Entertainment

The Shacklewell Arms continues its run of stonking free gigs with a Thursday-night triple-header. LA experimental duo Wreck and Reference round out the night with their unique blend of introspective metal, sounding raw and intelligent through a caustic mix of samples, synthesisers and drums. Schlocky support comes from the cloak-shrouded, smoke-obscured Blackmoon 1348, who base their set in spectacle and hypnotic chanting. Think the Witches of Eastwick with more melodica and you're halfway there. A proper show for a freebie...

From exotic frogs to a jumping fox, all these pictures are winners and runners up in an international photography competition. British snapper Michelle Howell grabbed the top prize with this pic of a colourful Argentinian Ornate Horned Frog. She fought off more than 530 other snappers to win the Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers' Creatures Great and Small competition. Former cop Michelle, from Flockton, Yorkshire said: "After retiring from West Yorkshire Police and entering the sailing business, I...

As much as I truly enjoy reading a good mystery novel – within the broad term of genre fiction mysteries are by far my favourite – they do present a positively infernal problem in writing about them. Most of the major touchstones used by a thoughtful reviewer in assessing a book's worth have to be equivocated. Plot is obvious; nobody will give a moment's worth of deciding whether or not to read a whodunit if they already know whodunit. One...

There's a riddle I like to use to expose everyday sexism in modern society. It goes something like this: A father and his son are in a car crash. The father dies on impact but the son gets rushed to hospital. The doctor comes in but says, "I can't operate on this child, it's my son". Who is the doctor?  It's remarkable how long it takes people to figure it out (it's his mother, silly). But perhaps such warped views...

An artist has carved a series of stunning facial sculptures - using the stones from AVOCADOS. Art fanatic Jan Campbell scratches the intricate designs into the unique fruity material which she describes as the perfect blank canvas. She now a huge collection of designs which she sells for more than £100-a-pop. Jan, who creates the artwork under the name Avocado Stone Faces, said: "An avocado stone shares the characteristics of a dense wood. "The stone will last for as long...

If you have not heard of the Irish writer Karl Parkinson before, well let me tell you two things. One, you really need to move in better and more alternative circles; and two, you're missing out on something special. Parkinson's first novel, The Blocks, like a great thoroughbred on its maiden race broke screaming with nostrils flared from the gate. It was the novel Ireland had not only waited for, it was the novel Ireland needed – no false nostalgia...

What is your show about? Polly and Eve have a surprisingly hilarious time travelling the UK with their best friend’s ashes in a Wizard of Oz lunchbox. At Dylan’s funeral, they are handed the box along with posthumous instructions to take him on the UK road trip he never got to go on. The two women haven’t spoken after a friendship destroying argument several years ago and on top of some devastating grief, this is not ideal. Their journey is...

What is your show about? It’s about happiness and friendship. It’s also about pandas, robots and time travel, but they’re less obviously about happiness and friendship than answering ‘happiness and friendship’. What is your favourite part of creating a new show? Nothing fuels creativity like a deadline. Or Creativity fuel©, a new fragrance by Harry and Chris (we don’t have a fragrance (but we do have a show (The Harry and Chris Show 2 (at the Cask Room in the...

Following the release of their acclaimed debut Citadel in 2015, Memnon Sa return with Lemurian Dawn, a cosmic journey through space, time and myth. The guitar driven sound of Citadel has been replaced here by a myriad of analog synthesisers, ancient world instruments, throat singing and strings. Lemurian Dawn channels New Age meditational works, film soundtracks and cosmic jazz from the 70s and 80s. The result could be the soundtrack to a lost 1970’s European sci-fi film, warm analogue sounds...