Raising spirits!

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Fancy a drink? And a sing-along? Join Putney’s Pub Choir, brainchild of local pianist, vocalist and music tutor Carl Speck

A trip to your local pub, a glass of your favourite tipple and a chance to sing your heart out… what could be better? The Pub Choir is a great way to socialise with friends, enjoy a drink and learn to sing new and familiar songs in the friendly and relaxed atmosphere of a pub.

“The Pub Choir is all about having fun,” Carl tells us. “Anyone can come along, from the most experienced singers to those who usually only sing their hearts out in the shower! We always work on songs that everybody knows – that way, the choir is easily split into two and we enjoy learning some simple harmonies for extra effect.

“This is a great way for new singers to have a go at singing in a choir. There is no commitment to come every week which is a real draw for many people. The added bonus is a glass of wine or a pint of beer (or two!) throughout the evening.”

The choir gather at The Duke’s Head in Lower Richmond Road, SW15 1JN, on alternate Tuesdays of every month, 8 -9.30pm, as well as other pubs. All you have to do is turn up, buy a drink and then sing. Each session costs £5. Lyric sheets are provided and Carl will teach three or four songs throughout the evening. With his expert direction, you will also learn the basics of good singing technique, as well as have the chance to sing in two or three-part harmony.

Carl adds: “Towards the end of the evening, a live recording is taken to share with your friends, family and the rest of the world! There is absolutely no need to have any previous singing experience or know how to read music. If you have some musical ability, you can view music for each session on the member’s page a few days before each session – your musical skills will be most welcome to support the rest of the group.

Contact Carl to access the Members’ Page and, if possible, let Carl know you are going in advance, just because this will help him with organising music for everyone. Upcoming datesfor planned gatherings are 15th and 29th October, 12th and 26th November and 10th December.

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Guildford town race

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Guildford’s first closed-road running race starting from the town’s cobbled high street takes place on 13th October. 

More than 1,000 runners are expected to take part, choosing to run either 5k or 10k in support of the charity partner Harrison’s Fund. 

The charity is named after Harrison Smith who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic condition which causes the muscles to waste away. One in 3,500 boys is born with the condition, the average lifespan is just 20 years of age and sadly, it is fatal. 

Dad Alex said they were excited to be the title charity partner for this first race in Guildford. He added: “It is such an iconic place with wonderful vistas that anyone who is a keen runner should take part. 

“By choosing our charity to run for you really can make a direct impact on a young person’s life.” 

Runners of all levels are invited to take part in the chip-timed races which are on flat routes from the cobbles towards Clandon and back. 

There’ll be plenty of points for spectators to stand and cheer runners on as well as live bands along the way to encourage competitors, all of whom will receive bespoke medals at the finish line. 

To take part in the run visit https://harrisonsfund.com/events.php/Runs-Walks-1/ 

If you prefer your entertainment to be more stylish then how about going to the Sky High Ball on 18th October. Now in its seventh year, the ball is the highlight of Harrison’s Fund’s year. After champagne on arrival, you’ll enjoy dinner with wine, table games, a goody bag for the ladies and the opportunity to bid in the silent and live auctions. 

More info

To find out more about this great event and to book a table…

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A-Wey day at Wharf

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Illuminated boat pageant at dusk is the highlight of a day beside the river

Fingers crossed the sun shines again as boaters and visitors alike are welcomed to celebrate everything that is great about the river at the Wey River Festival.

There’ll be plenty to do, such as willow weaving, archery, a. pirate boot camp, Surrey Wood Turners and plenty of crafts and children’s activities.

Foodies will want to make a bee line for the stalls, with local jam and honey as well as things to tuck into as you wander round.
The highlight of the day is the illuminated pageant at dusk, with boats travelling from the centre of Guildford to Dapdune Wharf, brilliantly lit up. And while you wait for their arrival at Dapdune, experience the night sky with Guildford Astronomical Society through their magnificent telescopes while being serenaded by Croydon steel orchestra.

All this takes place on the tranquil waterway which runs for nearly 20 miles through Surrey. The Wey was one of the first British rivers to made navigable and opened t barge traffic in 1653.

The award-winning visitor centre at the Dapdune Wharf tells the story of the navigations and the people who lived and worked on them.

This is a ‘no parking’ regime at Dapdune Wharf this year, so please use town centre car parks. There will be a drop off facility for those unable to walk very far.

The event is free and starts at 11am on Saturday, 21st September.

If you can’t go along on the day, the Wharf is well worth a visit at other times with boat trips and trails to be enjoyed.

