Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
That's Christmas 365: Unearth the Perfect Christmas Gift for the Archaeo...
That's Christmas 365: Unearth the Perfect Christmas Gift for the Archaeo...: When Christmas rolls around, finding the perfect gift for the history-lover or archaeology fan in your life can feel a bit tricky. But if th...
Time Team returns to Orkney to reveal groundbreaking new discoveries at the Ness of Brodgar
During summer 2024, Time Team filmed the final season of excavation at the Ness of Brodgar - a vast complex of monumental Neolithic buildings set between the iconic Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar in Mainland, Orkney.
The trenches have now been backfilled, but the investigation did not stop there. In partnership with the Ness team, Time Team carried out a final phase of cutting-edge geophysical survey across the entire site.
For Time Team’s Dr John Gater, it was “like coming home”. Over 20 years ago, his early geophysical work was key to identifying the astonishing settlement that would later captivate the world as the Ness of Brodgar.
This time, the results of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey, carried out in collaboration with Guideline Geo and SUMO GeoSurveys, surpassed even the team’s highest hopes.
A major new discovery — “We weren’t expecting that!"
”The survey has revealed the positions of multiple previously unknown Neolithic buildings - some of them monumental in scale - expanding the known footprint of the complex and offering a deeper understanding of its development over five thousand years ago.
But one discovery stood apart.
“We weren’t expecting that,” said Director Nick Card.
“The new buildings are fascinating,” added Anne Mitchell, “but there’s one feature unlike anything we’ve seen so far.”
“Oh dear,” laughed Mark Edmonds. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have buried my trowel on site.”
The findings have raised the possibility that - even after two decades of excavation - the Ness still holds secrets that require a final, targeted look.
Time Team will join the Ness team in summer 2026 for one more excavation season, culminating in a Time Team special to be broadcast later in 2026.
A partnership two decades in the making
The relationship with Orkney is long-standing, stretching back to A Viking boat burial on Sanday in 1998, the enigmatic Iron Age site at Mine Howe in 2000 and more recently at Swandro on Rousay in 2025. The Ness of Brodgar has been a defining project for modern archaeology, drawing international attention and reshaping our understanding of Neolithic Britain.
Tim Taylor, Creator and Executive Producer of Time Team, told That's Books and Entertainment: “We’ve been privileged to follow the Ness story for over 20 years. To return now - at the end of its excavation phase - and to contribute new discoveries of this scale is extraordinary. The Ness continues to surprise us all.”
Time Team’s recent renaissance, driven by one of the world’s largest global online audiences for archaeology, has enabled the team to reconnect with sites of exceptional importance. Their expansion of the classic three-day format into long-form documentaries - including recent work at Sutton Hoo and major projects across the UK - has brought a new level of depth, analysis, and public engagement to their investigations.
A site of global significance
Tens of thousands of visitors travel to Orkney each summer to witness the excavations before they closed in 2024.
Time Team’s new documentary will share this final chapter - with expert insights, reconstructed models, geophysics visualisations, and exclusive interviews with the Ness of Brodgar team.
What’s next
Time Team’s films will explore:
the final season of excavation at the Ness
the emotional close of two decades of fieldwork
the new geophysical discoveries
what they reveal about life, ritual, and architecture 5,000 years ago
the new month long excavation in 2026
This will be one of the most significant Neolithic investigations Time Team has ever released.
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/
Incidentally over the years Time Team has published more learned works on archaeological digs than some university archaeology departments!
Music for Dementia and the University of Sheffield convened industry roundtable to address "forgotten generation" locked out of music
They brought together technology manufacturers, accessibility experts, record labels, radio professionals and dementia sector leaders to tackle critical barriers preventing older adults and people living with dementia from accessing music.
The Music Made Easy Roundtable, held at children’s audio platform Yoto’s HQ in London, represents the first in a series of industry events run by Music for Dementia to support their Music Made Easy campaign, launched in September 2025 to challenge accessibility gaps across the music and technology sector.
