A Season of Discovery with Sheffield Chamber Orchestra

Sheffield Chamber Orchestra is inviting audiences to enjoy a new season of live music that combines much-loved masterpieces, lesser-known works and the talents of promising young performers.

The 2026–27 programme follows the orchestra’s 75th anniversary year and continues its commitment to bringing ambitious, engaging classical music to audiences across Sheffield.

Across three concerts, listeners can travel from Baroque brilliance to Romantic symphonies, with plenty of musical discoveries along the way.

The season begins on Saturday 5 December 2026 at Ecclesall Parish Church with New Voices, conducted by Gina Hazell. A conductor and performer with experience in symphonic, operatic and choral music, Gina works across the North of England and has collaborated with orchestras and young musicians.

For her Sheffield Chamber Orchestra debut, she will lead a colourful programme opening with Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, written when the composer was just 17. 

Dvořák’s lively Czech Suite and Handel’s elegant Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op. 6 No. 7 provide contrasting sounds, before the concert concludes with Louise Farrenc’s ambitious Symphony No. 1. Farrenc’s music is enjoying a long-overdue revival, making this a chance to encounter a remarkable composer whose work deserves a wider audience.

The second concert takes place on Saturday 13 March 2027, conducted by Sheffield-based John Lyon. Its programme brings together Beethoven, Fauré, Emilie Mayer and John Rutter, exploring orchestral music’s dramatic force, lyrical beauty and imagination. Familiar composers sit alongside Mayer, whose distinctive Romantic voice offers another opportunity to listen afresh.

The season closes on Saturday 22 May 2027 with Accent on Youth 2027, also conducted by Lyon. The concert will showcase emerging musicians, giving young performers the opportunity to play alongside an established chamber orchestra before a live audience. Supporting the next generation is an important part of the orchestra’s contribution to Sheffield’s musical community.

Together, the three concerts span the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and modern eras. Whether audiences are revisiting Beethoven, discovering Farrenc or Mayer, or hearing young performers take to the stage, each event promises something to explore.

Julie Ryan, Chair of Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, says the season reflects the orchestra’s love of great music played with enthusiasm, while introducing audiences to composers and musicians they may not have encountered before.

Full concert, venue and ticket information is available on the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra website. Season tickets are on sale now, with audiences across Sheffield and South Yorkshire warmly invited to join the orchestra for a year of live music and discovery.

https://scorchestra.uk

Do Famous Film and TV Homes Really Become More Valuable?

A house can become famous overnight. A familiar doorway appears on screen, a character makes it home, and viewers remember it for years. 

But does that screen fame make the property worth more?

A study of famous film and television homes suggests that, in most cases, it does not. The wider Bettermove project follows 100 properties around the world. 

Its British examples show a striking pattern: houses often sell for much the same as their neighbours, or struggle to find a buyer. 

The places that tend to make money from their screen connections are castles and historic attractions, which can welcome visitors.

Brookside Close offers a memorable example. In 2008, all 13 houses on the Liverpool street built for Channel 4’s soap opera were sold together at auction for £735,000. That is a long way from the sums sometimes imagined for a famous address.

Other properties have had a tougher time. Nora Batty’s cottage in Holmfirth went on the market in 2006 and took more than a decade to find a buyer. The Suffolk house associated with Harry Potter’s birth was listed for £995,000, reduced to £950,000 and eventually withdrawn after failing to attract a buyer. The house from The Good Life sold for £1.44 million, in line with other detached homes on its road.

There is one notable exception: Sleddale Hall in Cumbria, which appeared as Uncle Monty’s cottage in Withnail and I. Despite being derelict and lacking a proper road, it attracted a top bid of £265,000 against a guide price of £145,000. In this case, fans were willing to pay extra for the connection.

The study suggests that screen fame can be more valuable to a visitor attraction than to a private homeowner. Alnwick Castle saw visitor numbers rise after appearing as Hogwarts; Doune Castle gained a following through Outlander; and Lyme Park became closely associated with Mr Darcy’s famous lake scene in Pride and Prejudice. Highclere Castle’s Downton Abbey connection has also helped bring in income for repairs.

