Axbridge Review: UPDATED FOR 2025 – everything you wanted to know about the Annual Axbridge Charity Progressive Supper but were afraid to ask – including the things you should never do on the night
By Harry Mottram: Trying to explain how a progressive supper works is like trying to explain the off-side rule in…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: a match making hike in the rain in David Nicholls’ highly amusing and affectionate novel You Are Here
Book Review: You Are Here, by David Nicholls. Not so much love in a cold climate but a rain soaked…
ICSM Utilities Insolvency News: Energy firm goes bust; P&O in choppy waters after failing to publish accounts; and the drawn out death throws of Thames Water continue
By Harry Mottram: Older readers may recall the advertising campaign in the 1980s ‘Tell Sid’, extolling the virtues of buying shares…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: a sense of jeopardy hangs over the fate of the talking magpie Tama in Catherine Chidgey’s take on life in rural New Zealand in The Axeman’s Carnival
Book Review: The Axeman’s Carnival, by Catherine Chidgey Tama the talking magpie is many things – a social media star,…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: A troubled marriage, a brutal battle and the ignorance of the British expats in 1940s Egypt in Olivia Manning’s The Levant Trilogy as the Nazis threaten to invade, but it’s all about Harriet and Guy Pringle
Book Review: The Levant Trilogy, by Olivia Manning The heat, the flies, and the bloody expats – Egypt in World…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: no plot, nothing happens and we still don’t know how you go to the toilet in space in Samantha Harvey’s Orbital – as we go round the earth 16 times
Book Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey: The 2024 Booker Prize winning novel is something of a contradiction since it’s not…
As Bath Festival approaches a look back to when the Bath Arts Workshop kickstarted the festival movement – now portrayed in a book – Bath Arts Workshop – charting the heady days in the city of the counterculture of the 1970s
JANUARY 28, 2023 By Harry Mottram. The late 60s and early 1970s was seen as a golden age of counterculture in…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: Kazuo Ishiguro’s brilliantly clear and simple prose brings to life artificial humanoid Klara in a futuristic world of genetically enhanced children
Book Review: Klara And The Sun. Some of the reviews of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun speak…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: a moment of truth when deciding to defect from North Korea in Al Smith’s high drama account of Thae Yong-ho’s split second decision ‘to run’
Radio Review: The Defectors. Drama on BBC Radio 3.Golf or tennis? Such simple choices set in motion the high tension…
Bath Voice News: Government outrage that Bath’s MP Wera Hobhouse was prevented from visiting relatives when entering Hong Kong airport by Communist officials and deported back to the UK
April 13, 2025 By Harry Mottram: Foreign Secretary David Lammy has reacted angrily to the Communist officials in Hong Kong who…
Strawberry Line Times: when Banwell was bombed in World War Two – and Weston-super-Mare suffered its own Blitz
When Banwell and Weston-super-Mare were bombed by Harry Mottram Just over 70 years ago saw the start of World War…
Bath Voice News: Six in election battle for the Metro Mayor on May 1st – read here who they are and what they stand for – and what they plan to do as mayor and why you should vote for them
April 11, 2025 By Harry Mottram: It has been an election with a difference after the outgoing Metro Mayor Dan Norris…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Mermaid gowns, Empire lines and writing under the names of Miranda and Sharon – a brief resume of my ten years as editor of Beautiful Brides Magazine
Jan 2, 2025 By Harry Mottram: The features editor of the Western Daily Press asked if I could write a feature on wedding…
Bath Voice News: shock at the arrest of Labour MP Dan Norris and outgoing Metro Mayor over sexual offences and misconduct in public office
By Harry Mottram: The Spectator and The BBC have reported that the Labour MP for North Somerset and Hanham Dan Norris has been arrested…
ICSM Business Insolvency News: Trump’s tariffs will hit British exports to the USA as the UK takes a wait and see approach
By Harry Mottram: The world is coming to terms with the trade war that USA’s President Trump has launched since coming…
Bath Voice News: Zhenya Shkil is keeping the Ukrainian flag flying as she recently helped raised funds for the Friends of Oleksandriya with a huge concert in Bath Abbey – even though she’s from Kiev
April 3, 2025 By Harry Mottram: Three years to the day the Ukrainian flag flew over Bath’s Guildhall marking the anniversary…
Axbridge Review: local history newsletter Retrospect runs the story of the construction of Cheddar Reservoir back to the 1930s when it was built using steam power, picks and shovels
From the current issue of Retrospect – the journal of the local history society: Newsletter of the Friends of King…
Bath Voice News: what’s on this month
April 3, 2025 Pick of Diary Events in Bath Sun 30 Mar. Mothering Sunday. Not to be confused with Mother’s Day…
Bristol Theatre Preview: full casting for the new production of The Beautiful Future Is Coming announced by Bristol Old Vic Theatre
From Bristol Old Vic Theatre: Bristol Old Vic is delighted to announce the full casting for the new production of The…
ICSM Sports Insolvency News: As premier league clubs file their accounts why professional football and rugby clubs are in debt
By Harry Mottram: If professional football clubs were treated like any other business most would go bust tomorrow as their loans…
Bath Voice News: the Metro Mayor election to replace Dan Norris is just a month away as a sixth candidate joins the battle for the May 1st vote
By Harry Mottram: On Thursday, May 1st, 2025, Bathonians can vote in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority election to…
Axbridge Review: a letter to the town’s music fans from the creative forces behind the hit songs ‘If I Had You’ and ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’
Well actually the letter was to me but really it’s to everyone in the town – especially those who love…
Axbridge Review: sex three times a week? You’ve got to be kidding me! Arthur Miller’s play Broken Glass staged in Axbridge Town Hall is more about a broken marriage than Adolf Hitler
Theatre Review: Broken Glass, Axbridge Town Hall. You don’t have to be Jewish to be terrified of Hitler’s Kristallnacht in…
Bristol News: what’s on in the city this spring
New tours, redevelopments and exhibitions Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm – redevelopments NEW Spring 2025 The ambitious Project Carnivora at Noah’s Ark…
Book Review: tea and cake fuel the detective work of ‘psychic’ Mary McShane in Tony Watt’s whodunnit novel Mary McShane: Psychic Detective
Book Review: Mary McShane: Psychic Detective The clue is in the title: psychic. You either believe or you don’t believe…
Axbridge Review: you don’t have to be Jewish and a New Yorker to have a nervous breakdown over Kristallnacht – a preview of Axbridge Community Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s play Broken Glass
By Harry Mottram: Artistic director of Axbridge Community Theatre John Bailey has put together a first class cast for his…
Bath Voice Sports News: Glory, glory, glory! Big win for Bath Rugby over Exeter in the cup final – plus results from the weekend with Bath City in heaven after beating Tonbridge Angels
March 17, 2025 By Harry Mottram: Bath Rugby’s Will Stuart enjoyed scoring a try in England’s emphatic win over Wales in…
Bath Voice News: reviews of the current art exhibitions at the Holburne – the original, the brilliant and the underwhelming
March 15, 2025 By Harry Mottram: It’s arguably the city’s most impressive art gallery laid out on three floors in the…
ICSM Business News: Hold on tight – how Trump’s tariffs could affect UK business in 2025 – threatening ‘a very bumpy ride’
By Harry Mottram: The old adage that when America sneezes Britain catches a cold is true economically but when the USA…
Bath Voice News: pick of what’s on in March and into April in the city
By Harry Mottram. March 12, 2025 Pick of Diary Events in Bath Sat 15 Mar. Sounds of Our City. Roper…
Axbridge Review: Government minister visits Cheddar Reservoir and confirms work to start on Cheddar Reservoir 2 as funds are agreed
By Harry Mottram: One of the South West’s largest infrastructure projects is set to begin by 2029 with the construction…
Axbridge Review: From Jane Austen to Ian Rankin and from Harry Potter to Wilkie Collins – 26 years up for one of the town’s book clubs where novels are discussed over a glass of wine
By Harry Mottram: From J L Carr’s A Month in the Country to a month in space in Samantha Harvey’s…
Bath Voice News: Work to repair flood damage to the plant room at Cleveland Pools caused by the 2024 floods continues – meaning they won’t re-open anytime soon
March 4, 2025 By Harry Mottram: Cleveland Pools will remain closed following the flooding in January 2024. In a statement Paul…
Axbridge Review – Somerset News: Hatch stage art exhibition near Langport from 15-30 March – Thinking Inside The Box – where the creations are all inside boxes
Somerset exhibition – THINKING INSIDE THE BOX. 15th – 30th March, weekends only, 11am-4pm By Tina Salvidge of Hatch: Hatch…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: Eleanor Catton’s ‘environmental thriller’ Birnham Wood gets stuck in the trees until someone gets killed and we have a breathless finish to her novel
Book Review: Birnham Wood. By Eleanor Catton (pictured – credit the Scotsman) A bit like digging a new vegetable patch…
Axbridge Review: Cheddar Reservoir’s owner Susan Davy, the CEO of The Pennon Group grilled over leaks, pollution and her £860,000 salary – plus news of Cheddar Reservoir 2
By Harry Mottram: Water bills in Axbridge are to rise by 32% by 2030 as utility firms hike consumer prices…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: John Hillaby’s ‘lyrical, revealing and candid account’ of his Journey Through Britain – in a country much changed since 1968 when it was published
Book Review: Journey Through Britain. By John Hillaby Britain was different in the late 1960s. Most chaps wore jackets and…
Bath Voice News: Bath MP slams Trump over his accusations the Ukrainian president is a ‘dictator’ as she praises Bath’s Friendship Agreement with Oleksandriya ahead of their concert on Monday, 24 February
February 20, 2025 By Harry Mottram: The Bath MP Wera Hobhouse has joined a chorus of condemnation of the USA President…
Rapscallion Magazine: updated – Notes on an enduring love for Dinbych-y-pysgod (Tenby)
It all began with a copy of the Radio Times. Harry Mottram saw an advert for a cheap week in…
Rapscallion Magazine: Game of Empires – if Russia can bag Ukraine and USA can grab Greenland then Britain can seize New York and Spain Texas – it’s the 21st century power game
By Harry Mottram: Welcome to the 19th century, remade in the 21st century when the great powers feel entitled to…
Bath Voice Music News: Nostalgic album of lesser known local bands from Bristol and Bath of the 1980s released
By Harry Mottram: During the 1980s there were a number of bands from Bristol and Bath that nearly made it…
Axbridge Review – looking back to the 1930s when 400 men, steam power and picks and shovels built Cheddar Reservoir in the shadow of the Second World War
By Harry Mottram: It was the year the National Grid was completed and the classic London Underground map designed by…
Bath Voice Sports News: Bath’s Oli Lawrence levels the scores at Twickenham with a try putting England back in the game with eventual victory over France in the Six Nations in a classic battle with Les Bleus
February 9, 2025 By Harry Mottram: In one of the most exciting contests ever played between England and France at Twickenham,…
ICSM Business News: Trump’s tariffs will hit world trade as the UK braces for the economic aftershocks
By Harry Mottram: The old saying that if America sneezes Britain catches a cold is likely to hold true over the…
Axbridge Review: the town’s new heritage trail textile hanging is hailed as ‘beautiful’ and ‘awesome’ as funds are raised to display it permanently in the parish church
By Harry Mottram: Residents viewed the new Axbridge Heritage Trail textile hanging displayed in the town hall at the weekend…
Bath Voice News: Combe Down’s allotment holders appeal for help to set up a Community Interest Company to fight off threat of eviction in October as the battle to save the allotments enters a new phase
January 27, 2025 By Harry Mottram: In a cry to arms the allotment holders of Combe Down have appealed for supporters…
Axbridge Review: the town’s heritage trail comes to life at the point of a needle! The magnificent eleven set to unveil a textile hanging in the Town Hall on February 1st (Farmers’ Market Day)
By Harry Mottram: A group of Axbridge women have created a textile hanging depicting the town’s Heritage Trail which will…
Axbridge Review: could Cheddar Reservoir (s) now be renamed Wedmore Lakes – proposed boundary changes for Somerset Council create some quirky divisions
By Harry Mottram: Somerset Confidential news has reported on the proposed divisional electoral boundaries for Somerset Council which gives some…
ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – News in Brief – Printing and Allied trades’ recent insolvencies and latest update on Ancient House
By Harry Mottram: Over the festive period and now the New Year more print based and allied trades and service firms…
Rapscallion Magazine: how French and Chinese funders determine the infrastructure of west Somerset – while the unfinished Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is guarded at the point of a gun
By Harry Mottram: All I wanted was to get a photograph of Hinkley Point C from the public footpath along…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: English journeys – high explosives, shopping lists and ancient earthworks on Brean Down in Somerset
By Harry Mottram: I picked up the piece of paper on Brean Down by the fort. It was a shopping…
Bath Voice News: exhibition picks in the city and beyond for January
January 6, 2025 Exhibition Picks in Bath American Museum, Bath. Claverton. The Museum’s founders, Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn, an anglo-American…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Spies, Stalin and Sir Anthony Blunt analysed in David Cannadine’s radio expose – and the evening I sat opposite the Cambridge spy and ‘fourth man’
Radio Review: BBC Archive on 4 programme Anthony Blunt: A Question of Retribution? By Harry Mottram: It’s not everyday you…
ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – News in Brief – bury bad news – the firms going bust over ‘Twixmas’
By Harry Mottram: The dark side of Christmas and New Year is that a lot of people are quietly made redundant…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Rotring pens, Letraset and PMTS – the last of the paste up artists from a lost age of graphic design when we all smoked and had lunch time booze ups
By Harry Mottram: Not only a lost age for graphics but a lost age for many offices and studios when…
Bath Voice News: another election, a green light for the new rugby stadium and more cycle routes – what 2025 has in store for Bath
January 2, 2025 By Harry Mottram: The New Year will see Bath continue to have changes to its streets and paths…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Mermaid gowns, Empire lines and writing under the names of Miranda and Sharon – a brief resume of my ten years as editor of Beautiful Brides Magazine
By Harry Mottram: The features editor of the Western Daily Press asked if I could write a feature on wedding…
Axbridge Review: big turn-out for the annual meet of the Banwell and Weston Harriers on Boxing Day as protestors make their point
By Harry Mottram: If the legislation promised by the incoming Labour government to ban trail hunting due to well documented…
Bath Voice News: Bath Rugby submit revised plans for the new stadium after feedback including a redesign of the controversial East Stand
December 24, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Almost certainly the new stadium for Bath Rugby will get the thumbs up from planners…
Bath Voice News: Bath City appoint former Swansea City midfielder and Yeovil Town manager as the new boss at Twerton Park
December 24, 2024 By Harry Mottram: It’s the news all Romans’ fans have been waiting for: the appointment of a new…
Bath Voice News: CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLERS – local writer has story published in an anthology of horror tales – plus other books, books, books from Bath’s authors
December 16, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Dylan Spicer of Bath has won a writing competition for the Twisted 50 series of…
Axbridge Review: Birnbeck Pier to reopen to the public in four years after decades of neglect
By Harry Mottram: I was one of the last people to walk around Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare back in the…
Axbridge Review: the decline and fall of The Cheddar Valley Gazette and other newspapers (and it wasn’t my fault – but there is a culprit)
December 13, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Nobody buys the Cheddar Valley Gazette anymore. Mainly because it doesn’t exist but has been ‘merged’ with…
Axbridge Review: update on the Boxing Day Hunt meeting as Somerset Council clarify issues over parking and road access
By Harry Mottram: A group called Action Against Fox Hunting have appealed for residents to boycott the Boxing Day meeting…
Bath Voice News: EVERYTHING MUST GO – Jolly’s department store in Milsom Street set to close down in February after 200 years in business leaving a large hole in the shopping street
