISCOVER as award-winning children’s author-illustrator Cressida Cowell (How To Train Your Dragon) unveils her highly anticipated, brand new fantasy series – and it’s not even publishing until Autumn 2017! On World Book Day (Thursday 2 March 2017), in front of an exclusive audience of school children, Cressida will read an extract and reveal illustrations from the new series for the very first time – imagine giants, sprites, werewolves and other fantastical creatures.

Cressida says: “Discover Children’s Story Centre is a joyous and imaginative play-centred museum that encourages children's creativity and their love of stories and storytelling, and I'm thrilled to be unveiling my new characters to a group of school children there – a fierce girl warrior and a boy wizard from different warring tribes, set in a very ancient Britain. So six months before book one is published, I’ll be able to reveal my new world – exciting! Almost every decision I make as a children’s author is founded on the belief that we have to get children reading, and it’s because of that that I’m eager to introduce them to this new world.”

Also on World Book Day, in another exclusive DISCOVER welcomes comedian Julian Clary, making his DISCOVER debut, with his brand new children’s book The Bolds On Holiday, furthering the hilarious adventures of a family of hyenas living in an ordinary suburban street. He will be joined on stage by the books’ illustrator David Roberts live-drawing.

As Julian says: “I’m looking forward to bringing The Bolds to life with Discover Children’s Story Centre on World Book Day itself! I just have such a lovely time writing these books and sharing them with children – Making children laugh is a whole new thing for me, it’s lovely. No child pretends to laugh – it’s very genuine… It’s a whole new world.”

And then DISCOVER has a jam packed year of all things Dr. Seuss during 2017 celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Cat In The Hat – not to mention Dr. Seuss’s birthday on 2 March, which is World Book Day when the Cat in the Hat will join Cressida and Julian to celebrate! And where better than at DISCOVER’s fantastical exhibition The Fantastic World of Dr. Seuss! running until Sunday 3 September 2017. Then there’s the daily storytelling session Dr. Seuss for Toddlers: Scrambled Eggs Super! for the little ones; Dr. Seuss arts and craft workshops during February and May half terms. Over Easter, Kids Do Art will turn the fantastical characters of Dr. Seuss into contemporary Pop Art Icons, with everyone creating their very own Pop Art Masterpieces. And don’t forget the innovative Easter Discover’s Green Eggs And Ham Hunt!

Further afield, and out on the road in 2017 is DISCOVER‘s delightful live Cat In The Hat and His Car storytelling performance which will be visiting Children’s Literary Festivals around the country during 2017; starting with the Imagine Festival on the South Bank (12/02/17), the new literature festival in Hull (City of Culture) and more. So a fun-packed Dr. Seuss Anniversary Year at DISCOVER!

And to top it all, DISCOVER’s London Children’s Book Swap has become an explosive event with literally 100s of 1000s of books swapping hands for FREE! Their annual London Children’s Book Swap will take place on Saturday 11 February 2017, when you bring an old book and pick up a different book to take home. Over six years the event has dramatically grown in size, and in 2017 up to 100 Book Swap venues at family friendly arts and cultural hot spots and libraries across, 21 London boroughs, will host a DISCOVER’s London Children’s Book Swap. Participating organisations and venues include: artsdepot, Barbican Children’s Library, Barking Library, Chisenhale Art Place, Dagenham Library, Jacksons Lane, Polka Theatre, Shoreditch Trust, Southbank Centre, Soho Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, V&A Museum of Childhood, William Morris Gallery – and, of course, DISCOVER – the jewel in the crown of children’s literature.

DISCOVER will also be welcoming some brilliant authors and illustrators for a programme of events and workshops during weekends and school half term holidays from January onwards including: Guy Parker-Rees, Verna Wilkins, Joe Berger, Steven Lenton, Philip Ardagh & Ellisa Elwick, Neal Layton, Adam Frost, Jo Williamson, Matt Carr, Laura Ellen Anderson, Harriet Whitehorn, Matt Robertson, Lucy Rowland, Simon Phillip & Kate Hindley, Helen Peters, Chitra Soundar, Tola Okogwu, Joshua Khan and bringing animation to life is Grace Emily Manning - to name but a few! So there’s lots on for children of all ages to enjoy.

DISCOVER CHILDREN’S STORY CENTRE 383-387 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 4QZ The jewel in the crown of children’s literature in Stratford London.

