The Alternative Correspondent: I was a virgin Rambler
By Harry Mottram: It’s something I’ve always wanted to do: go on a walk with the Ramblers Association and discover…
The Alternative Correspondence THEATRE REVIEW: A brilliant ‘Chaucer-tastic’ production of Chauntecleer and Pertelotte at the Alma Tavern Theatre
By Harry Mottram: At times it was hard to keep up with the machine gun speed of the dialogue in…
The Alternative Correspondence THEATRE PREVIEW: a foolish cockerel and a crafty fox play out one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Chauntecleer and Pertelotte
By Harry Mottram: One of Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories from the Canterbury Tales is set to be played out by chickens,…
The Alternative Correspondent Comment: the tragedy of the neglected Globe Theatre in Rome – closing theatres denies citizens of live drama
By Harry Mottram: I made my way through undergrowth, brambles and thick bushes and there it was: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.…
The Alternative Correspondent: Unreliable Postcard from Rome – not getting deported, double cooked, mosquito bites, anti-fascists, scammers and the Instagram generation of tourists
By Harry Mottram: Two priests arguing in a café over Manchester City, a nun filling her supermarket trolley with pork…
The Alternative Correspondent: Book Review: Evelyn Waugh’s black comedy A Handful of Dust sums up the pointlessness of between the wars upper class airheads
By Harry Mottram: It’s hard to feel sympathy for disillusioned and hapless protagonist Tony Last in Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful…
The Alternative Correspondent: Unreliable Memories – when I came face to face with the Beast of Exmoor
By Harry Mottram: A huge dark creature emerged from the hedge in front of my motorbike. I braked and stopped…
The Alternative Correspondent: Cider, cigarettes and Letraset and posing penniless at Hampton Court… confessions of an out of work 1980s art student
By Harry Mottram: It was May 1980 and after spending the previous four years at art college in Taunton I…
The Alternative Correspondent: nine wines, two hours plus cheese – and a lot of village gossip in Shipham’s wine tasting night
By Harry Mottram: It was a birthday treat from my son Ashley who invited me along to SWIG (Shipham Wine…
The Alternative Correspondent: ghosts of the past haunt the ‘hollowed out’ interior or Hestercombe House while the 50 acre gardens are silent witnesses to its 20th century decline and restoration
By Harry Mottram: It was clearly a chaotic scene in the early 2000s as visitors to Hestercombe Gardens near Taunton…