December 11, 2024 By Harry Mottram: After around 100 years of trading in the city of Bath Jolly’s in Milsom Street…
Bath Voice News: police swoop to arrest three individuals in the city as they crack down on County Lines drug dealing after vulnerable woman was the victim of ‘cuckooing’
December 11, 2024 By Harry Mottram: It’s become the crime of the 21st century: County Lines drug dealing. Young people…
Children’s Theatre Magazine Theatre Review: Marian and her band of outlaws in the Egg’s production of Robin Hood is an original take on the teenage outlaws of Sherwood Forest
December 6, 2024 Theatre Review: Robin Hood, The Egg Theatre Bath Squabbling teenage outlaws, a pocket sized King Richard and…
Axbridge Review: surveyors begin work on Cheddar Reservoir 2
By Harry Mottram: It’s not everyday that Axbridge Review scoops, the BBC, Somerset Live and perhaps more importantly The New…
Axbridge Review: starter, main, sweet – diners in the town raise £900 each for the foodbank and the school PTA with the town’s progressive supper
More than a hundred residents of Axbridge ate their way through three sumptuous courses in the town’s progressive supper on…
Bath Voice News: exhibition picks for December
December 2, 2024 Exhibition Picks in Bath American Museum, Bath. Claverton. American Road Trip. 9 Mar-31, Dec, 2024. Images, sounds and…
Children’s Theatre Magazine Review: Throwback to 2016 and Robin Hood at The Egg Theatre in Bath – as the theatre gears up for a new production this season
Throwback to 2016: Greg Banks’s Robin Hood at the Egg Theatre. Reviewed by Harry MottramPlaying at the egg, Theatre Royal,…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: A coming of age novella where two French school girls discuss love, marriage, parents… and the God question – in The Inseparables, by Simone de Beauvoir
Book Review: The Inseparables, by Simone de Beauvoir Do you believe in God? The question is one of the themes…
Axbridge Review – feedback from the public meeting on the campaign to Save The Axbridge Methodist Church moves on to some practical steps to realise the dream of an arts centre
By Harry Mottram: The two main people behind driving the campaign to Save The Axbridge Methodist Church have published the…
Axbridge Review: update on the annual Boxing Day meeting of Weston and Banwell Harriers in Axbridge as anti-hunt group doubles down on their opposition
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge Town Council has responded to questions from Alyson Rogers of Action Against Foxhunting over their jurisdiction of the…
Axbridge Review: Rev Andrew Bell – no booze if Methodist Church is leased; Church authorities will sell to highest bidder; while the public suggest various ideas in a packed town hall including its sale to fund the purchase of the redundant church
By Harry Mottram: While there was no shortage of ideas from the 100 or so members of the public who…
Axbridge Review: Campaign to save the Axbridge Methodist Church for the community begins with an open afternoon and a public meeting
By Harry Mottram: More than 100 residents of Axbridge braved torrential rain to visit the town’s Methodist Church in West…
Axbridge Review: the town’s Boxing Day Hunt meeting set for more opposition
By Harry Mottram: Opposition to the annual meeting of the Weston and Banwell Harriers on Boxing Day is growing as…
Bath Voice News: Labour group call on Bath & North East Council to auto-enrol more children for free school meals
November 13, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Labour councillors in Bath and North East Somerset are planning to put pressure on the…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: some notes on an enduring love for Dinbych-y-pysgod (Tenby)
By Harry Mottram: The rain came down and another Sunday afternoon was drifting away towards the dreaded Monday morning and work.…
Bath Voice News: an interview with Wera Hobhouse MP covering British troops, Zadie Smith, The Mission Theatre, Matisse, trams and Team Bath
November 11, 2024 By: Harry Mottram: In July Wera Hobhouse was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for the city representing…
ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – fall-out of USA election: Donald Trump’s tariffs will hit UK business; sterling is down; but stock markets surge
By Harry Mottram: The reverberations of the America presidential election continue to be felt with concerns that tariffs on British goods…
Bristol News: Ashton Gate area set to be transformed after work can go ahead that will see a huge new development by the football ground
By Harry Mottram: Plans to develop the area around the football ground in Bedminster at Ashton Gate have the green…
RAPSCALLION MAGAZINE Feature: the good, the bad and the downright dodgy – the crazy world of football’s oddballs – the goalkeeper
Goalkeeping and dodgy goalies, By Harry Mottram As Joe Royle once said, “all goalkeepers are mad.” Nobody except a fool,…
Axbridge Review – Somerset News: Axe River Books publishes an anthology of short stories
By Emily Goodman: Axe River Books, a newly launched community interest publishing house based in the South West of England,…
Bath Voice News: What’s On in November including exhibitions and theatre picks with Christmas on the agenda!
October 29, 2024 Pick of Diary Events in Bath Fri 1 Nov. Bath Abbey: The Four Seasons and The Lark Ascending…
ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – notes on the budget
The Autumn Statement – or first Labour Budget for 14 years – has heralded the idea that the economy should…
Axbridge Review – Somerset News: Super council proposed for Somerset to include Dorset and Wiltshire
Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire councils have expressed interest in creating a shared authority reports Clara Bullock of the BBC in a…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Cider, cigarettes and Letraset… confessions of a 70s art student
By Harry Mottram: One pint of cider for 30p and you began to slur your words. Three pints and it…
Axbridge News: Bristol Water confirm Cheddar Reservoir 2 is on – and give the real reason for the delays
By Harry Mottram: Six years after it seemed the diggers where about to move in to excavate Cheddar Reservoir 2…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: a very British ascent of ben Nevis with cheese sandwiches, Gulab Jamun sweets, precipitous paths and er… the Poo Rock
This article is from 2022 By Harry Mottram: Wet, bedraggled and miserable: not us but one of the first couples…
Feature: fearing death, a cocktail of drugs and losing a stone and a half – how my life changed for ever in a field in the middle of the night
By Harry Mottram: On August 17th, 2024, I had a heart attack in the middle of the night in my…
Bath Voice News: the revival of the plays of Terence Rattigan starts here! Table Number Seven and The Browning Version to be staged in the Theatre Royal Bath as ‘Summer 1954
October 17, 2024 By Harry Mottram: like all novelists, film makers, artists and playwrights Terence Rattigan is subject to the fashions…
Harry Mottram Theatre Review: hold on to your bonnets for a trip to Planet Jane Austen in a brilliant production of The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged) by Schoolhouse Productions
Review: The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged). The Alma Tavern and Theatre, Bristol. It is a truth universally acknowledged that…
Theatre Preview: The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged) at Bristol’s Alma Tavern and Theatre
Runs: Tue 8 Oct 2024 8:00 PM – Sat 19 Oct 2024 One newbie and two self-professed Janeites, through almost all means imaginable, tackle the entire canon of Jane…
Axbridge News: the real reason why the levels in Cheddar Reservoir were so low this summer despite the unseasonably heavy rain
October 11, 2024 By Harry Mottram: It was a paradise for wetland birds, swan, ducks, coots and waders such as…
Review of Bath Abbey: vandalism, criminals, monks and a five star rating for the bell tower (from two Birmingham girls)
October 10, 2024 By Harry Mottram: It’s been a while since I last wandered into Bath Abbey but one afternoon with…
Harry Mottram Book Review: Sun, sea, sex and manipulative narrators in Francois Sagan’s novels Bonjour Tritesse and Un certain sourire
Book Review: Francois Sagan’s Bonjour Tritesse (Hello Sadness) and Un certain sourire (A Certain Smile), Penguin edition. By Harry Mottram: She…
Naked Romans, free hot water and a fabulous model – a review of a visit to the Roman Baths (or the remains of the baths, Victorian restorations and 21st century interpretations)
October 7, 2024 Review: The Roman Baths in Bath By Harry Mottram: Like so many in the city I just assume…
Harry Mottram Theatre Review: Toby Thompson’s adaption of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s fable The Little Prince at Bath’s Egg Theatre is a triumph (with its echoes of the horrors of Nazi occupied France)
October 6, 2024 Theatre Review: The Little Prince. The Egg, Bath. Written in 1942 while in exile in Canada and…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Evelyn Waugh’s wartime drama Put Out More Flags is given a rich vocal texture in BBC Radio 4 Extra production
Radio Review: Evelyn Waugh – Put Out More Flags There’s something very louche in Anthony Valentine’s voice as Basil Seal…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: the coming of age story of Gothic fantasy obsessed Catherine Morland in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen Part Gothic send-up, part coming of age bildungsroman novel and part…
Rapscallion Magazine: National Treasure? Dame Maggie Smith was my step Godmother! (Well not quite but there is a rather tenuous link to this family myth)
By Harry Mottram: She may have been Dame Maggie Smith to the world of theatre, the movies and TV dramas…
Axbridge News: Cheddar Reservoir owners hit by £16 million costs after pollution causes illness in Devon as plans for a second reservoir appear to stall
Cheddar Reservoir News: In 2021 the Pennon Group based in Devon and whose main firm is South West Water acquired…
Axbridge News: everything you wanted to know about the Annual Axbridge Charity Progressive Supper but were afraid to ask – including the things you should never do on the night
By Harry Mottram: Trying to explain how a progressive supper works is like trying to explain the off-side rule in…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: the grim reality of Franco’s Fascist Spain in the aftermath of the civil war in a story of survival, love and loss in CJ Sansom’s novel Winter In Madrid
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: Winter In Madrid, by C.J. Sansom. It was one of those ‘what it’ moments in World…
Axbridge News: get ready for the sounds of the sixties as the music of The Kinks and Ray Davies are set to bring a Waterloo Sunset to Axbridge Town Hall
By Harry Mottram: The Bootleg Beatles, Brit Floyd, Bohemian Queen, The Iron Maidens, The Real Diamond, Counterfeit Kylie, Chic to…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: keeping it real in an engrossing, amusing and life affirming novel – in Paul Auster’s The Brooklyn Follies
Book Review: The Brooklyn Follies, by Paul Auster The opening line of the novel seems at odds as to what…
ICSM Business Insolvency News: the rise and rise of Ghost Business Insolvencies – firms that don’t shut down when they go bust but enter a grey area of trading for a time
By Harry Mottram: ICSM has seen a rise in firms that say they are insolvent and lay off their staff and…
Rapscallion Magazine: notes on angry motorists, cowardly dogs, pointless cycle paths and Chelsea Tractors by a harmless cyclist
On a cycle ride across England recently Harry Mottram made some observations on cycle paths and road users that make…
Axbridge News: from torturing 17th century Catholics to ancient fire festivals – the history of Somerset carnivals is diverse – as Axbridge gears up for this year’s carnival on September 21
By Harry Mottram: It might be me but I don’t think we should celebrate the torture and execution of 17th…
Axbridge News: a groovy modern pop festival take on Shakespeare’s celebrated comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set to be staged in the Town Hall
By Harry Mottram: Written in around 1595 in a very different England, A Midsummer Night’s Dream remains one of William…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: in part four and the final account of Harry’s cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats – a meeting with my best man, views over Cumbria on Shap Fell, soaked in Preston, dialling 999 and a life-saving heart operation in Carlisle
The story so far: I had completed the section from Land’s End to my home in Axbridge in three days…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Review: the Minack Theatre was the perfect setting for a production of The French Lieutenant’s Woman but at times the wind and rain were the main characters
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Minack Theatre Hugh Grant, Jude Law, Arnold Schwarzenegger and even a few of my friends –…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: part three of Harry’s cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats – the lost roads of England with Ashley, a wet wedding and the signs on a toilet cubicle door which suggests cottaging hasn’t died out in Exeter
The story so far: I arrived in Cornwall and camped near Land’s End and set off on a sunny morning…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: part two of Harry’s cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats – robbed on the train to Penzance, death of an actor, and a deserted Land’s End
The story so far: following my recovery from a near fatal road accident I’ve been given the all clear by…
Axbridge News: Part 4 of Dr Laura Carter’s history of Kings of Wessex as comprehensive education arrives and the school enters a new era in the 1980s
By Harry Mottram: This is the final part of former student of Kings of Wessex Dr Laura Carter’s short history…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: The French Lieutenant’s Woman – sexual frustration, class injustice and misogyny in 19th century Lyme Regis in John Fowles’ novel and Pinter’s film script
By Harry Mottram: Frankly Charles is a bit of an idiot. He’s sexually frustrated and isn’t in love with his…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: part one of Harry’s cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats – how a pint of beer and a chat with a school friend started the idea
By Harry Mottram. One moment I was cycling along on a sunny Saturday lunchtime and the next I was in…
Axbridge News: Part 3 of Dr Laura Carter’s history of Kings of Wessex as we move into the 1970s and the dawn of comprehensive education – and Keith Herring takes charge as ‘an outsider’
By Harry Mottram: Following the second part of Dr Laura Carter’s history of the senior school in Cheddar changes are…
Checkaco Consumer News: News, views and much more from Somerset company Checkaco including anti scam holiday tips (compiled by Harry Mottram)
Welcome to our August Newsletter The 90s were the birth of the internet, the noughties saw every business go online,…
Axbridge News: The Summer of Love is set to return to Axbridge for just one night on August 17 – be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
By Harry Mottram: Some things don’t change. In 1967 – during the Summer of Love as it came to be…
Axbridge News: Harry’s Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride in aid of two Axbridge charities to start on 9th August after getting the all clear from medics
By Harry Mottram: As you may know I was badly injured when a motorist crashed into me from behind while…
Axbridge News: the annual meeting of the Axbridge Action Group raised numerous issues in the town and also made an appeal for volunteer motorists
By Harry Mottram: The Axbridge Action Group’s annual meeting was held on July 4th, 2024, in the Cider Barn at…
Axbridge News: Somerset’s election results in full as the county goes Lib Dem (with only Bridgwater staying blue)
By Harry Mottram: Somerset (and to a lesser extent the West Country) has gone Liberal Democrat with the colour orange…
Axbridge News: Tessa Munt returns to Parliament for the Liberal Democrats as she wins Wells and the Mendip Hills on a night that Labour sweep to power
By Harry Mottram: The MP representing Axbridge as part of the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency in the next parliament…
Bath Voice News: Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse re-elected as Bath’s Member of Parliament in the House of Commons as Labour sweep to victory putting Kier Starmer into 10 Downing Street
By Harry Mottram: Wera Hobhouse has secured a large majority for the Liberal Democrats in Bath after the July 4th, 2024,…
Axbridge News TV Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: quirky, mysterious, teen-centric but strangely haunting – and with an Axbridge back drop as Little Kilton
Residents of Axbridge will spend much of Episode One of the TV adaption of Holly Jackson’s teen whodunnit A Good…
Harry’s tongue in cheek Election Manifesto for the General Election 2024
Harry Mottram’s Manifesto: With an election on July 4th 2024, there are a number of Independent candidates standing but several…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: from Edwardian England to the devastation of war and a sniper’s bullet – Joanna Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre is an epic family saga
The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn. Review. An upper-class family bohemian fantasy or a snapshot of early 20th century live…
My take on the general election on July 4th and the candidates standing in Wells and the Mendip Hills (Axbridge’s constituency) and who will be our next MP
Since the age of 18 when I wrote an account of the 1974 General Elections as a sixth former at…
Axbridge News: will plans for Cheddar Reservoir 2 be kicked into the long grass because of the election?
