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Shockingly good like a Shakespearean Tragedy.

“Guards at the Taj” is theatre at its most dramatic. Blood-chilling. Disturbing. Thought-provoking. Makes you look at – and think about – the beautiful Taj Mahal in a new light. Not picture  postcard perfect, but with a dreadful past.

The Straits Times described it as an “arresting, brutally funny production”. https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/theatre-review-guards-at-the-taj-is-an-arresting-brutally-funny-production

The Chicago Tribute described it as an “audacious black comedy”. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/reviews/ct-ent-guards-taj-steppenwolf-review-0613-story.html

To me, it was certainly dark and foreboding. But more like a Shakespearean tragedy than comedy.

Yes, there were some lines that drew laughs from the audience on the night I saw it. And you must give full credit to the Singapore Repertory Theatre for brilliant production and staging – lighting, music, the lot.

Watching the two incredibly talented actors –  Ghafir Akbar and Jay Saighal – tell the story/myth of the Taj Mahal “that nothing so beautiful shall ever be built again”, I couldn’t help thinking that playwright Rajiv Joseph has certainly gone to Shakespearean lengths to dramatically deal with deadly themes.

And as it focuses on two guys at the margins, I could not help but agree with the Chicago Tribute critic Chris Jones, who said “Guards at the Taj” was in the tradition of Vladimir and Estragon of “Waiting for Godot,” or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in “Hamlet.”

As I watched two skilled actors on stage non-stop for ninety minutes, I also got to thinking of Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”.

But back to the plot and play of the hour. Directed by Jo Kukathas, “Guards at the Taj” is a prime example of the bravado, passion and professionalism of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT).  SRT takes risks. SRT gives Singapore the best in theatre from around the world. SRT should adopt the mantra “Think Global, ACT local”.

“Guards at the Taj” runs until Saturday 1 December. Shockingly good! There’s more here:

http://www.srt.com.sg/show/guardsatthetaj/

 

 

 

Article by Ken Hickson providing a comprehensive overview of existing and planned renewable energy investments in ASEANRenewable Energy Advances in Southeast Asia

By Ken Hickson, Managing Editor of The Avenue for CreativeArts

What can be done to foster and encourage access to the arts in Singapore?

In looking at the State of the Arts, we can see vast improvements over the last 30-plus years.

There’s a wide variety of arts practiced and performed. Arts education is thriving, with world class institutions like LaSalle College of the Arts doing more than its share to produce and encourage the practice of art in all its forms.

We cannot measure the State of the Arts just by attendance figures. Look at the productions by small theatre companies. Look at the profusion of local art galleries. Look at the art awards and art competitions which abound. See the foreign shows and value the local productions.

Festivals of an international standard are good at bringing in visitors to Singapore as well as catering to a hungry local population.

See what’s in store at the Singapore Writers Festival for example. Read what Ong Sor Fern had to say in Straits Times recently.

No need for any apologies about the arts in Singapore.

The arts are alive and well.

See this Postscript and more in the latest issue of The Avenue for Creative Arts

The Art of IP: Every day women come up with game-changing inventions and life-enhancing creations that transform lives and advance human understanding. In the creative sphere, whether in the movies, animation, music, fashion, design, sculpture, dance, literature, art and more, women are re-imagining culture, testing the limits of artistry and creative expression, drawing us into new worlds of experience and understanding. This was emphasised on World Intellectual Property Day in Singapore and around the world. Read more about the work of the World Intellectual Property Organisation and this year’s theme Women in Innovation and Creativity, captured in depth in the WIPO Magazine .

Diamonds are Forever

By Nilanjana Roy

in FT Weekend

In January, exactly 150 years ago, the first instalment of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone was published. It came out in All The Year Round — “A Weekly Journal Conducted By Charles Dickens” — and was well received by readers, who gladly paid 2d to read the latest book “by the author of The Woman in White”, along with the other delights of Dickens’ popular journal.

One of Collins’ characters neatly summarises the plot: “Here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond — bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man.”

It was held for many years that The Moonstone was the first true detective novel. The poet TS Eliot, whose literary tastes were eclectic, was a champion of detective novels, and The Moonstone in particular. He endorsed it with the kind of praise that makes publicists salivate: “The first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels . . . ”

His high opinion of the novel was echoed by the detective fiction writer Dorothy L Sayers, who wrote in her 1944 foreword: “The Moonstone is impeccable . . . What has happened, in fact, is that The Moonstone set the standard, and that it has taken us all this time to recognise it.” They had a point: The Moonstone introduced both an amateur detective and a trained police investigator, pulled off a country-house mystery, and laid a perfect trail of clues and red herrings.

