Category: My Kent

Back to the 60’s

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Olivier Award winning show, Sunny Afternoon, based on the story of The Kinks, is showing at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre this week.

I was delighted to review the show for WOW magazine, which you can read here, and it reminded me of a lovely chat I had with a local singer, Tony Ellingham.

Tony fronts of a swing band called 5intheBar, who regularly gig to raise money for the Parkinson’s disease charity. The last one raised £550, as they performed to a packed house. Their next charity performance is March 4.

Under the stage name of Dorian Gray, Tony had a hit song in the 60s, which is still requested today – enjoy hearing all about that, and more, from the man himself.

#RLF2016: Written Worlds, Inspiring Places

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writtenworlds-02

For some strange reason 5 years ago, I decided to start a literature festival. Possibly I had too much time on my hands (I didn’t) possibly I just felt we were lacking a festival in Medway dedicated to writing, and somebody had to do it. I must’ve been mad, and I’m also stubborn, so here we are: the fourth Rochester Literature Festival 2016 kicks off this weekend.

Amidst the usual creative writing workshops, Cafe Crawl and author talks this year, the RLF has a wonderful day of craft activities planned for all ages.

‘The Turtle Moves‘, inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, sees a Juvenile Crafters’ Guild appear, as if by magic, in Rochester’s Community Hub, where you can design your own Luggage or bring to life a Golem, among other activities. Out and about in the high street you’ll bump into numerous characters – and even see a re-enactment of the Battle of Koom Valley! And shhhhh – it’s rumoured that the Librarian will be appearing in L-Space (Baggins!)

RLF Patron Lisa Cutts is appearing at Strood Library on Oct 4, alongside fellow crime author Simon Booker, while author of The Outlaw Chronicles, Angus Donald, is at Rochester Library on Oct 6. There is also a Local Author Day at Rochester Library between 10am-2pm on Oct 1.

The popular Cafe Crawl takes place on Sunday, Oct 2 and features the Canterbury Yarners, Fiona Sinclair, Nancy Charley, Johanna Coulson and Maggie Butt alternating at Bruno’s Bakes, The Quills and Cafe @172 between 12-3pm.

The festival opens with three creative writing workshops on Saturday, Oct 1: An Introduction to Screenwriting, A Guide to Self Publishing, and Building Your Make Believe World. It ends with a Writers’ Retreat on Sunday, Oct 9.

All the events apart from the workshops are free, and more detail and tickets for the workshops can be booked here.

If you pop down, be sure to say ‘hi’ 🙂

An inspiring six months

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wek

A most amazing programme has just come to an end, one in which I feel privileged to have been a part of. The Women’s Enterprise Kent scheme, run by Kent County Council, is part of the government’s drive to help women in business become more digitally savvy. You can view countrywide insights under the #ShesDigital hashtag.

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A creative boost

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Congratulations!!

Can I get a whoop whoop?! Just me then? Ok.

A hearty ‘congratulations’ is a great opening to an email, and reading on to find out the Rochester Literature Festival has been short listed in two categories in the Kent Digital Awards 2015 gave me a bigger boost (fleetingly) than chocolate.

I entered the LitFest into the Website: School, Education or Charity section of these inaugural awards but such was the overwhelming response, the KDA instigated a couple more categories and short listed us in the Lifestyle and Culture Award too! *does a happy dance*

Big congratulations also to some of the lovely people I’m connected with across social media or work in some way: Lucy Hall, Ohhh Kaye, Maxim PR, Rochester Bridge Trust and Fore! Women are all shortlisted in various categories.

You can read all about the awards and see the full list of finalists on the Kent Digital Awards website.

Firework image: Pixabay