By Harry Mottram: As a regular visitor to Cheddar Reservoir and as someone who has charted its history I am…
Axbridge News: A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder set to be screened on BBC3 on 1st July – with Axbridge as the dramatic backdrop to the teen whodunnit drama
By Harry Mottram: Five years ago, a schoolgirl was murdered by her boyfriend. Case closed. Or is it? The dark and…
Bath Voice News: Now there are NINE! More candidates seek to be Bath’s next MP on July 4 after the final deadline to register to stand passes
JUNE 10, 2024 General Election News. By Harry Mottram. As the United Kingdom is set to head to the polls on…
Axbridge Election News: and now there are SEVEN as mystery independent candidate joins the contest to replace outgoing James Heappey MP
By Harry Mottram: There have been last minute scrambles up and down the country as political parties complete their nomination…
Bath Voice Election News: Independent Bath Councillor Colin Blackburn throws his hat into the ring as now SEVEN go head to head to be the city’s next Member of Parliament on July 4th (including comedy candidate Bill Blockhead)
By Harry Mottram: An independent on Independence Day is how it could be billed as Independent Councillor Colin Blackburn (pictured) for…
Personal News from Harry: my first (very careful and gentle) cycle ride since the accident on May 4th avoiding any lumps, bumps and pot holes
It was good to be back in the saddle on my new bicycle – Saxon Warrior V – for a…
Axbridge News: full run down of the candidates standing in our area – the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency
By Harry Mottram: If you live in Axbridge and district and are registered to vote in the Wells and Mendip…
Axbridge News: the Conservatives choose their candidate to stand in the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency with six candidates in the battle to replace James Heappey
By Harry Mottram: With the cut off date just three days away to announce candidates for the General Election on…
Axbridge News: how a new generation of enthusiasts saved Axbridge Blackberry Carnival from extinction and made it once again a huge community success story
By Harry Mottram: There was a time a few years ago when the Axbridge Blackberry Carnival nearly folded as ‘the…
Axbridge News: Open Gardens heralded the start of summer in a sunlit weekend
By Harry Mottram: The Axbridge Open Gardens event over the weekend of 1-2 June, 2024, was blessed with sunshine and…
Axbridge News: countdown to the General Election with the Conservatives yet to name a replacement candidate to outgoing MP James Heappey – plus election news and who is standing so far
By Harry Mottram: More than 75 Conservative MPs have chosen not to fight the forthcoming general election on Thursday, July…
Bath Voice Sports News: Minerva Women win semi in Bristol; a Blue, Black and White Twickenham final beckons, and anger over the treatment of Team Bath Netball by the NP
JUNE 2, 2024 Latest Sports News by Harry Mottram Boules: Team Bath. Known as one of Bath’s most enjoyable events for…
Axbridge News: Open Gardens in the town helps to fund the maintenance of one of Axbridge’s most historic buildings (and gives you a chance to nose around people’s homes)
By Harry Mottram: To wander around a number of private gardens in Axbridge on a sunny June afternoon is a…
Bath Voice Sports News: shock and heartbreak as Team Bath Netball are kicked out of the new super league as ‘devastated’ head coach Asha Francis makes an emotional statement about the news
MAY 30, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Team Bath Netball will not be part of next season’s netball super league after organisers…
Bath Voice Comment: booting out Team Bath Netball from the new professional league is a short sighted decision made by ‘big money’ executives with no understanding of grass roots sport for women
MAY 30, 2024 By Harry Mottram: The decision by the management of the Netball Super League to kick out Team Bath…
Axbridge News: Labour announce their candidate for the General Election while the Conservatives are still to appoint the successor to James Heappey
By Harry Mottram: Glastonbury sheep farmer Jo Joseph (pictured) has been selected to fight the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency…
Bath Voice News: with news of a Mark Gunning 70 for the Bears, battling Team Bath lose again and the build up to Bath Rugby’s crunch semi final at the Rec with team news
MAY 27, 2024 Latest Sports News by Harry Mottram Boules: Team Bath. Known as one of Bath’s most enjoyable events for…
Axbridge News: James Heappey steps down as the Wells MP as Rishi Sunak announces a general election – while rivals throw their hats into the ring with Lib Dem Tessa Munt hoping for a return to Westminster
By Harry Mottram: The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak caught many on the hop by announcing a General Election for Thursday,…
Bath Voice News: Rishi Sunak announces a July General Election as Bath’s political parties gear up for a second political battle in just eight weeks
MAY 22, 2024 By Harry Mottram: For some time, I’ve had a theory that Rishi Sunak would go for a summer…
Bath Voice Sports News: It’s a Blue, Black and White climax to the season as Bath take on Sale on June 1st on the Rec for a place in the final
MAY 22, 2024 By Harry Mottram: After thumping Northampton Saints by 43-12 Bath Rugby Club take on Sale Sharks on the…
Axbridge News: The History Men! Axbridge United FC complete a stunning season as champions of WSM League Division 2 with a nervy victory over third place Berrow
By Harry Mottram: The young guns of Axbridge United’s first team have put the town back on the footballing map…
Rapscallion Magazine: radio review of The Empire of Tea – the leaf beloved by a nation but picked by slaves for the British Empire
Like most people I love a brew up as a thirst quenching excuse to stop work and read the paper,…
Opinion: how Britain shot itself in the foot by voting for Brexit
I have no sympathy for the idiots who voted to leave the EU back in 2016 and even more contempt…
Personal News: following serious injuries caused by being knocked off my bicycle by a car I have put back my LEJOG plan to August
With reference to my cycle ride to raise cash for four different charities and become so slim I could take…
Axbridge News: the community’s tradition as a footballing town continues with Axbridge United’s promotion charge this season (with a title clincher on The Furlong Field this month)
By Harry Mottram: The young guns of Axbridge United’s first team have put the town back on the footballing map…
Bath Voice News: The battle to unseat Jacob Rees Mogg at the next general election is joined by Labour’s Metro Mayor Dan Norris
MAY 11, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Former Wansdyke Labour MP Dan Norris and current Metro Mayor for the area has come…
Bath Voice News: Labour’s Clare Moody wins the battle to become the next police and crime commissioner for Bath, Avon and Somerset
MAY 4, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Mark Shelford’s term as the police and crime commissioner for Avon and Somerset has ended…
Personal News: the day I was hit by a car on my bicycle and survived to tell the tale
It’s something of a cliché, “I’m lucky to be alive,” but on this occasion it is true. Cycling back from…
Axbridge News: Don’t forget to vote (and bring photo ID) for the election of the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner on May 2 election – details of the candidates and election notes here
By Harry Mottram: In what could be seen a dress rehearsal for the General Election later this year the public have…
Axbridge News: appeal from Harry Mottram for his cycle ride from Lands’ End to John O’Groats to raise cash for the Axbridge Blackberry Carnival and Cheddar Food Bank
Harry Mottram: I’m hoping to lose weight and get fit cycling from Lands’ End to John O’Groats this summer to…
ICSM Business: freelancers’ wait more than a year to be paid by Rolling Stone Magazine
By Harry Mottram: One of the failures of the Covid loans for business was freelancers were not included. It meant that…
Bath Voice News: Extraordinary ‘Funeral for Nature’ creates a stunning visual procession through the streets of the city with wildlife TV presents Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin present
APRIL 22, 2024 By Harry Mottram: In a week when the Scottish Government abandoned its commitment to net Zero by 2030…
ICSM Business – Retail Insolvency News: Suppliers like Victoria Beckham and Sarah Cameron demand their stock back from collapsed Matchesfashion
Suppliers panic as their invoices are unpaid By Harry Mottram: Anecdotally I’ve heard of one manufacturer who ‘opened up the doors’…
Axbridge News: Candidates go head to head for the job of Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner on May 2 election (and the £88,600 salary)
APRIL 10, 2024 By Harry Mottram: In what could be seen a dress rehearsal for the General Election later this year…
Bath Voice Sports News: Finn Russell injured as Exeter knock Bath out of the Investec Champions Cup; City draw but Bath City Women win; and the Larks have a ‘gutsy’ Cornish win
APRIL 8, 2024 Latest Sports News by Harry Mottram Football: Bath City FC: It was an Easter double-header as City took…
ICSM Business – company insolvency news: Chinese and Irish banks will decide the future of Thames Water as fears rise it will go bust within days
By Harry Mottram: Thames Water has just a few days to repay £190 million pounds to its banking lenders or face…
Axbridge News: the clock is ticking towards the June deadline for Ofwat’s decision on whether Cheddar Reservoir 2 can go ahead this year
By Harry Mottram: Last year South West Water dropped a bombshell piece of news – they had put together a…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: the misery of school sports on freezing pitches in mid January and the repressed violence of old school PE teachers
By Harry Mottram: If like me you like Matthew Sweet’s regular music series on BBC Radio Three, The Sound of…
Rapscallion Magazine Diary: the horrors of Lukashenko’s police state of Belarus continues but it reminds me of a joke from Soviet Russia’s secret police
The horrors of Lukashenko’s police state of Belarus continues with more arrests and detentions in the East European state. The…
Bath Voice News: as Thames Water teeters on the brink of collapse figures show Wessex Water discharged sewage a 41,453 times last year as all political parties criticise the situation
MARCH 29, 2024 By Harry Mottram: New figures released by the Environment Agency have shown that Wessex Water, which covers Bath,…
Theatre Review: From Ealing to Severn Beach we all want to stay on Mr and Mrs Brimble’s farm in The Ministry of Entertainment’s story of wartime evacuees
Last night I thought I heard a nightingale singing in Berkeley Square. In reality I heard Kate McNab singing Manning…
Bath Voice Art Exhibition Review: rolling back the years to a colourful childhood illustrated with Ladybird books with a brilliant exhibition at Bath’s Victoria Art Gallery
MARCH 26, 2024 Review: The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. My heart sank when…
Bath Voice Museum Review: arguments in the café, the delicate touch of Gwen John and all those gorgeous 130 British women in reception – a visit to the Holburne (or the home of Lady Danbury of TV’s Bridgerton)
MARCH 25, 2024 Review: The Holburne Museum, Bath: If like me you like a grand stair case then the Holburne…
Axbridge News: Cheddar Arts Walking Trail set for Early May Bank Holiday
By Harry Mottram: The weekend of Saturday 4th to Bank Holiday Monday 6th May, 2024, is a wonderful chance to take…
Axbridge News: Theatre Review – exceptional performances from Katie Underhay and Tony Leach in Gaslight make Axbridge Community Theatre’s production of Patrick Hamilton’s play a triumph
Review: Gaslight, Axbridge Town Hall: Mr Manningham must go down as one of the dottiest criminals to have been portrayed…
Axbridge News: early days for the new look Oakhouse but so far so good for Axbridge’s favourite couple Marina and David who have transformed its fortunes
By Harry Mottram: As one person said to me last night, ‘if anyone can make a success of the Oakhouse,…
ICSM Business – Retail Insolvency News: ‘inappropriate behaviour to females’, profit warnings, and an abandoned Dutch deal sees Ted Baker potentially going bust
Harry Mottram: Once a classy fashion retailing icon of the high street Ted Bake is a classic how the mighty have…
Bath Voice News: concerns over the Westlink minibus service as changes are planned in April
MARCH 19, 2024 By John Wimperis, local democracy reporter: Major changes to the Westlink minibus service are planned next month to…
Checkaco Consumer News: the mystery of why bankrupts like Katie Price can continue to live a life of luxury jetting off on holiday and having expensive cosmetic surgery when broke
By Rupert Bridgwater: Katrina Amy Alexandra Price – or Katie Price as she prefers having dropped her former alias of Jordan…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: the life and times of that stalwart of British comedy – the Spiv – the cheeky anti-authoritarian character working the black economy selling dodgy goods
Harry Mottram has a suitcase full of demob suits. Here he relates his life as a spiv I once sold…
Axbridge News: success for Axbridge Blackberry Carnival’s music night quiz with more than £900 raised for the September event
With carnivals across Somerset facing hikes in costs for staging their annual parades, Axbridge Carnival Committee have been busy raising…
Axbridge News: the town’s Conservative MP James Heappey announces he will stand down at the General Election – full report
By Harry Mottram: Elected in 2015 as the Member of Parliament for the Wells constituency (that includes Axbridge and Burnham…
Checkaco Consumer News: the scandal of unburied bodies and fake funerals as the public are ripped off and left traumatised
By Harry Mottram: Police have arrested two people in Hull at a funeral directors over a “concern for care of the deceased.”…
Axbridge News: St Michael’s Cheshire home and Axbridge Court Nursing Home closed – while new homes planned for Houlgate Way – reflections on how Axbridge is changing
By Harry Mottram: Reports that contractors were at the former Axbridge Court Nursing Home have reminded residents of some of…
Bath Voice News: Bath’s Mayor throws her hat into the ring for the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency to take on Jacob Rees-Mogg
MARCH 11, 2024 By Harry Mottram: It may not sound it but the new constituency of North East Somerset and Hanham…
