LeftLion February 2022 Issue 144

Photo Credit: Emma Fo

Alan Gilby Al=MC² alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk

Ashley Carter Editor ashley.carter@leftlion.co.uk

Jared Wilson

Editor-in-Chief jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk

George White Assistant Editor george.white@leftlion.co.uk

Natalie Owen Head Designer natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk

Adam Pickering Partnerships Manager adam.pickering@leftlion.co.uk

Lizzy O’Riordan Editorial Assistant lizzy.oriordan@leftlion.co.uk

Fiona Carr Design Assistant fiona.carr@leftlion.co.uk

Tom Errington Web Developer tom.errington@leftlion.co.uk

Curtis Powell Head of Video and Photography curtis.powell@leftlion.co.uk

Kelly Palfrey Art Co-Editor kelly.palfrey@leftlion.co.uk

Ekam Hundal Creative Digital Assistant ekam.hundal@leftlion.co.uk

Alex Stubbs Art Co-Editor alex.stubbs@leftlion.co.uk

Katie Lyle Music Editor katie.lyle@leftlion.co.uk

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Rebecca Buck Stage Co-Editor rebecca.buck@leftlion.co.uk

Daniela Loffreda

Food Editor food@leftlion.co.uk

Cover Fiona Carr

Sub-Editor

Lauren Carter-Cooke

Writers Dani Bacon

Bassey Matthew Benton-Smith

Jason Edgar LoveCeCe

Sam Nahirny

Julian Onions

Georgianna Scurfield

Emelia Turner

Dom Henry Stage Co-Editor dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk

Jamie Morris Screen Co-Editor jamie.morris@leftlion.co.uk

Tom Quigley Photography Co-Editor tom.quigley@leftlion.co.uk

Fabrice Gagos Photography Co-Editor fabrice.gagos@leftlion.co.uk

Yasmin Turner Nadia Whittome

Photographers

Alice Ashley Dani Bacon

Paul Bailey Hannah Cattell

Norm Foreman Wilson Lou

Alex McElroy

William Morris

Andy Peat

Matthew Petley Ethan Raddon

Georgiana Scurfield

Illustrators

Sophia Bensalem

Pete Gray

Chloe Henson Kasia Kozakiewicz

Tracey Meek

Isobel Miller Andre Santana

Kate Sharp Emmy Smith

Editorial Illustrations

Emily Catherine

Featured Contributor

Alice Ashley Nottingham local and mature NTU student Alice Ashley is a bohemian clothing entrepreneur and freelance photographer. With her own independent business, @Lunaryelle, and her exhibition of photographs in the new Broadmarsh Tunnel (Rebels & Pioneers collaboration with F.F.W.I.H), Alice is already establishing herself in the Notts community. This whirlwind creative is also a writer and lover of poetry. In her spare time, she’s always adventuring outdoors, being creative or spending time with her favourite people.

You can see Alice’s My Photo Moment on page 24

In His Element

The man, the myth, the hair. We catch up with Notts science icon Martyn Poliakoff CBE to talk sci-fi movies, trams and still going at 74

Citizen Science

Ahead of the Curve

We’re just about as sick of it as you are, but we’re still going to celebrate the part Nottingham played in curbing COVID

An Anatomist in Notts

You know the drill. We find a Notts resident with a weird or unusual job and get them to give us the lowdown on what it’s really like

Under the Microscope

We talk to Maria Augusta Arruda and Sarah Sleigh about Excel in Science - the programme pushing for greater diversity in the field

Hind’s Sight

Born the son of lace manufacturers, Nottingham’s John Russell Hind blazed a trail in astronomy and asteroid discovery

It's Notts Rocket Science

From ibuprofen and running water to traffic lights and the MRI scanner, these scientific breakthroughs happened right here in Notts

Legend of the Game

We pay tribute to Colin Slater MBE, the BBC Radio Nottingham presenter who spent over six decades reporting on Notts County

Whatever Pickles Your Fancy

What do an anonymous letter, a mysterious society and a jar of pickles have in common? To be honest, we’re not sure either

Green Innovators

We look at four Nottingham bright sparks who are putting their minds to creating innovative methods of protecting the planet

Fleshing Things Out

We chat to Clelia McElroy about Monstrous Flesh: Women's Bodies in Horror, the film course exploring horror through a feminist lens

Witness to History

Emelia Turner reviews Eye as Witness and Fragments of Sudan, two VR exhibits shining a light on war photography at Lakeside Arts

Out of Time: Erasmus Darwin A polymath, doctor, abolitionist and women’s education advocate. Is Erasmus Darwin the greatest mind Nottingham produced?

LeftLion Magazine is fully recyclable and compostable. Our paper is recycled or made with FSC® certified (C015932) sources, and printed using renewable energy.

Festival of Science and Curiosity bigwig Helen Shore tells us what we can expect from the ten day celebration of all things science

Going Underground

Our mole on the ground isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to bring you the Notts stories you might have missed...

illustrations: Kate Sharp

"I follow loads of disabled cats on Instagram."

You’re Shired

Did you hear the one about a Notts firefighter who started a side-business selling Hobbit houses for £50,000 a pop? He lost an employment tribunal after requesting to work part time, claiming he was unfairly dismissed when his request to only work nights was rejected. Whoever recommended he take it to the courts was clearly Tolkien rubbish.

Altitude Adjustment

Wannabe pilots are able to get a taste of sky-life after Newark College unveiled their new £35,000 flight simulator. Students will get a feel for the cockpit in the relative safety of the machine, which provides the opportunity to virtually take off and land at East Midlands airport. I tried to think of a good zinger about being ‘grounded’ to round this one off but I’ve got nothing.

Every Little Helper

Ah, this one was a real heart-warmer. Four-yearold Hucknall girl Brooke Goacher was so obsessed with Tesco that they made her a little uniform and invited her to the Carlton store, where she was let loose on her own till decorated with her name in sequins. “I blame the parents,” said one miserable, joyless bastard in the comments.

Spotted in Carlton

Hi looking for some who does manhole repairs

Spotted in Carlton

I passed a window cleaner on valley road the other day who actually goes up the ladder to clean and doesn’t use a pole! He said he would pop a card through my door but hasn’t.

Spotted in Netherfield

Would anyone like some male guppy fish as there is to many in my tank as I don’t want anymore babies

Spotted: Long Eaton

I’ve got a dead pigeon in my garden, fully intact so it’s not been killed by a cat or anything. What’s the chances I could be at risk from bird flu if I dispose of it?! Can pigeons get bird flu?

Spotted: Hucknall 2 bags of cars, trucks, airplanes and motorbike

Sneinton

Why can’t I comment but am a member ??

Spotted Eastwood

Hi all please don't take Mick but I'm popular on Instagram and my fans keep advising me to make only fans account now the problem is I've got one but I don't know how to use it properly does anyone in the Eastwood area have one and would be able to help me understand how to use it properly thank you

Spotted in Carlton

Best puppy training in Carlton

Sneinton

Hey all. Looking for a good dog walker in sunny Sneinton for this chap a couple of times a week.. Woof

Spotted: Long Eaton

If your going Maccys just eat meat simples, obviously don’t give a shite what’s going in your stomach

"What type of car have you got now?" "It's a red one." "Oh "Yeah."cool." Nine-year-old kid: "Did you know, on the dark web, you can get a real Death Note that *whispering* actually kills people?"

Man in van watching two young women walk past at traffic lights: "Oh god! Two beauties… mmm." Woman shouting back to van man: "Oh god! Creepy old man!"

"I’ve spent more on buses today than I have on rent." "No you haven’t you twat."