More info

The event is free and starts at 11am on Saturday, 21st September.

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Coleshill Underground

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Pic credit: National Trust

Secret Second World War history revealed at Coleshill Underground 

The National trust village of Coleshill is celebrating its secret Second World War history with a living history event honouring the Auxiliaries. 

Coleshill Underground is returning to West Oxfordshire on Sunday, 22nd September with re-enactments, exhibitions, a display of military vehicles, food, drink and dancing as well as children’s activities. 

Unknown to villagers, Coleshill was the top secret training headquarters for the British Resistance, also known as the Auxiliary Unit in which brave men volunteered to act as a secret resistance force against invasion by Germany. They were trained in units of six in isolation from other groups and in unusual methods. 

The living history area will tell the story of the brave auxiliaries through re-enactors, exhibitions and interactive displays. The Second World War historic sites around Coleshill will be open to explore including the operational bases and guard house. 

Trace your own historical connections with the help of the Coleshill Auxiliary research team while younger members of the family have a go at an activity trail around the village – learn about code breaking, the skills needed to be a spy and have a go at crawling under camouflage nets. 

Coleshill Underground is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Auxiliaries being stood down from service. 

Tickets can be booked in advance via the website. 

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For more information and to book visit 

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Literary heaven

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Marlborough is set to welcome writers and readers of all sorts as it celebrates 10 years of its LitFest

Award-winning writers, established names and emerging authors are all on the bill at this year’s Marlborough LitFest which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Children’s authors, poetry events and themes including history, archaeology, mental health, travel, sports, food, nature and adventure should guarantee that there truly is something for everyone to enjoy this month.

Among the well-known names set to appear are Ben Okri, who is this year’s Golding Speaker, and favourites such as ian Rankin, Joanne Harris, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Harris and David Baddiel.

Chair of Marlborough LitFest, Genevieve Clarke, said: “The LitFest has come a long way in 10 years. We’re thrilled to be celebrating our first decade with established literary names, plenty of writers just starting out, a mix of themes, creative workshops and a fabulous children’s programme. We’ve also stepped up our commitment to outreach as a way of drawing in new audiences from Marlborough and beyond. I’d like to thank our committee, volunteers and sponsors for all their help in putting together an exciting programme for 2019.”

The festival which features nearly 40 events this year will begin with poet Carol Ann Duffy on Thursday, 26th September at Marlborough College where she will read from her latest collection, Sincerity as well as some of her earlier work.

The Golding Speaker Ben Okri will address the audience at the Town Hall on Friday 27th. The Nigerian-born writer came to recognition in 1991 when aged just 32 he was the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road.

Debut authors will feature alongside the established with Elizabeth Macneal and Stacey Halls showcasing their novels on Saturday 28th. Macneal’s The Doll Factory is set in 1850s London and tells of a woman who is both artist and artist’s model. Halls’s novel The Familiars is set at the time of the Pendle witch trials when 10 people were hanged for murder by witchcraft.

Among the other attractions is this year’s Big Town Read, Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path,

chosen for local book groups to enjoy and telling the true story of a homeless, penniless, jobless couple who walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path from Minehead to Poole. Their walk and the story of it is defiant and life-affirming.

Festival favourite, Poetry in the Pub returns and new for this year is LitFest’s own What the Papers Say on Sunday morning.

A key feature of this year’s festival is the growth of its outreach events which intend to bring the best of good writing to Marlborough and this year includes a partnership with Save the Children, links with HMP Erlestoke and increased activity with local schools.

Find out more

To find out more about everything that’s going on and to book, visit

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Alzheimer’s memory walk

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Tony Kershaw tells us more about Wantage Life Savers who are based at Wantage Leisure Centre where they train and help others become Water Smart

Wantage Life Savers is a small club but continues to have big ambitions. For over 25 years we have competed at local, regional and national life-saving competitions. This year we are planning to compete on the Commonwealth stage.

Many members have been reaping the rewards of their twice-weekly training sessions by successful medalling at the Royal Life Saving Society’s (RLSS) UK National Life Saving Championships year after year.

As a club, affiliated to the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), Wantage Life Savers are committed to provide volunteer-led, community-based training to raise awareness of water safety to work to prevent drowning and encourage the education of water safety. Here in the Thames Valley alone, between 2012-2016, some 66 people have died through drowning – the highest number of which have been young men aged 20-29.

Our club works to deliver training and education for the public, schools, clubs and a range of organisations to seek to reduce this number of fatalities. We have been successful in providing tuition to our members and the public in the theoretical and practical skills required to be safe in and around water such as swimming pools, rivers, reservoirs, lakes, flooded gravel pits and canals – all of which are prevalent locally.