Axbridge News: the village that’s waited 97 years for a bypass – but now contractors walk away from Banwell’s planned bypass – so the queues are set to continue for now
By Harry Mottram: Ten years ago I reported for the Cheddar Valley Gazette that finally Banwell would have a bypass…
Bath Voice News: former Bath Press site is sold for £13.8 million with plans for 250 homes
MARCH 6, 2024 By Harry Mottram: The former Bath Press site on Lower Bristol Road has been bought again – this…
Bristol News: what’s on this spring
This is from Visit Bristol: New events and openings Colston statue redisplay at M Shed Museum – NEW DISPLAY From…
Axbridge News: Friends of King John’s Hunting Lodge announce spring talks including one on The Matthew – the ship that sailed from Bristol to Newfoundland, North America in 1497
By Harry Mottram: The Friends of King John’s Hunting Lodge have published the latest issue of their newsletter Retrospect with…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: a ‘what if’ novel full of gossip, candid observations and earthy humour from Mary Morrissy about Norah’s life without James Joyce
It’s a neat marketing ploy to pitch a creative project with a famous name attached, such as the play An…
Axbridge News: As Somerset Council hike the cost of road closures – community events like the carnival, the Axbridge Pageant 2029 and Santa in the Square are under threat
By Harry Mottram: A few years ago, Axbridge’s Blackberry Carnival would take place without too much interference from officialdom. A…
ICSM Business – second Chinese construction giant receives winding-up petition which could cause a ‘Lehman Brothers’ moment creating a second ‘2008 Credit Crunch’
By Harry Mottram: China is the largest economy in the world after the USA but the two largest property and construction…
Axbridge News: when Somerset workers made bombs to destroy the Nazi grip on Europe during World War II
By Harry Mottram: I wrote this article for the Bridgwater Mercury in 2015 when the old Puriton ROF site was…
Axbridge News: The former Royal Ordnance Factory site at Puriton is confirmed as Tata’s £4bn electric car battery location – but the debate on what should power cars continues
By Harry Mottram: back in the 1970s an ex-boyfriend of my sister in law used to work at the Royal…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: it’s Dellarobia against the world in a story of butterflies, scientists and sheep farmers
Flight Behaviour by Barbara KingsolverOne part environmental lecture and one part rural domestic drama, Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour gets stuck…
Axbridge News: Somerset County Council agrees on its budget after acrimonious debate with the fate of Cheddar’s Recycling Centre still in doubt
By Harry Mottram: On February 20th, 2024, Somerset County Council finally agreed on its budget for the coming year with…
Axbridge News: ‘everything Axbridge’ at the Annual Assembly Meeting as the Town Council announces date and agenda – with everyone invited – including the police
By Harry Mottram: It’s essentially a house meeting when a family comes together to hear from each member – what…
Axbridge News: residents warmly greet the news that duo Marina Czyzew and David Rogers are set to take charge of the Oakhouse Hotel
By Harry Mottram: The Oakhouse Hotel has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately after the dramatic…
Axbridge News: monthly Somerset publication goes public over money it says it is owed by a local pub – as the pub changes its name
By Harry Mottram: Those who pass through Shipham on a regular basis will have noticed the Penscot Inn – the…
Axbridge News: political update on one of the town’s most contentious subjects – the annual Boxing Day hunt meeting in Axbridge Square
By Harry Mottram: For as long as anyone can remember there have been fox hunting meetings on Boxing Day across…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Preview: in the week Putin critic Alexei Navalny is murdered a play about the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London is brought to the stage in Bristol
A Very Expensive Poison, at Circo Media: This week Alexei Navalny was been murdered on the orders of Putin, while…
Axbridge Book Review: Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (and soon to be a BBC3 series) is an unfeasible but highly enjoyable and neatly plotted whodunnit about schoolgirl Pip who uses blackmail, bluff and burglary to bring a murderer to justice
Book Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson. Sex, drugs and murder. Yes, Holly Jackson’s young adult…
Axbridge News: the BBC3 series based on Holly Jackson’s novel A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder filmed in Axbridge is set to be screened
By Harry Mottram: For several weeks in 2023 Axbridge was the setting for the filming of the Holly Jackson’s novel…
Axbridge News: Cheddar Arts Festival set for the May Bank Holiday weekend of the 4th-6th
Early May Bank Holiday Weekend Cheddar Arts Walking Trail Once again Cheddar Artists are staging a festival over the May…
Axbridge News: end of an era as fixtures and fittings are removed from the Oakhouse Hotel as the owner confirms the tenant company has ‘gone into liquidation’
By Harry Mottram: Going, going, gone – about sums it up for the company that ran the Oakhouse Hotel in…
Axbridge News: emotional abuse, manipulation, lies and bullying – how Patrick Hamilton’s play Gaslight created the term gaslighting – now set to be staged in Axbridge
By Harry Mottram: perhaps the most insidious use of gaslighting recently has been the way Post Office management and directors…
Axbridge News: update on the Oakhouse Hotel in Axbridge following issues over it’s apparent closure and attempts to book it for weddings
By Harry Mottram: In the last few weeks there have been a number of comments online on various social media…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: sex magazines in a suitcase (clearly a set up) led to the downfall of a musical visionary and the inspiration for the Sydney Opera House
In BBC Radio 4’s A Very Australian Scandal we learn about a scandal that today would barely raise an eyebrow…
Axbridge News: Update on Bellway’s development in the town
By Harry Mottram: previously Bellway responded to a request for a comment as to why construction of Lavender Rise off…
Axbridge News: update on the death of a pedestrian in Shipham
By Harry Mottram: Concerns have been raised by residents and parents of the school in Shipham about road safety in…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana directed by Tracey Neale has the humour and knowingness absent in Carol Reed’s movie
By Harry Mottram: One of my favourite novels is Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana – and the BBC Radio…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: ‘Woke Wilkie’ – the bearded Victorian novelist ahead of his times in Matthew Sweet’s The Wilkie Collins Guide to Modern Life
Wilkie Collin’s was ahead of his times and in many ways ahead of our own era, mused Matthew Sweet on…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Cider, cigarettes and Letraset… confessions of a 70s art student
By Harry Mottram: One pint of cider for 30p and you began to slur your words. Three pints and it was…
Axbridge News: Police seek help following fatal accident – man walking along New Road in Shipham dies in collision with a van
By Harry Mottram: A man has died in Shipham following a collision with a van on Thursday lunchtime in broad…
Axbridge News: Axbridge Progressive Supper donates £500 to the Cheddar Foodbank, Axe Valley Men’s Shed and the Axbridge Blackberry Carnival
By Harry Mottram: Last year’s Axbridge Progressive Supper raised £1,542 in a combination of the tickets for the starters, mains and…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Review: comedy double act Alana and Lizzie in Nanny give a five star performance – with added pushchairs
To paraphrase Amy in the two hander Nanny after singing Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross, ‘they nailed the bollocks out of…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Preview: Bristol Old Vic stages Nanny – a new play about friendship and staying true to yourself despite it all, featuring two below average nannies
Folio Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for the world première of Nanny, a new comedy with music set…
Bath Voice Sports News: Team Bath Netball eye their first fixture on the eve of the new season; City’s women footballers see two goal lead slip at Stockwood; Bath Rugby lose in thriller at Bristol
JANUARY 31, 2024 Bath Voice Sports News: news, information, fixtures and results of the city’s teams coming up this weekend…
ICSM Business News: Hong Kong judge runs out of patience and orders mega property giant Evergrande to be liquidated (but there’s a catch)
By Harry Mottram: In any normal capitalist market economy Chinese property giant Evergrande with around £300 billion pounds in debt would…
Bath Voice Sports News: thriller at The Gate as Bristol take the bragging rights in rugby’s West Country derby winning 57-44 against the BB&Ws
JANUARY 27, 2024 By Harry Mottram: it’s never easy to accept a defeat to the Bristol Bears (formerly Bristol Football Club…
ICSM Business News: universities in financial jeopardy with some likely to ‘break their banking covenants’ this year as suppliers, students and staff fear the worst
By Harry Mottram: Concerns have been raised by Bridgwater based ICSM about the possibility that several universities could go bust this…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: a committed performance by Kes Joffe as Christopher, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Mission Theatre, reminds us all to listen to those who are different
JANUARY 24, 2024 Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Mission Theatre Nobody apart from…
Bath Voice News: the labour hopefuls lining up to take on Jacob Rees-Mogg at the general election and create a ‘Portillo moment’
JANUARY 21, 2024 By Harry Mottram: The question in North East Somerset at this year’s General Election is will Jacob Rees-Mogg…
Bath Voice News: as many will know I edit a newspaper in Bath and a daily news website for the city – these are the most read stories so far this year (yes I know it’s only half way through January) but even I was surprised
JANUARY 18, 2024 By Harry Mottram: Every journalist is keen to know which stories are read the most – and I…
ICSM Business of Sport News: National League South Taunton Town FC are in danger of going bust as a winding up order is issued (we list all the clubs that have gone bust at least once)
By Harry Mottram: Taunton Town FC known as The Peacocks due to their claret and blue kit have been issued a…
Rapscallion Magazine TV Review of Mr Bates V The Post Office reveals the ordinary decency of people who go up against the corporate suits protected by their lawyers and their money
REVIEW: ITV’s dramatization of the Post Office scandal seen on average by around 10 million viewers, has galvanized the Government…
Axbridge News: remembering Johdi Russell with the annual Purple Ball that raises awareness of sudden death from epilepsy with SUDEP Action
By Harry Mottram: The Purple Ball commemorates the life of Johdi Russell from Cheddar – organised by her family and…
Axbridge News: Somerset County Council’s £100 million black hole headache is part of a national problem for authorities across the UK who face going bust
By Harry Mottram: Without new funding or massive cuts to services local authorities will go bust this and next year.…
Bath Voice Sports News: Finn Russell on joining the BB&Ws
JANUARY 11, 2024 The Scottish international rugby player who now plays for Bath has been speaking to the BBC. He…
ICSM Business Opinion: waffling politicians, over paid directors, money grabbing lawyers and management blindness to the bleeding obvious are behind the Post Office scandal
By Harry Mottram: For years journalists have been exposing the Post Office scandal where Post Masters were accused of theft, were…
Axbridge News: Bellway pause development of Lavender Rise off Houlgate Way in the town due to a ‘challenging marketing’ situation
By Harry Mottram: They’ve ripped out the hedges, felled the trees and left a half completed pavement and entrance to…
Bath Voice News: a new book of the unsung women of Bath and Somerset reveals the lives of a freed Roman slave turned wife, a Huguenot baker and a Barbadian lady and a disabled artist
JANUARY 9, 2024 By the author Helen Pugh: Unsung Women in Somerset uncovers little-known information about women who lived in Somerset in…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: last night of Sleeping Beauty at the Theatre Royal seen from the Gods using binoculars
JANUARY 7, 2024 Weird I know. I wanted to see the last night of the Theatre Royal Bath’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty directed…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson
Nuclear bomb alerts, beer thefts, baseball and the tantalising thought of half-naked women dancing inside a marquee at the trade…
Bath Voice News Theatre Review: a confusing and uneven visit to Neverland with Wendy – a Peter Pan Story at the Egg Theatre
JANUARY 5, 2024 The Egg Theatre in Bath has seen so many superb shows for children and young people but…
Bath Voice News: Bath’s RUH Hospital issues advice as Junior Doctors begin industrial action
JANUARY 3, 2024 By Harry Mottram: The RUH have issued advice to visitors and patients as the British Medical Association (BMA)…
Bath Voice News: Happy New Year to all our readers – plus a look back over 2023
JANUARY 1, 2024 2023: buses, murders, strikes, planning battles, a Tory wipe out and those Bath Rugby stadium plans By…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Reviews: Escaping the Spanish Civil War
By Harry Mottram: It only feels now some 85 years later that Spain is finally coming to terms with the…
Rapscallion Magazine Film Review: a pianist’s critical note to Stalin brings an end to the dictator – we can only hope that Putin soon suffers the same death
Film Review: The Death of Stalin: Putin and his mafia cronies banned the 2017 movie because they are paranoid and so…
Bath Voice Theatre Preview: the Egg Theatre stages JM Barrie’s 1904 play in a very modern setting as Wendy takes flight to Neverland
DECEMBER 13, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Peter Pan – the play by JM Barrie first performed in 1902 – and turned…
Bath Voice Sleeping Beauty News: the conundrums faced by princes – should they seek consent first before kissing a maiden awake?