The event convened more than 19 senior representatives including Universal Music Group, BPI, BBC, Music for Dementia partner Yoto and leading independent advocates – alongside research experts from the University of Sheffield's BRIDGES for Dementia Network, which focuses on designing and applying technology to empower people with dementia.
Discussions centred on device accessibility, platform design, the need to co-design alongside lived experience advisors and the commercial and cultural case for prioritising older audiences.
Participants explored critical questions: How can we ensure people living with dementia are integrated into the design process from day one? How can we change licensing restrictions to support easy access to music? How can we better communicate existing tools and support? Most importantly: how can we work together to drive progress?
The roundtable discussion revealed that there are pockets of real progress being made by individual organisations and sectors, yet everyone agreed that it would take industry collaboration to create real progress. To this end Music for Dementia and The University of Sheffield will be spearheading a new taskforce to improve music accessibility for people living with dementia.
Karim Fanous, Director, Innovation and New Digital Business, Global Digital Strategy at Universal Music Group said: “Music for wellness and health is a vital area in our search for startups and support of entrepreneurial innovation that might add value to music and society.
"Music for Dementia and the University of Sheffield are initiating an important multi-stakeholder project which we will be honoured to support alongside UMG Health and Wellness.”
Emily Ingram, General Manager, Sollos, UMG Health and Wellness said: “Music can be an enjoyable and effective way to improve lives, whether it’s for people living with dementia or struggling with everyday stress and low mood. Accessibility matters, and UMG’s Sound Therapy project on Apple Music, alongside our in-house Sollos research programme, are key components of our ongoing efforts to make these benefits more widely available.
"Through Sollos and our health and wellness partners, we are starting to see what is possible when music, science and technology come together. Music for Dementia is driving vital progress and we are proud to support it.”
Aleksandra Gojkovic, Senior Design Researcher, User Experience and Design at BBC said: “A big thank you to Music for Dementia and all contributors for sharing their insights, research and work and for facilitating an open and productive conversation about such an important issue of making music more accessible. At the BBC, universality is at the heart of what we do. Ensuring that everyone can experience and enjoy the power of music is an important part of that mission.”
Hailey Willington, BPI Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, said: “Music for Dementia's roundtable brought together the music ecosystem, from record labels to people with lived experience, to explore the barriers preventing people living with dementia from accessing the music that matters to them. Music should be accessible to all, and by working together, we can redefine what accessible music technology looks like and ensure that it can serve everyone, not just digital natives."
Howard Gordon, Chair of Meeting Centres England, Co-Chair of Deepness Dementia Media Ltd, and advisor from BRIDGES for Dementia Network, said: "In the words of Ronald Coleman ‘true co-production starts with a plain piece of paper.’ People living with dementia should drive co-production of new product designs from the start. They know what's needed better than anyone. They are rights holders and human beings, and shouldn’t be defined by their diagnosis."
Recent Music for Dementia research with 1,000 family carers of people living with dementia reveals the scale of the problem: only 3 in 10 older family carers are able to stream music with their loved one. Age UK research paints a similar picture – they found that 6 in 10 internet users aged 65 or over never use the internet to stream music or videos.
"The generation that created popular music is now increasingly locked out of it," says Amy Shackleton, Programme Lead, Music for Dementia. "This important roundtable event challenged attendees with a fundamental question: what is needed to make music more accessible for older people, especially those living with dementia that need it the most? The answer is clear – we need cross-sector collaboration, better design practices and a commitment to co-production with users and carers.
“I’m really encouraged by our first Music Made Easy industry roundtable event. There was real energy and passion from attendees to improve access to music for older people. We went in wanting a commitment from people to join a new taskforce, and we are really pleased that so many want to be part of this journey.”
The roundtable included findings from Music for Dementia’s Yoto Player trial, which adapted the popular children’s audio player for people living with dementia. It found 92% of participating families would recommend screen-free music devices for older people.