Purists argue that Collins was not really the first to write a full-length detective novel in English, and technically they are correct — Charles Felix published The Notting Hill Mystery in serial form in 1862, but it never exercised the outsize influence that The Moonstone had on subsequent generations of crime fiction writers.

It begins on a rousing note of exotic adventure. “I address these lines — written in India — to my relatives in England,” says the narrator. He is a soldier whose account of the storming of Seringapatam in 1799 explains the history of the diamond known as the Moonstone, stolen after an act of murder witnessed by his cousin.

There is a curse on the jewel, and legend has it that three guardian Hindu priests, whose successors keep a patient eye on the travels of the Moonstone down the centuries, biding their time until it can be restored to its rightful place, adorn the head of a statue of the god Vishnu.

When the Moonstone is bequeathed to Miss Rachel Verinder in 1848, the three Indian descendants see an opportunity to steal the diamond back. Collins apparently wrote the first part with a kitten “galloping over” his shoulders, and the rest of the book in distress — his mother was dying, he was crippled by rheumatic gout, taking high doses of laudanum to combat the pain.

A key character in the novel, Ezra Jennings, probably bi-racial, with “piebald” hair, is an opium user and references Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Parts of The Moonstone have a heightened, nightmarish quality that feels curiously modern. Collins had in mind two famous existing diamonds — the Koh-i-Noor, and also the Orlov diamond.

The latter is supposed to have been stolen in about 1747 by a French soldier who deserted, professed to have converted to Hinduism, and plucked the diamond out from the eye of a deity in the Srirangam temple. Given the heated passions of the post-1857 decade, Collins’ depiction of Indians, and the British in India, is surprisingly even-handed.

He includes a long passage on the looting and excesses of the British army, and while his three enigmatic “Hindoos” are suitably exotic, their mission is presented with sympathy. Eliot complained that The Moonstone had “led to a great deal of bogus Indianism, fakirs and swamis” in crime fiction, but noted, “Collins’ Indians are intelligent and resourceful human beings with perfectly legitimate and comprehensible motives”.

Despite long digressions, slow build-ups and occasional melodramatic flourishes, The Moonstone was nevertheless ahead of its time. Collins presented a country house from the point of view of its staff, who paint an unflattering portrait of the gentry, and he anticipated the troubled politics of colonial cultural artefacts, the question of whether property belonged to the looters or the looted.

In the final section, the “Yellow Diamond” gleams once again in the forehead of the deity. As the narrator writes: “After the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began . . . You have lost sight of it in England, and . . . you have lost sight of it forever.”

The Moonstone feels surprisingly contemporary, both in its Indian sections, and in its disruptions and invasions of an imaginary, idyllic, secure England.

Chef Margot Henderson on Wellington, New Zealand

Where to find great restaurants, fresh fish and chips and a delicious flat white

By Margot Henderson

Home is where the heart is, and Wellington has my heart — with its harbour, skies and hills, it’s just so beautiful. — My husband Fergus [founder of London’s St John] and I always plan our trip so that we fly into Wellington in time for lunch, and our first stop has to be Nikau Café (above), a superb restaurant attached to the City Gallery.

Lunch there is always a giddy moment, meeting up with family and friends to eat the most delicious food. Their kedgeree is a must — be sure to wash it down with some great New Zealand Pinot Noir.

The owners have also just opened a new restaurant in the Aro Valley called Rita, which has a fresh, bright feel. It’s a place where everyone makes you feel at home.

Moore Wilson’s on Tory Street is an Aladdin’s Cave for foodies. It’s a bit like a cash and carry, selling everything you could want for your kitchen or restaurant from utensils to fresh crayfish, whitebait and the best veg.

Wellingtonians take their coffee very seriously — the whole city oozes with roasteries and coffee machines. It’s all flat whites, smoothies, sourdough and avocado at the Seashore Cabaret, where tattooed darlings enjoy coffee and breakfast, looking out over the beautiful harbour.

You have to cross a busy road to get to it, but John’s Fish Market serves fantastically fresh fish and chips. Just choose a piece of fish and they’ll fry it right up for you. Make sure you get a potato fritter too.