NOVEMBER 23, 2023 Sleeping Beauty News: The first question, writes Harry Mottram, that should be asked of any would-be-suitor of sleeping maidens…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Reviews: one town, two book clubs, two episodic novels with a remarkably bright 10 minutes and 38 seconds
By Harry Mottram: Two very different books set in two very different worlds chosen by two local book clubs. One…
Opinion: the real reason local newspapers are in decline is not the BBC – it’s the media groups that own them who have mismanaged them
By Harry Mottram: This is a bit of a gripe of mine – a cry of pain from the managers…
Rapscallion Magazine TV Review: Arena’s 1981 documentary Have you seen the Mona Lisa? like the painting hasn’t aged and remains a classic
TV Review: Arena. Have you seen the Mona Lisa? BBC4. We stood in front of the Mona Lisa and I…
Bath Voice Literature News: love, loss, and life’s ups and downs in Zita Muranyi’s novel – On Mr. Darcy’s Sofa
DECEMBER 3, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Hungarian author Zita Muranyi (pictured) has published a new novel which may be of interest…
Bath Voice News: meet the man behind the Bath Preservation Trust (and the deeply morbid reason why the Museum of Bath Architecture is currently closed)
DECEMBER 1, 2023 By Harry Mottram: There is a museum in Bath set in the fine stone portals of The Countess…
Bath Voice News: theatre preview for Wendy at the Egg Theatre
By Harry Mottram: Peter Pan – the play by JM Barrie first performed in 1902 – and turned into films,…
The Axbridge Anthem
This was a poem I wrote for the 2022 Axbridge Pageant for the script but in the end it wasn’t…
Bath Voice News: Bath Contemporary Artists’ Christmas Fair on Sunday December 10th sees Axbridge’s Adam Clutterbuck exhibit stunning landscapes as Green Park Station is transformed into a creative paradise
NOVEMBER 29, 2023 One of the South West’s leading landscape photographers will be exhibiting at the Bath Contemporary Artists’ Christmas…
Bath Voice Sports News: results and match reports
NOVEMBER 27, 2023 Bath City Women go down to home defeat by 0-2 on November 26th at Twerton Park by league leaders…
ICSM Print Industry News: Another PFI company in trouble as workers left unpaid just weeks before Christmas as ‘row breaks out’ over locks being changed
By Harry Mottram: The print industry publication Print Week has reported on a second PFI subsidiary has hit the buffers. Reporter jo Francis…
ICSM Business News In Brief: Miss Universe bankruptcy; David Cameron Greensill scandal; logistic firm in trouble; and HS2 cancellation fall-out
By Harry Mottram: The firm that owns the Miss Universe beauty competition based in the USA and Thailand has filed for…
Axbridge News: Adam Clutterbuck’s photos of The Government Inspector prove a hit
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge Community Theatre’s production of Gogol’s The Government Inspector proved a big hit with the sell out…
Axbridge News: this is a not-a-review-review of The Government Inspector in the town hall – but reflections and notes on the cast
‘Gentlemen, I have some bad news. A Government Inspector is on his way.’ And with those words by Tony Wilson…
Axbridge News: evacuee Ukrainians come to see the Ukrainian play The Government Inspector in Axbridge and to meet the cast (and Maринa who is the doctor in the comedy drama)
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge is a long way from Ukraine. But Geography was irrelevant when two evacuee Ukrainians went out…
Axbridge News: more photographs by Adam Clutterbuck of this week’s production of The Government Inspector
Some super photos by Adam Clutterbuck of the cast of The Government Inspector in Axbridge Town Hall. The play by…
Axbridge News: the town’s theatre group set to stage Gogol’s The Government Inspector with EVERY ticket sold for the four night run
By Harry Mottram: David Parkin, the director of Axbridge Community Theatre’s production of Gogol’s comedy drama The Government Inspector said…
Bristol Theatre News: St Werburgh’s City Farm is the venue for a fun family show this Christmas Yule Be Merry
Award-winning Bristol based family theatre company are bringing their ridiculous festive theatre show Yule Be Merry to St Werburgh’s City Farm between…
Bath Voice Feature: tea and biscuits with the Mayor of Bath Dine Romero as we talk knife crime, grit bins and the real reason she came to the city
NOVEMBER 17, 2023 By Harry Mottram: With tea served complete with biscuits and the Mayor of Bath Councillor Dine Romero dressed…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Belarus journalists jailed for doing their job by Lukashenko’s illegal and repressive regime
By Harry Mottram: The exiled democratically elected President of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has reported that the journalist Katsiaryna Andreeva who…
ICSM Business News In Brief: Miss Universe bankruptcy; David Cameron Greensill scandal; logistic firm in trouble; and HS2 cancellation fall-out
By Harry Mottram: The firm that owns the Miss Universe beauty competition based in the USA and Thailand has filed for…
Bath Voice News: What’s On in Bath In December
NOVEMBER 14, 2023 By Harry Mottram: below are a selection of events and productions for December and into the New Year.…
Bath Voice News: local theatre company cancels production due to cast illness just days ahead of a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Rondo
NOVEMBER 14, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The Rondo Theatre Company in Bath have dramatically cancelled their production of Tennessee Williams’ play A…
ICSM Business News: rugby’s financial problems continue after it’s revealed the new owners of Worcester have failed to pay for the club in full and most premiership clubs are technically insolvent
By Harry Mottram: Firms that supply top flight rugby union clubs with anything from beer to beefburgers and from coach transport…
Rapscallion Magazine: when I spent a night with the posh wife of a Tory MP (while he watched) – an article from the archives when the Conservatives actually won elections
This article was written a few years ago about how I spent election night in 2015 as as reporter for…
Bath Voice Museum Review: upstairs and downstairs, a brief review of Number One Royal Crescent
NOVEMBER 9, 2023 Harry Mottram writes: It was a damp summer’s day when I popped into the recreation of a posh…
Bath Voice Sports News: Alex Fletcher leaves Bath City FC to work for the Professional Football Association on brain health education
NOVEMBER 8, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bath City FC have announced their striker Alex Fletcher has left the club to join…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: cider, cigarettes and Letraset… confessions of a 70s art student
By Harry Mottram: One pint of cider for 30p and you began to slur your words. Three pints and it was…
Bath Voice Sports News: news, information, fixtures and results of the city’s teams and clubs including Bath’s runners coming first in Over The Hills race
NOVEMBER 6, 2023 By Harry Mottram: below are the fixtures and results plus information of the various sports teams and clubs…
Axbridge Theatre Review: a 17th century pile-on sees three women executed for witchcraft in Scratchworks Theatre’s Hags in the town hall
Theatre Review: Hags, Axbridge Town Hall. We call them Twitter pile-ons in the new world of call-out culture. A feverish…
Bath Voice News: crunch day arrives for Bath Rugby Club as public consultation for their proposals for a redevelopment of their stadium closes (but public opinion remains sharply divided)
NOVEMBER 3, 2023 By Harry Mottram: It’s S-Day in Bath (Stadium Day). The consultation over the planning application for Bath’s Rugby…
Rapscallion Magazine News: one of the South West’s greatest comic actors Howard Coggins has died at 52 – Stu Mcloughlin pays full tribute
By Harry Mottram: It was one of those rare shows that make theatre going such a pleasure due to its…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: after a damp start Playing Up’s production of Sheila’s Island dries out nicely at The Rondo Theatre
Review: Sheila’s Island, Rondo Theatre, Bath: Tim Firth’s play Sheila’s Island has been widely criticised for being shallow, cliched, patronising…
ICSM Insolvency News: search for buyer or investor of Axbridge-based haulage firm struggling to survive
By Harry Mottram: A Somerset haulage firm could make a pre-tax profit if it is rescued from insolvency as a going…
Axbridge News: Adam Clutterbuck’s photographs of the rehearsals for The Government Inspector in the Town Hall are published ahead of the November production (and you may spot someone you know)
By Harry Mottram: Rehearsals have been underway in the Town Hall for weeks for Axbridge Community Theatre’s production of The…
Bath Voice News: Spanish officials halt search for missing former Bath rugby player Levi Davis
OCTOBER 27, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The mystery of the disappearance of Levi Davis may never be solved after no body…
Bath Voice News: exhibitions in the city this month
OCTOBER 24, 2023 Exhibition Picks in BathAmerican Museum, Bath. Claverton. The Museum features collections from the United States where you can…
Axbridge Review: Christmas starts here! The 2023 Annual Axbridge Progressive Supper is set for 2nd December – but how does it work?
By Harry Mottram: Trying to explain how a progressive supper works is like trying to explain the off-side rule in…
Axbridge Review Comment. Fireworks, books, clothing rails, alcohol: don’t get me started on people who want to ban things (although I have my own list)
There’s been a debate online on the Axbridge Community Face Book site about whether the fireworks sent up above the…
ICSM News: As company insolvencies rise as the economy struggles business has entered a hangover era like in the 1970s (when some sectors boomed)
By Harry Mottram: It comes as no surprise that the numbers of firms going bust is skyrocketing. ICSM’s Ian Carrotte said:…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: skullduggery, Shakespeare and a desperate bid to prevent a military coup in Geoffrey Trease’ Cue for Treason
Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Treace There’s an extra character in Geoffrey Treace’s adventure story set in the dying days…
Bristol News: Children of the 90s gather to celebrate milestone event
From Children of the 90s: Hundreds of Children of the 90s participants from across Bristol and Weston-super-Mare visited the M…
Axbridge Review: Cheddar Reservoir Two is back on the agenda -– with plans to hike the £2.8 billion cost onto its customers
By Harry Mottram: Back in 2018 we thought the Cheddar Reservoir two project was dead. Ofwat had pulled the plug…
Axbridge Review: football, the Furlong Field and the wrench of moving to Axbridge from Bristol – part one of notes on our 26 years of living in the town
By Harry Mottram: My first memory of Axbridge was on the TV news in 1973 when the town became known…
Axbridge Review: a little about the author of the play that is being staged by ACT this November in the Town Hall
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge Community Theatre are staging the classic comedy satire The Government Inspector by the 19th century Ukrainian…
ICSM Business News: sexual harassment claims; liquidated companies; suppliers unpaid; rent owed; and terrible reviews for his night club – the life and times of a ‘latter day chancer’
Picture: You Tube Video – Industry Voices Alex Proud By Harry Mottram: Back in 2020 a businessman by the name of…
Bath Voice Feature: free to visit exhibition at the RUH celebrates the vital contribution to the NHS made by the Windrush and beyond generations as part of Black History Month
By Harry Mottram: In the past readers of other publications I’ve written for have complained about Black History Month being…
ICSM Business News in Brief: ‘Ponzie’ crypto currency trial; retailers crash; printer’s assets sold off; Chinese business boss detained; Metro Bank survives for now; and a Welsh firm goes bust leaving 500 out of work
Pic: Reuters – Sam bankman-Fried ‘Ponzie’ crypto trial By Harry Mottram: Crypto Currencies are often called ‘Ponzie schemes’ by their detractors…
Rapscallion Magazine TV Review: The Reckoning features a tour de force by Steve Coogan but it’s the wrong title and the guilty go free – just like Savile
Rapscallion TV Review: The Reckoning. They all knew – would have been a better title as there is no reckoning…
Axbridge Review: local history group’s October events announced including an in-depth talk on story of The Strawberry Line cycle and walk way
By Harry Mottram: In the last few decades the Strawberry Line – the former Cheddar Valley Railway line – has…
ICSM Business News: inflation set to rise following hikes in oil prices due to the Israel Gaza war (and airlines see share prices fall)
By Harry Mottram: As a new war engulfs Israel, Gaza and potentially neighbouring nations the economic effect is to send oil…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: pooped on by a pigeon, bitten by mosquitoes and stopped by border control – a week in Italy and selfie heaven
He looked at me long and hard. Was I an international criminal or just some old bloke on his holidays…
Bath Voice News: as HS2 to Manchester is scrapped Lancashire’s loss could be Bath’s gain as new cash is promised
OCTOBER 4, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Whatever your views are on the HS2 rail project linking the Midlands and the North…
Bath Voice News: finally Bath Rugby’s new stadium plans are submitted to the planners
SEPTEMBER 28, 2023 By Harry Mottram: It should be a day of celebration as Bath Rugby announced they had submitted their…
Axbridge Review: it’s official – the next Axbridge Pageant is set for 2029 to mark the 800th anniversary of the town’s Plantagenet charter – so mark your diaries
By Harry Mottram: To celebrate the awarding of the town’s 13th century charter, the next Axbridge Pageant slated for 2030 has…
Axbridge Review: the annual carnival proves a success with fine weather, large crowds and of course… Barbie and Ken
By Harry Mottram: The annual Axbridge Blackberry Carnival was a huge success on Saturday 23rd September, 2023, and was blessed with…
ICSM Logistics Insolvency News: hauliers across the UK collapse as banks put the squeeze on, costs spiral and trade is tight in a flat-lining economy
By Harry Mottram: Debt is one of the factors dragging down businesses across the country with payment of loans to lenders…
Bath Voice News: what’s on in October 2023 plus looking ahead to the pantomime season
SEPTEMBER 26, 2023 Theatre Picks In Bath Thu 28 Sep-Sat 7 Oct. Theatre Royal. A Voyage Round My Father. Rupert Everett…
Axbridge Community Theatre to stage a classic comedy drama in November
A treat is in store for theatre goers this autumn as the thespians of Axbridge Community Theatre tread the boards…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: all hail the eternally brilliant farce – Noises Off – in which men lose their trousers, pretty girls appear in their underwear and doors constantly open and close as the drama collapses into chaos
Review: Noises Off. Theatre Royal Bath. Michael Frayn’s farce continues to deliver the laughs since its first run in 1982…
Rapscallion Magazine Campaign News: blogger detained for championing human rights in Egypt remains in jail despite pressure from British MPs
By Harry Mottram: A human rights activist and blogger remains in prison in Egypt despite pressure from the British Government…
Rapscallion Magazine Campaign News: Russian playwright and theatre director await sentence