"When it’s as cold as this, and I do a big ol’ hefty fart, I wonder if people can see the hot air coming out my bum."

"Woman came in with a knife poking out of her belly." "Like, suicide?" "It was more than an itch."

"I can pay you back in a few weeks, is that alright… It's for my tattoo!" - Visibly stressed-out woman on phone

Daughter: You could get a hot tub and sit in the garden looking at all your Buddha heads. Mum: Oh yeah that'd be lovely.

Daughter: I don't know why you've got so many, you're not even Buddhist.

"I’m tellin’ you fam, that light skinned girl had her hands all over my chips like a raccoon. Disgustin’."

Young lads by Matalan: "It's a total waste of time. Been watching him do wheelies for half an hour."

Spotted: Long Eaton

Any charity shops or food banks that take toiletries and bath bombs etc and where to drop off? I think people where trying to say I smelt this Christmas as ended up with a lorry load! Thanks

Woodborough Village

I just wondered if anyone has any babies (dolls obviously) and clothes for them that they no longer want

Spotted: Long Eaton

Have you ever considered playing bowls. As you all no doubt know the game of bowls is considered by most people as an old peoples game. However this perception is not correct, bowls is a young persons game that can be played by older people

Spotted Breaston

Door to door salesman in Breaston. Intimidating if you say no. Beware

City sTYLIN’

at the Cattle Market

interview and photo: Georgianna Scurfield

I came to the market for the first time when we moved to Nottingham in around 2004. The first thing we wanted to do was go around all the markets to see what was available around Nottingham. I’ve got a thing for markets, charity shops and that sort of thing.

You get more of a personal touch here and you come across people who have a personality. It doesn’t feel like a big corporate structure where you just come, spend your money and leave. You stop and you chat to people and they seem interested in you, they ask you questions and there are lots of duck and duckies. When I first came here everyone was calling me duck around the markets, like, why are they calling me duck? What’s that? But I noticed it was just like a term of endearment so it's got that warmth to it.

And it’s more than just a bargain, it's the whole experience. You come here for this sense of community, you come here to walk about, to look. Most of the times I’ve come here I haven’t bought anything, it's just to be out walking about and seeing people talking with each other and looking at things. And no two visits are the same, you always find something different.

Golesedi

SHOWER THOUGHTS

words: Dani Bacon illustration: Fiona Carr

Valentine’s Day

Up until about twenty years ago, we used to send anonymous cards out to all kinds of people that we knew. It was a good laugh, harmless fun and hopefully made a lot of people smile. I’m not sure why we stopped doing it. We’re both coggin’ on now so it was probably just too much effort. Maybe we'll start it back up again this year?

Pancake Day

We can’t abide pancakes. Some people say they eat ten or twelve on the day. How? They’re awful. We just used to have one each as children and that was more than enough. The only proper way to have them is a bit of sugar and lemon juice. But the American thing of smothering them in maple syrup is probably more popular these days.

Colin Slater

We heard the tribute on the BBC and had a bit of a tear in our eye. Our father worked with him for years at Notts and he always said he was a lovely fella. Our father tended to dislike more people than he liked, so if he said he was a good man then you’d better believe it. They don’t make them like him anymore.

Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...

Both possible answers for 'are we alone in the universe?' are equally terrifying

Pick Six

Song Dreams

I find songs come and go, and what I love this week begins to dwindle next week. From classical to rock, I'll try most things, although I don't get on with rap. Tell me to pick one though, and it would be Dreams by the CranberriesDelores’ vocal harmonies are just fantastic.

Film

The Matrix

Again, lots of great films out there, but I'm going to go with the original Matrix film. Such a game changer, and hugely entertaining for me. I enjoyed the two sequels too, which are less popular, and I'm still trying to get to see the new one. I'm awaiting Top Gun: Maverick as well...

Book

Red

This month we peel back the layers of University of Nottingham astrophysicist Dr Julian Onions to find out a few of his favourite things

Storm Rising

That's like saying which of my children is my favourite - that is if I had around about 1,000 children stacked on shelves! If I had to pick one, it would probably be Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. I've read it a number of times, including once in one sitting on a transatlantic flight. It is a little dated now, but I'm going to give it another read soon.

Notts Spot

The University of Nottingham Nottingham has some great spots, but I have to say I love the University. It is a great privilege to work there amongst its wonderful green spaces. A heady mix of open space and white hot technology.

Holiday

The

Mediterranean

I got into cruising over the last few years. I think cruising the Med has to be my favourite. Food and drink on tap, a chance to read uninterrupted, except for a refill of a cocktail, and a different ancient city or place to explore each new day (without repacking!).

Meal Cheesecake

There is almost no food I won't try. Well, ok, I draw the line at tripe, but everything else is fair game. A good roast, a Chinese or Indian. However, I do like baking and have worked my way through a poster of 100 different bakes, completing 85 so far. Actually, who am I kidding, it has to be cheesecake!

Pete Gray

illustration: Pete Gray

An Anatomist in Notts

I always absolutely loved anatomy, and knowing pathology makes it even more interesting because you can see how the body can go wrong in terms of its structure, and how this leads to disease. My first degree was in Anatomy, and I then went on to do a further study which specialised in pathology. I became an expert in using a microscope to understand normal body function and how it is disrupted in disease.

My role now involves leading anatomy teaching to medical students; they use anatomy teaching to understand how the body works in health and disease. The students are the thing I most enjoy about my job – they’re great, and we learn so much from each other. My job enables me to learn something new every single day. People think pathology means autopsy or ‘silent witness’ type forensic investigations. But actually, pathology is the study of disease, so diagnosing (from biopsies) and understanding what causes disease (and therefore how best to treat it) is very much associated with the living.

disease. I enjoy being creative about how to teach difficult concepts to students easily. It can be like learning a new language, so I try to make things as simple as possible. I use food analogies a lot! In my academic team, we have been devising new ways of making 3D online models for students to interact with – these zoom, rotate, and you can slice into them using augmented reality – so it’s lots of fun! Anatomy education has a really exciting future with augmented reality. We are hosting a conference in Nottingham for anatomy educators all over the country in December where loads of new approaches and ideas will be shared, so there is work to do in organising that.

The pandemic changed everything as soon as it started. The first medics to succumb to COVID were ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) surgeons because the surgery they do is close to where the virus is located. Operations were cancelled while safe alternatives were developed. We helped the team that do cochlear implant surgery to help restore hearing in deaf babies. Any delay in in the operation has a big impact on these children’s lives, so the surgeons wanted to get back to the operating theatre as quickly as possible. We helped the surgeons by allowing them to use our skulls to develop and practice a COVID-safe procedure. It felt really good to do something concrete at that time. Also, we really wanted to make sure we continued to teach students face to face so we developed new ways of teaching so we could do this safely. It really helped the students during lockdown, especially those that had just moved away from home, to see a friendly face and we all learnt a lot for the future.

There is a lot of variety in my job - no two days are the same and I love it that way. But on a ‘typical’ day, I start by checking in with my technical and admin teams. They are the key to the smooth running of our facility. It’s quite a high-tech environment, like a very large operating theatre, and it is very highly regulated (by the Human Tissue Authority). The high level of regulation means that there is a lot of responsibility to ensure compliance. I really enjoy this aspect of the job. Our students are very lucky to be able to learn anatomy using real human bodies because of the generous and selfless bequest of our registered donors for medical education. Today I have been preparing teaching sessions about blood vessels and vascular

People tend to think that academics have long summer holidays, but I can tell you that we don’t! Outside of work I am in a band, which I really enjoy. It’s definitely something that was way out of my comfort zone to begin with! I love cycling and I am never happier than when on two wheels. I have done some really long charity bike rides with the University Lifecycle team raising money for Children’s Brain Tumour, breast cancer and dementia research among others.

