Category: Books

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More Things To Do in York and beyond unlocked secret spaces & hidden places. Hutch’s List No. 40, from The York Press

Angela Hall’s artwork from York Created at Pyramid Gallery

FROM classic Coward in Present Laughter to Frayn’s finest farce, Noises Off, York’s unlocked buildings to Joe Jackson’s hope and fury, Charles Hutchinson piles up the good stuff for the week ahead.

Exhibition opening of the week: York Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until November 14

YORK Created: Paint-Clay-Print-Collage From The Heart Of The City features a “collection of talented artists from across our fair city”. “Some have exhibited with us before, others are new to us,” says Pyramid Gallery manager Fiona Macfarlane. “All the works are for sale.”

Taking part are potters Danny Aitkin, Chiu-i Wu, Loretta Braganza, Ben Arnup, Emily Stubbs, Jessica Jenyns  and Ruth King, painters Rory Barke, Carolyn Coles, Jill Tattersall, Ric Liptrot, Lesley Birch, Mick Leach, Lesley Shaw and Angela Hall and stained glass artist Helen Bower. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Dennis Rollins: Delivering Funky-Funk! to YorkJazzFest’s Bishopthorpe Road Car park Finale tomorrow

Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, today and tomorrow

TODAY, Beppe Lombardo’s inaugural YorkJazzFest features: 6pm, Flowerden, The Winning Post; 6pm, Mutant DJ Jazz, Angel On The Green; 6.30pm, Emma Foulds Quintet, York Arts Barge; 7pm, SwanNek, Young Thugs Studios; 8.30pm, Al Morrison Quartet, The Winning Post;  8.30pm, Olivia Cuttill, York Arts Barge;  9pm, Borgia, Angel On The Green, and 9pm, Lovedancin’ DJ, Young Thugs Studios. For tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Tomorrow,  the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale runs from midday with free entry and no ticket required. On the bill are: 12 noon, YorkJazzFest Orchestra; 1pm, Vipertime; 2.15pm, Big Bamboo; 4.15pm, Fergus Quill Sextet, and 6pm, Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk! Ian Chalk concludes the event at The Phoenix Inn at 8pm; free entry.

Federico Pendenza: Two world premieres at this afternoon’s York Late Music concert

Season finale of the week: York Late Music presents Federico Pendenza, Folk Roots To Classical Form, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviouragte, York, today, 1pm

UNIVERSITY of York guitarist Federico Pendenza concludes York Late Music’s concert season with Folk Roots To Classical Form, featuring William Walton’s only piece written for guitar (following a persuasive word from Julian Bream!), two intimate pieces by the “Chopin of the guitar”, Agustín Barrios, and two world premieres, Macey Collins’s Impressions Of Tension and Noor Hingorani’s Pomegranates On My Altar, which draws on the Persian Sofreh wedding ceremony, where pomegranates represent joy, passion and strength. Box office: latemusic.org/federico-pendoza-guitar or on the door.

York Unlocked: Unlocking York’s significant, hidden and secret buildings

Free discoveries of the week: York Unlocked, today and tomorrow

YORK Unlocked opens York’s most interesting, significant, even hidden and secret buildings to the public completely for free, although some buildings require free pre-booked tickets.  This weekend’s festival enables residents and visitors alike to see York in a new way and aims to educate and inspire a love of architecture this weekend. To download the full programme, go to: https://www.york-unlocked.org.uk/_files/ugd/972e50_ba8593730b26433e8b060829ff5bd5ac.pdf.

Michael Shafar: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement

​Comedy gigs of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, today, 4pm and 8pm

LAUGH Out Loud promoter Damion Larkin has added an extra show at 4pm in response to ticket demand for tonight’s 8pm bill of Michael Shafar, Ant Dewson, Mike Carter and Gary Jennison.

Former lawyer Shafar left Australia to ply his comedy trade over here. Dewson is a comedian, mediocre piano player and singer of silly songs, many of them rude. Carter covers everything from living with your nan in your 30s to the realities of engaging in “kinky stuff” when you have a coordination disorder. Jennison promises dance-offs, game shows, magic and unbridled chaos. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Brian Bilston: Poetic words at Milton Rooms, Malton

Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 7.30pm

BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and Seb Carrington’s David Stillington in Present Laughter. Picture: Simon Annand

Coward classic of the week: Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions present Present Laughter, Grand Opera House, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

TRACY-ANN Oberman stars as hugely successful actress Geri Essendine – who has been 39 for the best part of a decade – in Lindsay Posner’s new touring production of Noel Coward’s celebrated portrayal of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity. 

On the cusp of departing for a tour of Africa, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevy of would-be lovers, her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? Then again, deep down, does she really want to? Box office: atgtickets.com/york. 

Pick Me Up Theatre cast members Pearl Mollison, left, Craig Kirby, Alexandra Mather, Andrew Isherwood, Helen Spencer, Adrian Cook and Mark Simmonds, under the withering eye of Rory Mulvihill, right, director of the play-within-the-play in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off

Slamming doors, falling trousers and flying sardines of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Noises Off, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

MICHAEL Frayn’s backstage farce Noises Off takes a wicked look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss and passionate affairs turns every performance into a high-risk adventure.

This play-within-a-play captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of Nothing On in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance and a performance towards the end of a debilitating run. Robert Readman directs a stellar York cast of Helen Spencer, Andrew Isherwood, Alexandra Mather, Rory Mulvihill, Pearl Mollison, Mark Simmonds, Craig Kirby, Jessica Hardcastle and Adrian Cook. Box office:  01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Joe Jackson: Returning to York Barbican

Gig of the week: Joe Jackson + Band, Hope And Fury Tour 2026, York Barbican, October 7, doors 7pm

JOE Jackson played York for only the second time at York Barbican on July 29 2022 as part of his Sing, You Sinners! Tour, having first shared a bill with Todd Rundgren and improvisational string quartet Ethel at the Grand Opera House in June 2005.

Now, the Portsmouth-raised singer, musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer, author and campaigner, 72, returns with his regular band to perform work from throughout his career and to showcase his 23rd studio album Hope And Fury, released in April. Conner Youngblood supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Acosta Danza in Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance.  Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Acosta Danza in Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Acosta Danza in Goyo Montero’s Chacona. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class today (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

ACOSTA Danza performed Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana at the Grand Opera House, York, in January 2026.