By Harry Mottram: A theatre director and playwright have been arrested in Russia and accused of “justifying terrorism” for their…
Bath Voice News: Red carpet premier for film shot in Bath and Bristol – with murder on the agenda – and you can attend free
September 18, 2023 By Harry Mottram: It’s a 77 year old mystery – the murder of Robert Parrington Jackson –…
Bath Voice Croquet News: Georgians play the game of the future during the Jane Austen Festival (also a game of flirtation and match making)
September 14, 2023 By Harry Mottram: As part of the Jane Austen Festival Bath last month Bath’s Croquet Club hosted…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: the dark underbelly of American society is exposed in Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead – the white trash of the Appalachians
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver White trash, trailer homes, foster farms and drug fuelled early deaths, Demon Copperhead is not…
Bath Voice News: theatre preview of Michael Frayn’s comedy Noises Off play as it opens in Bath (it’s about a terrible acting group performing in a Somerset town)
September 12, 2023 By Harry Mottram: the Theatre Royal Bath Productions in association with the Birmingham Rep are staging Michael…
Bath Voice News: Channel 5 screens the story of Bath’s Hester Poole and her guide dog Pickle in a life affirming show revealing how guide dogs transform lives
September 11, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The Channel 5 programme Puppy School for Guide Dogs screening this month has featured…
ICSM Logistics business news: insolvencies among haulage firms rise as the industry is hit by a perfect storm
By Harry Mottram: Hauliers going to the wall are sharply up as costs spiral, competition increases and the effects of Brexit,…
Bath Voice News: Empire line gowns, bonnets and riding breeches – the Jane Austen Festival opens in Bath
September 8, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The Jane Austen Festival runs from Friday 8th to Sunday 17th September 2023, and features guided…
ICSM Business News: Birmingham Council issues a section 114 notice after running out of cash but there’s a long history of councils that have gone bust – both Labour and Conservative
By Harry Mottram: Those who can recall the days of Margaret Thatcher may also remember the Liverpool Council’s 1983 Rate Capping…
ICSM Business Insolvency News: shadowy spivs, sharks and chancers make mockery of Wilko’s collapse as the administrators seek a deal with retail rival B&M to save part of the chain
By Harry Mottram: For the 12,500 Wilko staff and the ailing store’s hundreds of suppliers it’s been an unedifying few days,…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Kidderminster, Sheffield and drying bras – a stay with students when supper was peanut butter on toast – this was England in the year of the 1976 drought
Part two of Harry Mottram’s cycle ride to Scotland at a dig at Threave Castle when the UK looked like…
Bath Voice News: a recap of the proposals for a new rugby stadium in the city – the most talked about issue in the city as the new season kicks off
September 3, 2023 By Bath Voice news editor Harry Mottram and John Wimperis of the local democracy service: The architects…
Rapscallion Magazine: the weird night a stranger walked into our Axbridge home and went to sleep – the story as recorded in this BBC Radio 5Live interview at the time
By Harry Mottram: It will be 20 years this April since BBC Radio 4’s Today programme led with the strange story…
Rapscallion Magazine Football Archive: interview with the Bristol Casuals back in the day
In 1997 Chris Badley and Harry Mottram spoke to BBC Radio Bristol about the newly formed Bristol Casuals League –…
ICSM News: property giant Evergrande’s bankruptcy protection threatens not only China’s economy but could hit the UK as confidence in the world’s number two economy plummets
By Harry Mottram: China may be the world’s number two economy, but few economists believe the statistics published by Beijing on…
Bath Voice News: the hill top green paradise in the city approaches its third anniversary run by a public interest company for the community
AUGUST 17, 2023 By Harry Mottram: In just a few weeks time the not-for-profit Community Interest Company (FLHF) of Lyncombe Hill…
Strawberry Line Times Feature: when Italian soldiers were prisoners of war in Somerset
Somerset has been enriched by immigrants since the year dot. Although it’s Syrians, Afghans, Ukrainians and Sudanese immigrants who make…
Bath Voice News: two very different concepts for the future rugby stadium – a pragmatic design from the club met with underwhelming support or the Roman colosseum design championed by many but would send costs spiralling
AUGUST 14, 2023 By Harry Mottram: It’s the story that’s set public opinion alight this summer amongst those with a passion…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: canal paths, skinny dippers and Macbeth – with added punctures and insect bites on a Somerset to London cycle ride – and our closest ape relatives giving me the cold shoulder
By Harry Mottram: Rain, rain and more rain this summer. And then Carol Kirkwood on BBC’s Breakfast programme announced there…
Axbridge Book Review: Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (and soon to be a BBC3 series) is an unfeasible but highly enjoyable and neatly plotted whodunnit about schoolgirl Pip who uses blackmail, bluff and burglary to bring a murderer to justice
Book Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson. Sex, drugs and murder. Yes, Holly Jackson’s young adult…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Jane and Serge and the hit record Je t’aime… that created a wave of snogging in the Fifth Form Common Room and was banned by the Vatican and the BBC
Radio Review: I first became aware of Jane Birkin in a 1967 copy of King Magazine that my sister Kath…
Bath Voice: prestigious architect offers a very different design for the proposed new Bath Rugby Stadium slamming the club’s ideas as ‘lowering the tone of the whole area’ and believing Bath can do better rather than ‘wrecking the Rec’
JULY 31, 2023 By Harry Mottram: First things first – Bath Rugby Club and in particular its stadium or rather ground…
ICSM Business News: as London’s Mayor Khan goes all ULEZ, British Volt’s owners are raided by police and electric car hire firm Co-Cars goes bust – ICSM advises suppliers to be wary of the EV industry
By Harry Mottram: with the news that Tata could build a new electric car battery factory at the former Royal Ordnance…
Axbridge News: things not to say to locals when you move to the town or call in for a visit – words that could lead to you being placed in the stocks!
By Harry Mottram: I posted these notes on the Axbridge Community Face book page as part of a welcome to…
Axbridge News: it’s the book that has got the town reading as the BBC film the whodunnit drama A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder in Axbridge
By Harry Mottram: Residents of Axbridge in Somerset cannot have missed the camera crews and actors closing off streets in…
Rapscallion Magazine TV Review: director Jon S. Baird and John Preston’ script create a tragically comical, and comically tragic Stonehouse – the missing MP
TV Review: Stonehouse, broadcast on ITV in three episodes on January 2-4, 2023.I would guess that pretty much everyone has…
Bath Voice News: oh deer – better hide your geraniums as Bloomfield may not bloom so much with this four legged visitor popping into a garden near you!
JULY 27, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bloomfield is proving to be the new centre for exotic wildlife this summer. First there…
ICSM News: the rise and fall of the high street bank as Nat West’s CEO quits over the Farage affair and hundreds of branches close and ICSM sees staff cuts at banks causing more problems
By Harry Mottram: At a guess pretty much every business in the UK has had an issue with its bank at…
Bath Voice News: four day walk-out by Junior Doctors planned for August as unrest amongst NHS staff continues following a strike by consultants earlier this month
By Harry Mottram: The industrial unrest amongst NHS medics shows not sign of abating as staff continue to vote with…
Bath Voice News: the exotic (and not so exotic) creatures wandering the streets of the city
JULY 23, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bath maybe a city with a growing urban sprawl but that hasn’t prevented wild…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: funny, witty and with a central character that we all fall in love with, Lessons in Chemistry is a hit
Review: Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie GarmusAt turns funny and witty but also an all out assault on misogynistic 50s…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Keith Barron stars as Henri Castang in Nicolas Freeling’s thriller Not as Far as Velma in a drama that links 20th century conflicts from Auschwitz to Nicaragua
Not As Far as Velma. BBC4 Extra and BBC Sounds.First broadcast some 33 years ago with a youthful Keith Barron…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: sex (almost), booze (a lot), Brighton (hurrah) – and actor-cum-sleuth Charles Paris (Bill Nighy) in the brilliantly funny drama A Reconstructed Corpse
Radio Review: Charles Paris Mystery in A Reconstructed Corpse. BBC4 Extra.This episode of the thespian-solves-whodunnits is possibly my favourite Radio…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: A Brief History of Boomers – Queenan’s take on the Post War generation
Review: A Brief History of Boomers. Presented by Joe Queenan. BBC Radio 4.I’m a Baby Boomer and so are all…
Bath Voice News: pick of what’s on in and around the city
JUNE 28, 2023 Theatre Picks In BathSat 1 Jul. Rondo Theatre. The Marriage of Figaro . 7:30pm. Bath Opera bring Mozart’s…
Bath Voice News: RUH to be hit by more industrial action as NHS Consultants plan a 48-hr walkout
JUNE 28, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Discontent with the failure of wages to keep up with inflation along with cuts…
ICSM Business News: Thames Water on the brink of collapse as servicing debt exacerbated by high interest rates continues to wreak havoc in business (but the taxpayer could end up bailing the utility out)
By Harry Mottram: One of Britain’s largest utility firms is on the brink of collapse as the economy continues to be…
ICSM BUSINESS NEWS: shock as it’s revealed UK business insolvencies are up 140% as firms crash due to high interest rates
By Harry Mottram: On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday 26th June, 2023, Matt Ingram Managing Director, UK Restructuring Advisory at…
Bath Voice News: the oddball detective couple in ITV’s McDonald and Dodds are being filmed in Bath for series four of the murder mystery TV drama
JUNE 26, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The detective series that some in Bath love to hate is set to return to…
Rapscallion Magazine Radio Review: Marianna in Conspiracy Land opens a window into the minds of those pushing conspiracy theories that lead eventually to violence and even a planned coup
Radio Review: Marianna in Conspiracy Land. BBC Radio 4. There’s an old saying about conspiracy theorists that people who believe…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: fun, fabulous, full of knock about humour and period perfect choreography – Roman Holiday is a joy
JUNE 21, 2023 Roman Holiday: Theatre Royal Bath, Review Bright, breezy and with a brilliant finale, director Jeremy Sams’ Roman…
Rapscallion Radio Review: behind the soft and reassuring voice is the sinister backdrop of Hitler’s rise to power as Rosemary Leach reads Judith Kerr’s 1971 novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Radio Review: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr – read by Rosemary Leach and abridged in five parts…
Axbridge News: Durbin family reunion June 26-27, 2023 – Americans coming to Bristol, Axbridge and Cheddar from San Francisco in search of Durbin Family
Harry Mottram writes: I’ve been contacted by Julie Durbin who lives in California in the USA – she is on…
ICSM Logistics News: the Big Green Parcel Machine goes bust leaving hundreds out of work and customers’ parcels undelivered
By Harry Mottram: One the big players in the parcels and logistics sectors have gone into administration leaving customers in the…
Bath Voice News: industrial unrest in Bath continues with Junior Doctors staging walk-outs at the RUH
JUNE 14, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Junior Doctors who are members of the British Medical Association trade union have taken industrial…
ICSM Insolvency News: suppliers angry as Princess of Wales’ parents’ company goes bust owing creditors an eye-watering £2.6 million pounds
By Harry Mottram: Despite living what many would see as an A-list celebrity lifestyle with Royal Family events and buying a…
Axbridge News: filming set for the town for a new BBC drama Good Girl’s Guide to Murder for the BBC based on the novel
Moonage Pictures will be filming on Moor Green and The Square on Thursday-Friday 22-23 June and have delivered letters giving…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: when England and Wales turned into a light shade of burnt sienna during the summer of ’76 – and I set off on my mum’s bike from Somerset to er… Scotland
Part One of Harry Mottram’s cycle ride to Scotland during the 1976 drought. In the days before Global Warming and…
Bath Voice News: three held by officers as weekend teenage stabbing victim is named by police as Mikey Roynon as a vigil is held and tributes paid
JUNE 12, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Avon and Somerset Police have named the teenager who died at a property in Bath…
Bath Voice News: Police make arrests after stabbings leave one teenage boy dead in the Weston area of the city after Saturday night tragedy
JUNE 11, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Police have launched a murder investigation following the death of teenage boy in he Weston…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: sex, death and racism – life’s a game of chance in Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and a Korean struggle for survival in wartime Japan
Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee, Book Review With so many characters in the sweeping family drama set over a century…
Bath Voice Sports News: news, information, fixtures and results of the city’s teams coming up this weekend and beyond
JUNE 10, 2023 By Harry Mottram: below are the fixtures and results plus information of the various sports teams and clubs…
Rapscallion Magazine Opinion: the resignation of Boris Johnson marks the collapse of the influence of his Praetorian Guard of MPs and his fandom support – plus marks the beginning of the end of Brexit
By Harry Mottram: Back in 2016 I attended a number of trade shows in Europe and the UK for business…
Rapscallion Magazine Restaurant Review: poissons, pastis and forgetting to order the national dish that’s been a favourite for 2,600 years in Marseille
Restaurant Review: Brasserie du Vieux Port, Marseille I had meant to have bouillabaisse – the poor man’s soup – and…
Bath Voice Sports News: rugby premiership in chaos as London Irish set to exit top flight (but Bath eye possible players leaving the Brentford Club)
By Harry Mottram: The Rugby Football Union gave London Irish RFC until Tuesday 6 June, 2023, to pay outstanding wages and…
Bath Voice Garden Review: avoid Georgian levels of gin consumption when visiting Prior Park Gardens due to the steep paths – in this green and pleasant landscaped valley