There’s nothing that I really dislike about my job, and there’s no need to try and stop it being repetitive – being an anatomist is so varied that there’s no chance that I will ever get bored.

illustration: Kasia Kozakiewicz

Our students are very lucky to be able to learn anatomy using real human bodies because of the generous and selfless bequest of our registered donors for medical education

Nadia on... the NHS crisis

words: Nadia Whittome photo: Fabrice Gagos

The poet T. S. Elliot famously wrote that the world would end “not with a bang, but with a whimper”. When I think about the crisis unfolding with the NHS, this line always comes to mind.

The collapse of our health service is not a single dramatic event, but thousands of individual tragedies occurring simultaneously. It’s the pensioner waiting in agony for a knee replacement that keeps getting postponed. It’s the young woman whose mental health is so bad she’s forced to go to A&E after struggling to access support for months. It’s those dying in the back of ambulances or on trolleys in hospital corridors because there are no beds.

will remember the story of 88 year-old Jean Woolley, who was on the front page of the Daily Mirror in 2019 after being left on an A&E trolley at the Queen’s Medical Centre for six hours.

Throughout the pandemic, NHS staff have kept going selflessly to save lives. But they have paid a heavy price: burn-out, long COVID and PTSD are just some of the side-effects. Over 1,500 health and social care staff have lost their lives to COVID - many more will have passed the virus onto family members at home who later died. At the same time, many have been struggling to make ends meet on pay that is criminally low. It is no wonder that the latest figures released show more NHS staff leaving than ever before.

The Government’s response is completely inadequate. Instead of giving them the pay rise they deserve - which would tackle poverty pay and aid retention and recruitment - NHS staff are getting a real-terms pay cut. With the Health and Social Care Bill, the Government is embarking on a huge restructuring exercise, while handing more power to the Health Secretary and giving private companies a seat at the decision-making table. This is the last thing the NHS needs right now and will do nothing to tackle the emergency we face.

Almost six million people are waiting for NHS treatment - 300,000 of them for over a year. The number of 999 calls and A&E waiting times are both higher than ever before. Like much of the rest of the country, services in Nottingham are under strain. In November, Nottingham University Hospitals were placed on the highest alert - Opel 4 or “black alert”. This alert is for serious incidents, when the NHS is unable to deliver comprehensive care and patient safety is at risk. The Trust said that “pressure is being felt by staff working in every area of our health and care system”.

Meanwhile, East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) recently called in the military to help ambulance staff transport patients. EMAS said that “less urgent and non-emergency patients [were] waiting longer for an ambulance than they should rightfully expect”.

The current crisis has, of course, been exacerbated by the pandemic. But even before COVID-19, a decade of underfunding left our NHS struggling to cope. It had become relatively commonplace for hospitals to issue Opel 4 alerts in winter months, for example. Waiting lists for operations and waiting times in A&E had also been growing. Many in Nottingham

The Prime Minister boasts constantly of the money that is being put into the NHS. However, experts have warned that after a decade of cuts and intense pressure, there is a serious risk that the funding will not be enough. It is also being raised through the Health and Social Care Levya rise in National Insurance contributions that hits low paid workers the hardest.

We need to get real about the scale of problems facing our NHS. The fact that we have universal healthcare, free at the point of use and accountable to the public, should never be taken for granted. We have to fight for a publicly-provided NHS, publicly-funded through progressive taxation, with the resources to provide the best quality of care for decades to come.

The collapse of our health service is not a single dramatic event, but thousands of individual tragedies occurring simultaneously

We need to get real about the scale of problems facing our NHS

Notts Shots

Path of least resistance

Norm Foreman

Green Queen Ethan Raddon - @editedbyethan

Don’t press the buzzer Tom Quigley - tomquigley.co.uk

Lion Bar

Matthew Petley - @frames_by_frames

Spin class Ethan Raddon - @editedbyethan

Kick, push, coast Tom Quigley - tomquigley.co.uk

In His Element

A knighthood, a CBE, a Nyholm Prize for Education - it’s safe to say the University of Nottingham’s Professor Martyn Poliakoff, a global leader in the field of green chemistry, is one of the brightest minds to ever settle in our fair land. We chat to the local legend about his favourite Notts spots, his aversion to science-fiction movies, and his YouTube channel Periodic Videos, which now boasts over 1m subscribers…

When did you know you wanted to go into science?

I guess it was kind of planned for me when I was very small; when I was four or five, my father decided I should be a scientist. He was a physicist, his father was a physicist, but I wasn’t good enough at maths to do physics. I had a terrific memory, though, so I found chemistry easy. When I was first studying chemistry, memory was very important - now it’s slightly less so.

Who were your inspirations?

I definitely looked up to my PhD supervisor, Jim Turner, who is long retired but is still working away at chemistry. Another of my heroes was Colonel BD Shaw, who did explosives lectures in Nottingham from 1928 right up to 1990, when he was 92 years old. There is a blue plaque in his honour on the house where he lived on Queen’s Road in Beeston. He inspired me when it came to doing experiments in public.

learning, which promises to open up huge areas of biology.

Are you scared that robots are going to take over the world?

No, but it is quite worrying that when you’re on the internet, the likes of YouTube or Amazon know so much about you, suggesting books or films you might like and so on. I think that we definitely need to find ways to live with AI in a responsible way.

What is your favourite sciencefiction movie?

I haven’t watched many sci-fi movies. I’ve never been big on sciencefiction, to be honest. Until COVID we did go to Broadway fairly regularly - I’ve even done a chemistry lecture there in the big auditorium, which is quite mad when you think about itbut my wife mainly chose the films. I prefer foreign movies. I definitely don’t like films with a lot of violence in them, nothing like James Bond.

What stops you from watching sci-fi?

I think that I very often feel disbelief on the scientific basis of it. I suppose I’m too down to earth on it and say, ‘Well, this couldn’t happen.’ There is some science-fiction I’ve read like Slaughterhouse-Five and Brave New World, but I don’t tend to watch anything from that genre.

never used to pay much attention to the name on trams, now I get excited every time I hear one coming - I always look to see if it’s mine.

Your YouTube channel was created to explore the periodic table. Which was the most fun element to look into?

The most exciting thing was to discover that no part of the periodic table is boring, as you find that elements you thought were really dull actually have quite a fascinating backstory - because of who discovered them, the story of the discovery and so on. All of the elements have been great to explore.

What are some of the most interesting developments taking place in science right now?

There is some really exciting progress being made in artificial intelligence. A paper was recently published where AI was used to work out the structure of thousands of proteins by applying machine

What’s your favourite Notts spot? I’m not a native of Nottingham but I’ve lived in Beeston for the longest part of my life, and during the pandemic I got to know the town even better than I could have imagined, walking around all the streets and exploring the place. In the city, I like the Lace Market and Hockley, the Theatre Royal, and the Arboretum, which has a great atmosphere. I also love the strange tunnel from Derby Road to the Park. I like that about Nottingham - there are so many unexpected places to stumble upon.

You recently had a tram named after you. How did that feel?

It was great fun to see that unveiled. I wasn’t allowed to drive the tram, but I did get to sit in the driver’s seat. I have been promised the opportunity of driving the simulator, though, which I’m really looking forward to. I

You’ve received a countless number of accolades and awards over the years, including a knighthood and a CBE. Which has been your favourite?

I’d actually put the naming of the tram quite high up there. More people in Nottingham have congratulated me on that than they have the knighthood! The latter, while it is an enormous honour, isn’t very useful - and it feels a bit pretentious to go around calling yourself Sir Martyn, so I don’t use it very often. But it is nice for my efforts to be recognised.

