Ruth Berkoff appeared at the Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester. For more information on The Beauty of Being Herd, click ...

In essence a waking biography unmoored by dream, Balkan Erotic Epic is a singular, captivating, discomfiting, uneven and ...

In its 20th anniversary year, the co-directors of Manchester Literature Festival, Cathy Bolton and Sarah-Jane Roberts, talk ...

The first time I went to the Manchester Literature Festival, I bumped into Lady Antonia Fraser ...

To misquote Jane Austen: ‘Prizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.’ The prose stylist against whom all who have come after must measure ...

Black Sabbath – The Ballet from Birmingham Royal Ballet brings together classical ballet and the music of Black Sabbath, the pioneering heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1968. It’s an ambitious ...

When Yorkshire-born Kieran Hodgson joined the cast of BBC Scotland’s hit comedy series Two Doors Down, he decided to go “all in” and relocate with his partner to Glasgow. “I haven’t done a show for ...

It’s July 2025, the hottest day of the year, and I’m clearing out my desk in the OperaWatch office at Northern Soul Towers. After 12 years as Northern Soul’s Opera Correspondent, I’m stepping down.

Some English supporters at the recent international match were booing the Andorran national anthem. I doubt most of them know where exactly Andorra is, let alone what it is like and what it stands for ...

Living in Manchester city centre affords glimpses into the habits of modern Britain. On my daily shop to the local supermarket, I watch the lunch choices of office workers as they queue. Sandwich, ...

For anyone wondering whether there is any humanity left in this troubled world, I am delighted to confirm that there is – I have just found it in the form of Flapjack Press’s new release, The First ...

I can’t stop thinking about Larksong. A few weeks ago, on a clear and mild autumn night, I travelled to Goodshaw Chapel, a nonconformist Baptist church established by textile workers and farm ...