Wantage Life Savers train at Wantage Leisure Centre on a Sunday morning, 8-9am (in the pool) and on Mondays, 8-10pm (an hour theory/life support/CPR training prior to an hour in the pool).

As well as training for competitions, club members are RLSS qualified instructors who are able to teach and assess RLSS Life Saving qualification, NRASTC qualifications and Duke of Edinburgh modules. However, our primary aim is to provide our expertise in helping children and adults to gain confidence in, on or around water, to understand the risks and to know how to cope if you (or anyone else) gets in to difficulty in the water.

On a Monday evening we work toward lifesaving or life support qualifications. Summer Sunday will be run as drop-in sessions for the general public and prospective new club members to come and learn how to be Water Smart. Our nominal club rates are adults £5 / juniors £3 per session – which helps to cover the cost of hiring the pool. The first session is free for new/prospective members

For more information

email: [email protected]

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Brian Blessed

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Peter Anderson chats to Brian Blessed, director of Towards Zero at the Mill At Sonning about meeting Agatha Christie and more…

‘A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances all converging at a given time, at a given point. It’s Zero Hour.” So says Superintendent Battle in Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero.

The play begins with the shipping forecast, but the weather does not suddenly happen – it is the result of many influences and other events, in the same way murder does not just happen. Towards Zero is the current play at the Mill at Sonning, and the team are pleased that Brian Blessed, is once again directing one of Christie’s plays.

The “Queen of Crime” wrote it in 1944, when Agatha was married to Max Mallowan and living at Winterbrook, near Cholsey. But it was just over a decade later when a young Brian Blessed met Agatha Christie.

He was just starting his first job at Nottingham Playhouse where they ran a fortnightly repertory company under the artistic director Val May (who was later the artistic director of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre at Guildford) for the princely sum of £4-19-6 per week.

Agatha Christie was putting on Spiders Web at the Theatre Royal and came to the Playhouse for a look around. In those days the Stage Door opened on to the street.

Agatha and Brian often met up during the following three weeks. She helped him source some props he needed and told him some of her wishes about how her plays should be staged. Some of these, all these years later, Brian has remembered and used at The Mill, including the suit of armour that came to life. Towards Zero was Agatha’s favourite play, he recalls, and that of her good friend Robert Graves, the author of I Claudius.

Sometimes, either before or after their meetings, she was not going back to the theatre but to the police station to see if there had been any interesting murders! She described her meetings with him as relaxing which, for a lady who said that sometimes her head felt like a house where a light was on in at least one room 24 hours a day, must have been a blessing. Sadly, for Brian, her one gift to him apart from the advice a small radio covered in red velvet was taken from his bedsit.

As to what the audience can expect at the Mill, period music and the perpetual ticking of many different clocks as we head to the zero hour. Agatha was not Bran’s only source of advice, for Superintendent Battle, he went back to one of his early television roles – PC “Fancy” Smith on Z Cars.

Get tickets

Towards Zero runs until Saturday, 28th September; visit their website for tickets

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Alzheimer’s memory walk

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Join a memory walk against dementia and raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society

Alzheimer’s Society is calling on family, friends and colleagues to unite against dementia this autumn by joining  one of several memory walks being held across the country.

There are 43 walks taking place this autumn – including five longer marathon style walks, all raising funds to create lasting chances for people affected by the condition.

Dementia devastates lives, but every pound raised through Memory Walk will help Alzheimer’s Society provide vital information and support, improve care and fund research.

This year, Memory Walk will bring together more than 120,000 walkers, with the hope of raising in excess of £9million.

This Sunday, you can join one in Oxford University Parks – registrations close today so you’ll need to be quick if you want to take part in this one.

The shorter 3km walk is a gentle stroll ideal for any age, while the longer 6.5km will loop you around the park. Arrive from 10am, the walk starts at 11am.

If you do miss out how about trying the one in Windsor Great Park on Saturday, 21st September, registration for this one closes on Thursday 19th.

Take the shorter walk of 3.5km for a stroll suitable for all around parkland or try the 8km undulating walk which passes through stunning countryside. Don’t forget your wellies or walking boots!

Arrive from 9.30am for the walk which starts at 11am.

In Surrey, you can take part in Painshill walk on Sunday, 6th October and you can choose to take either the shorter 2km walk or a longer 7km walk. The 2km gentle stroll goes around the lake and is suitable for Memory Walkers of all ages including pushchairs and wheelchairs. The longer 7km walk will take you further around the park, with some muddy patches so don’t forget your wellies and walking boots! All routes and distances are subject to change.