What’s your greatest achievement outside of honours and titles?

I guess my greatest achievement is to still be going at my age, rather than to be dead… In all seriousness, I’m so grateful to be doing something that I really care about, because there are so many people who are doing jobs that they don’t enjoy. And I’m very proud of my family, of course. Overall, though, it is up to other people to decide what your greatest achievement is, otherwise you’d be terribly self-indulgent.

How is your 2022 looking?

I’m very excited about this year. I’m getting involved with promoting Beeston and the message of ‘Beeston for All’. I think the town has a very good future - we even have our own cinema now!

can find Professor Poliakoff’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/periodicvideos.

You

I’ve never been big on science-fiction. I suppose I’m too down to earth on it and say, ‘Well, this couldn’t happen

More people in Nottingham have congratulated me for getting a tram named after me than they have for getting a knighthood

Citizen Science

The Festival of Science and Curiosity - a ten day celebration of the world of science - is back with a (big) bang. After a predominantly online schedule of events for their 2021 programme, this year’s festival looks forward to welcoming people of all ages to an eclectic array of in-person events, activities and talks. We speak to organiser

For the uninitiated, can you tell us a bit about the Festival of Science and Curiosity?

The Festival of Science and Curiosity is ten days of events designed to engage people across Nottinghamshire with the world of science. It’s a collaboration between lots of different partners all working to break down barriers to science, celebrate all the amazing research that’s happening in our area and allow local people to express their own curiosity.

How has the festival changed since you started?

The festival began about eight years ago as lots of things in Nottingham do - with a group of people seeing a gap and working together to fill it with something creative. All the original partners are still involved, but we’ve also brought in new organisations to help us reach not only communities in Nottingham but also Kirkby, Mansfield, Newark and even as far as Retford.

We're definitely a lot more organised now - we plan much more in advance and have proper processes and strategies, but we’ve very much retained our DIY approach which means we can bring all sorts of different people with us, adapt to what schools and communities want and try new things each year.

How much of a challenge has it been to plan for the 2022 festival? Did you have to adapt your original plans after the new regulations came into effect? Nothing could be more difficult than the 2021 festival, which was in the deepest, darkest lockdown! So we knew that through the two adaptations we made - the TV show and the magazine, our ‘COVID keepers’ - we’d be able to make do again no matter what. But we know that everyone’s really missed inperson activities, and so we’ve had to find a middle ground with running events in the landscape of so much uncertainty. We’ve gone for a programme that’s mostly pre-bookable workshops, keeping numbers limited but still giving people opportunities

in all of our lives. The role of science communication has become more important than ever, and the work that we do, helping researchers to talk about their work in ways that really connect with people, is part

Do you think 2022 is an exciting time for science? The thing with science is it’s always pushing forward - investigations generally end up with more questions than answers, so there’s always more

But it is especially exciting to see the two things that children are always interested in - space and dinosaurs - being in the news recently with the launch of the James Webb telescope and the discovery of the largest and most complete

What can people expect from this year’s festival? We’ve got free workshops for families ranging from extracting the DNA of strawberries, to understanding how lateral flows work, to developing your own app,

There’s an exhibition about space race toys, an immersive installation about mycelium networks, an event about living species that were around at the Expect tickets to go quickly so The Curiosity Show, our series of live broadcasts on Notts TV, which is a The Really Wild

The Festival of Science and Curiosity takes place from Monday 7 February to Wednesday 16 February. For a

Investigations generally end up with more questions than answers, so there’s always more to discover

Under the Microscope

Historically homogeneous when it comes to the workforce, diversity is becoming a growing conversation in the scientific field, and not just for moral reasons. Greater diversity among scientists has also been found to increase the quality of research, which becomes richer with a variety of perspectives.

Here in Nottingham the call for scientific diversity is being stoked by a group of academics at the University of Nottingham. Led by Maria Augusta Arruda and Sarah Sleigh, Excel in Science is a scientific initiation programme designed for undergraduates at the University of Nottingham. Aimed at students who may feel out of place in the scientific field (usually due to gender, race, or a lower socio-economic background), the programme works to affirm their place in the scientific community, with the ultimate aim of increasing diversity.

“We started talking about this programme some time ago in the context of diversifying the workforce,” Sarah explains. “We were fortunate to have a very ambitious Futures graduate trainee Kat Hart, who launched the programme last year. She launched a two-part programme, the first part is introducing students to what research is, which we do through a series of events in the spring semester, and the second part is a very focused internship programme where students are paid to be in the lab.”

“First of all, what this does is it demystifies the scientific practice,” Maria continues. “Because as soon as you join the lab you release that your professor is just another person, someone you eat lunch with and have a joke with.” It also addresses financial inequality between different undergraduate students. “Theoretically, people are on an equal playing field when they get into university but that’s not true because you’ve got people who come from affluent backgrounds and people who need a number of part-time jobs to make ends meet,” Maria says, explaining that the programme aims to close that

gap so all students have the time to ponder, analyse, and explore, no matter their class backgrounds.

Maria and Sarah explain that there is currently a disparity when it comes to which students stay in academic study, with more black, working class, and female students leaving education after the undergraduate level. The Excel in Science programme aims to support students who would normally drop out after getting their degree. “Engaging with scientific practice very early on in their careers gives them time to explore,” Maria explains, “meaning that they tend to stay in academic life for longer. People who would never think about doing a Masters degree, or a PhD, or contemplate a career in academia, can now see that as an option.

this talent in science. It’s important to the scientific community to have diversity. A diverse range of people brings a richness of experience, so in this sense when the individual is supported, the broader community is supported too.”

Continuing with a metaphor, Maria gives an example. “In ecology there is this thing called the green desert,” she says, referring to the phenomenon in which fast growing eucalyptus trees are planted in place of native slow growing trees. “The forests look very green, but they are very poor from a biodiversity perspective, and it’s the same in science to some extent. We can use the same metaphor, where we have a lot of people in science, but not the diversity to thrive.

“Throughout history, we had a quota system where it was 100% European or North American caucasian men doing science. When you think about that corresponding to world demographics, that’s only 8.85% of the world population who are doing the research. Meaning the people that design the world aren’t representative of the world population. Less than 9% of people are dictating what is good, bad, or important research.”

“Obviously, the impact is proportional to deprivation. You can imagine someone who is the first one in their family to go to university and how it would impact them to really feel part of a community where they are put in touch with people who are very senior, very accomplished academics.” It’s all about giving students the space and time to thrive. As Maria adds, “You can’t judge how good someone is if the person can’t afford to spend the time in the lab, or in the research group.”

So, why is diversity so significant? Obviously pushing for a wider range of scientists is important, but I’m curious to find out why. “This isn’t philanthropy at all,” Maria asserts. “None of the things that we are talking about here is because we’re good people. There are a lot of vested interests. We want to retain

Looking forward to the future, Maria and Sarah hope for a world in which scientists do reflect the world population. As Maria rightly points out, “The people that we’re referring to as the ethnic minority are actually the global majority,” and the world of science should represent the majority, for the sake of progress.

