Bringing Meaning to My Work
As an artist, I often am asked "why?" "Why paint; why sculpt?" "Why share your work with others?" "Why spend those hours alone, in front of a canvas?" "Why create anything at all?" "Why?" It is a...
View ArticleLatent Hazard by Piers Venmore-Rowland - Book Review
I have always wanted to be in an action thriller. Such fleeting fantasies tend to find me when travelling. Every woman under the age of forty has and no doubt continues to fanaticise about staring in...
View ArticleOlivier Nominations Show How Far Apart Theatre Audiences and Critics Are
Photo © National Theatre Coriolanus (Tom Hiddleston) Photo by Johan Persson This week the nominations for the Olivier Awards were announced and as well as the usual controversy over who was (and...
View ArticleSXSW 2014: A Virgin's Guide
It was an early start. Travelling from Glasgow to Austin began with bundling ourselves into a taxi with as much gear as we could carry, bleary eyed and ill-prepared. I say ill-prepared because we're...
View ArticleHollywood Hypocrites Who Reject Celebrity Are Doing What They Do Best: Acting
'It really sucks being famous right now.' Or so claimed Nicholas Cage at SXSW 2014 this week, where he was attending a screening of his new film Joe (and with one single quote, doing one hell of a job...
View ArticleThe Best Music to Lose Your Job To
We all know that our choice of music has an effect on our subconscious but I realised this morning - listening to my new, lovingly-compiled playlist - that the exact opposite is also true. Our...
View ArticleReview: Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
Following the relaunch of the Jim Henson-created brand The Muppets, in the original titled The Muppets a solid commercial and critical reaction has lead to a sequel Muppets Most Wanted. In a Gulag in...
View ArticleFemale Artists Front and Centre at the Affordable Art Fair
Picture © "A fine light" by Kirsty Wither. Oil, 30x30xm, £1,500 with Cameron Contemporary Art at the Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Saturday 8 March marked International Women's Day, and this year the...
View Article'Blue Is the Warmest Colour' - A Revisit
Blueisthewarmestcolourorm 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' aroused argument and controversy. It's raw, powerful and utterly compelling cinema. Director: Abdellatif Kechiche Cast: Lea Seydoux, Adel...
View ArticleWhy You Should Give Liam Neeson's Non-Stop a Chance
Image credit: StudioCanal When you see Liam Neeson holding a gun and looking grumpy on a poster or DVD cover, it's easy to dismiss the advertised film as a Taken knock-off not worthy of your precious...
View ArticleRyan Leslie: The Black Mozart
Ryan Leslie, one of a few musicians in the industry you can truly call a one-man band (he produces, plays keys, arranges vocals, raps and directs his videos!) recently flew in from the U.S with...
View ArticleHow to Write a Great Sex Scene (and Whether to Include Yourself in It)
When it comes to the sex scenes in my love stories, I have been asked a number of questions - but the number one question, by far, is: did they actually happen to me? Especially all those al fresco sex...
View ArticleSocial Media and the Music Industry
I've always been really passionate about social media - it's my nerdy guilty pleasure and if I wasn't doing what I'm doing now I like to think I'd be working for one of the big social networks. Since...
View ArticleEasy Cadbury Creme Egg Chocolate Flapjack Recipe
Image supplied by Holly Bell. I'm becoming one of those women who has an opinion about everything. Yep. You know the type who interrupts someone mid-sentence to say 'you want to know what I think...
View ArticleWhere Everything Is Music
Here's a little-known fact about a little-known person: I was nearly in a boyband once. In the days before torture was televised, back when auditioning young hopefuls for a male vocal group was a...
View ArticleThe Problem With Feminism in RuPaul's Drag Race
When Britney released Work Bitch, it was obvious she'd got the song title from dipping into the drag queen vernacular. And who could blame her? The overt confidence, the acid wit, the fabulous hair; we...
View ArticleThe Voice 2014 Knockout Show One
To get this far, they have faced the blind audition and had to go one to one in the battle round. Tonight, it's one song, one chance. Welcome to the knockouts. So how will it work Dean? Well let me...
View ArticleThe Line - A Sculpture Walk for London
For years I've been fascinated by the extraordinary amount of artwork that exists, hidden from public view, residing in storage. Across the country, warehouses - like Aladdin's caves - would make rich...
View ArticleEleanor Moreton: Tales of Love and Darkness
History and political events are seldom what they appear. The plethora of current radio and TV programmes and written articles commemorating the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I present...
View ArticleWhy Babymetal Are Going to Take Over the World
I am one minute and twenty seven seconds into the track Death by Babymetal and my brain is having trouble making sense of, well, everything on my laptop screen. I think I see three small Japanese...
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