Acosta Danza in Pearls at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 40, from Gazette & Herald

Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York

FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art, York’s four-day jazz festival to Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks ahead to October cultural opportunities.

Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19

YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.

Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.

James Bye’s James arms himself with a baseball bat in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Credit: Johan Persson

Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.

When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Roham Bayat’s poster for the inaugural YorkJazzFest

Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, tomorrow to Sunday

BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.

Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Masked up: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus. Picture supplied

Devil in the detail of the week: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York , tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre delivers a devilishly clever new twist on Doctor Faustus, placing a woman, Doctor Joan Faustus, at the epicentre of Christopher Marlowe’s late-16th century cautionary tale of ambition, temptation and damnation.

Director Lydia McCudden plays Faustus, who strikes a terrible deal by selling her soul to Lucifer in exchange for knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, only to encounter the Seven Deadly Sins.  Cue masks, commedia dell’arte, dark comedy and gothic tragedy as Hell awaits. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ben Portsmouth: Performing Presley’s pearls with his Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican

King of The King tribute shows: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.

This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican: Satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments from Barnsley

“Sexy knitwear” gig of the week: The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm

FOUNDED in Barnsley Rock City in 2006 by their outspoken and energetic ringleader Scott Doonican, The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican are on a mission.

Anything but a typical folk ensemble, this collective of like-minded knitwear enthusiasts – Scott, Mo-Jo Doonican, Dave Doonican and the Reight Reverend Jeremiah Rickenbacker III – are determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps, keeping his legacy alive while Bar-Stewardising other famous people’s songs with satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments, from Jump Ararnd to Goat Yoga. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Mark Harrison Band: Songs and stories at Helmsley Arts Centre

Where folk meets the blues: Mark Harrison Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

MARK Harrison writes original songs for today in the spirit of the great troubadours, coupled with stories to make you smile, move and think in a world where blues, roots and folk collide.

Finger-picking and slide guitarist Harrison is joined by Charles Benfield on double bass and Ben Welburn on drums and percussion to create a rhythm section that defies convention, as heard on eight albums to date. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Alchemy Live: Performing the songs of Dire Straits at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

In Dire Straits: Alchemy Live, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm

ALCHEMY Live were formed in 2020 by life-long Mark Knopfler fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, who used the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns to put their Dire Straits tribute project in motion. Rehearsals started in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic was over, their first show being scheduled in York for Friday the 13th of May 2022 (what could possibly go wrong)?

They have never looked back, progressing to playing theatres since 2023. “It’s always been our ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets,” says frontman Ledger. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Brian Bilston: Showcasing his latest poetry collection at Milton Rooms, Malton

Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm

BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded in collaboration with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Olly Murs: Enjoying a Knees Up at Live At York Museum Gardens next July

Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound presents Olly Murs, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 2027

ESSEX singer-songwriter and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.

Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up. Box office: York postcode pre-sale from today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256?pre=postcode; general sale from Friday, 10am, at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256.

In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance.  Emerging from the 17th and 18th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A Q&A with the company will follow tomorrow’s performance. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.  

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Book launch of the week:  John Wheatcroft, The Strange Death Of Football, York Explore, Library Square, today, 3pm kick-off

Matthew Wood’s cover illustration for John Wheatcroft’s collection of football-related short stories, The Strange Death Of Football

YORK author and journalist John Wheatcroft set out to write a volume of stories in which football was the subject or the starting point.

“I’m using the sport to explore universal themes such as love, friendship, family and loss,” he says of The Strange Death Of Football’s resulting tales of winners and losers. “Even the pastiche boys’ football story, Portsmouth v Jupiter, satirises English post-war insularity.”

Introducing the stories, John says: “The lives of two international players are changed forever following a road accident. A young orphan learns lessons for life from his great-uncle, helped by a shared love of fooball, words and story-telling.

“A referee faces the toughest decision of his career in a testimonial match. A vicar thinks about his life and faith as he watches his relegation-bound team losing heavily.

“These inter-connected stories often have the feel of a novel as their protagonists, from Manchester to Portsmouth and Glasgow to Naples, cope with life’s highs and lows. For them, football is occasionally a curse, more often a blessing but always more than a game. There’s also a sting in the tail, a warning from the future.”

After publishing two novels, Here In The Cull Valley (2016) and Rocket Boy (2019), John has ventured into short stories for the first time. “However, to some extent I’ve tried to have it both ways, giving the 11 stories the occasional feel of a novel by revisiting characters and themes.

“With one stand-alone exception, The Footballer In Spite Of Himself, every story ties up with at least one other tale. The book also offers a picture of what football was like during different stages of its development, from war-time to the modern (and perhaps final!) era.”

Nostalgia plays its part, albeit without the slightest sentimentality. “The misery of one former player in the 1950s (in The Daft Wee Game) suggests that there was never a truly golden age for the sport,” contends John.

Author John Wheatcroft

“The sting in the tail, which explains the title, is a rather gloomy view of football’s (and the world’s) future, although it should perhaps be read as a warning rather than a prediction. In any case, many stories are quite upbeat and the protagonists predominantly likeable. Problems and conflict arise from how other people (and the football world) treat them.”

Sports journalist, broadcaster and My Father And Other Working-Class Football Heroes author Gary Imlach says of the book: “Like all well-chosen starting XIs, this book is more than the sum of its parts. The stories play off each other, key figures recur, connections reveal themselves. The result is a heartfelt narrative that’s as much about family as football.”

The Guardian sports journalist, author, tactical historian and The Blizzard editor Jonathan Wilson describes The Strange Death Of Football as “a beautiful album of short stories that performs the rare feat of using football successfully as a stage, a structuring device and a metaphor. Wise and moving.”

“Both Gary and Jonathan seem to have really understood what I was aiming for,” says John.

Tickets for today’s 75-minute launch can be bought via Explore York’s tickettailor.com site, priced at £2.50. Published by Blue Bunting, of York, the book also is on sale at Little Apple Bookshop, High Petergate, York.

Author’s note by John Wheatcroft

“MOST of my football sides [in The Strange Death Of Football] are current names or clubs that existed in the past. The exceptions are Inter Campania, Valley Cordials and the war-time Forces United.

One story, The Footballer In Spite Of Himself, contains some unfamiliar teams. Most football fans with an interest in the past will have heard of Ardwick and Newton Heath. Not so many, perhaps, will know that Oldham Athletic were Pina Villa and Stockport County were Heaton Norris Rovers.