The Petone suburb of Wellington is full of interesting food shops, from La Bella Italia (above), which serves good-quality Italian produce, to The Spice Rack, with its excellent range of fresh spices.

New Zealand-born Margot Henderson is co-founder of Rochelle Canteen, Rochelle ICA and Arnold & Henderson; arnoldandhenderson.com

We’re fans and regular readers of the Financial Times, London, particularly the wonderful FT Weekend.

The Singapore Writers Festival: Through the eyes and ears – and pen – of Alexandra Touchaud

Diversity and identity in a “very good” Writers Festival

Twenty years in the making: the Singapore Writers Festival seems to be turning on a bigger and brighter show each year.

Whilst Singapore is often criticised for not supporting the arts, this year’s anniversary edition was a real celebration of the increasing power and relevance of the written word in our Little Red Dot.

The success of the two-week festival came from the combination of a diverse line-up of speakers and well attended sessions.

Whilst many participants were attracted by the line-up of top international writers (including poets Li-Young Lee and Simon Armitage, and writers Junot Diaz, Edouard Louis and Tash Aw) equally many were lured by our own home-grown talent (veteran poets Anne Lee Tzu Pheng and Edwin Thumboo, writers Catherine Lim, Meira Chand and Shamini Flint, and playwright Haresh Sharma amongst others).

Many events were packed. It was dramatic to see the hallowed Chamber Hall at the Art House stuffed full of plastic fold-out chairs, and standing-room-only crowds squeezing into the back of many sessions. There was the usual crowd of art aficionados and aspiring writers, but also an increasing mix of students, curious passers-by, and fans who’d come to see a favourite author and ended up popping in to other discussions and finding new interests there.

The ancient Tamil word ‘Aram’ was the theme this year. A word that invites us to contemplate what it means to be good: to explore the universal meaning behind doing good, living ethically, exploring ideas on what constitutes a good life, and how we go about building a good society. It was a powerful theme and led to a huge array of related panels and debates between the 340 creatives on the programme.

Origins and Identities

One of the stand-out panels was entitled ‘The Responsibilities of Origins and Identities,’ with poet Li-Young Lee and novelists Lydia Kwa and Xu Xi.

Though all three are ethnically Chinese their identities are markedly diverse – born in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong respectively they’ve all moved and taken on different languages, passports and cultures in the course of their lives. So how do they identify themselves?

Li-Young gave a suitably poetic response. In his lilting honey & treacle voice he talked of a certain restlessness of the spirit, how he doesn’t really feel ‘at home’ anywhere, in any place, in any time period, even in his own body.

The audience seemed to lean in, curiously discombobulated, yet empathising – is this something many of us travellers in the world can relate to? He continued with a quiet intensity explaining his belief that we all have a composite nature and a primal one. He suggested that we’re made up like a jigsaw of our family history, our gender, race, and humanity; and through these pieces we project our differences – but also our sameness. Yet like Odysseus, we’re trying to get home – home to our primal selves. For Li-Young the very practise of art, or writing his poetry, is the door through which to access this primal self.

The fabulous and feisty, mediator (and crime novelist) Shamini Flint interjected, “I don’t feel comfortable anywhere. I feel like a fraud. I don’t belong.” A powerful confession that resonated around the Chamber and was picked up by a nodding Xu Xi. “All of us have multiple origins and identities – how and why do we need to be loyal to any one of them?”

Rather than looking for external societal confirmation, is the very idea of identity not born of private reflection? For her the concept of ‘home’ shared a dual meaning – an emotional as well as a physical place. Like Shamini, she had always felt “like an outsider, but art and writing became my escape: I feel at home in my fiction.”

Xu Xi explored the idea that concepts of identity and home can also evolve over time, “Age makes a difference, ‘home’ becomes more important – because I ask myself: where do I want to die?” For Xu Xi the answer to that haunting question had been answered: “In the woods.” She has found a place in the US (not too far from the ocean that reminders her of her childhood in Hong Kong), a quiet place in a forest where she plans to build her home.

Lydia Kwa has also faced challenges in identifying just who she is and what home means.  “My identity was unexamined – until I lost it,” she explained how leaving majority-Chinese Singapore and moving to Canada made her suddenly realise she was different and caused her to question who she really was. “I was forced to find ‘home,’ then slowly realised that this was not an external place but an internal one: the only place that is unconditionally accepting is within. I am home.”