All routes will start and finish at Painshill, by the cafe, where there will be a hive of activity to get everyone ready for Memory Walk.

Take a moment to reflect on who you are walking for by leaving a message on the Memory Tree, and watch it blossom through the day.

Walkers should arrive from 9.30am and the walk starts at 11am.

Registration is £10 and closes on 3rd October.

Someone develops dementia every three minutes

Unite against dementia and register now

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Windsor Fringe 2019

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Theatre, comedy, music, dance, family shows, a pop up record stall and music around a fire pit are among some of the many amazing attractions at this year’s Windsor Fringe. 

There are more than 130 performers and artists, showcasing local and national talent at the event from 20th September to 6th October, the second oldest fringe in the UK after Edinburgh. 

The launch party kicks off the festival with music from DJ Steve Nash and guests playing everything from reggae and jazz to funk and disco with drinks and food from street vendors to make it a great way to start. 

Among the many musical highlights of the festival are jazz singers Claire Martin and Ian Shaw with A Century of Song (21st); traditional music from Spain with The Maiden & The Thief (25th); The Magic of Motown (27th) and An Afternoon of Music & Colour brings R&B and funk on the 29th. 

There’s theatre in the form of The Red Balloon (21st) and a trip through Shakespeare in The battle of Love and Power (29th) before you go on Journey’s End on 1st and 2nd October. 

Join a Victorian Windsor walking tour, discover Queen Anne’s Windsor and enjoy some of the work put on display by more than 30 artists at open house events around the town.  

The family is well catered for entertainment to suit all ages from dance to an arts festival day and join The Last Puppet with an adventure aboard ship. 

The festival also features the 16th international Kenneth Branagh Award for new drama writing. The three finalists’ plays will be performed nightly on 3rd, 4th, and 5th October before a panel of judges chooses the overall winner – why not watch one a night at The Old Court and decide for yourself? 

Windsor Fringe

To find out more about all the events at Windsor Fringe and to book tickets

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Literary heaven

Round & About

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Marlborough is set to welcome writers and readers of all sorts as it celebrates 10 years of its LitFest

MLF2019 David Baddiel_author_pic
MLF2019 David_Baddiel_Head_Kid_BookCover
MLF2019 Author Ian Rankin (c) Hamish Brown
IN A HOUSE OF LIES FINAL

Award-winning writers, established names and emerging authors are all on the bill at this year’s Marlborough LitFest which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Children’s authors, poetry events and themes including history, archaeology, mental health, travel, sports, food, nature and adventure should guarantee that there truly is something for everyone to enjoy this month.

Among the well-known names set to appear are Ben Okri, who is this year’s Golding Speaker, and favourites such as ian Rankin, Joanne Harris, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Harris and David Baddiel.

Chair of Marlborough LitFest, Genevieve Clarke, said: “The LitFest has come a long way in 10 years. We’re thrilled to be celebrating our first decade with established literary names, plenty of writers just starting out, a mix of themes, creative workshops and a fabulous children’s programme. We’ve also stepped up our commitment to outreach as a way of drawing in new audiences from Marlborough and beyond. I’d like to thank our committee, volunteers and sponsors for all their help in putting together an exciting programme for 2019.”

The festival which features nearly 40 events this year will begin with poet Carol Ann Duffy on Thursday, 26th September at Marlborough College where she will read from her latest collection, Sincerity as well as some of her earlier work.

The Golding Speaker Ben Okri will address the audience at the Town Hall on Friday 27th. The Nigerian-born writer came to recognition in 1991 when aged just 32 he was the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road.

Debut authors will feature alongside the established with Elizabeth Macneal and Stacey Halls showcasing their novels on Saturday 28th. Macneal’s The Doll Factory is set in 1850s London and tells of a woman who is both artist and artist’s model. Halls’s novel The Familiars is set at the time of the Pendle witch trials when 10 people were hanged for murder by witchcraft.

Among the other attractions is this year’s Big Town Read, Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path,

chosen for local book groups to enjoy and telling the true story of a homeless, penniless, jobless couple who walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path from Minehead to Poole. Their walk and the story of it is defiant and life-affirming.

Festival favourite, Poetry in the Pub returns and new for this year is LitFest’s own What the Papers Say on Sunday morning.

A key feature of this year’s festival is the growth of its outreach events which intend to bring the best of good writing to Marlborough and this year includes a partnership with Save the Children, links with HMP Erlestoke and increased activity with local schools.

Marlborough LitFest

To find out more about everything that’s going on and to book

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