“It’s my whimsical nod to the way the history of football might have panned out quite differently. After all, Bury were winners of the FA Cup twice before Manchester City and Manchester United won anything. And United survived by the skin of their teeth during the inter-war years.

Perhaps, had they folded, there might have been a ‘phoenix club’ like FC Newton Heath. And Manchester Central might have thrived.”

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More Things To Do in York and beyond from September 12. Hutch’s List No. 37, from The York Press

The poster for the Pigeon Paint Off at City Screen Picturehouse, York, On Saturday

A COMPETIVE Pigeon Paint Off, the biggest of book fairs, top-drawer chamber music and Wright&Grainger’s new material are among Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for a particularly intriguing week ahead.  

Bird show of the week: Dead Toe Society presents Pigeon Paint Off, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Saturday, 12 noon to 5.30pm

THE inaugural Pigeon Paint Off creative fundraising event in support of Columba Sanctuary and Advocacy for Pigeons features a live art competition with 11 artists and resulting picture auction, complemented by a Pigeon Social and Pigeon-themed Pub Quiz from 6pm, with the quiz starting at 7pm. Look out too for bird-themed arts and crafts on sale and a raffle with “some snazzy prizes”.

“Watch talented artists bring original works to life, each one inspired by our feathered friends, in two rounds of one-hour paint-offs with audience votes deciding the champion,” says organiser Sam Crick. “You’ll also be able to learn more about why pigeons are suffering, the issues they are facing, why they need our support and how you can help advocate for their wellbeing.” Tickets:https://www.tickettailor.com/events/deadtoesociety/2373410. 

Book event of the week: York National Book Fair, Knavesmire Suite, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, Saturday, 10am to 5pm

AT Britain’s largest antiquarian book fair, 186  ‘bookshops’ are set up under one roof with prices ranging from only a few pounds to tens of thousands for more than 100,000 books. All subjects, all dates, from medieval to ultra-modern, are on sale, along with ephemera, manuscripts, prints, photographs and posters, while trade stands are selling marbled papers and binding materials.

York Racecourse offers unlimited free parking and a free shuttle bus is running from the Memorial Gardens on Railway Street to Knavesmire every 30 minutes. Tickets on the door cost £2. Alternatively, head to https://yorkbookfair.com/one-day-complimentary-ticket-2/ to book a complimentary ticket. Children aged under 16 are admitted for free.

Classical festival of the week: York Chamber Music Festival, Saturday and Sunday

THIS year’s festival has invited six of the best string players in Europe – Charlotte Scott and Tim Crawford, violins, Simone van der Giessen and Lilli Maijala, violas, and Adrian Brendel and festival artistic director Tim Lowe, cellos, to participate, along with regular festival artist Katya Apekisheva, the British-based Russian pianist.

On Saturdayy, at 1pm, at St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, Brendel plays Imogen Holst’s The Fall Of The Leaf and J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite No 2 in D Minor; at 7.30pm, at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, all seven perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor Op 49, Mahler’s Piano Quartet (movement) in A minor – Nicht zu schnell and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor Op 60. All but Apekisheva return for Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Major Op. 29 and Brahms’s String Quintet in F major, Op. 88, on Sunday at 3pm at St Olave’s Church, Marygate. Box office: ycmf.co.uk or 01904 658338.

Artist trail of the week: Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage, Staithes, near Whitby, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm

DISCOVER 113 artists exhibiting across 67 venues through Staithes. Explore galleries, cottages, studios and hidden spaces transformed into exhibition venues across the fishing village. Find out who is taking part at https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/artists.php.

Enjoy live music, buskers, creative workshops, demonstrations, outdoor cinema, family activities and festival extras too. For the full event programme, go to: https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/events.php.

Americana gig of the week: James Felice & William Lawrence, Pocklington Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm

JAMES Felice and  drummer William Lawrence, two members of New York State’s  Felice Brothers, are taking to the road to perform songs from their respective solo works in a dreamy and quiet evening of Americana music and storytelling. James and William last appeared at Pocklington Arts Centre alongside Ian Felice and Jesske Hume in the Felice Brothers gig in June 2021. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Songs old and new of the week: Michael Ball, Glow UK Tour, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 7pm

MUSICAL star and radio and TV presenter Michael Ball promotes his 23rd solo album, Glow, on his 25-date tour.

“There’s probably only one thing I enjoy more than being in the studio – writing, producing and singing songs with people I love – and that’s taking it all out on the road and performing those songs, as well as all the old favourites to the audiences I love,” he says. Liss Jones supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Comedy gig of the week: Urzila Carlson, Fatty On A Yacht, York Barbican, Sunday, 8pm

SOUTH African-New Zealander Urzila Carlson returns to the UK with her understated punchlines and signature deadpan delivery in Fatty On A Yacht. Ever felt like you don’t belong? Like everyone else got the memo – and you turned up in the wrong outfit, on the wrong day, on the wrong yacht? Carlson’s new show is for anyone who has ever tried to squeeze into a space, physical or social, and thought “This can’t be right”. “It’s about not fitting in, standing out and laughing about it anyway,” she says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Country gig of the week: Ward Thomas, Celebrating 10 Years Of Cartwheels Tour, York Barbican, September 14, 7.30pm

HAMPSHIRE twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas perform their second album in its entirety, revisiting the record – written at home and in Nashville – that made history as the first by a British country act to top the UK Albums Chart in 2016.

“We had to plan a celebration for its ten-year anniversary,” says Lizzy. “We’ll be bringing our full band, doing a type of show we haven’t done in a long time.” The Wandering Hearts support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

New music, words and stories of the week: Wright& Grainger, Scratch An Itch, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 18, 7.30pm

 IN a rare little moment of public-facing recklessness, Easingwold duo Wright&Grainger have some brand new stuff they wish try out in front of, and with, some other people. “It’ll defo involve a piano,” say Alex and Phil. “It’ll defo have music and words and story.

“There’s some tasty clues to follow, some sweet ideas to develop, some scary instincts to trust. And now there’s this big and warm open invite to you, to come join. So please do. We’d love that. Fingers crossed it’ll be good.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster artwork for York Printmakers’ Annual Print Fair next weekend

Art gathering of the week: York Printmakers’ Annual Print Fair, The Chapel & Harriet Room, York Cemetery, September 19 and 20, 10am to 5pm

YORK Printmakers’ Annual Print Fair offers a weekend packed with original, handmade artwork, from striking linocuts and detailed collagraphs to monoprints and wood engravings.