Notes to editors

Cressida Cowell

Cressida is the author and the illustrator of the bestselling How to Train Your Dragon book series, and the author of the 'Emily Brown' picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. How to Train Your Dragon has sold over 7 million books worldwide in 37 languages. It is also an award-winning DreamWorks film series, and a TV series shown on Netflix and CBBC. Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency and a founder patron of the Children's Media Foundation. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Gold Award in the Nestle Children's Book Prize and 'Philosophy Now' magazine's 2015 'Award For Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity'. She grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon.

www.cressidacowell.co.uk

www.howtotrainyourdragonbooks.com

Twitter @CressidaCowell

Instagram: @CressidaCowellAuthor

Julian Clary

Julian is a comedian, entertainer and novelist, who has toured the world with his one-man shows. He has appeared on numerous popular TV shows including Celebrity Big Brother (which he won), Strictly Come Dancing, QI and Have I Got News For You. He has also starred in West End productions and appears in panto most years. He lives in Kent with his partner, dogs and several chickens.

Twitter: @JulianClary

For further information, interviews etc. please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR +44 (0)20 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

GONE WILD is literally that, as the teenagers go wild as the biggest reality television show the UK has ever seen, Rock War TV, goes to live shows! Who will win now the final six bands have survived boot camp?

GONE WILD, the third book in the explosive ROCK WAR series, is released on THURSDAY 6 OCTOBER 2016 – written by number one international bestselling YA author Robert Muchamore.

GONE WILD is a loud action-packed page-turner, current for today’s modern teens who understand the process from watching The X Factor. However, the reality of the world is shown in GONE WILD as the final six bands’ real life stories blow up big time as the teens try to live, work and play in the fast lane – with only each other for support. After all, their mistakes make for great high-octane TV.

And it’s not all about the music, as the loveable characters come with all the real flaws and tribulations of teenagers as they continue to live in the uber-glamorous Rock War Manor. Jay’s hunk of a brother Theo can’t stay out of trouble (or out of hand-cuffs); and Summer’s true feelings for Jay unfold – can their relationship stay secret in the Manor? And the outsider Dylan starts to investigate vote rigging and corruption in the competition... is Rock War all too good to be true?

With the final live show on Christmas Eve – who will win the main prize…..?

Robert Muchamore’s unique style, popularity and genius for creating engaging characters based in reality – perfected in his daring CHERUB novels – continues in GONE WILD, which works as a stand alone read or part of the cutting edge and topical ROCK WAR series.

In October, Robert will be at the Bath Literary Festival and will be giving talks and Q&As in schools – including his old school Acland Burghley in North London, where he was definitely not a star pupil!

With the final chapters of GONE WILD set on Christmas Eve, this is a perfect Christmas present for all teenagers!

ROCK WAR details: www.rockwar.com Facebook

Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books Publication date: Thursday 6 October 2016 Age: 12 years + ISBN: 9781444914597 Price: £9.99 Format: Hardback

For further information, interviews and books please contact:

Deborah Goodman at DGPR +44 (0)20 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Picture book giant Oliver Jeffers and typographic fine artist Sam Winston unveil the exquisite A Child of Books – their ground-breaking, inspiring and hauntingly beautiful picture book to be published by Walker Books.

A magical and unforgettable book for everyone, A Child of Books is a completely unique reading experience, blending illustration and the printed and written word in a way that explodes conventional perceptions of both. This is the first time Oliver has collaboratively written and illustrated a book with another artist – and the first time Sam has made a children’s book. Together they have created an immersive story of discovery; a picture book to cherish forever and a homage to classic children’s literature.

The trailer for A Child of Books can be seen here. The lyrical story begins with a little girl, a child of books, sailing her raft across a sea of words and inviting a small boy to come away with her on an adventure through the land of stories. The book uses Oliver’s signature handwriting and iconic, evocative artwork together with Sam’s astonishing typographic landscapes, perfectly shaped from printed extracts of forty-two classic books and lullabies**.

Each extract has been carefully chosen to build hidden narrative layers into the story of A Child of Books – words from Gulliver’s Travels are turned into waves, an extract from Frankenstein becomes a horned monster, the Grimm’s fairy tale Rapunzel cascades as a rope from the turrets of a castle, offering an escape to the characters in the story. Everything combines to create a contemporary and colourful thrill for the imagination.