The audience and other panellists fell silent. A powerful truth.

Shamini tried to turn the conversation to the idea of ‘responsibility’ – the obligation that comes with identity but the panelists seemed unconvinced. The idea of responsibility has very strong Asian overtones – where life can often be seen as a series of obligations.

Lydia Kwa explained the dominant narrative of her youth was filial piety, but it was also overlaid with ‘commonwealth traits’ where it was aspirational to speak English and take on Western ways. She found this paradox “unhelpful and limiting.”  She mused “is an origin a rupture – like a birth?” She felt under pressure to confer to the dominant social structures – are we accountable, do we owe the state, or are we (as writers) responsible to a higher sense of value?” She posed the question, but no-one responded – maybe the earlier discussion on identity (“I am home”) had already provided the philosophical answer.

The responsibility of identity and origins is the writer’s own internal exploration of authenticity as they go about finding out who they are and where they belong.

Sons and Daughters

One doesn’t naturally associate comedy with writers’ festivals but one of the most surprising and well received events in the line-up was the ‘Sons of Singapore. Daughter of Singapore’ stand-up comedy.

The beautiful, foul-mouthed hostess, Sharul Channa, set the tone with her boast that “comedy is now a ‘proper’ art form” – being centre stage at such a highbrow literary festival. She’s magnetic on the stage; looking sweet and demure one moment in her full length gown, before yanking it up and flamboyantly swashing around the stage riling and reeving up the audience.

Her warm-up also set the tone for the three comics to come – clearly nothing was to be off limits. In fact everything that nettles and festers, rankles and chaffs, all the Singaporean cultural quirks and political angst were dragged out of dark corners and held up in a blinding spotlight for teasing and ridicule, ribbing and taunting.

At first the laughter was really nervous chuckling masked by waves of polite coughing – the audience seemed to find it all a bit shocking (was the Singaporean cultural censorship police going to suddenly leap out like Ghostbusters to obliterate the feisty free speech?); but the almost guilty giggles of the audience quickly morphed into chortling, then full blown laughing and belly clutching hooting.

With a fabulous sense of irony the emphatically politically correct lineup (an ethnically Indian female hostess, with Chinese, Indian and Malay male counterparts) held court with a most politically incorrect show. Jinx Yeo was perfect to start as he was probably the tamest in his delivery – sticking very much to the (hilarious) differences between the Chinese / Malay and Indian approaches to life in Singapore. Fakkah Fuzz upped the ante – luring the audience along with increasingly risqué jokes.

He has tremendous good fun on stage and has the audience in the proverbial palm of his hand as he bounds around the set, laughing and cheering at his own jokes, thumping his thighs and clapping his hands in contagious hilarity. He’s a master of self-depreciation to comic effect.

To the audience’s delight his jokes would snowball to take the mickey out of himself and then everyone else – but especially his own Malay people. The audience was filled with Tudung covered heads bobbing in laughter as he often broke into Malay – it’s curious, looking back, that despite few in the audience being able to understand his words they were clearly so funny that the rest of the crowd joined the applause equally enthusiastically.

Rishi Budhrani like the others before him picked up on the recent report in The Straits Times headlined, “Most Singaporeans prefer children and grandchildren to date Chinese and Caucasians in inter-cultural romance.” The comic material in the article was obvious and brilliantly brought to life on stage.

After the show there was a brief dialogue about the craft of comedy writing – with audience questions. It fell a little flat – as the mood shifted and the audience tried to suddenly be all sensible and grown up again after the silliness of the first part. But the comments were pointed – it is so refreshing to laugh at ourselves. The comics agreed that audiences internationally are often more comfortable with boundaries being pushed far further. In Singapore, where stand-up is still in its infancy, audiences are a little more cautious, and so too are the comics who take the attitude ‘you go as far as you can – till you get fined!”

If the audience reception is anything to go by comedy will become increasingly popular here. They discussed that they are not in any way challenging the government, just acknowledging that with much frustration here – comedy can help “release the tensions”. In reality, they seem to stick to pretty innocent material, pushing boundaries are far as they can, often sticking to stories and jokes based on cultural and ethnic truisms. The aim of their satire isn’t political, they’re clearly just having a rollicking good time – and the same could be said for the audience!