This is a chance to browse, meet the artists, discover their diverse techniques and take home an original work. See how different printmaking processes create distinctive results and discover artwork not to be found on the high street. Look out for information on upcoming printmaking workshops too. Everyone is welcome; admission is free.

In Focus: Navigators Art presents Moss Glow and Shadow Bloom, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, September 19, 7.30pm

Astral Light

YORK collective Navigators Art presents four inspiring York performers whose work conjures up unique worlds in a magical programme of electronic, acoustic and vocal sounds, influenced by folk traditions and environmental themes.

This bringing together of ancient and modern iconography, art, poetry and music in Moss Glow and Shadow Bloom: Folk, Myth & Magic has been re-arranged from the postponed original date of July 11 with tickets still valid.

Things Found And Made

Taking part will be:

Astral Light: Scrappy-folky-blues, spoken word and ritual, featuring a homemade menagerie of masks, microphones, dolls, instruments, sound equipment and magical implements.

Filipe Massumi: Cellist and singer whose original and beautiful songs derive from the culture of his native Brazil.

Filipe Massumi

No Spinoza: Welcome to the thematic universe of Thomas Pearson’s forthcoming album Jupiter’s Great Hurricane, bridging history and legend, ancient and modern, as featured in session on BBC Introducing.

Things Found And Made: Lost cinematic folk-tales comprising imagined histories and half remembered rituals of sound and nature.

Box office: https://www.ticketsource.com/navigators-art-performance or on the door. Doors and bar: open from 7pm. Venue is fully accessible.

No Spinoza

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REVIEW: Miles Salter’s verdict on Robert Harris in Conversation, Tempest Anderson Hall, York, September 3

The cover artwork for Robert Harris’s Agrippa, published by Hutchinson Heinemann

“I CAN’T stand it when novelists read from their own books,” deadpans Robert Harris before reading to a full house in the lecture theatre at Tempest Anderson Hall, Yorkshire Museum, York Museum Gardens.

The author, who isone of the most successful and popular novelists of our time, was in town to promote his latest page-turner, Agrippa, at an event organised by Waterstones, York.

The comment extracted laughter from the audience, who were mostly white, middle-class and over 50. Harris is a likeable presence. An ex-journalist, he has a pithy and appealing way of communicating. He can get to the point and has a winning way with stories.

His books have been translated into 40 languages and converted to numerous films and television adaptations. But he’s also enviably committed. He writes seven days a week, turning out a focused 800 words a day, and has an enormous capacity for memory and research. His writing study is filled with hundreds of books.

Harris’ 17 historical novels have roamed from ancient Rome to Nazi Germany. Typically, they focus on a moment of crisis: Precipice dealt with the start of the First World War. Pompeii focused on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

They also tend to dwell in the corridors of influence, whether it is Whitehall or Rome’s Senate. “Power fascinates me,” says Harris.

The stories invariably are the preserve of men. In Conclave, the Papacy struggled to pick its next leader. In Act Of Oblivion, men hunt other men who signed the death warrant of King Charles I.

Some of Harris’s heroes share several similarities with their author: introverted, disciplined, methodical and with a strong moral backbone. In Agrippa, however, he writes in the voice of somebody less given to compromise. The man of the book’s title was one of Rome’s thugs, an enforcer for Octavius. Together, they overcame numerous obstacles.

The key to the novel, Harris feels, was getting the voice right. “Agrippa must have been a tough son of a bitch…he looks like a nightclub bouncer,” he says.  (Anyone interested can soon find the bust of Agrippa’s face from 25BC on the web. He does, indeed, look like an uncompromising character.)

The Roman general could be ruthless, explains Harris: “He put down a rebellion in Spain with particular severity.” Yet Harris also notes his subject’s more sophisticated side. Agrippa was the man behind some of Rome’s aquaducts, including the one in the bay of Naples.

“Agrippa was a man of destruction and warfare, but then there’s all this creation,” says Harris.  Unlike Cicero, whose speeches were recorded, there are hardly any surviving documents relating to Agrippa, just lots of dates and secondary sources.

This, Harris says, was great news. “For a historical novelist, this is fantastic…an empty slate to write on.”

Octavius was only 18 when he partnered with Agrippa, who was one year older. “Nobody would have given them a chance…they became rulers of the world,” says Harris, who retains objectivity about his characters. “Octavius was not a pleasant person. He is said to have gouged out the eyes of people. He was also a hypocrite. He had a lot of affairs with wives of his soldiers, at the same time he brought in strict moral laws about adultery.”

Harris has entered this world before. His highly successful Cicero trilogy explored the world of Ancient Rome with a focus on the machinations of power. The leaders were power-mad thugs. The books were not that far away from The Sopranos. Both have an Italian influence, if not the same weapons. Caesar, who appears in the new novel, was, says Harris “sinister and glamorous at the same time”.

Harris mentions powerful women and there’s a brief allusion to Sarah Netanyahu and the “demonic energy behind the scenes”. He seems to regret this comment. Naturally, I scribble it down.

The new book comes at a time when strong-arm politics are in force. Might is right. Agrippa,like Donald Trump, does what he wants, knowing he can rely on strongman tactics. Harris speaks about this, laughing a little at Trump’s recent enjoyment of gladiators on the White House lawn.

The novelist can sometimes be lacerating. When David Cameron’s autobiography came out in September 2019, Harris wrote a scathing review in The Sunday Times, lamenting Cameron’s arrogance and the tragedy-farce of Brexit. “It would be better,” he wrote, ‘if Cameron hadn’t been born.”

From the safety of his home in the Home Counties, Harris conjurs up whole worlds. In York, he spoke with relish about writing battle scenes. “When the blood is being spilled and you’re at a desk in Berkshire, it’s the best place to be.” His humour is enjoyable – the audience laughs several times.

Robert Harris did not come from grand origins. Born in 1957, he grew up on a council estate in Nottingham. It seems he was precocious. At the age of six wrote an essay entitled “Why me and my Dad don’t like Sir Alec Douglas-Home”. (Harris’s father was very engaged in politics, heckling Douglas-Home when the politician visited Nottingham market square.)

At school Harris wrote plays, getting his friends to act in performances, and edited the school magazine. He later went to Cambridge, the first person of his family to attend university, and was elected president of the Cambridge Union. His time there lent him confidence; he became the editor ofVarsity, the Cambridge student newspaper.

