A new voice for
the North East

Monday 21 October 2024
21/10/2024

Author name: Sam Wonfor

My Life Through A Lens: Helen Rowlands

While Helen Rowlandsโ€™ family may have guessed photography would come calling one day (โ€œIโ€™d always be the one holding up my family taking photos on holiday with my phoneโ€) it was a message from an Instagram follower during lockdown that kicked her hobby on to the next level. โ€œDuring the pandemic I was posting old โ€ฆ

Lindisfarne โ€” standing the test of Tyne

It wonโ€™t surprise anyone who knows me โ€” or where I came from, genes-wise โ€” to hear that more often than not, the direction of these columns is pretty much decided as the deadline looms. Sometimes theyโ€™re shaped by a song on the radio; or prompted by a post Iโ€™ve seen on social media. Other โ€ฆ

My life through a lens: Owen Humphreys

Owen Humphreysโ€™ journey into press photography started while he was still at school  and got a job as Saturday tea-boy at the Derby Evening Telegraph. โ€œI soon moved into the dark room, back in the days of film,โ€ he recalls. โ€œI would help the staff photographers print their pictures as they arrived back from assignments. โ€ฆ

Serving up a feast of tennis

As the wonder of Wimbledon starts to peek over the horizon (OK, itโ€™s still yonks away, but something has to get us through this perpetual chill), a three-day tennis hoopla on Tyneside sounds like the perfect way to get us in the swing. Six Newcastle parks will play host to the Tennis Festival, which has โ€ฆ

Dancing with mother

An exhibition exploring the experience of motherhood will get a fitting finale next month (May). Katie Cuddonโ€™s A is for Alma at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle will offer a stage to three dancers from balletLORENT โ€” and their toddlers โ€” for a series of free performances. Newcastle-based artist Katie invited the award-winning dance company โ€ฆ

Bald truth makes for a great show

A show which finds the funny as well as the challenges of living with alopecia has opened at a Tyneside theatre. Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, Newcastle performer Sam Macgregor booked a chunky run of Truly, Madly, Baldly at Laurels Theatre in Whitley Bay. Bafta-nominated actor, Jack Robertson (Gerry and โ€ฆ

Cultivating an award winning career

Talented gardener, Lucy Whitehead is hoping it will be a case of third timeโ€™s a charm when she heads down to the grand final of a national competition in London next month (May). The 26-year-old from Whitley Bay will represent the Northern category for the third year running after being named the regionโ€™s Young Horticulturist โ€ฆ