 

More from and about Alexandra here:
www.AlexandraTouchaud.com

 

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM KEN HICKSONTHE HICKSON TEAM – A COMMUNICATION FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH – IS BACK. 

Established in Singapore in October 2017 – where Ken Hickson first started his communications consulting work 34 years ago to the month for Singapore Airlines – THE HICKSON TEAM is focussing on being the best editorial content provider for business and for media.

Not a PR business per se, as the Team is keen to supplement and support PR/Communications practitioners (corporate and consultants) by giving them what they are often lacking in time and talent to provide themselves.

We have a team of writers with expertise and experience in every sector imaginable.

We say we cover the Asia Pacific, but really the world is our oyster!

We start with a strong focus on what makes up the acronym TEAM – Travel, Education, Arts and Media – but already we find ourselves being asked to produce and curate content for other important sectors, including e-commerce, property, pharmaceutical, animal welfare, hospitality and the food industry.

We will continue to produce the two online magazines we are well-known for: The Avenue for Creative Arts and ABC Carbon Express (now in tenth year).

You will continue to find The Avenue content here – www.fifthavenue.asia –  along with all past issues and additional articles since we started in early 2015.

ABC Carbon Express will continue as a “mostly monthly mail-out” and most of its past content is accessible on one of our other sites: www.abccarbon.express.

Where appropriate, content produced by HICKSON and co. for a diverse range of organisations, could well find its way into one or both of our own media outlets.

We are also finding ourselves as contributors to a wide range of other online, print, broadcast and social media.

In recent years we have had articles appearing in all sorts of media, including Eco-Business, Blue and Green Tomorrow, ANZA Magazine, Access Asia, Gaia Discovery, Foreign Investors on India, Journal of Communication Management, Social Space, Petroleum Review, Ana Shell Media, e2 Singapore, CEI Asia, among others.

We are also extremely active in and through dozens of groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Expect more. With our depth of media experience in-house and on-tap, we have already offered – or been asked – to provide content for a number of magazines.

As content providers, our work doesn’t start and end with the written word. This year – and previously –  we have worked with video producers, photographers, artists, designers and producers. We expect more to come.

A few months ago, it was announced on this site, that “By popular demand – or at least from one or two requests! – Ken Hickson has started to provide a service to the arts, artists, writers, arts organisations, publishers, galleries and arts events.”

What started then has now morphed into THE HICKSON TEAM. A creative content agency. Based in Singapore but serving the region and the world. A collective of creative expertise.

We are in the process of getting ourselves established with our own brand identity, our own website, emails, business cards etc. We are registered as a business entity in Singapore as THE HICKSON TEAM PTE LTD, with a registered office in Tanglin Mall and a bank account with UOB.

We haven’t forsaken our interest and commitment to sustainability and its four E’s: Environment, Energy, Economy and Ethics, as set out in the book “Race for Sustainability” and as practiced by the Singapore-based consultancy Sustain Ability Showcase Asia (SASA), which started seven years ago.

That continues under Ken Hickson’s chairmanship and management, but expect to see some developments there and the influx of even more “energetic and effective expertise”. The website www.sustain-ability-showcase.com continues to showcase its work, its output and its people.

Email: ken@fifthavenue.asia

kenhickson@abccarbon.com

A LITTLE BIT OF HICKSON HISTORY:

While Ken Hickson’s communications industry career began in Wellington, New Zealand in 1962, as a cadet journalist with the afternoon metropolitan daily newspaper, the Evening Post, he has worked in, and with, all sections of the media since.

Besides the country’s capital city, he has been based in Hamilton, Auckland and Christchurch, reporting for radio and television, editing magazines and contributing a collection of newspaper titles.

He also made his mark in public relations in Wellington, working for the CORSO-Freedom from Hunger Campaign and in Hamilton for the Waikato Public Relations Foundation.

In Auckland, he worked in house for Air New Zealand, he ran the PR department for one of the country’s largest advertising agencies, and then set up his own consultancy – his clients included the Australian Tourist Commission, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and Kaiser Stuhl (wine) – before he joined forces with a PR veteran to form Cleal and Hickson.

In Christchurch, it was mostly media. At TVNZ, he worked in news and current affairs, as well as enjoyed three years on the Science Express programme, which included a month-long assignment reporting on research in the Antarctic. He somehow managed to find time in Christchurch to be the founding editor of two magazines – Topic Air and Villa – and produce two books, “Flight 901 to Erebus” and “The Future South”.