After Cambridge, he worked in journalism, contributing to Panorama, Newsnight, The Sunday Times and Observer between 1978 and 1992. His television work led to a close friendship with Jeremy Paxman. He wrote several non-fiction books, including Good And Faithful Servant, a profile of Margaret Thatcher’s press secretary, Bernard Ingham. Selling Hitler was about the fake Hitler diaries that caused a sensation in the early 1980s.

When he sat down in 1989 to write the opening lines of Fatherland, his first novel, he found the moment exhilarating. “I had to go and lie down,” he tells the York audience, who chuckle with amusement.

The contrast between non-fiction and fiction was intoxicating. “It was the difference between riding a bicycle and flying a helicopter,” he says. Fatherland imagined a world in which Germany triumphed in the Second World War. The novel was so appealing to publishers that a bidding war ensued. The advance was sizeable and led to Harris acquiring anice place in Berkshire that has sometimes been called sometimes been called “The House That Hitler Built”. The house is very grand and, according to one interviewer “…triggers little stabs of envy in the hearts of all the journalists who go and interview Harris”.

Some of his books emerge after a long time. Precipice, about the relationship between Prime Minister Asquith and Venetia, was published in 2024, four decades after Harris first read a book about their clandestine correspondence. The Ghost took 15 years to come to fruition. With Agrippa, there was also a sense of waiting. “I wanted to write about Agrippa for a long time,”says the author.

At the end of the reading and Q and A, he poses for photographs with fans. One senses he is a remarkable person, totally committed to his craft as a writer who entertains. I’ve read 11 of his books. They are always enjoyable, even if one or two had a dip in quality (The Second Sleep was not so hot, even if the idea was interesting). But that laser-like focus: 800 words a day. That’s really something.

Agrippa by Robert Harris is out now, published by Hutchinson Heinemann.

MILES Salter is a writer and musician based in York. He writes regularly  for York Calling. His book about The Pretenders, A Dangerous Band, will be published on November 1. He fronts the band Miles and The Chain Gang.

Review by Miles Salter

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Fair of the week: 2026 York Book Fair, York Racecourse, York, tomorrow and Saturday

York artist Mark Hearld’s poster illustration for the 2026 York National Book Fair

YORK National Book Fair, the largest antiquarian book fair in Great Britain, will be held in the Knavesmire Suite at York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, on September 11 , from 12 noon to 7pm, and September 12, 10am to 5pm.

As many as 185 ‘bookshops’ will be set up under one roof with prices ranging from only a few pounds to tens of thousands. All subjects, all dates, from medieval to ultra-modern, will be on sale, along with ephemera, manuscripts, prints and photographs.

Two new exhibitors specialising in collectable posters will join this year’s line-up at a fair organised by Tony Fothergill, of Ken Spelman Books, Lucius Books, based in Micklegate, and Janette Ray, who runs a rare and and out-of-print bookshop, focusing on architecture, design, art, photography and landscape subjects, in Bootham, on behalf of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association.

A range of trade stands will sell marbled papers and binding materials, complemented by providers of services to the book trade, including software and packaging material suppliers,

From modest beginnings with only 20 exhibitors at the White Swan Inn in York in 1974, the York Book Fair has grown into the largest, and many say friendliest, rare, antiquarian and out-of–print book fair in the UK and Europe.

Anyone interested in books and reading is encouraged to attend a fair that is not only for dealers or traders but also is open to everyone young and old and is an ideal place to start collecting, with more than 100,000 books – some more than 500 years old – for sale.  

York Raceourse offers unlimited free parking and a free shuttle bus will run from the Memorial Gardens on Railway Street, to Knavesmire, every 30 minutes.

Tickets on the door cost £2. Alternatively, head to https://yorkbookfair.com/one-day-complimentary-ticket-2/ to download a complimentary ticket. Children aged under 16 are admitted for free.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No 36, from The York Press

Towering performances: Matthew Rutherford’s giant, Smog, and Jared More’s giant, Miff, in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s The Selfish Giant

A GIANT in a garden, Wendy turning piratical in a re-imagined Peter Pan, Alan Ayckbourn’s 92nd play and Wilko Johnson’s miraculous renaissance spark Charles Hutchinson’s attention in the week ahead.

Inspirational tale of love and generosity of the week: Riding Lights Theatre Company in The Selfish Giant, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, today, 1.30pm and 4.30pm

STEP into the magical world of the Giant’s garden, a place full of music, beauty, bird song and stories in Jon Boustead’s stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. The Giant, however, is cross when he returns to find children – children! – playing happily in his beautiful orchard, whereupon he erects a big wall to terminate the fun.

Once winter seizes the garden in its icy fingers, will summer ever return? Through storytelling, interactive games, live music and puppetry, York company Riding Lights presents a 50-minute play for family audiences. Box office: 01904 613000 or friargatetheatre.co.uk. Age recommendation: Three upwards.

Neverland revamped: York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre in Wendy & Peter Pan, York Theatre Royal, today, 2pm and 7pm

YORK Theatre Royal Youth Theatre returns to the Main House stage for the first time since 2019 for 46 performers, aged eight to 19, to present Ella Hickson’s feminist take on J M Barrie’s Peter Pan in Lydia Crosland and Sophie-Jade Howell’s large-scale production.

A quiet sadness permeates the Darling household, until the unexpected arrival of a mischievous young boy called Peter and a rather sassy fairy, Tink, whereupon Wendy leads the rebellious lost boys, takes on the terrifying Captain Hook, finds the key to her parents’ lost happiness and discovers the power of being brave and strong. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

York actress Frances Marshall in rehearsal for Alan Ayckbourn’s first courtroom drama, The Trial Of Romeo Oscar. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Premiere of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s The Trial Of Romeo Oscar, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 4

ALAN Ayckbourn’s 92nd play is his first courtroom drama, one set in the future, as he explores the question that artists have been asking for centuries: what makes us human?

In 2194, humanity is scattered around the solar system and day-to-day life on Earth looks very different. Preparations are underway for a landmark legal case. Romeo Oscar, a military issue android, is on trial for murder: the first non-human to be tried in a court of law. The evidence is polarising and selecting an impartial jury is proving a challenge. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Silky: Hooking up at York Barbican tonight

Comedy bill of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, featuring Silky and Dave Johns, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm

SILKY, Liverpudlian-in-exile and international act, is joined by Dave Johns, North Eastern stand-up,  scriptwriter and stage and screen actor, and  Jimmy Shirley, whose material addresses growing up in Liverpool in the 1990s, the absurdity of being a Scouser in Greece and the everyday things that annoy him every day.

