Douglas has been a professional food writer since 1986. A former Gold Plate judge, he is a self-confessed food addict - 'I'm up to three meals a day' he admits.
Ever since I saw the trailer some months ago, I have been eager to see this film with Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill.
... [more]
Bistro 10481 may be a new name to you, as the restaurant has only been open a few weeks by that name.
Previously ... [more]
Some years ago there was an advertisement on TV along the lines of 'I liked it so much I bought the company'. And let's ... [more]
When I was young lad I used eagerly to anticipate visits from my grandparents because at the end, no matter how long or ... [more]
One of the joys of being a food writer and reasonably well-known is that you get a lot of delightful suggestions about w... [more]
If one thinks about Caversham House in the Swan Valley, one immediately thinks of a rather posh wedding venue.
A... [more]
The Adventure Travel Film Festival is coming to Guildford! It is a festival that has been inspiring travellers, and armc... [more]
It was Robert Benchley who sent a telegram to David Niven when he arrived in Venice 'Streets full of water, please advis... [more]
I confess I never saw Monster, I assumed that casting arguably the most beautiful actress in Hollywood as a serial kille... [more]
I have to confess that I am not, in principle, in favour of TV series being staged, particularly in community theatre. ... [more]
Regular readers of my food ramblings will recall that I lauded the American Ribs and Grill, a take-away kiosk at Hillary... [more]
Every now and then we get a book or play with a really long but catchy title. One thinks of The Persecution and Assassi... [more]
Say 'farce' and you think 'British Farce'. Think 'British Farce' and you think Ray Cooney, the 85 year old doyen of the... [more]
Names have a fashion - it is even possible to guess pretty accurately someone's age if their name is Shane, Tracey, Kyli... [more]
A thug and his junior partner in crime take a late night train from Perth to Fremantle, menacing passengers along the wa... [more]
We've all seen them in old American movies, haven't we? Usually late at night, with street lamps shining palely through ... [more]
This is the Perth Fringe World Festival. That is to say Future's Eve is wild, young, experimental, kinky. As a straigh... [more]
The Ellington Jazz Club is the perfect venue for Swing and Jazz. Cosy, intimate and redolent of good food, much booze a... [more]
Paul Robert-Houdin is generally credited with the invention of Son et lumière in 1952 when he projected images onto an h... [more]
Marijke Loosjes is a West Australian born artist. She works in the ephemeral area of performance art as well as the mor... [more]
In 1693, a minor poet and political figure, William Congreve, was recovering from an illness and to amuse himself and pa... [more]
Young girls or women disguising themselves as young boys or men is a plot device as old as plays themselves - just think... [more]
'Nostalgia ain't what it used to be' runs the old quip. But's not a light-hearted thing - first believed to be a disease... [more]
In 1968 a man, Donald Crowhurst, with little ocean sailing experience set off to sail around the world non-stop and sing... [more]
One of the prominent features of any arts festival is that it's an opportunity to try something new, to expand our ideas... [more]
One of the joys of the Perth Fringe World is finding unexpected gems such as The Beast and The Bride by new theatre comp... [more]
Josephine! is an example of just what power theatre can wield over our imagination.
Written and directed by Scott Mc... [more]
In an episode of The West Wing, President Jed Bartlett is decrying James Bond's choice of liquor: 'Shaken, not stirred. ... [more]
Nobody does simple, little, low-budget, movies like the British. Just think of the Ealing comedies, Hand in Hand, A... [more]
Edith 'Piaf', the Little Sparrow (born Edith Giovanna Gassion) is one of the world's icons. The French cabaret singer/s... [more]
One of the reasons Perth Fringe World is so great is that you can see all kinds of stand-up comedy - older, experienced ... [more]
Soup is a one act play devised by Deadly Entertainment and presented at Perth Fringe World.