His first Singapore sojourn started in October 1983 and lasted until the end of 2000. After his important public affairs work for Singapore Airlines, he established a PR consultancy in mid 1986 with Ian Batey to take on an international contract for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board.

That became Hickson Public Relations and garnered a team of local and foreign talent to manage work for clients like BMW, DHL, Canon Sime Darby, Jardine Matheson and Cold Storage. It wasn’t long before its influence spread throughout Asia Pacific, through establishing and managing a network of independent agencies in 15 countries.

In mid 1996, the world’s largest independent PR firm, Fleishman Hillard, swooped on the ten-year-old Hickson PR to acquire the business. Ken agreed to stay on to manage the business until the end of 2000, helping FH expand its client base and presence from one to ten offices throughout Asia Pacific.

During his ten years in Queensland, Australia – from end 2000 to October 2010 – Ken lectured in communication studies at the University of Sunshine Coast, where he was made Associate Professor Adjunct and started Australia’s  first undergraduate course on “International Communication”.

He undertook assignments for a couple of Brisbane-based consultancies, then established ABC Carbon in mid 2007 as an advisory firm, before he started work on his encyclopaedic work “The ABC of Carbon” (published 2009) and abc carbon express, which began as a weekly e-newsletter in March 2008.

His sustainability showcase started in Brisbane in 2010 when the Minister of Climate Change and Sustainability for the Queensland Government, Kate Jones, asked him to bring together a collection of firms, organisations and individuals involved in the “sustainability sector” for a one-day exhibition and forum at Parliament House.

Around the same time, he worked with the University of Sydney’s Workplace Research Centre and the National University of Singapore’s Office of Environmental Sustainability to stage the first National Sustainability Conference in Singapore in July 2010. He was one of the keynote speakers and his book “The ABC of Carbon” was provided to all delegates.

Two months later, in September 2010, he established the sustainability consultancy SASA in Singapore and returned to his favourite tropical city full-time by the end of October.

The rest is history!

18 October 2017

 

kenhickson@sustain-ability-showcase.com 

 

 

Galleries Galore with Glorious Art – It’s not enough that Singapore’s National Gallery has just finished with its record-breaking crowd-pleasing exhibition of the eye-catching works of Yayoi Kusama. They’ve just announced that the best of Musee D’Orsay – the exhibition entitled Colours of Impressionism – is coming in November. Meanwhile, Gillman Barracks just marked five years as a new/old centre for the arts with galleries like Sundaram Tagore showing why they’re still on top. Opera Gallery not only displayed the best of Spanish art hero Cabeza Dorada inside, but lined Orchard Road with some of his big sculptures too. (See above). Then Miaja Gallery gives us two “Faces of China, while Bruno Gallery gives the Singaporean father and son an art outing.

Best of British – Yes, we admit we have a British bias, and in spite of the impending Brexit, think highly of the art in situ and exported. The Art of Travel aficionado Dave Hickson draws our attention to Cornwall and the famous sculptures of Barbara Hepworth located in St Ives. He also visits the Victoria & Albert Museum in London – which is soon to have an off-shoot in Dundee, Scotland – as well as taking in the works of Henry Moore and the London Design Festival. What’s the British Council got coming up? How about the British Theatre Playhouse’s “Tea with the old Queen” at the British Club and The Stage Club’s staging of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Absurd Person Singular”? If you missed it, here’s the interview we did with that famous English scriptwriter Lord Julian Fellowes of “Downton Abbey” fame.

Writers in Festive Mood – It’s the love of Irish writers which puts them on centre stage at this year’s Singapore Writers Festival, which runs from 3 to 12 November, even though the theme is decidedly Asian – Indian Tamil in fact – with the word “Aram”. Read what Helmi Yusof says about it in the Business Times. Expect a host of Irish and Indian writers, but beyond Singapore’s shores, there are also wordsmiths coming along from China, UK, France, US, Australia and New Zealand. Meantime, there are literary events of note elsewhere. In the UK – Cheltenham Literature Festival 6-15 October; in Bali, Indonesia – Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 25-29 October; in Canada – Vancouver Writers Festival 17 to 22 October; plus Hong Kong comes up with its international literary writers showcase same time as Singapore.

For more of The Avenue go to the latest issue!