Prior Park Gardens, Bath. I’ve been visiting Bath since the early 1960s but somehow have never got around to taking…
Rapscallion Magazine Restaurant Review: Afro beat and performers interrupt a lunch under the trees in Marseille’s Stalingrad Square
Restaurant Review: Les Danaïdes Restaurant, Marseille It was a question of passing out in the heat and collapsing onto the…
Postcard from Marseille: the not so edgy city with its tourists, the rain and my plastic mac – but no elephants
By Harry Mottram: Go to Marseilles they said, it’s edgy and dangerous – and there’s no tourists they said and…
Rapscallion Magazine Film Review: a pianist’s critical note to Stalin brings an end to the dictator as he lies dying in his own urine
Film Review: The Death of Stalin: Putin and his mafia cronies banned the 2017 movie because they are paranoid and…
ICSM Business News Headliners: London Irish Rugby Union Club on the brink as the exiles are given until 6 June to pay wages or face expulsion
By Harry Mottram: The Rugby Football Union has given London Irish until Tuesday 6 June, 2023, to pay outstanding wages and…
ICSM Business News: recession or no recession – concerns mount with the highest level of insolvencies since the Credit Crunch when a run on the Northern Rock Bank heralded an economic nightmare
By Harry Mottram: Earlier this year experts ruled out the chance of the UK falling into a recession this year predicting…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Cider, cigarettes and Letraset… confessions of a 70s art student
By Harry Mottram: One pint of cider for 30p and you began to slur your words. Three pints and it was…
RAPSCALLION MAGAZINE BOOK REVIEW: sex, secrets and violence – and a coming of age neo-Gothic mystery set within the shadow of Franco’s Spain in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlo Ruiz Zafon
By harrymottram DEC 5, 2020 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon Teenager Daniel Sempere is the beneficiary…
Axbridge News: Axbridge Community Theatre confirm their November production – a hilarious satire set in a remote Russian village
By Harry Mottram: When the Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol decided to write a play he was frightened that the Russian…
Bath Voice News: the city’s Fringe Festival includes Bluffing Your Way in Ballet at the Mission Theatre (plus more dance shows in June and this autumn)
MAY 22, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Comedy, drama, music and yes dance. Bath Fringe Festival has so much but dance is…
Axbridge Pageant: The 1920s and 1930s when the town modernised during the 20th century and some residents enjoyed inside toilets, women got the vote and education was compulsory up to the age of 14
By Harry Mottram: This is an article from the 2022 Axbridge Pageant programme. War gave way to peace and a…
Axbridge Pageant: Violence, cruelty, blood and disorder – how bull baiting fever took over the town
By Harry Mottram: We claim to be a nation of animal lovers and often turn our disdain for barbaric sports…
Bath Voice News: the city’s Fringe Festival gears up for a celebration of the arts with weeks of workshops, music gigs, comedy, children’s shows and drama
MAY 19, 2023 Bath Fringe Festival: The festival runs from Friday May 26th to Sunday June 11th.The Bath Fringe is…
Bath Voice News: calls for more people to sponsor Ukrainian refugees at special event in Bath as the city consolidates links with embattled city of Oleksandriya as the horrors of war continue
MAY 18, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The leader of the Council Cllr Kevin Guy had a meeting this Tuesday with Zhenya…
Bath Voice News: The Bath Society of Artists Annual Open Exhibition, now in its 118th year, runs at the Victoria Art Gallery until 24 June 2023
MAY 17, 2023 Bath Society of Artists at the Victoria Art Gallery: The Bath Society of Artists Annual Open Exhibition,…
Bath Voice News: Q@A interview with the actors who tackle the controversy over Samuel Beckett’s play that banned women from staging it
MAY 16, 2023 By Harry Mottram: On Thursday, 22nd June, three actors will take to the stage at the Ustinov Studio…
Bath Voice Business News: doughnuts, beer plaudits, retail news and Bath Rugby’s plans for a revised stadium
MAY 15, 2023 By Harry Mottram Beer news: Brewer Abbey Ales in Bath have won plaudits at this year’s Taste of…
Harry Mottram Opinion for ICSM: reflections on fashionable business sectors that rise and fall like the dot-com bubble as new media Vice and Motherboard collapse
By Harry Mottram: Remember the dotcom bubble? When dot-com firms saw their value increase making the owners paper millionaires in the…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Review: men, money and microphones in a brilliantly funny and affectionate feminist deconstruction of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Review: Pride and Prejudice (*sort of). Bristol Old Vic It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a single novel by Jane…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: stand up, stand up – they’re rocking the boat! BODS bring a sensational production of Guys and Dolls to a full house at the Theatre Royal Bath
MAY 10, 2023 Review: Guys and Dolls at Theatre Royal Bath Big set piece song and dance numbers, snappy lines,…
Bath Voice News: how the local elections have seen a sea change in British politics and in Bath and North East Somerset in particular
MAY 5, 2023 By Harry Mottram: There has been a sea change in the politics of Bath and North East Somerset…
Bath Voice News: as a giant phallus appears cut into the lawns of the Royal Crescent we take a look at this symbol used by Roman Soldiers, Classical Greeks, the Cerne Abbas Giant and er… very naughty Bathonians
MAY 5, 2023 By Harry Mottram: A day ahead of a Coronation party on the lawns in front of the…
Bath Voice News: election day – don’t forget to vote and take photo ID with you – plus the death of a candidate means the Paulton vote is postponed
By Harry Mottram: Today (Thursday, May 4th, 2023) there are elections across Bath and North East Somerset for new councillors who…
Rapscallion Magazine: latest issue for May 2023
Welcome to the latest issue of my occasional magazine that essentially ties up the various features and reviews that I’ve…
Bath Voice News: Royal College of Nursing members employed at the RUH and in Bristol set to strike at 8pm tonight and May Day over pay and conditions dispute
APRIL 30, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)…
Axbridge News: date set for the appointment of a new Mayor of Axbridge in the ‘Mayor Making’ ceremony in the town hall – an office that dates back centuries
By Harry Mottram: It’s a date eagerly looked forward to each year by the families, friends and civic colleagues of…
Axbridge News: the pageant – the early history of the town – an article from the programme 2022
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge is first recorded in the early 10th century in the Burgal Hideage of Saxon Britain and…
Axbridge Pageant 2022: the first residents of Axbridge were hunter gatherers who live on the edge of Mendip Forest… and horror of horrors their clothing was 100% animal skins…
By Harry Mottram: We finally portrayed the first residents of not-Axbridge (as Axbridge was yet to exist) in the pageant…
Bath Voice Theatre News: what’s coming up at the city’s theatres – from HG Wells’ The Time Machine to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar
APRIL 21, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bath is gifted with so much theatre – and if you’ve not explored some of…
Bath Voice News: upcoming local elections on May 4 will see photo ID made a requirement for the first time – here is the list of OK photo ID to use
APRIL 21, 2023 By: John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: In Somerset, elections are happening for North Somerset Council and Bath and North…
Bath Voice News: latest on missing former Bath rugby player Levi Davis as reports of him struggling in the sea near Barcelona emerge
APRIL 20, 2023 By Harry Mottram: By Harry Mottram: It is being widely reported in the media that police in Barcelona…
Bath Voice Sports News: Yeovil Town FC relegated to the National League South setting up an all Somerset derby next season with Bath City FC
APRIL 19, 2023 By Harry Mottram: those with long memories may recall Yeovil Town beating Bath in the FC Cup in…
ICSM Insolvency News in Brief: Bridal chain falls flat; inflation remains in double figures; large legal firm crashes; huge rise in firms going bust; packaging firm falls into administration
By Harry Mottram: The numbers of businesses going bust continues to rise as a toxic mixture of inflation, high interest rates…
Rapscallion Magazine Film Review: it’s all about Evelyn – Everything Everywhere All At Once is confusing, bizarre, violent and a mother and daughter relationship movie
There’s a scene where Evelyn’s daughter Joy Wang enters a room and her father asks, ‘What are you doing here?’…
ICSM Business News In Brief: Ernst & Young non-break up, Tupperware on the brink, banking troubles, CBI sex scandal and female fraudster to be jailed
By Harry Mottram: ICSM brings you the latest headline news from the business of insolvencies, administrations and firms in danger of…
Bath Voice Sports Feature: a short (and hidden) history of women’s rugby union
By Harry Mottram: Despite over 130 years of rugby union played by a wide variety of club teams in Bath…
Axbridge News: Planning meeting on Monday 17th April, 2023, set to discuss the building of a new ‘million-pound house’ at the bottom of Moorland Street on another green field site
By Harry Mottram: A controversial planning application for a proposed detached two storey house will be part of the discussions…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: What Ho, Jeeves – a comic send up of the idle rich maybe, a funny novel set in Edwardian England yes – but also a completeness of a comic style rarely achieved
Right Ho, Jeeves. By PG Wodehouse. Book review. Pip, pip. Tip top. And midnight cycle rides. What Ho, Jeeves, is…
Bath Voice Photography Review: America In Crisis at the American Museum gives an insight into the other USA – a world away from the American dream
APRIL 10, 2023 Review: America in Crisis at the American Museum, Bath: Violence, race hatred, murder and poverty are the headline…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: a day in Paris to check my new passport won’t get me deported like last time – but it was disappointing as there were no riots or piles of rubbish in the streets
By Harry Mottram: Last September I was deported from Rome as my passport was officially stolen – now with a…
Axbridge News: a report on the Swiss Air Disaster 50th Anniversary Memorial Service at St John The Baptist Parish Church on April 10, 2023
By Harry Mottram: A packed church with standing room only for the 50th Anniversary Memorial commemoration for the Swiss Air…
Bath Voice Feature: WG never lost his Gloucestershire accent, he took 11 years to pass his medical exams and scored 1,098 runs for England in a career that popularised cricket
By Harry Mottram: But WG Grace, was first and last a Gloucestershire man born in Downend in 1848 in a…
ICSM Business News: Ten essential tips to keep the cash flow… flowing
By Harry Mottram: One thing that keeps many a business owner awake at night is the fear their cash flow will…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: Beaten, brainwashed and coached to play football by Catholic nuns – God, sins and Neolithic hunters – the confused concerns of a school boy
By Harry Mottram: Until I visited a museum where there was a skeleton of a Neolithic man my faith in…
Axbridge News: the town is set to mark 50 years since the Swiss air disaster with a service on Easter Monday in the church
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge is to mark five decades since the Swiss air disaster that claimed many lives from the…
ICSM Business News: suppliers and funders for Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit left with millions of pounds of debt after the rocket failed to reach space
By Harry Mottram: Investing or supplying a new business is risky but the rewards are great and in general this is…
Bath Voice News: Dates for Industrial Action in April
APRIL 5, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Strike action for some workers in the NHS has been paused while members of the…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: like George Orwell I took The Road to Wigan Pier but it wasn’t there
I went to Wigan Pier but it wasn’t there. Not a barge in sight, nobody loading coal, or men wearing…
Axbridge News: new photos from Adam Clutterbuck of the last night of the Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party in the town hall celebrates the success of the production
By Harry Mottram: The cast and crew of Axbridge Community Theatre’s (ACT) production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party were given…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: cider, cigarettes and Letraset… confessions of a 70s art student
By Harry Mottram: One pint of cider for 30p and you began to slur your words. Three pints and it was…
Axbridge News Theatre Review: Axbridge Community Theatre stage a stylish production of Harold Pinter’s sinister play The Birthday Party (but we’re still not sure what it was all about)
No wonder everyone was so slim in the 1950s, what with post war rationing and Meg’s low-calorie breakfasts which consisted…
ICSM Business News: Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios collapses into administration while other venues struggle
By Harry Mottram: The actors’ trade publication The Stage, has revealed that the Hammersmith venue in London for the performing arts…
Rapscallion Magazine: stuck between heaven and hell without a passport – my 36 Hours in Rome’s Airport
The lost souls of Rome’s airport As I walked out into the cool night air at Bristol Airport, I felt…
Bath Voice Exhibitions in April: includes America in Crisis at Claverton, New English Art at the Victoria and the art of Durer at The Holburne
MARCH 28, 2023 Exhibition Picks in BathAmerican Museum, Bath. Claverton. The Museum features collections from the United States where you can…
Bath Voice Theatre What’s On in April: Kyiv Ballet at The Theatre Royal Bath, Bond the Unauthorised Parody at the Rondo and Waiting For Godot at The Mission Theatre
MARCH 28, 2023 Theatre Picks In BathSat 1 Apr. Rondo Theatre, Bath. Bond, an unauthorised Parody. 8pm. By Gavin Robertson. Bond…
Bath Voice What’s On in April: Talks at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, a Comedy Festival and the Bath Jewish Burial Ground Open Day
MARCH 28, 2023 Pick of Diary Events in BathMon 1- Sun 23 Apr. Bath comedy Festival. Various venues and events. These…
Bath Voice News: Cross Party support in the House of Commons for the Bath MP’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Bill as it passes its second reading
MARCH 27, 2023 By Harry Mottram: There has been widespread support amongst MPs of all political parties in Westminster for Bath…
Axbridge News: this week’s play in the town hall is brought to life in colour as the cast prepare for the first night of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party with photos by Adam Clutterbuck
By Harry Mottram: With just hours to go before the actors of Axbridge Community Theatre (ACT) tread the boards in…
Axbridge News: ‘Save our Trees’ poster appears as plans to build homes off Houlgate Way would see trees felled and parking restricted
By Harry Mottram: With outline planning permission granted for the development of a new housing estate off Houlgate Way betwixt…
