Cerys Matthews

I spent a magical weekend in Orkney with BBC Radio 6 Music and Orkney library. My radio show was broadcast live from the library as part of the BBC #lovetoread initiative. I was joined by Ann Cleeves, a huge supporter of libraries and Orkney regular, and local folklore expert Tom Muir. You can listen to the show here :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081z0vk

There was even time to take in the stunning views and have a run round the ‘Ring of Brodgar’ – a Neolithic henge and stone circle.

Huge thanks to those that made the trip possible and to all those I met.

I took my three youngest – Glen 13,  John 11 and Red 6 – to the Royal Albert Hall in October half term to see ‘My Great Orchestral Adventure’.

It was a brand new show premiered at the Royal Albert Hall taking children on a magical journey to find a supernatural baton, a concert in which they can vote on what happens next, whilst taking in everything from Mozart to Mahler to The Muppets.

The show was compèred by Tom Redmond alongside his brother Timothy who conducted the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

I totally recommend going if it’s revisited : basically a mass sing along and live performance with real (well…) bears of  Michael Rosen’s ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.

By the way, Michael Rosen is our special guest next year at The Good Life Experience Festival. He isn’t doing  so many live performances anymore so get your tickets quick….

https://www.thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk/buy-tickets/

……you won’t regret it!

Earlier this year we went to a fundraiser for the LGBT charity Stonewall. Stonewall – acceptance without exception – was founded in 1989 and since then has been at the forefront of unprecedented social and legal advancement for LGB people living in Britain. In 2015 they extended their remit to campaign for trans equality. The British Army has once again proved its commitment to creating an inclusive workplace with its 32nd placing in the 2016 Stonewall Top 100 Employers workplace equality index, a climb of 14 places from last year.

I went head to head with other party goers in a bidding fight to secure the prize of spending a day with the British Army on Salisbury Plain; and a promise to drive around in a tank. So I went high and won the auction prize.

It was worth every penny, not just for the charity, but watching my family learn more about the roles of the different regiments. From the Engineers to the Intelligence Corps, we met divers, dog handlers, land mine clearers, cooks, lancers and riflemen. We felt the power of  fire arms on the rifle range and then watched an astonishing display which included Mastiffs, Apache helicopters and a flyover by a Vulcan aeroplane. Huge explosions warmed our faces, despite exploding hundreds of metres away, and filled the air with dust like black snow..

All our thanks go to those who made it possible : Stonewall and all at the Army: Captain Henry Thomson, Major General Patrick Sanders, Iron Division and everyone we met that unforgettable day..

The second of two lectures I attended this week took place at Imperial College London …Stephen Hawking on his Black Hole theory. A terrific lecture and the icing on the cake was being invited to dine with this eminent scientist and many of his Imperial College colleagues.

Conversation veered from worms to Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan (never enough Dylan) and Blind Willie Mc Tell. It was also lovely to meet Tamara Rojo from the English National Ballet and, as ever, be welcomed so graciously by Devika Mokhtarzadeh, Susanna Warren and all the team at the Arts Club, Dover Street.

We were celebrating with Stephen as he was presented with their very first Luminary Lifetime Membership Award there.

The Arts Club was founded in 1863 and in the course of its existence the Club has included amongst its members many outstanding figures in the history of art, literature and science: writers such as Charles Dickens and Thomas Hughes, musicians such as Paolo Tosti, and Franz Liszt as well as an array of pre-eminent surgeons, solicitors and professionals.

And for dinner? …..delicious prawns, fizz and plenty of chocolate cake! …..which came in handy for the next task of the week…….

It was a pleasure Meeting President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, at the TUC, London on Friday 14th October 2016.

He was giving a lecture on Eva Gore-Booth the committed suffragist, social worker, labour activist and sister of Countess Markievicz, who herself was a suffragette taking part in the 1916 Easter Rising and 2 years later becoming the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat.

It was totally inspiring hearing about Eva and afterwards I was introduced to the Irish President himself –  and gave this exceptional and inspiring academic leader a big hug!

My thanks to the Irish Ambassador, Dan Mulhall, and his wife, Greta, for inviting us along to this mighty celebration.

Dan and Greta were guests of ours at the Good Life Experience 2016 and, being a passionate exponent of poetry, Ambassador Dan gave thrilled festival goers a talk on poet WB Yeats on his 150th anniversary in 2015. He then ended his festival visit in an unforgettably swashbuckling way by leading us through some of the greatest songs in the Irish repertoire, and there are many !!

An inspirational week that wasn’t over yet because, just a few days later, Mister and I were at another lecture…