For residents, fame can bring unwanted attention. Fans may trespass, take photographs or stop outside homes that remain private. Some owners and neighbours have complained about visitors turning residential streets into tourist destinations. The owner of the Love Actually house has even put its famous front door up for auction, hoping to get a break from the crowds.

There are exceptions where fans become the buyers. In Barry, the house associated with Uncle Bryn in Gavin & Stacey attracted fans and now earns money as a holiday let. That kind of success depends on finding someone who values the story enough to buy or rent the property.

Bettermove says the research grew from an office conversation about famous movie homes. After reviewing properties, sales and auction records, its team found that a screen story alone rarely changes what a house is worth. The location may become part of popular culture, but buyers still compare the house with the homes around it.

The full study includes the history, prices and current fate of all 100 properties on an interactive map: Does fame add value? Famous film and TV homes https://www.bettermove.co.uk/property-stories/famous-film-and-tv-homes

A Dictionary of Forensic Science by Suzanne Bell – A Reference Book Worth Rediscovering

Here at That’s Books and More, we first wrote about Suzanne Bell’s A Dictionary of Forensic Science when it appeared back in 2012. 

Fourteen years later, it seems an excellent time to take another look at a book that remains a fascinating addition to the shelves of anyone interested in crime, investigation and the science behind them.

Published by Oxford University Press as part of its Oxford Quick Reference range, A Dictionary of Forensic Science contains more than 1,300 entries covering an extraordinarily broad spectrum of forensic subjects.

And this certainly isn’t a dictionary that simply provides dry definitions.

Suzanne Bell takes readers through subjects including forensic chemistry, biology, anthropology, firearms, toolmarks, trace evidence, crime-scene investigation, engineering and forensic computing. There are also biographies, important cases and explanations of the techniques that have helped forensic scientists establish links, or demonstrate the absence of links, between suspects, victims and crime scenes.

The inclusion of cases such as Dr Crippen and Mary Ann Cotton helps place forensic techniques into their historical context, while figures and photographs make some of the more technical subjects easier to understand.

Bell was particularly well qualified to produce such a reference work. At the time of publication she was Associate Professor of Forensic Chemistry at West Virginia University and had also worked as a forensic expert for the New Mexico State Police. 

Her other books included Forensic Chemistry, Crime and Circumstance: Investigating the History of Forensic Science and an Encyclopedia of Forensic Science.

One of the strengths identified in a contemporary Royal Society of Chemistry review was the book's cross-referencing, which encourages readers to follow unfamiliar terms and explore related subjects rather than simply looking up one definition and closing the book.

That makes it particularly useful for crime writers and journalists. If you're writing a murder mystery and suddenly need to know whether you've used a forensic expression correctly, this is exactly the sort of book you'll want within arm's reach.

It's equally interesting for students, police and legal professionals, true-crime readers and true crime writers and those of us who simply enjoy discovering how real forensic science differs from its often rather miraculous depiction on television.

Our original 2012 review concluded that it belonged on the bookshelf or in the work bag of anyone with a serious interest in forensic science.

More than a decade later, we'd add another category to that list: writers who want to get the forensic details right.

A Dictionary of Forensic Science by Suzanne Bell was published by Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199594009.

You can order the book here at our Amazon-powered bookshop https://link.amazon/B05mosDSs

We get a modest affiliate payment whilst you get books at a discounted price.

What’s in a Name? Exploring the Oxford Dictionary of British Place-Names

Have you ever wondered why the place where you live has its particular name? 

Why so many English towns end in -ton, -ham, -bury or -ford? 

Or why some British place names appear to bear very little resemblance to the way they are pronounced?

If so, A. D. Mills’ A Dictionary of British Place-Names, published by Oxford University Press, is the sort of reference book in which you can easily lose an entire afternoon.

And we mean that as a compliment.