Bath Voice News: those in favour of this country rejoining the European Community stage an event in Bath to highlight their cause
MARCH 26, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Ever since the nation voted by a small majority to leave the European Community in…
Bath Voice News: The American Museum & Gardens presents a photography exhibition – America in Crisis
MARCH 24, 2023 From the American Museum: As part of an exciting new partnership with the Saatchi Gallery, the American Museum &…
Bath Voice Sports News: fixtures and results for this weekend as Bath Rugby welcome Exeter Chiefs to the Rec
MARCH 24, 2023 This weekend’s sporting fixtures for Bath’s teams Team Bath Netball. HOME Fixture: Friday, 24th March, 2023. 7.00pm. Team…
Bath Voice: Parents slam strict new rules on child autism referrals as “discrimination” – part two by Adam Postans
MARCH 22, 2023 By Adam Postans, local democracy reporter Outraged parents of autistic children have branded strict new rules about…
Bath Voice: Children must now be in “crisis” before they can be referred for autism – part one by Adam Postans (local democracy reporter)
MARCH 22, 2023 By Adam Postans, local democracy correspondent. Part one. Children must now be in “crisis” before they can…
Bath Voice Theatre Review: a spirited and ambitious musical production of Adrian Mole’s life at the Mission Theatre in a very British cul-de-sac
MARCH 22, 2023 Adultery, boozing grown-ups, unpaid bills and unrequited love: yes, the growing pains of teenager Adrian Mole are…
ICSM Business News: banking jitters continue as UBS rescues Credit Suisse triggering fears for business and jobs in the UK
By Harry Mottram: The collapse of two USA banks has continued to cause concerns across the banking world despite the major…
Bath Voice News: shock as Mothering Sunday diners see car crash into their Bath restaurant
MARCH 19, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The residents and staff at the Grade 1 listed Francis Hotel on Queen Square in…
Rapscallion Book Review: Sue Townsend’s diary-style comic novel of the unreliable narrator Adrian Mole is a classic (and a musical version is set for Bath this week)
MARCH 18, 2023 Book Review. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Age 13 3/4Sue Townsend’s comic 1982 fictional diary style…
Axbridge Drama News: a profile of Harold Pinter – the writer behind ACT’s production of The Birthday Party being staged in the town hall
Axbridge Community Theatre are staging The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter in Axbridge Town Hall nightly at 7.30pm from Wednesday…
Bath Voice News: industrial unrest continues with teachers, rail staff and university workers taking action
MARCH 17, 2023 By Harry Mottram: This week has seen the industrial unrest that has affected Bath and the whole country…
Rapscallion Theatre Review: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s superb production of This House revives the vibes of brown 1970s suits (although there is one thing missing in Parliament’s dodgy back room deals in this play)
Review: This House at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol Order! Order! A bewigged and authoritative Louise O’Dowd as a very young-looking…
ICSM Business News: ripples from the SVB near collapse prompts stock prices to fall and other USA banks see share prices tumble as contagion spreads to the UK
By Harry Mottram: following Friday’s collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and it’s propping up with help from the US…
Bath Voice News: Junior Doctors take industrial action at the RUH this week as more workers strike
MARCH 13, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The RUH have issued details over appointments, hospital visits and emergencies at the hospital as…
ICSM Tech Business News: HSBC buy insolvent Silicon Valley Bank for £1 and prevent hundreds of firms collapsing and a potential ‘existential threat’ to the UK economy as a late night deal is done
By Harry Mottram: HSBC have acquired the insolvent Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) for £1 after a frantic weekend of negotiations that saw…
ICSM Business Education News: shock as drama school Read College is set to close as more colleges struggle
By Harry Mottram: news that the famous drama school Read College is set to shut this summer has reminded the sector…
Bath Voice Sports News: This weekend’s fixtures and results including Friday’s games for Bath Rugby and Team Bath Netball and a win for Bath City FC
MARCH 10, 2023 Team Bath Netball. HOME Fixture: Friday, 10th March, 2023. 7.30pm. Team Bath 54 V Surrey Storm 80 Malawi…
Rapscallion Magazine Opinion: the Gary Lineker story is a self-inflicted PR disaster by the BBC who seemed to cave in to Government pressure
By Harry Mottram: There are certain sections of British society that politicians should be cautious about criticising. Nurses, dog walkers,…
Rapscallion Book Review: Emil and The Detectives portrays an innocent, busy and child friendly Berlin before the Nazis came to power in a what might have been world
Book Review. Emil and the Detectives by Erich KastnerThere’s an element of what could have been in Erich Kastner’s 1929…
Rapscallion Theatre Preview: dig those groovy 1970s suits – Bristol Old Vic Theatre School stage James Graham’s This House in Bristol
By Harry Mottram: those (like me) of a certain age will recall the politics of 1974 with the fall of…
Axbridge News: crucial meeting in the town hall to hear nominations for the next mayor and deputy mayor – to continue a tradition dating back centuries
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge Town Council will decide on nominations for the next mayor and deputy mayor of the town at…
Axbridge News: Friends of King John’s Hunting Lodge announce spring talks including the history of lead mining on the Mendips
The Friends of King John’s Hunting Lodge in Axbridge have announced a series of spring talks of interest to residents…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Preview: back in 1974 parliament was in crisis – Bristol Old Vic Theatre School brings James Graham’s This House to Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatre
UK politics is in crisis and the country is in economic peril. Fights break out in the Houses of Parliament…
BRISTOL VOICE FEATURE: From Homes fit for Heroes to council flats – and the forgotten housing estate now a park
By Harry Mottram: If you go down to Badocks Wood in Henleaze and head up towards the Southmead Round Barrow you…
Bath Voice What’s On in March: story time in the library, Elevate Festival, USA photography exhibition at the American Museum and Heathers The Musical
MARCH 6, 2023 Regular events in BathMondaysWidcombe Choir. Widcombe Social Club. 7.15-9pm. For details see the Widcombe Association website.TuesdaysCentral Library with…
Bath Voice Sports News: Six Nations Under 20s match comes to Bath’s Recreation Ground
MARCH 4, 2023 By Harry Mottram: England rugby players who are under the age of 20 take on France under the…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Review: Tink is fabulous, funny and true to life – Kat Kleve flies in Lizzy Connolly’s coming of age fairy fable
Tink. Review. Tobacco Factory. There’s a change between our heady days in Primary School when we confidently fly with ambition…
Axbridge News: work to fell trees hit by ash dieback disease ends at King’s Wood as carpark reopens
By Harry Mottram: Those intrepid folk who venture up to King’s Wood will have noticed the work to fell trees affected…
Bath Voice News: organise early your Coronation celebration street party (even if you’re not a Royalist)
MARCH 1, 2023 By Harry Mottram: It may come as a surprise for some that if you plan on staging a…
Bath Voice News: current listings and dates of industrial action in the city in March
FEBRUARY 27, 2023 By Harry Mottram: The winter of discontent continues with more industrial action on the way as workers across…
Bath Voice Theatre Preview: the National Theatre’s production of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane set to open in March
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 Theatre Royal Bath sees the National Theatre’s production of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the…
Axbridge News: gas pipe work in Jubilee Road set to last into March as the network is upgraded in readiness for hydrogen and biomethane
By Harry Mottram: Wales and West Utilities are currently updating gas pipes in Jubilee Road in Axbridge with the work…
Axbridge News Comedy Review: the Hartlepudlian on dogs, Nazis and being blind – David Eagle’s Flying Solo show wows in Axbridge Town Hall (but not everyone enjoyed it)
‘Being blind I have super powerful hearing’ says David Eagle as he steps onto the small stage in Axbridge Town…
Rapscallion Magazine Book Review: an epic story set during the Biafran war of independence where truth is fiction and fiction is truth in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun
Review: Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Those of a certain age will recall the Biafran war…
Axbridge News: major changes to bus routes announced by First Bus while the 126 service continues from Axbridge to Wells from Libra
FEBRUARY 23, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bus operator First West of England has made major changes to bus timetables a services…
Axbridge News: update on Shute Shelve Tunnel on the Strawberry Line from Amber Hill of The Mercury
By Harry Mottram: The Weston Mercury’s Amber Hill (pictured) has given more details of the lights in Shute Shelve Tunnel in a…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Preview: a modern fairy tale at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory featuring Kat Kleve in Tink
DID YOU KNOW FAIRIES ARE BORN BIG? Tink was a BIG, brilliant, young fairy. Until one day, in a tragic…
Bath Voice News: nurses at the RUH to pause industrial action next week as talks with the Government begin
FEBRUARY 22, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Next week’s planned industrial action by nurses in Bath has been put on hold after…
Axbridge News: Annual Assembly set for Monday, March 6th, 2023, when the town’s organisations give their presentations
By Harry Mottram: Axbridge Town Council has announced that the town’s Annual Assembly meeting is to be held on Monday…
Bath Voice Business News: one in, one out – Southgate’s River Island is set to close although a competitor will take its place
FEBRUARY 21, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bath has lost several retailers in the last few months with the latest one set…
Axbridge News: updates on the lights in Shute Shelve Tunnel
By Harry Mottram: Opened in 1869 and closed in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s the former Cheddar Valley Railway…
ICSM Insolvency News: they take the cash and go bust – a collapsed company backed by the PM’s wife Akshata Murty throws a spotlight on the millions of tax payers’ cash written off in Covid loans
By Harry Mottram: The business credit intelligence group ICSM has heard numerous accounts from its members that there’s a pattern of…
Axbridge News: the town council is set to discuss the housing development off Houlgate Way
By Harry Mottram: On Monday February 20th, 2023, the Axbridge Town Council will debate the plans for a new greenhouse…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: don’t shoot the critic – it’s only an opinion – stories of vicious attacks on the writers of reviews (including me)
By Harry Mottram: Reports from Germany this month that ballet director Marco Goecke had smeared dog excrement in the face of…
Bath Voice Review: Georgian Bath was smelly, dangerous and dirty – so unlike the friendly characters in the Jane Austen Centre
FEBRUARY 13, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Like lots of people I’ve passed the Jane Austen Centre many times without having visited.Since…
Bath Voice News: Bath’s nearest airport will be allowed to expand after High Court ruling
FEBRUARY 6, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Bathonian’s nearest airport at Lulsgate has been given the green light to expand allowing more…
Bath Voice: when the most wanted criminal in Britain stayed in Bath while on the run for murder
FEBRUARY 12, 2023 By Harry Mottram: When notorious criminal Kenneth Noye (pictured) stabbed motorist Stephen Cameron to death in a road…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: the weird night a stranger walked into our house and went to sleep in my our son’s bed – but it wasn’t a Goldilocks and the Three Bears story as the police arrived
By Harry Mottram: It will be 20 years this April since BBC Radio 4’s Today programme led with the strange…
Linda Mottram: new antenatal sessions available in Axbridge at Bella Bambini Antenatal
Hello and welcome to Bella Bambini Antenatal. My name is Linda Mottram and I’m a registered midwife, researcher, author, mum…
Bath Voice People: film director and (Bath City FC fan) Ken Loach talks to the BBC’s John Wilson about the horrors of back street abortions and Kes
FEBRUARY 11, 2023 By Harry Mottram: Ken Loach is perhaps known in Bath as a football fan first and a film…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: My long night with posh Tory wife and diarist Sasha Swire (while her husband WATCHED)
This article was written a few years ago about how I spent election night in 2015 as as reporter for…
ICSM Printing Industry Insolvency News: decision day for Plymouth based outfit as it admits defeat and chooses liquidation following creditors’ meeting
By Harry Mottram: Pepper Communications in Plymouth has chosen to liquidate following a creditors’ voluntary liquidation today (Friday, February 10, 2023).…
Bath Voice News: NHS physio staff strike with fewer ambulances on Friday due to industrial action
By Harry Mottram: Members of the The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) will be taking action on the 9-10 February…
Bath Voice Theatre Preview: six women, six stories, six Lockdown Blues in a comedy drama by Polly Lamb
FEBRUARY 9, 2023 Friday, March 10th, 2023 Lockdown Blues: Fresh New Comedy Drama from Really Truly Theatre Company. Look out…
ICSM Sports Business News: shock as Worcester Rugby owner dumps the name, the creditors and the fans who are owed millions
By Harry Mottram: In a stunning interview with BBC Hereford & Worcester the owner of rugby’s Worcester Warriors Jim O’Toole said…
Axbridge News: the clock is ticking to register a comment on the Houlgate Way proposed housing development
By Harry Mottram: Sedgemoor District Council’s planning department has said anyone wishing to make a comment on the proposed Bellway Homes…
Axbridge News: the progressive supper joins up with Axbridge Action Group at the AGM
At Axbridge Action Group’s AGM held in the Lamb Inn on Monday, February 6th, 2023, committee members of the annual…
Rapscallion Magazine Theatre Review: a game of two halves in RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing with bling, balls, boobs – but no escaping the daft plot and misogynist Tudor morals
The first half is all adrenalin and testosterone, as the footballers of Messina punch the air in a lively and…
Rapscallion Magazine Feature: no booze, no cigs and no late nights – but an enjoyable week in Nice only marred by a horrific road accident
By Harry Mottram: It was the first holiday Linda and I had taken in two years – a week in…
Bath Voice News: Bath City FC welcomes the MP’s support for the Football Governance Bill aimed at preventing rogue owners from financially ruining clubs
April 30, 2025 By Harry Mottram: Since 1992, 60 clubs in the top four divisions have entered administration due to financial…