Occasionally Dan turned the pages of his newspaper. Someone was advertising a new design of coffin, secure enough to keep out body snatchers. Good luck with that, he thought. The Butcher’s Block : A Dan Foster Mystery I recently spent an afternoon in Frenchay, near Bristol, visiting the Frenchay Unitarian Chapel. The Chapel dates from the seventeenth century and has several interesting features. These include a door said to have been specially designed to allow women wearing crinolines under their skirts to enter the building, and a weathervane which is thought to commemorate the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1759.   Frenchay Unitarian Chapel I’d gone in search of something more prosaic: the Body Snatchers' Stone. In the forthcoming Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block , Dan is drawn into the grisly world of body snatching, which quickly leads him into a much bigger and more dangerous criminal conspiracy. Body snatching was a common crime in the eig...

“I do believe that something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”    J K Rowling Today’s show was inspired by World Book Night which was on 23 April 2017. World Book Night is a national celebration of reading and books. Books are given out throughout the UK with a focus on reaching those who don’t regularly read. Our guests were Helen Hart, Publishing Director of Silverwood Books in Bristol which offers assisted publishing services for self published authors who wish to publish to a professional standard. Helen has also recently set up the SBooks imprint, which commissions short fiction from authors. Also in the studio was Vicky Hough of the Reader Engagement Team, Bristol Libraries. Vicky told us about all the amazing things Bristol Libraries are doing to help people to get the most out of reading. These include a Harry Potter night, and the Summer Reading Challenge for children, who are encouraged to read and review six books over the holida...

Last evening I went to see Offside at the Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market, Bristol. The play, by Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish, was performed by Daphne Kouma, Tanya-Loretta Dee and Jessica Butcher. It tells the story of two women footballers who dream of playing for England. Mickey is inspired by the story of black Scottish goal keeper Carrie Boustead, and Keeley by Preston player Lily Parr (1905–1978).   One of the play’s pivotal moments is the ban imposed on women’s football by the Football Association (FA) in 1921 – a ban which was not lifted until 1971! It also looks at how women athletes are portrayed in the media, issues around body image, what women wear, and the pressure on women to conform to imposed gender roles – such as not playing football. In addition, it references links between Scottish football and the women’s suffrage campaign. For example, though not mentioned explicitly in the play, Scotland’s first female football team was set up by suffragist Helen...