Together, Oliver and Sam say that “From the very beginning we both wanted to create a tale that celebrated our own love of classic children’s literature with an added modern twist. For us it was about capturing some of the magic that happens when you first get lost in a timeless story, but doing it in a way that readers haven't seen before. We both wanted to pay homage to the amazing books we loved in our own childhoods, and it turned out that we used a whole library of these books to illustrate our Child of Books. We wanted this book to celebrate some of the great imaginations of the past, yet also (hopefully) inspire new generations to come.” Another first – and a literary phenomenon – is that the typographic art throughout A Child of Books, shaped from the printed extracts of classics, lullabies and nursery rhymes, will be translated for each individual foreign edition of the book. And, in some cases, foreign publishers are choosing to replace classics with those that will resonate more with their own audiences; and Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston oversee all the new selections and changes.

This makes A Child of Books one of the most complicated translation – and design – projects in literature today! Some countries have already made swaps replacing for example, in France, excerpts from The Wind in the Willows with fitting sections taken from The Little Prince. A Child of Books will encourage readers of all ages to question, to explore and to imagine. An infinite reminder of what books are, and all that they can do.

A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

Published by Walker Books on Thursday 1 September 2016

Age: Everyone

Price: £12.99 – Jacketed hardback

ISBN 978-1-4063-5831-5

For further information please contact Deborah Goodman

DGPR: +44 (0)20 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Oliver and Sam

The friends’ acclaimed individual artwork has been exhibited in galleries across the world and whose books can be found in many special collections worldwide including in the UK the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern and the V&A.

Oliver Jeffers

Oliver is an artist whose work ranges from figurative painting and installation to illustration. His picture books include Lost and Found, How to Catch a Star, This Moose Belongs to Me and The Day the Crayons Quit, all of which have been translated into over 30 languages worldwide.

Oliver's talent has been recognized by several high-profile awards, including the Irish Book of the Year and the Blue Peter Book of the Year; as well as shortlists for the British Book of the Year, the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Kate Greenaway Medal. Born in Australia, Oliver was brought up in Northern Ireland and now lives and works in New York.

Find him online at www.oliverjeffers.com and on Twitter as @OliverJeffers

Sam Winston

Sam is a fine artist who exhibits internationally and whose books can be found in many special collections worldwide, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Research Institute, the Tate Gallery London, and the V&A Museum. His work is also collected by the Library of Congress and commissioned by the New York Times. Sam lives and works in London.

Find him online at samwinston.com and on Twitter as @samwinston_

Full list of all the books and lullabies used in A Child of Books

Hush, Little Baby • Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson • The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne • The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe • Little Red Cap as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi • Hansel & Gretel as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll • The Golden Goose as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie • Tom Thumb as told by Richard Johnson • The Golden Bird as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Snow White and Rose Red as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley • Dracula by Bram Stoker • Rapunzel as told by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Suo Gân as adapted by Robert Bryan • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving • Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Taylor • Hush-a-Bye Baby as adapted by John Newbery • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum • Brahms’ Lullaby by Johannes Brahms • The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame • Around the Moon by Jules Verne • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott • The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas • The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens • Moby Dick by Herman Melville • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett • Heidi by Johanna Spyri • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell • The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Sir Thomas Malory and Sir James Knowles • Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

The Walker Books Group

One of the world’s leading independent publishers of books and content for children. This vibrant international group includes Walker Books UK, London; Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts; and Walker Books Australia, based in Sydney and Auckland. Renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality, the Walker Books Group is home to books for readers of all ages. Award-winning authors and illustrators for the group include National Ambassador for Children's Literature, Kate DiCamillo, M.T Anderson, Patrick Ness, and Jon Klassen, and major brands for the group are Maisy, Guess How Much I Love You, Tilly and Friends, the widely acclaimed Judy Moody and the bestselling Where’s Wally/Where’s Waldo.

Zippos CIRQUE BERSERK! — real circus made for theatre — opens in the West End for the first time with a new show for the PEACOCK THEATRE.

Showcasing the finest in traditional circus thrills and skills, Zippos CIRQUE BERSERK! brings this treasured form of live entertainment bang up-to-date in a jaw dropping West End Spectacular.

Zippos CIRQUE BERSERK! is family entertainment at its best, with a show that is great for kids and even better for adults! The international cast of over 30 acrobats, jugglers, aerialists (with no safety harness!), drummers, dancers, clowns and death defying stunt-men are a troupe of true circus artistes whose genuine "big top" training and performance experience guarantees unique, edge-of-the seat theatre!

Another first for the West End stage is the world’s most hair-raising circus act, the legendary Globe of Terror, with up to 4 motorcyclists speeding at over 60mph inside a steel cage! Award-winning clown Tweedy and a Giant Robot that spews fire complete the innovative line up.