“It’s about giving people opportunities who wouldn’t otherwise have the chance,” Sarah says, “people that would have been sidelined for reasons that could have been overcome with support at the right moment.”

can keep up to date with Excel in Science by following their Twitter page

Can science ever be great without diversity? We catch up with Maria Augusta Arruda and Sarah Sleigh from the University of Nottingham to learn more about Excel in Science - the programme pushing for greater diversity within the scientific field

You

The people that we’re referring to as the ethnic minority are actually the global majority

words: Lizzy O’Riordan illustration: Emmy Smith

Hind's Sight

When was the last time you looked into the night sky? That enormous, boundless blanket of stars that fascinates some and terrifies others. As unrecognisable as Earth in 2022 would be to our historical forefathers, the sky – save for the presence of planes – is the one constant, infinite reminder of our own relative insignificance. Mountains are moved, roads are built and entire societies rise and fall, but the moon that looks back at us when we gaze skywards in the evening is the same moon that Genghis Khan, Leonardo Da Vinci and Jane Austen all saw. The only thing that’s changed is our understanding of it. And, like all great scientific endeavours, that understanding comes in the form of building blocks of knowledge collated over millennia.

A 32,500-year-old carved ivory Mammoth tusk, found in the Alb-Danube region of Germany, shows what is thought to be the oldest surviving example of a star chart – an early attempt to make sense of the seemingly random set of celestial objects searing through the skies above. It was left behind by the Aurignacian people who we know next to nothing about, other than the fact that they made an early attempt to catalogue the stars. Astronomy formed the bedrock of religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical and astrological understanding in countless societies from Mesopotamia and Indus Valley Civilisations through the great societies of prehistory, Classical antiquity, the Enlightenment and onwards, each adding their own basis of knowledge to the wider collection of understanding. As long as there has been recorded history, there’s been a drive to understand astronomy.

While eighteenth century astronomy could generally be characterised by the precise measurement of position and the classification of celestial bodies, the nineteenth century went beyond cataloguing the skies to understanding their very composition and predicting what could not be seen.

William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus – the first planet to be discovered since antiquity - in 1781 sparked a renewed interest in our solar system as astronomers began to look for a planet between Mars and Jupiter. Instead of a planet, they discovered a series of smaller bodies, which became known as minor planets, or asteroids. First Ceres in 1801, then Pallas the following year, before Juno and Vesta were discovered in 1804 and 1807 respectively.

to determine the extent and simultaneity of the disturbances in order to better understand why and how magnetic variation occurred.

Born just a generation after these discoveries was John Russell Hind, the man whose name would become synonymous with the discovery of asteroids. The son of Nottingham lace makers, Hind became interested in astronomy at an early age, spending hours watching the stars on a clear night aged just four. By six he was already reading astronomical works. After completing his studies at Nottingham Grammar School – during which he submitted weather predictions to the Nottingham Journal - Hind was sent to London as an assistant to William Carpmael, a civil engineer at the Patent Office, following which he was hired by George Biddell Airy to fill one of the two newly created posts of Magnetic Assistant at Greenwich Royal Observatory.

Airy, a famed mathematician and astronomer whose achievements included measuring the mean density of the Earth and, in his role as Astronomer Royal, establishing Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian, saw the potential in seventeen-yearold Hind, hiring him as part of a large-scale project to understand the phenomenon of magnetic declination. By simultaneously observing twenty different sites across Europe and the Russian Empire, Airy and his team aimed

During his time working under Airy, Hind became a talented observer with the Sheepshanks equatorial telescope and in 1844 took part in the first chronometric determination of the longitude of Valencia, Ireland. Resigning later that same year, he gained employment from George Bishop as supervisor of his private observatory at Regent’s Park in London. As well as marrying and having six children, the next nine years saw Hind’s reputation grow enormously. He discovered ten asteroids, including Iris and Flora, two comets, a variable nebula in Taurus and several variable stars. He accompanied Rev. W.R. Dawes to Sweden in 1851, where the pair observed the total eclipse of 28 July. Hind later wrote of seeing “rosecoloured flames” at the sun’s limb during the event.

His incomparable mixture of tenacity, skill and perseverance gained Hind a reputation as one of astronomy’s leading men, leading to payments of £100 from the Royal Bounty Fund in 1851 and an annual Civil List pension of £200 the following year (around £15,000 and £30,000 respectively in modern money). But his career was not without controversy. In 1850 Hinds discovered a minor planet about 120 km in diameter which he duly named 12 Victoria, in honour of the reigning queen. Tradition dictated that celestial bodies could not be named after living people, causing Hind to later explain that the asteroid was, in fact, named after Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. A fierce debate over the name broke out in astronomy circles, before W.C. Bond of the Harvard College Observatory, then the highest authority on astronomy in America, weighed in to claim that Hind’s latter mythological explanation had fulfilled the necessary naming conditions, and 12 Victoria was therefore acceptable as a name.

Having been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1863 and President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1880, Hind continued his devotion to work right up to his death from heart disease in 1895. His legacy includes three coveted Lalande Prizes, the discovery of ten asteroids and various celestial discoveries named in his honour, including the asteroid 1897 Hind, Hind’s Crimson Star, Hind’s Variable Nebula and the crater Hind on the Moon.

While his name might not ring out as clearly as Galileo, Hubble or Newton to modern ears, John Russell Hind made a vital contribution to our understanding of astronomy, a contribution that started with a fouryear-old boy observing the night sky from his family home in Nottingham.

We celebrate the life and work of John Russell Hind, the Nottingham-born astronomer who made huge strides in the discovery of asteroids…

Hind became interested in astronomy at an early age, spending hours watching the stars on a clear night aged just four

Ahead of the Curve

We take a look at the role Nottingham’s scientists have played, and will continue to play, in tackling COVID-19 - with experts from both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University helping to analyse the virus, trial vaccines and protect the most vulnerable since the start of the pandemic…

Since the very beginning of this miserable mess known as the pandemic, Nottingham has played a key role in understanding and overcoming COVID, with our scientists using their skills and knowledge to track, analyse and tackle the virus. From becoming one of the first cities to make progress on the development of a vaccine to leading studies that could help to protect the nation’s most vulnerable people, these experts have made - and continue to make - impressive progress in bringing an end to this bleak period of our existence.

Nottingham’s coronavirus response started way back in March 2020, when several ‘COVID detectives’ were drafted into a national consortium to study the DNA sequencing of the virus. The team at the University of Nottingham’s DeepSeq facility, which has previously studied viruses such as Zika, were tasked with analysing coronavirus to provide an insight into its behaviours, helping to inform the decisionmaking of leading public health experts and hospitals throughout the country.

By August last year, the consortium had analysed over 10,000 samples, leading to vital observations on the transmission of the virus. In the words of genomics specialist Professor Matt Loose, this research “helped to track the lineage of variants and enabled hospitals to understand whether COVID could spread from patient to patient”, providing muchneeded guidance at a time when very little was known about the virus and its potential impact.

Looking back over the past two years, Prof Loose says, “Like many of us, when the pandemic first began, you’re worried there’s nothing you can do about it. So to be able to contribute has been fantastic. Getting to use the expertise we have in Nottingham to help both this city and the wider area has been a real honour.”

This research process hasn’t always been a simple one, though, with the unprecedented nature and sheer scale of the task at hand making things difficult both mentally and scientifically.

“There have been a lot of late nights and a lot of working at weekends, just doing what you need to do,” Prof Loose explains. “The impact on hospitals in the early part of the pandemic

was horrendous to see, and it’s good to know that’s changed with the vaccine. That’s not to say there is no impact now, but it’s not the same as it was twelve months ago.”

multidisciplinary group is a certain Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the nononsense Deputy Chief Medical Officer - returning to lead UoN’s Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences in May - who has provided a clear voice of reason within a government that has often seemed anything but reasonable.

The jab itself is something Nottingham has also helped to develop. In a joint effort between the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, planning for clinical trials of a DNA vaccine to prevent coronavirus began as early as August 2020. By making use of local experts in schools ranging from NTU’s John van Geest Cancer Research Centre to UoN’s Biodiscovery Institute, around half a dozen of the city’s brightest minds got to work on what they believed could be the first step towards the end of the pandemic.