Dr Jennifer MacRitchie also presented the co-designed devices and research findings from the Music, Dementia, Technology project at the University of Sheffield. Here, people living with dementia were involved in developing devices for playback of familiar music, devices for creating new music, and for improvising along with a musical jamming partner, reflecting the diversity and breadth of technology possibilities.
In the UK there are 940,000 people living with dementia, and this figure is projected to rise to 1.5million by 2040. Research shows music can alleviate agitation and distress, support identity and self-hood, bring back memories and even abilities thought lost, create moments of connection and joy and overcome isolation.
https://www.musicfordementia.org.uk/music-made-easy
To learn more about the amazing Yoto players please visit https://thatschristmas.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-yoto-player-and-yoto-mini-world-of.html
New crime novel with a menopausal twist
Madeleine Batten, the main character of Little Secrets, is experiencing several menopausal symptoms while she’s attempting to solve a 20-year-old murder-mystery at The Panbrook Prison Hotel.
“I wanted Madeleine to be believable and seem very real,” Victoria Goldman told That's Books and Entertainment.
“She’s in her early 50s, and around three-quarters of women will be experiencing some menopausal symptoms at this time of life.
"Madeleine is a hard-working hotel manager and an organised perfectionist, attempting to juggle a hectic workload and the needs of her soon-to-be-married daughter, as many women do when they’re in their 40s and 50s.
"Added into the mix is the hotel’s 10th anniversary weekend, a true-crime controversy that’s divided the media for the past 20 years, and an array of hotel guests to please (and suspect of murder and mayhem). Little Secrets is ultimately a crime novel, so obviously nothing goes to plan…”
Little Secrets is a compelling, atmospheric locked-room mystery set in a former prison that's been converted into a luxury hotel. In 1999, a prison nurse at HMP Panbrook was accused of the murders of five prisoners. But was she innocent – or was she guilty? To discover the truth, we need to head back to the past… Little Secrets is ideal for fans of Sarah Pearse, Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware and Claire Douglas.
‘A rollercoaster ride you will not forget! Ingenious and intriguing from start to finish.’ – Janice Hallett, award-winning British author of several mystery novels including The Appeal.
Victoria Goldman has been editing The Menopause Exchange newsletter since its launch. She is an experienced health journalist and editor, including Freelance Health Editor for Bupa, and copyedits and proofreads fiction and non-fiction books for UK publishers and authors.
She has a Biomedical Science BSc. and an MSc. in Science Communication, with specialist expertise in writing evidence-based health information for companies, charities, magazines and websites. She has written two other crime novels, The Redeemer and The Associate, which was the Editor’s Choice Winner of Best Indie Novel of 2023 in the Crime Fiction Lover Awards.
You can buy the book here https://amzn.to/3Ko9F3B
Learn about The Menopause Exchange here: http://www.menopause-exchange.co.uk. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter/X (@MenopauseExch).
We feel this book will be a fantastic Christmas gift for any mystery lover, male or female.
Wednesday, 19 November 2025
That's Christmas 365: Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? Let’s Settle This O...
That's Christmas 365: Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? Let’s Settle This O...: There are few festive debates as enduring, or as enthusiastically argued, as the annual question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Every Dece...
Monday, 3 November 2025
That's Christmas 365: Book Review: Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross – A ...
That's Christmas 365: Book Review: Upon a White Horse by Peter Ross – A ...: As the year draws to its close and the days darken, many of us crave quiet reflection and connection with our roots. Upon a White Horse: Jo...
Tuesday, 28 October 2025
That's Christmas 365: North Wales Dad Turns Son into Storybook Hero — 12...
That's Christmas 365: North Wales Dad Turns Son into Storybook Hero — 12...: Every parent has told a bedtime story. Craig Darren Read went one step further, he turned his four-year-old son into the hero of one. His de...
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