The play is being produce... [more]
There is a genre of theatre and cinema based on the fragmented (usually dysfunctional) family being brought together by ... [more]
For some years, Sas Jacobs and Dave Glossop lived in suburbia and dreamed of having a sustainable farm. Then they bough... [more]
Michael Shafar is one of Australia's rising stars of comedy. He writes for The Project, hosts on TV and performs stand-... [more]
Adam Solis and Valentin Long are two Western Australian actor friends who have now re-located to Sydney.
As well as a... [more]
Most of the shows at the Perth Fringe World are for adults, some exclusively so, but a couple are mostly for children an... [more]
I have spoken elsewhere of my admiration for those who attempt stand-up comedy. It's not easy but can be hugely enterta... [more]
I love Perth's Fringe World. I love the vibrant, edge-of-the-world feel of it, the bustling, joyousness of it and, abov... [more]
Fremantle Prison is a building with dark and forbidding past, redolent with ghosts and misery.
So no better place cou... [more]
Sexual abuse, overt and covert, secretive and manipulative is much in the news these days and we men are gradually being... [more]
A one-person show is always an exercise in courage and fear. You are alone on the stage, just you and the audience, who... [more]
Any patron of last year's sell-out Perth fringe World cannot fail to recall La Soiree, that fabulous cocktail of circus,... [more]
Djuki Mala return to Perth following a sell-out Edinburgh Fringe season.
In 2007 Lionel Dulmanawuy was a member of a ... [more]
Peter Lyndon-James is a former ward of the state, a former career criminal and prison inmate, who in 2001 changed his li... [more]
New Ghosts is a local Perth theatre company that has met with considerable success over east and has now returned home t... [more]
Author Kailash Satyarthi said: "Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child's eye - it is very beautifu... [more]
You would have had to be living on Mars these past few years not to be familiar with the old German folk fairy tale of B... [more]
Michael Shafar took the long way round to arrive at the gig as a comedy writer and stand-up comic. He grew up in Caulfi... [more]
We all remember Charlotte's Web from our childhood - E.B. White's charming book about Wilbur the Pig and his good friend... [more]
Quick quiz - what runs from 26 January to 25 February 2018, features more than 750 events at 130 venues all over the Per... [more]
In Europe many smaller shops have a double function, so a perfectly ordinary hat shop for seven months of the year might... [more]
I don't what it is about the West's fascination with Hamburgers, after all, there's nothing very special about the conce... [more]
When Michael Bond created Paddington, the Peruvian, marmalade sandwich-eating bear in 1958 I very much doubt that he wou... [more]
Any trip to Scotland by a foodie must of necessity include some form of haggis and 'a supper'.
On our recent trip th... [more]
When I was a young lad at school on returning from a break, we would be required to write an essay on the topic of 'What... [more]
Charles Dickens was, in the pre-movie era, a superstar in the Victorian world. His public speeches were mobbed, his lec... [more]
Bernard Cornwell is best known as the author of the Richard Sharpe series of Napoleonic novels, but is much, much more t... [more]
Increasingly the High Tea, epitome of Edwardian elegance and style, is increasing in popularity and more and more venues... [more]
If you love vintage, retro, antique, flea markets, shabby chic and just plain quirky, I expect you already know about An... [more]
The last offering for 2017 from the Black Swan Theatre Company is an adaptation by Jack Thorne of Swedish novelist John ... [more]
For its final concert of the year, on Sunday 26 November, Swan Harmony Singers has a program ranging from Scottish folk ... [more]
Cocky's Crossing is a rollicking musical by prominent local musician and playwright Max Harvey, a long-time supporter of... [more]
Few children's writers have the background of Squadron Leader Roald Dahl. A wartime flying ace and spy for the British,... [more]
Lucky is the last film of acclaimed actor Harry Dean Stanton who died this September at the age of 91.
Stanton wa... [more]
If you are a fan of the horror film genre then you will know of the Saw franchise created by James Wan and Leigh Whannel... [more]