“This exciting research programme highlights the capabilities and skills that are available in Nottingham,” NTU’s Professor Graham Pockley said at the time, with the collaborative approach of the city’s key institutions helping to kickstart trials when the prospect of finding a cure to the virus still felt like a distant dream.

While several forms of the COVID vaccine have now been rolled out to well over 50m people in the UK, there is still a long way to go in the fight against the virus - and Nottingham will continue to play a major role. This is particularly the case when it comes to protecting those most at risk, with the University of Nottingham leading an investigation into whether those who rely on immune-suppressing medicines can maximise the protection they receive from booster vaccines. By analysing whether a short break from patients’ usual treatment for issues like rheumatoid arthritis can help to increase the effectiveness of boosters after they’ve been administered, UoN could help to protect many of those who have been forced to shield for lengthy periods over the last two years.

Professor Abhishek Abhishek, an expert in rheumatology who is leading this research, explains how the project came about: “When the vaccines came it was all good news but many people asked me if they should stop their treatment if they’re having a vaccination, so they could get even better protection. While vaccines do already help people on immuno-suppressant drugs, there was a study that suggested that stopping treatment for two weeks after the jab could give people even better protection. I was aware of this study but we didn’t really have concrete answers for people’s questions, so we wanted to properly look into whether this could make the vaccine even more effective.”

In a process that may take up to two years, Prof Abhishek and his team will recruit over 500 participants to try and provide a definitive and long-term answer to this question, at a time when regular boosters may become the new norm. Within this country-spanning,

According to Prof Abhishek, this ability to bring together such a talented group of experts, from virologists in London to statisticians in Oxford, as well as the high quality of its own studies, is what makes UoN such an influential establishment. “We are a leading institution for medical research, especially clinical trials,” he says, “and we have emerging and established links that meant we could develop an effective partnership between lots of great minds.”

Nottinghamchannelling

trademark

So, just like it has since the very start of the pandemic, Nottingham - channelling the trademark fighting spirit that defines the citywill continue to lead the ongoing battle against COVID.

words: George White illustrations: Andre Santana

the

fighting spirit that defines the city - will continue to lead the ongoing battle against COVID

When the pandemic first began, you’re worried there’s nothing you can do about it. So to be able to contribute has been fantastic

It’s Notts Rocket Science

To celebrate our science issue, we take a look at some of the biggest achievements in scientific discovery and their links to Nottingham…

As the ‘Da Vinci of the Midlands’, polymath Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) invented countless bits and bobs, none of which he patented. As well as the first recorded copying machine, horizontal windmill and canal lift, he invented a steering mechanism for his carriage which, 130 years later, was adapted to become the Ackermann linkage – the geometric arrangement of linkages in the steering of a car.

STEERING MECHANISM

As one of those everyday things you probably take for granted, it’s weird to think that, for the vast majority of human history, running water was a thing of fantasy.

The technology that facilitates the running of water from our taps originated in Nottingham, with Arnold-born Thomas Hawksley, an engineer for the Nottingham Waterworks Company, developing the first highpressure water supply at Trent Bridge.

The Trent Bridge waterworks directly helped to prevent contamination entering the supply of clean water mains.

running water

1831

In the year 1866, 1,102 people were killed and a further 1,334 injured on roads in London. Step forward John Peake Knight, the Nottinghamborn railway manager and inventor who proposed a signalling system to regulate the horse-drawn traffic and help reduce accidents on the roads.

Based on the signalling system he’d become accustomed to while working at Derby railway station, it involved a policeman using a semaphore during the day and gas powered red and green coloured lamps at night. The world’s first traffic light was installed in 1868, although a gas leak badly injured the policeman operating it the following year, which saw the system fall out of use until the introduction of electric lights in 1929.

Traffic Lights

We’re not debating the fact that James D Watson and Francis Crick first unveiled the structure of DNA (the iconic double helix), but groundbreaking work of Nottingham researchers helped pave the way.

The research, begun by JM Gulland FRS and DO Jordan, climaxed in an experiment performed by graduate student Mike Creeth. The experiment consisted of an acid-based titration using the hydrodynamic method of viscometry, which proved the existence of hydrogen bonds in DNA - the building blocks of all life. Their work was published in 1947, six years before Watson and Crick built on it to piece together the double helical structure of DNA which led to them being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1963.

Developed at the RollsRoyce factory in Hucknall, the Flying Bedstead, more properly known as the Thrust Measuring Rig, made its maiden flight in 1954. A pioneering vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, it served as the prototype to the more widely-known Harrier Jump Jet.

Flying Beadstead 1954

World-renowned chemist Dr Stewart Adams helped develop ibuprofen while employed at Boots in Notts, having earned a degree in pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. His goal was to create a drug for rheumatoid arthritis that was as effective as steroids but had none of the side effects. By researching the effects of aspirin, he was able to mimic the antiinflammatory properties and, after testing more than 600 different compounds, he eventually landed on what is now called ibuprofen.

It’s estimated that one packet is sold every three seconds in the USA alone. Adams was also one of the first recipients of the drug. While celebrating the discovery, he got drunk on vodka in Moscow ahead of giving an important speech, and after waking up with a thumping headache, he popped a 600ml dose and was good to go.

IBuprofen

1969

London-born Sir Peter Mansfield was a professor at the University of Nottingham when he made discoveries in the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging that led to the invention of the MRI scanner.

The MRI – a medical imaging technique that uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body – has saved countless lives, and led to Mansfield being awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology.

MRI SCANNER 1974

As well as being on the academic staff at the University of Nottingham for over forty years, during which time he was the founding professor of the School of Biosciences, Don Grierson led the team that produced the first genetically engineered tomato having discovered several plant genes and studied their role in the ripening process.

As a result, the tomato was the first genetically modified plant food approved for sale on both sides of the Atlantic.

gm tomatoes 1990

Legend of the Game

Colin Slater MBE, the BBC Radio Nottingham Sports Broadcaster who spent over sixty years covering the fortunes of Notts County FC, died on Monday 10 January at the age of 87…

Colin Slater’s match commentaries made him a part of the family for households of Notts County supporters. He was the first person to commentate on the Magpies on Radio Nottingham, initially joining them in 1968 - the year the radio station was first established.

He continued in the role well into his eighties, finally handing over to Charlie Slater (no relation) at the start of the 2017-18 season. However, even after ‘retiring’ he still maintained an active interest in the club right up until this year – chairing the Former Players’ Association, the club’s Hall of Fame committee and writing regularly in the matchday programme.

To put Colin’s time commentating on Notts into perspective, he covered 41 different managers (including three stints by Jimmy Sirrel), seven promotions and seven relegations. Even before he began commentating at BBC Nottingham he played a crucial role at Notts County, in 1965 helping the club to secure investment of £10,000 from a local car dealer when on the verge of extinction.

Colin was born in Shipley, West Yorkshire and went to Belle Vue grammar school in Bradford. After training

on local weekly newspapers, initially covering the fortunes of Bradford City, he moved to Nottingham and joined the Nottingham Evening News, becoming their Notts County correspondent in 1959. In 1963 the newspaper merged with the Nottingham Evening Post and he moved over to write for them.

He was also given honorary degrees by both Nottingham-based universities (NTU in 2014 and University of Nottingham in 2018).

His commentaries won him many famous fans, including John Motson, who has previously described him as "one of the doyens of the broadcasting industry" and "a member of the commentators' cabinet." Former Notts County manager Neil Warnock told BBC Nottingham: "In the media you get scrutinised a lot, but Colin was above all that. He was almost like a friend. Anything I wanted to tell him I could tell him. He was always a gentleman. He just lit up the room.”

