In Fanatic Heart, Booker Prize winner Thomas Keneally takes on one of the most controversial figures of the fight for Irish independence to wrestle with the conflicts at the centre of a complicated legacy. John  Mitchell, the lawyer and polemicist newspaper editor with pro-slavery views, stands between Irish patriots  Daniel O’Connell and Charles Stuart in the pantheon of the 19th century, sworn enemy of British crown. Summer 1847 people are getting used to the corpses lying by the road and along the ditches as the world famine will  forever conjure the hollowed faces of Ireland’s dead, the liquid Irish of the past … Continue reading Fight for Irish Independence

From Uzbekistan, Nadira when in her twenties,   ended up  for some time in Scotland. Her  father was a dermatologist and playwright, and her mother was an actress. Growing up, Nadira  spent a lot of time in the theatre outside school where she   witnessed a lot of behaviour that most young people would not have seen – possibly loving interludes etc in the theatre backstage.  When Russia got involved in policing Uzbekistan, everything changed and it turned her father to alcoholism. Nadira came to the UK  and did theatre courses including a lot of Shakespeare and then came to Raindance amd … Continue reading Nadira Murray – a talk –  Raindance Festival 2023

Halloween at Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, West London Pictures by Rajiv Nair Continue reading Trick or Treat?

TALK “HOW TO MAKE A LOW BUDGET FILM AND LIVE TO TELL THE TALE” –  RAINDANCE  31ST FILM FESTIVAL 25 OCT TO 4 NOV 2023 LONDON AT WONDERVILLE HAYMARKET . EVENTS ALSO AT A NUMBER OF CINEMAS – SO PLEASE GOOGLE. The talk featured Mark Pirro, Matt Devlen, Marteinn Thorsson, Chris Beckman,  Andrew Mark Sewel and Noel Donnelion and was introduced by actress  Caroline Kennedy. “Give it a go”! “Treat your friends like gold”! “Watch out for the sharks.  Stick to your guns and don’t give up”! And also – very importantly – “Don’t “bridge finance” films” The panel of … Continue reading RainDance 31st Film Festival

Gaulam Adani’s renewable power firm Adani Green Energy grew over two-fold in September quarter (Q2) as it jumped 149 per cent year-on-year to  £31.4m against £14.7m  a year ago. \its total income of £259m, up 54 per cent year-on-year from £168m as year ago. Its total expenses grew  43 per cent year-0n-year to £216m. Continue reading Adani Green Energy Profit leaps over two-fold to £31.4m in Q2

Rachel Reeves,  a former Bank of England economist, and the UK Labour Party’s shadow chancellor, argues that the standard lineup of great economists including Adam Smith,  author of market’s invisible hand  or Alfred Marshall, whose supply and demand curves young economists still learn to draw, Milton Freeman, champion of monetarism, is incomplete. The Women Who Made Modern Economics aims to correct that by revealing the thinkers and campaigners who shaped the discipline “ in more ways than is recognised”. These women and their stories should act as role models increasing the diversity of future economists. Harriet Martineau, in the 1800s … Continue reading Forgotten female economists

Tech tycoons leading the world to apocalypse, while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers, as the richest people on the planet have discovered is where the money is.  The Future is private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons and is a handful of friends of the daughter of a cult leader, a non-binary hacker, an ousted Silicon Valley visionary, the concerned wife of a dangerous CEO, and an internet famous survivalist – hatching a daring plan, it could be the greatest heist ever or the cataclysmic end of civilization. The Future is also the only reason to … Continue reading End Game

Nine iconic women including Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Aaliyah, Janet, Amy, Kim, Chyna, hen, whose fame in the early internet years of the century came at a price. Journalist Sarah Ditum in Toxic: Women, Fame and The Noughties reveals how each of the women changed “celebrity” forever, despite often falling victim to it, during what we now view as one of the most hostile eras in which to be female. The pop-culture era, characterised by misogyny and abuse, Ditum who now in her 40s explains” the register of progress is only in how utterly remote the past has become, the era-specific … Continue reading High-profile women were hypersexualized and Upskirted by the media

Spears’s The Woman in Me, a ground breaking book illuminating the enduring power of music and lvoe and the importance of a women telling her own story, on her own terms at last, a brave moving story about freedom, hope, fame, motherhood, faith, and survival – and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others.  Britney Spears’s … Continue reading “Every calorie was recorded so people could continue to get rich off my body” rage of Princes of Pop