Place names are miniature pieces of history. Long after buildings have disappeared, boundaries have shifted and languages have changed, the names can preserve clues about the people who once lived there and the landscape they knew.

Mills draws upon linguistic and historical research to explain the origins and development of thousands of place names across Britain. Celtic languages, Old English, Old Norse, Norman French and other influences all make appearances, reflecting successive chapters in British history.

One of the pleasures of the book is discovering just how descriptive many familiar names originally were. Elements referring to farms, settlements, rivers, hills, valleys, woods, bridges and fortified places occur again and again.

But centuries of pronunciation and spelling changes can disguise those origins almost beyond recognition.

For anyone interested in local history, genealogy, archaeology or British history, this makes the dictionary a particularly useful companion. If you're researching where an ancestor lived, for example, understanding the origin of the village name can sometimes tell you something about the landscape and history of the settlement itself.

It's also tremendous fun simply to browse.

Open it at random and you're likely to find yourself travelling around Britain without leaving your armchair. One entry leads to another, and before long a quick check of a single town has turned into half an hour investigating neighbouring villages.

For writers, there's another attraction. Place names help create a sense of landscape and history, and understanding how genuine British names developed can be invaluable when creating believable fictional towns and villages.

Here at That's Books and More, we have a particular fondness for reference books that aren't merely consulted but actually encourage exploration. A Dictionary of British Place-Names certainly falls into that category.

It reminds us that the names on road signs and railway stations aren't simply labels.

They're fragments of history that we use every day.

And once you start discovering what they mean, you may never look at a British map in quite the same way again.

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Bron Yr Aur Micronation Welcomes Its First International Creative Collective

Writers, artists, musicians, poets and makers from around the world have been selected to form the first Creative Collective of Bron Yr Aur Micronation.

Following an international search, 11 creators from Wales, England, Italy, Iran and the United States have become Founding Citizens of the global, borderless micronation.

Around 150 people applied, but the organisers also explored independent work, social platforms and creative communities worldwide. 

They sought people whose values connected with Bron Yr Aur’s commitment to creativity, sustainability and well-being.

Although the chosen creators work in very different disciplines, they share a belief that creativity can connect people, challenge established ideas, provide nourishment and inspire communities across cultural and geographical borders.

Their arrival takes Bron Yr Aur beyond its first 50 Founding Citizens. Its eventual goal is to welcome 100 before making a formal declaration of independence.

Rooted in Wales but open to the world, Bron Yr Aur Micronation is exploring whether countries and communities can be built around participation, inclusivity and peace. Creativity is not regarded as an optional extra, but as an essential part of nation-building.

This approach is being developed through the Ministry of Culture, Heritage & Creative Well-being, established by Chief Visionary Boohai and Ambassador of Culture Heledd Wyn.

Wyn, a Welsh filmmaker, director, visual artist and Future Wales Fellow, has written the micronation’s draft Culture Policy and Cultural Manifesto. It argues that culture should be lived rather than merely consumed, that imagination is a civic necessity and that small nations can dream of large futures.

“Culture is understood as a bridge between peoples and not a border between them,” the manifesto declares.

The Founding Creative Collective includes Grammy-winning Appalachian musician Chance McCoy; experimental electronic artist NÓWNØIS; former Duran Duran vocalist and multidisciplinary artist Andy Wickett; writer Maya Jordon; sustainable creative practitioner Daisy Buckle; and Iranian visual artist and photographer Kazem Ostadali.

They are joined by songwriter Eddy Dyer, whose 2026 album Bron Yr Aur Dagda was recorded at the house itself; furniture restoration artist Grace Carrol; Italian-born visual artist Siro Carraro; Welsh singer and multi-instrumentalist Alys Hardy; and Philadelphia musician and musical healer Raji Malik.

“We didn’t want to simply put out an application form and choose from whoever came to us,” said Chief Visionary Boohai. “We went looking; we explored the work of people around the world because creativity has this extraordinary ability to travel across borders, cultures and languages.”

Find out more at www.bronyraur.com.