In 1968 he became the first press officer of Nottinghamshire County Council, while taking on reporting duties on Notts for the newly created BBC Radio Nottingham. Also a keen cricket fan, in the summer he would commentate at Trent Bridge, sometimes acting as the PA announcer, and running Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club’s marketing department from 1988-96. In the late 1970s, as the senior sports broadcaster at Radio Nottingham, he also covered the European successes of Nottingham Forest.

The last two decades have seen Slater receive various awards and accolades in and outside of Nottingham. He was given an MBE in 2001 for his contribution to radio, his work with the Football Association, and his role as the Deputy Chairman of the Nottingham Bench of Magistrates (NBoM). In 2009 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Sony Radio Academy.

In 2014 he was inducted into the Notts County FC Hall of Fame. A year later, he had a tram named after him by Nottingham Express Transit. In 2016 Castle Rock brewed a beer in his name (a 4.2% chocolate porter). In 2017, he was named as an Honorary Life President of Notts County.

The club's all-time leading goalscorer Les Bradd, who knew and worked with Colin over several decades, said: "I first got to know Colin in my early days as a player, when he was working for the Nottingham Post I found him to be an honest, trustworthy personsomeone I could consult with in good faith. There are many names you could consider for the title of 'Mr Notts County' but his has to be high on the list for all he has done for the club and the way he always championed our rich heritage. He was a great man and will be sadly missed."

Speaking personally, his voice echoed throughout my childhood. The early nineties were a great time to be a teenage Notts County supporter with consecutive play-off winning promotions under Neil Warnock. My dad took me to watch most of the home games, but away games were a stretch too far. Thus many an evening was spent tuning into the crackly Radio Nottingham FM and listening to his voice describing away trips from the back room of our semi-detached in Sherwood. He made away nights at Prenton Park or Bramall Lane sound a lot more thrilling and exciting than they had any right to be.

In October 2017 at the premiere of the film I directed, The Lord of Milan at Broadway Cinema, I noticed him in the audience. We’d invited various press to come for the occasion, but he wasn’t on our press list and had just bought a ticket. The fact he was interested in our film was a real honour. At the end I went over to introduce myself, he said he’d be writing about it in the next edition of his column in the Notts County programme. Thankfully the review was highly positive and I’ve kept that programme in a special place in my home to this day.

In the many other tributes paid to him by former Notts County managers and players, there were a lot of mentions of fish and chips and Harry Ramsden’s, the take-away chain formed about four miles from where he was born. Charlie Slater, Colin’s successor as Notts commentator on Radio Nottingham, said: “I can’t begin to tell you the amount of chip shops all over the country we stood outside together at half past eleven on a Saturday morning, waiting for them to open. No-one wants to eat fish and chips on a Saturday morning, but Colin did. He always loved a fish and chip shop.”

Rest In Peace Colin ‘Mr Notts County’ Slater.

Colin’s match commentaries made him a part of the family for households of Notts County supporters

words: Jared Wilson illustration: Isobel Miller

words: Ashley Carter illustration: Chloe Henson

Whatever Pickles Your Fancy

A mystery letter delivered to LeftLion HQ uncovered a pickle-related mystery that’s remained secret for almost two centuries…

As Editor of a community magazine like LeftLion, you get your fair share of odd things to deal with. We’re something of a magnet to themost weird and wonderful elements of the city and, in the three years I’ve been doing the job, there’s barely a week that goes by where you don’t get an email, phone call, letter or visitor to the office that leaves you scratching your head. I’ve been: the subject of a targeted email campaign from anti-vaxxers, threatened on the phone for spreading a “Marxist agenda”, the recipient of a poem written in the author’s own blood (with a freshly plucked pigeon feather, no less) and visited by a woman asking me to publish a story about the fact that MI6 are trying to kill her. And that’s just in the last few months.

But perhaps the most puzzling incident of all came the first morning back from my Christmas break when I found an envelope addressed to me waiting on my desk. Inside was a letter seemingly typed on an old typewriter, and a handwritten note signed off simply as ‘CD’. “The enclosed might be of interest to your readers,” it said, “ especially given the mystery element.”

I hope it is of interest to you, dear readers, because it fascinated and puzzled me. And if anyone has any more information, do get in touch.

It is my sad duty to report that after 191 years, a tradition handed down through the generations is coming to an end. By reporting this, I am also revealing Nottingham’s most guarded secret. Readers of this publication will only be hearing about this for the first time, but The Nottingham Pickling Society is folding and we members have decided to tell its story.

The Nottingham Pickling Society was formed in 1830 from a house in The Park, which remained our home throughout our time. Originally a team of four men (please remember that 1830 was a different time, we started welcoming women to join in 1901) it grew. The growth wasn’t huge, at our peak we had 300 members, and the only way to join was to be introduced by your parents at the age of 18. At the time of writing this I am 87 and have been in charge of the society since I was 37, my daughter (also a member) is 63 and did not have children. Until the COVID pandemic we were having welcome ceremonies for 18 year olds but fewer youngsters have bothered over the years. The aforementioned pandemic also sadly claimed several of our older members, so despite having a handful of meetings post lockdown, the momentum has gone and we have made the decision to close down.

We met at the house once a month, to pickle onions, cabbage, beetroot, gherkins, cucumber, walnuts. Although a secret society, our wares could be found on sale at farmer markets and school fetes, with the money split between the society and local charities. Aside from the pickling, we also treat the meetings as a social event to catch up and discuss the topics of the day. The younger members wanted to try and bring things up to date by putting the society on the internet and social media but we have kept to the old values and relied on the postal service. We only got a telephone in the 1970s.

We will miss our gatherings but we bring down the curtain with pride and fond memories. Only a handful of people knew about us but if you’re reading this, you might have enjoyed our pickles.

You’ve decided to open up a new place in the city following many years of success in Sherwood. Why do you think you gained such a loyal customer base in that time?

I think we’re just honest. We’re a family business, we have the same ups and downs as everyone else, and we’re very open about that. We’re not the sort of place to put the money in, open somewhere up and never show our faces there. I think it’s important to have a face for the name, it helps customers to really connect with what you’re doing.

You’ve mentioned wanting The Bakehouse to be a place for people to meet, chill and work. Why is this important to you?

We want this to be a social hub for Hockley. We feel that bakeries and cafes should be places where you can hang out, share ideas and have a laugh, and we managed to crack that in Sherwood. Mine and other people’s families have grown up there. Some people come in five or six days a week. It’s nice that customers have little milestones in their life based on trips to The Bakehouse - birthdays, anniversaries and so on. Now we want to bring that to the city.

You come from a really impressive culinary background, and have even worked in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. What was that like?

How do you go about running your kitchen? Do you go for the Ramsay approach?

My view is that if you’re managing a team, you should muck in yourself, and you should be open and honest. You can push people, but there has to be some sort of reward. It can’t be all shouting and swearing, no one can thrive in that environment. You need your team to know you’re on their side - if you support them, they’ll support you.

Why did you choose Hockley for your second store?

It felt like the natural next step. Hockley has a real community feel to it, there are a lot of independents here. Obviously the food and restaurant scene has always been prominent but I think it’s now reaching a peak in terms of the quality and diversity on offer.

It was lots and lots of hours, but it was great. It’s definitely something that I wouldn’t go back to, but I don’t regret doing it. It helped to shape a strong work ethic and a focus on quality. There were unique moments I wouldn’t have experienced anywhere else; we’d have Prince William and Kate Middleton pop in regularly, for example. It was a tough environment, but it was so rewarding.