Completing the line-up will be Gary Jennison, a surrealist force of nature who brings unscripted, unbridled chaos to dance-offs, game shows and observations with a twist while inviting the audience to steer his performance with suggestions and participation. Box office: https://lolcomedyclubs.co.ukor on the door from 7.30pm subject to availability. 

See the world more curiously in: Be Like Blippi, York Barbican, today, 1pm and 4pm

JOIN Blippi and Meekah for a one-of-a-kind interactive adventure that inspires children to move, play and explore like Blippi in a new show packed with high-energy music and surprises, featuring fan favourites The Excavator Song, Monster Truck, Dino Dance and Curious Like Me.  

Equipped with Blippi’s signature mix of play, learning, and exploration, Be Like Blippi invites you to break out your orange Blippi glasses and ignite your spark of curiosity. Please note, Blippi and Meekah will be played by professional stage performers. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Andrew O’Neill: Charting the history of punk through the comedy lens. Picture: Andrew O’Neill

When punk rock meets comedy: Andrew O’Neill, History Of Punk, Theatre@41, Monkgate, tonight, 8pm

FRESH from asking “How do we get out of this mess” in his Halfway To Edinburgh preview of his surreal, political show Escape at Theatre@41 on July 24, cult comedian Andrew O’Neill returns to York, switching from suggesting ways we can find our way out of disagreements to refracting punk rock through stand-up comedy.

In the wake of A History Of Heavy Metal, he delivers a full-volume love letter to punk, from The Stooges to Pussy Riot, Amebix to X-Ray Spex. “Punk’s not dead,” says O’Neill, who has appeared on Good Omens, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Steve Coogan’s Saxondale. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The Illegal Eagles: Checking in at the Hotel California

Tribute gig of the week: The Illegal Eagles, Hotel California Tour, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Illegal Eagles mark 30 years on the road in 2026 with their new Hotel California Tour.  Renowned for their vocal and guitar prowess and ability to re-create the legendary sound of the Eagles, the tribute act’s milestone itinerary features a full performance of the iconic Hotel California album, featuring Life In The Fast Lane, New Kid in Town and the unforgettable title track. Expect all the timeless Eagles greatest hits too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jeanette Hunter’s Pearl, Jackie Cox’s Jan, Nicky Clay’s Shelley and Gemma McDonald’s Linda in MARMiTE Theatre’s Ladies Day. Picture: Lucy Baines

Racing romp of the week: MARMiTE Theatre in Ladies Day, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 8 to 12, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

LIFE is one long slog for four fish factory packers from Hull, Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda, but their fortunes could change when they head to Knavesmire on the day Royal Ascot came to York in 2005.

Factory hairnets make way for fascinators as the friends hit the racecourse for an unforgettable day out. Secrets are spilled, along with copious amounts of champagne, as friendships are tested to the limits in Martyn Hunter’s s production of Amanda Whittington’s comedy gem. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Georgina Fairbanks and Johnson Willis in Jonathan Maitland’s Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll. Picture: Nick Haeffner

Punk godfather of the week: Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll , York Theatre Royal, September 10 to 12, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee   

WHEN Dr Feelgood co-founder and iconic guitarist Wilko Johnson faced a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2012, he was given only one year left to live. Declining medical intervention, Wilko chose to dedicate his remaining time to a meaningful farewell tour of the people and places that defined his life…only for an unexpected miracle to change the narrative entirely.

Jonathan Maitland’s Wilko: Love and Death and Rock’n’Roll examines the life of this punk-movement godfather, tracing a career that spanned Dr Feelgood, the Solid Senders, Ian Dury and The Blockheads and a late-career turn to acting in Game Of Thrones. Integrating live music and storytelling with Wilko’s own words, this show serves as a practical masterclass in living life to the fullest. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Movies In The Moonlight in Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema’s season at York Museum Gardens

Cinema event of the week: Picturehouse Outdoor Cinema, Movies In The Moonlight, York Museum Gardens, September 11 to 13, 6.30pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse moves outdoors for three evenings of open-air screenings, comprising Grease (PG) on September 11, The Shining (15) and Evolution Of Horror podcast introduction on September 12 and Jurassic Park (12A) on September 13. Screenings start at dusk or as soon as darkness falls.

Blankets, cushions and small picnic chairs are allowed. A limited number of deck chairs will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis; rain ponchos can bought at the event, should the need arise Guests are encouraged to take away waste for recycling where possible. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema/venue/york-museum-gardens.

Uh Oh, here comes Phil Wang’s moustache, “bristling with wisdom” at York Barbican

New moustache of the week: Phil Wang: Uh Oh, York Barbican, September 11, 7.30pm

PHILIP Nathaniel Wang Sin Goi is a Malaysian-British stand-up comedian, comedy writer and member of the sketch comedy group Daphne, who co-created the BBC Radio 4 series Daphne Sounds Expensive.

Now comes his new stand-up show, Uh Oh. In the words of Phil, “he’s older than ever before. He’s got a moustache now. It bristles with wisdom. His eyes shine with good humour. His shoulders groan under the weight of being the only cool millennial left. Everyone’s an idiot but him. Nice is out. Right is in. The vibe shift is real. Old Wang’s riding it.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Under starter’s orders: Antony Pickthall appointed poet in residence at Ripon Racecourse with Arts Council support

Poet Antony Pickthall

RIPON Racecourse has appointed poet and author Antony Pickthall as its first Poet in Residence, believed to be the first role of its kind at a Yorkshire racecourse.

Supported by funding from Arts Council England, the six-month residency will see Pickthall create a series of original poems inspired by Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse, its unique atmosphere and the people, traditions and stories that shape the world of racing.

The project aims to connect audiences with the racecourse in new and unexpected ways by combining creative writing with digital technology.

The poems will be published initially through Ripon Races’ Facebook channels before becoming permanently accessible around the racecourse using augmented reality. Visitors will be able to scan QR codes at key locations to hear performances of the poems read by the author.

The initiative is designed to celebrate the cultural heritage of racing while encouraging wider participation in creative writing and making poetry more accessible to new audiences.