There is a real air of excitement amongst all of the cast, as these true circus performers create a dynamic new connection in the theatre with a new audience. The West End production team for Zippos CIRQUE BERSERK! includes: creative director Julius Green, Olivier Award winning lighting designer Mike Robertson, choreographer Dede McGarrity, set designer Sean Cavanagh, sound designer Matthew Bugg and costume designer Dianne Kelly. The show is produced by Martin Burton for the ZIPPOS organisation.

Run away with the BERSERKUS and join Zippos CIRQUE BERSERK!

Notes to Editors

PLEASE NOTE that the name is Cirque Berserk , NOT ‘BESERK’, ‘BEZERK’, or ‘BERZERK’. Cirque Berserk is not to be confused with a similarly named American show. Please ensure that all sub editors are aware of this. Thank you.

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For further information
please contact: Deborah Goodman at DGPR

+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk

The final ever series of Shameless will kick off on Channel 4, Tuesday 26 February 2013, at 10pm.

The Jockey is calling time and bringing the multi award-winning and iconic Channel 4 drama series Shameless to an end, with one final series – its eleventh. One last series with fourteen brand new episodes, Shameless 11 filmed in Manchester. Creator Paul Abbott has story-lined the full series and a suitably Shameless finale is planned for this blisteringly funny and offbeat drama series.

Having begun filming in 2003 in Manchester, Shameless 11 will mark the celebratory tenth year anniversary for the series when it broadcasts in 2013. At the end of series eleven, a staggering 139 episodes will have been screened on Channel 4.

Shameless charts the wickedly unpredictable chapters of the lives of feckless anti-hero Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) and all the colourful characters living on the Chatsworth Estate. Over the years Shameless has been key to the careers of many British screen stars including: James McAvoy, Anne-Marie Duff and Maxine Peake, not to mention a talented team of now high profile writers and directors – and several much loved characters will return for the final ever episode of Shameless!

Shameless 11 will be as celebratory, defiant and as unapologetic as ever. With the hilarious energy of the stalwarts of the Chatsworth thriving in the Double Dip recession – always a law unto themselves, always with family at their core, living in their robust micro climate.

Stella Gallagher runs the Gallagher roost with a rod of steel – aged six! Jamie Maguire (Aaron McCusker) discovers he isn’t a pure blood Maguire and introduces the estate to his Muslim half-brother Kassi (Jalaal Hartley – The Borgias) and his Jewish cooking mad wife Esther (Isy Suttie – Peep Show) as they disembark on the estate with their four feral children in tow. Mimi Maguire (Tina Malone) makes saving the local school her personal mission. Feckless patriarch Frank finds himself climbing the employment ladder as the janitor of “St Mimi’s” School and falls into the arms of the Gastric Bandits – a prostitute double act, Sherilee and Derilee (Sarah Totty and Sue Vincent). Fireworks fly when Avril (Karen Bryson) moves in with her loud and overbearing sister Patreesha (Jacqueline Boatswain – Grange Hill) and niece Mary Mae (introducing 21 year old Adelle Leonce) ). Chesney (Qasim Akhtar) opens up a chemist section in Chescos, run by white Muslim atom bomb on a timer Remona (Moya Brady). And Lip Gallagher (Jody Latham) turns up mid series – and nothing has changed between father and son...

Then by the end of this epic series Monica (Annabelle Apsion) returns from “buying a loaf of bread”, Monica (Annabelle Apsion) is back in the Gallagher nest – and Frank… In a state of emergency the Gallagher off-spring are summoned to show solidarity and Fiona (Anne-Marie Duff), Lip (Jody Latham), and Carl (Elliott Tittensor) come running – family will always be at the core of Shameless. With the Gallaghers reunited alongside all the Chatsworthians plus Kev (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Kelli Hollis (Yvonne Karib) the only way to go is… to party!

Creator Paul Abbott has story-lined the new series alongside a pool of talented writers including: Jack Lothian, Mark Brotherhood, John Kerr, Melissa Bubnic plus Sean Conway and Jimmy Dowdall (who are two of the many young writers that Paul has mentored over the years). Executive Producers are George Faber, Charles Pattinson, Paul Abbott and David Threlfall. Series Producer is Jean Holdsworth and producer Tim Whitby. Directors are: Paul Walker, David Threlfall, Dominic Leclerc, Daikin Marsh and Gordon Anderson. A Company Pictures production for Channel 4.

For further information and interviews please contact:

Deborah Goodmanpublicity 020 8959 9980 / publicity@dgpr.co.uk