Poet and hymns

12:24pm Thursday 8th May 2008

Jane Falloon first came across the poems of George Herbert as a schoolgirl in the 1940s, when she sang them as hymns at Tudor Hall School in Banbury. "We used to sing a hymn every morning at prayer," she said. "My aunt was my headmistress and she loved these hymns and we got to know so many of them by heart." The hymn singing began a life-long love of his words and last year, at the age of 78, Jane published a biography of the 17th-century poet.

Special forces

12:05pm Thursday 8th May 2008

The Wild Province Roderick Bailey (Jonathan Cape, £25) "Set Europe ablaze" cried Churchill and thus the Special Operations Executive was born. Its mission: to cause as much havoc as possible in the territories occupied by Hitler. That meant the Balkans, where highly-trained operatives, inventive and destructive, landed to give support to the partisans in the region. What they found, particularly in Albania, was not much to their liking - they were "lazy, liars and thieves" wrote one British officer. "We hate the country and hate the people."

Classics with style

12:03pm Thursday 8th May 2008

THE Oxford World's Classics - originally mini hardbacks that sold for a shilling - have been rebranded once again by Oxford University Press. Now in paperback, with 700 titles, they have new covers and new editions.

Slow travel for idlers

11:54am Thursday 8th May 2008

Readers are rightly tiring of tales of wacky journeys from publishers seeking to repeat the success of Tony Hawks' book Round Ireland with a Fridge. But Three Men in a Float (John Murray, £12.99) is about a journey with a purpose - the authors, Dan Kieran and Ian Vince, work for The Idler magazine, and believe that life is more pleasurable when you slow down, get out of your car and off the beaten track.

Other people's lives

11:51am Thursday 8th May 2008

There's something about Amy Hempel. Her short sentences. Her punchy titles. Her succinct way of writing. Her getting straight to the point. Her directness. Her take on uncomfortable realities.

	A wine masterclass from Australia
	10:48am Thu 8 May 08
	Last week I was sat in Australia House taking part in a masterclass aimed at capturing "the past, present and future of Australia's leading wine expressions".

	Town plays a part in history of the empire
	10:19am Thu 8 May 08
	Lottery helps fund project to remember role of Witney blankets in colonising Canada, writes CHRIS KOENIG Blankets and rugs may be rarer in British and Canadian homes than they once were, having been superseded by the duvet, but the part that the so-called blanketeers of Witney played in bringing about British dominion of Canada should not be forgotten.

	Mantra is to reduce
	10:14am Thu 8 May 08
	VAL BOURNE says most garden debris can and should be recycled on site Everybody is talking about compost and recycling as though they have invented it. A short drive down our village on bin day shows how seriously people are taking it. It's a fascinating sight with green bins bulging, glass bottles glinting and enough cardboard packaging to grace an Argos skip - and that's just one house containing two residents!

	It's a wild birthday party!
	10:09am Thu 8 May 08
	A hard-working conservation group In Oxford which has proved popular with all ages passes a significant milestone this month, writes PETER CANN This month marks the 20th anniversary of Oxford Urban Wildlife Group. Formed in May 1988 to encourage wildlife within the city, its major achievement has been the creation of Boundary Brook Nature Park.

	Of popes, kings and princes
	10:02am Thu 8 May 08
	THERESA THOMPSON says it's your last chance to see the National Gallery's tribute to a neglected master of portraits Sir Humphry Morice calmly looks out at us. Cross-legged, he reclines against a tree after a hunt, one hand lightly fingering the loose folds of his silk shirt, the other resting affectionately on one of three dogs that play around him. Unusually for a Grand Tour souvenir' portrait, it only hints at its Roman countryside setting. It also has an undeniably laid-back sitter.

	Festival endures to celebrate English tradition
	9:57am Thu 8 May 08
	As the second English Music Festival returns to Oxfordshire, NICOLA LISLE talks to founder and organiser Em MarshallK Hundreds of artists performing at 19 events in five days at four venues sounds like an organisational nightmare. But for Em Marshall, whose dream of founding an English Music Festival came to fruition 18 months ago, the hard work is worth every moment. It allows her to put the spotlight on to English composers, whom she feels have been unjustly neglected.

	Strong cast
	9:49am Thu 8 May 08
	In its 25th anniversary year The Central School of Ballet visits The Theatre, Chipping Norton. DAVID BELLAN talks to director Bruce Sansom Bruce Sansom has been director of The Central School of Ballet for just over two years. Behind that appointment lies a successful career as a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. He was known as a very lyrical dancer with a classical purity of line, and has been compared with Anthony Dowell. Before that there were eight years of training at the Royal Ballet School.

	Couple's happy chickens lay top-quality eggs
	3:06pm Wed 7 May 08
	What began as an interesting hobby to keep Gordon and Joy Lyall in fresh free-range eggs during their retirement years has turned into a full-time family enterprise at their home in New Yatt, near Witney.

	Asparagus with hollandaise sauce recipe
	3:04pm Wed 7 May 08
	Eggs and asparagus go well together, particularly when you use the eggs to make a Hollandaise sauce. As local asparagus is now readily available, try using fresh free-range eggs to create this sauce, which takes no time at all to make. Indeed, it can be ready as you remove the asparagus from the simmering water.

	Speed Racer
	3:01pm Wed 7 May 08
	Go, Speed Racer, Go!" Based on the Japanese animated series, Speed Racer signals the return of Andy and Larry Wachowski, the publicity-shy brothers who pioneered 'bullet time' in The Matrix trilogy.

	Honeydripper, Un Secret and I Served the King of England
	2:58pm Wed 7 May 08
	Screen history is pocked with African-American musicals showcasing stars who were rarely allowed to exhibit their talents in mainstream pictures. Indeed, on the rare occasions when the likes of Lena Horne, Bill Bojangles' Robinson or the Nicholas Brothers were accorded guest slots in prestigious studio pictures, their numbers were invariably cut from prints destined for the Deep South for fear of offending supremacist audiences.

Eynsham Choral Society: St Leonard's Church

2:55pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

It's been a topsy-turvy kind of a spring. Oxfordshire saw snow in April, and the BBC contributed by publishing the 2008 Proms programme a month early. So it somehow came as no surprise to find Eynsham Choral Society staging the Last Night of the Proms in spring, instead of September.

	Dara O'Briain: New Theatre
	2:53pm Wed 7 May 08
	There is an explosive quality to this magnificent stand-up. Dara O'Briain began his set at machine-gun pace and simply did not let up for a moment. Anyone who knows this burly Irishman from his presenting the admirable Mock The Week on television has seen only the acorn of his talent; the packed New Theatre audience saw the finished, oak-tree, product.

Asaf Sirkis and the Inner Noise, the Spin

2:50pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

Asaf Sirkis (pictured) is best known to many as the drummer with Gilad Atzmon's Orient Ensemble, but his more personal venture, the Inner Noise, was formed while he was still working in Israel. Bringing the musical ideas to Britain, Sirkis reformed the Inner Noise over here with Steve Lodder on church organ and Mike Outram on guitar. The resulting recordings and performances of his compositions, in which modern classical music such as Messiaen meets jazz and elements of progressive rock, has been described as "vibrant, vital, exciting and fresh".

	The Merry Widow, English National Opera, London Coliseum,
	2:41pm Wed 7 May 08
	The arrival in Paris of rich widow Hanna Glawari sets the cat among the diplomatic pigeons at the Pontevedrian embassy, as they try to prevent her - and her F20m fortune - falling into French hands. Cue shenanigans in sheds, ethnic dancing, the taking off of trousers and the losing of fans.

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