Antony says: “The funding will allow me to explore my poetry and celebrate one of the best-loved racecourses in the UK in a different way, hopefully capturing some of what makes Ripon special. It’s also an opportunity to promote creative writing and to use new technology to present it.”

The residency reflects Ripon Racecourse’s commitment to broadening its cultural offer and creating new ways for visitors to engage with the venue beyond raceday traditions.

James Hutchinson, managing director of Ripon Racecourse, says: “Ripon Racecourse has always been about more than just the action on the track. We are proud of our heritage, our setting and the stories that make Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse such a special place.

“Appointing a Poet in Residence gives us an exciting opportunity to celebrate those stories in a fresh and engaging way, while introducing new audiences to both racing and the arts.

“By combining poetry with augmented reality technology, we hope visitors will experience the racecourse differently, discovering moments of reflection and creativity alongside the excitement of a race day.”

Antony Pickthall is a British author, playwright, poet and screenwriter originally from West Sussex and now based in North Yorkshire. He writes across a wide range of genres, including children’s and literary fiction, horror and fantasy.

His theatre work includes All Heads Turn, Bath Party, Catch The Pigeon and The Stunning Flight Of Archibald Bone. His screenwriting credits include commissions for Channel 4, Granada and independent producers.

Pickthall published his debut short story collection in 2019 and is working on his first poetry collection. He also edits Charles Hutchinson and Graham Chalmers’ weekly arts podcast Two Big Egos In A Small Car.

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Artist Es Devlin creates Library of the Four Winds installation at Castle Howard with the magic of mirrors and rotating books

Artist and designer Es Devlin unveils Library of the Four Winds at the Temple of the Four Winds at Castle Howard, marking the tercentenary of architect Sir John Vanbrugh. Picture: Rick Walker/PA Media Assignment, with permission of Castle Howard

LET internationally renowned artist and designer Es Devlin introduce Library of the Four Winds, her new public sculptural installation, on show in and around the Temple of the Four Winds at Castle Howard until September 27 as part of visionary architect Sir John Vanbrugh’s tercentenary celebrations.

“It’s a very special privilege to be invited to make a new work within Vanbrugh’s exquisite Temple of the Four Winds,” she says. “The Library of the Four Winds is a luminous oval revolving bookshelf, made up of hundreds of books, reflected to double height through a mirrored base.”

Devlin’s voice can be heard in a soundscape inside and outside. “The sculpture reads aloud from 250 of the books that have most influenced me. It draws on Vanbrugh’s dedication to literature, architecture and political activism within his final architectural masterpiece,” she says.

Four curved tables and concentric benches form a circle around the pavilion in an open invitation to visitors to connect with another. “Each table is laid with a selection of my annotated books, and we invite visitors to sit and read and meet one another through the texts throughout the summer of this National Year of Reading,” says Es “We are also offering drawing workshops each Saturday [from midday], where people can encounter one another through portraiture.”

Hailed as “the Shakespeare of English architecture”, Vanbrugh had concurrent careers as self-trained architect, playwright, adventurer, soldier, spy, diplomat and garden designer. “It could only be charm,” says Nicholas Howard, when speculating why Vanbrugh received the Castle Howard commission from Charles Howard, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, after meeting him in the confines of the Kit-Cat Club in London. “I can’t find any other explanation.”

To mark the 300th anniversary of Vanbrugh’s death, Castle Howard is celebrating his legacy with exhibitions, installations, workshops, talks and performances throughout the year.

Nicholas and Victoria Howard say:“It was Vanbrugh’s vision that brought Castle Howard to life, and now the house has the honour of celebrating its creator. There are many ways that audiences can engage with and learn about this larger-than-life character this year, and we are delighted to present this response by Es Devlin, which allows her to explore her own affinity to Vanbrugh. Her work is an innovative response to Vanbrugh’s vision and continues Castle Howard’s work with contemporary artists.”

Library of the Four Winds takes up summertime residency in the temple used originally as a place for refreshment and reading: Devlin’s starting point for creating the new artwork in an aesthetic space whose exact purpose was never specified formally.

There was even more of a buzz surrounding the installation at the press launch, on account of a swarm of bees in search of the queen bee concentrating their energies on the rear of the temple.

Library of the Four Winds artist and designer Es Devlin reading a book outside the Temple of Four Winds, Castle Howard, in a nod to the National Year of Reading. Picture: Rick Walker, PA Media Assignment, with permission of Castle Howard

“What a magical place Castle Howard is,” Es enthuses, drawn to Vanbrugh’s “flamboyant Baroque architecture”, his concern for systems in houses and architecture, his fascination with geometry. “The place is humming with it. What he found in nature was mathematics.”

In turn, mechanics come into the design of Es’s installation, built by Stage One Creative Services, a North Yorkshire manufacturing and engineering company that specialises in bespoke fabrications for the creative industries, based at Marston Business Park, Tockwith.

Central to the impact of the Library of the Four Winds on the Temple of the Four Winds itself is the mirrored base. “The temple invites you to look around you, 360 degrees, and to look up, almost putting a joke, a little riddle at the top where there are two gargoyles. The only way you are not  invited to look is down, but this mirror, with the revolving bookshelf, now invites you to look down as well as up.”

Then add the steady rhythm  of the rotating bookshelf with its projections of text going in and out of view, complemented at intervals by imagery of birds in flights, adding to the sense of calm, or reflection, of being at peace with books, surrounded by such beauty. 

“Whenever I make something that revolves, I notice that people fall into a reverie,” says Es. “It reminds us of what we’re trained to forget, which is that we’re constantly turning.”

In creating the Library of the Four Winds, Es has a partner operating in tandem with her. “I’ve been working with the building as the co-author since the beginning,” she says. “I view the building as a protagonist, as another of the dramatis personae.”

She wants her installation to be a conversation piece. “I hope that people who don’t love the same songs, read the same books, share the same political views, go to the same church, or speak the same language, will be brought together to discuss something else, where they don’t have to keep talking about what separates us,” says Es.

Es Devlin’s installation, Library of the Four Winds, is on show in the Temple of the Four Winds, Castle Howard, near Malton, until September 27. Entry is included in Castle Howard admission.  

Every Saturday until September 26, a 45-minute drawing workshop takes place at the installation; materials are provided. Friday Lates, an opportunity to see the Library of the Four Winds on a summer evening, will be held on July 3, August 7 and September 4. To book, go to: www.castlehoward.co.uk.

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Fiona Mozley revisits 2000s-era teenage days in York for third novel Awake Awake

Awake Awake author Fiona Mozley, centre, with Little Apple Bookshop proprietors Tim Curtis and Philippa Morris during her book-selling shift back on familiar book turf

FIONA Mozley returns to her York roots for her first novel in five years, Awake Awake.

Now living in Edinburgh, she headed back to her home city for a promotional day earlier this month, combining face-to-face interviews with a two-hour book-selling shift at Little Apple Bookshop, in High Petergate, where she worked behind the counter from 2016 to 2019.

“It was my favourite ever part-time job, and I’m still friends with Tim Curtis and Philippa Morris, who run it,” says Fiona, settling into a window seat at Waterstones, in Coney Street, where she would give a talk and sign books later that evening.

“Elmet sold 1,000 copies at Little Apple Bookshop alone and it remains their biggest ever-selling selling book.”

After rising to Booker Prize-shortlisted acclaim with that 2017 debut novel, set in Yorkshire, and following it up in 2021 with Hot Stew, set in a Soho brothel, Fiona roots her third novel almost entirely in the York of the 2000s, where her heroine Mary’s father works at York Minster.

“In a five-year period I wrote two and a half novels, and Awake Awake was the one that gained ground,” says Fiona. “Some writers have a ‘difficult second novel’, but mine was already on the way when Elmet came out, though I did ‘um and aarrgh’ because I had a number of ideas and was pursuing them all at once.

“Again, with this new novel, it started as a tandem project, which was that I’d always wanted to write a novel set in the early 2000s, following a bunch of teenagers negotiating those personal and political times.

“I was born in 1988, so in 2002-2003, I was 14-15, when my generation grew up thinking that everything was going to get better; that ‘history’ was over; that conflict had been eradicated; the economy would go from strength to strength and jobs were plentiful. How wrong we were.”

Fiona wanted to examine that moment of optimism and how the world came crashing down as 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq led to a “readjustment of the perception of where we were going”. She would do so through the eyes of teenagers “because they bring an insight and earnestness”, leading to activism and Stop The War marches.

“I decided to set it in a place outside the global capitals, so why not York, which made the perfect setting as I grew up here,” she says. “All my writing is rooted in long history and place – I studied History at King’s College, Cambridge – so the second strand I explored was an examination of the way we think about the past, in particular memories of the Second World War and memories of family histories.

“Awake Awake is very much fiction, but I wanted to think about the story of my grandfather, on my mother’s side, who was born in Leeds and was an officer in the Royal Amy Medical Corps.”

Her grandfather was from the Orthodox Jewish community, but hid it from his wife and his children, prompting Fiona to ponder how and why he did this.   

Fiona toyed with the concept of writing in a “counter-fictional” mode – a narrative or thought process that opposes or subverts the established rules, traditions and tropes of a specific story, genre or fictional world. “I was interested in playing with the idea from Quentin Tarantino’s [2009 black comedy] Inglourious Basterds, which I thought went over the top, but I was keen to see how those ideas spoke to each other.”

In 2023, Fiona and her partner spent a month in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “While I was there, I wanted to read some big American novels, so I read some Philip Roth, who I absolutely love and absolutely hate, but he’s never boring,” she says.

“Reading his books gave me permission to go ‘wild’ in my writing, to not shy away from something that might be controversial. I was struck by how he mixed the personal with the political and the international. Reading him, although I’m a hugely different person and writer, it gave me the opportunity to push in that direction.”

Explaining its impact on Awake Awake, Fiona says: “People are often curious about the relationship between real and fictional, and my response is that I find myself unable to write things as I perceive them and write down events as they happen. I would be a terrible lawyer,  an unreliable witness, because for me the process of writing is immediately creative and a new world emerges in the telling.

“I looked into this, and a lot of memory is constructed. It’s a creative act, so what I wanted to do was to exaggerate that. Put in the most stark terms, the [central] character is totally overcome by fictional memories – and the book is also about how our identities are totally informed by those memories.”

Awake Awake, by Fiona Mozley, is published in hardback, audio and ebook by John Murray Press.

The cover artwork for Fiona Mozley’s Awake Awake

Five talking points in Awake Awake

The war novel: How can contemporary novelists write about war?

2000s’ nostalgia and optimism: Anti-war movement of early 2000s was the backdrop to Fiona’s teenage years in York. How has that shaped how she and her generation think today?

Memory and mental illness: The novel’s heroine and her brother both suffer from mental ill-health as Fiona traces a “kind of intergenerational trauma”

Second World War: Fiona has Jewish heritage. Her maternal grandfather was from the Orthodox community in Leeds but hid it from his wife and children. How and why did he do so? Fiona brings family history into the novel to speculate on what might have happened to him.

Activism: Backdrop to the 2000s’ sections of the novel is the Stop The War movement and marches.

Author Fiona Mozley. Picture: Aleksandra Maciejewska

Fiona Mozley: back story

FIONA grew up in York, appearing in multiple theatrical productions before studying History at King’s College, Cambridge. Worked behind the counter at Little Apple Bookshop, in High Petergate, York, from 2016 to 2019.

Debut novel Elmet, published in August 2017 by JM Originals, was set in the claustrophobic rural West Riding of Yorkshire, exploring themes of family bonds, revenge, land rights, modern society and the ultimate price of freedom. Shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize, it was published in the USA in December 2017 and reissued in a JM Classics edition in 2025.

That year too, Elmet was adapted for the stage by Bradford-raised writer-director Javaad Alipoor for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, presented by the Javaad Alipoor Company at Loading Bay, with music by North Eastern folk luminaries The Unthanks & Adrian McNally and movement by Ad Infinitum’s Deb Pugh.

Playing like an ancient tragedy reflected in shards of memory, the world premiere ran from October 22 to November 2 2025 with its story of Cathy and Danny living apart from the world with towering bare-knuckle boxer Daddy, who has built them an idyll amid the trees on a land “made of myths”. However, a great reckoning is coming, led by all-powerful landowner Mr Price, threatening to smash apart everything the trio holds dear.

Second novel Hot Stew, published in 2021, was set in Soho, London, where sex workers Precious and Tabitha fight an eviction order from a real-estate heiress. Third novel Awake Awake was published in June 2026 by John Murray Press.

Fiona has won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Polari Prize and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Women’s Prize too.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Fiona lives in Edinburgh.

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