Finally, since this is a science issue, how often do you experiment with new recipes and techniques? We do often play around with things and try to push the boundaries. We’ll have special nights where we do smoked food or cured food, which can throw up new ideas. But the science for us is getting things consistently high quality. We’re not necessarily probing and experimenting all the time, but we are always honing our skills and increasing our understanding of the baking process.

The Bakehouse Hockley is now open on Carlton Street thebakehousenotts.co.uk

New Business

Street Food Club

To Sup

Reggae Rum Punch - Revolucion de Cuba

To

interview: George White photo: Ekam Hundal

At long last, the local institution that is No Homers has found itself a forever home - and, as a result, so has one of the nicest takeaway menus in the city. Boasting a wide range of meals both light and hefty, the new Notts venue promises to offer something for everyone. And, on this writer’s first visit (of many, I would imagine), it’s time to try the stodgiest-looking item on the menu - the Breakfast Roll.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I turned up at Colombo Street, the new-ish Sri Lankan restaurant which started as a food van on Fletcher Gate. Having never visited the country (despite hearing only the best things about it), I wasn’t familiar with its culinary tradition, but was excited for the opportunity to find out. Scrolling through the menu on my phone while waiting for the rest of my party to arrive, I was immediately struck by the eclectic range of flavours on offer. Even as a non-meat eater, I was truly spoiled for choice.

After being seated in the warm, open and atmospheric dining area, I decided to go for a Chickpea Sizzle (£4.95) to start, followed by the Classic Rice and Curry Feast, the vegan option of which included a Spicy Jack Fruit Curry (£14.95). The starter was truly delicious, combining spicy, tender chickpeas with the juxtaposing flavours of sweet grated coconut and tangy onion sambol. My interest had definitely been piqued for the main event.

s

Packing hash browns, ‘bacon’, ‘sausage’ and mushrooms into a delicious baguette, this isn’t exactly one for those on a health kick - but by god is it one hell of a treat. No Homers’ trademark meat alternatives continue to be some of the best on the market, the tasty bacon and mouth-watering sausage (steady) combining for a properly enjoyable feast.

Hash browns are rarely a poor addition to any meal, and they’re certainly welcome here, adding some nice non-meaty flavour into the mix. The mushrooms are perfectly cooked too, not so soft that they turn into mush but not so firm that they explode with that uniquely offputting ‘shroom water that can ruin anyone’s day. Simply put, they’re spot on. Drizzling a little yolk sauce on the top makes this a work of art, finishing off the roll with a dash of delightful simplicity.

What’s even better? The whole ordering process is quick and easy and the staff are incredibly enthusiastic, making the experience an entirely pleasant one. So, if you’re craving a (near) full English but don’t have a giant plate or any cutlery to hand, head on over to King Street and get all of that hearty goodness packed into a handy, edible package. After trying this, I’ll never say no to No Homers.

George White

Lasagne. Need we say more? There’s very little on this god forsaken earth that triggers a bigger smile than lasagne. And thanks to Lombardo’s, you can look at lasagne all day long. Heavenly stuff.

In the age of false advertising, it was great to see Colombo Street buck the trend because when they said ‘Curry Feast’, they were not messing around. A smooth, flavoursome Dhal, a surprisingly succulent Aubergine Moju (surprising only because, until now, I’d never enjoyed aubergines in any meal), a doubletasty Coconut Sambal, a Kale Mallung which offered a nice alteration in taste and texture and the main event, the Spicy Jack Fruit Curry. Rich, mouth-watering and perfectly balanced flavours made it the stand-out dish in an otherwise flawless meal. With the addition of rice, papadums and the piece of Hopper (crispy-edged bowl-shaped savoury pancakes, £2.95) I’d stolen from my dinner mate, I’m not ashamed to say that I basically needed rolling home after I’d finished.

If, like me, you’re a complete novice when it comes to Sri Lankan food, give Colombo Street a visit. You won’t be disappointed. Jason Edgar

CienCe oF the l Ambs

For Notts natives, Baa Bar is a pretty infamous spot. But if you can get past the incredibly sticky floor and make it across to their bar, you’ll find an array of shots that concerningly resemble some liquid synthesised in a lab. And with this month’s theme being science, there’s no better time to showcase some of the most absurd creations they offer…

Psychedelic

How this concoction of Chambord liqueur and Baileys hasn’t caused a violent chemical reaction, we’ll never understand. It does taste lovely though.

ood A nd drin K

Campfire

Perhaps the least daunting on the list, Campfire mixes up Jim Beam Red Stag and Triple Sec to make a combination a little on the fruity side.

Want your Nottingham foodie business featured in the mag?

Fancy writing for us? Email us at editorial@leftlion.co.uk

Toxic Waste

If you’re into shots that will most likely melt your taste buds off, this mix of pineapple and Apple Sourz will have you screwing up your face in no time.

Fireball

Is there really much that can be said about this one that its name doesn’t cover? It sounds dangerous, and considering it combines a mixture of sambuca, Smirnoff Gold, and strawberry flavouring, it probably is for your liver.

The Reaper

Offering up a blend of white sambuca, black sambuca, and Smirnoff, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where this drink gets its morbid name from. baabar.co.uk/nottingham

words: Daniela Loffreda illustrations: Fiona Carr

Food review: no homers

Food review: Colombo s treet

To Follow Lombardo’s

UNIVERSAL LOVE

It's February!

The shortest month but the most accurate, if we use the moon as a measure of time. It’s also the month most associated with love.

The Greeks gave each type of love a different word, which the Christians adopted for their Holy Book. ‘Storge’ (family) love is that between a parent and a child, and usually the first type of love we know. ‘Eros’ (romantic) love can be intense, needy and addictive but many great things can come from it if there is balance. ‘Philia’ (brotherly) love is the bond formed through friendship and is platonic, whereas ‘agape’ (unconditional) love is where it’s at. To feel connected without Ts & Cs.

It’s the love we have inside of us that we give freely to others, regardless of our relationship to them. The compassion and empathy we feel when we know people are in need and the want to help and ease their suffering. It’s the universal love that we can all tap into to enhance our lives and live our highest calling. Being conscious of every action and the effects they will have. The good stuff.

It starts with loving yourself, flaws ‘n’ all. Acknowledging and accepting every aspect of your being, without fear and judgement, is the first step to opening your Heart Chakra to the universal love that surrounds us and is us.

So our affirmation for this month: I AM OPEN TO UNIVERSAL LOVE

Remember to repeat your affirmations daily, wherever and whenever you can. Write them on a piece of paper and stick them on the bathroom mirror so you don’t miss them.

If you want change, you have to be consistent.

Until next time, my loves: be safe, no fear and stay blessed. lovecelestene.com

What inspired you to launch the running club?

M: The idea came to us because we recognised there wasn’t really a casual, sociable running club around. We moved to Nottingham just over a year ago and didn’t know anyone. We looked into a couple of traditional running clubs we could join, but it wasn’t really what we were looking for. We wanted something that was a bit more sociable, where we could meet people and make friends.

L: We also found that the more traditional running clubs don’t have a huge membership of people our age, early twenties through to midthirties. There’s a real gap in that membership. We wanted something where running is central to the club, but the social aspect is maybe the bigger draw.

What are the benefits of running, and running in a group?

L: It can be a solo sport, in pursuit of an individual goal or a bit of a movement during the working day. But joining a group can help to provide more motivation and moral support.

M: There is no judgement eitherall abilities and achievements are encouraged and celebrated. There are different experience levels, some who have been running for

years, and others who are new to running, just working up to 5km and 10km distances now.

lockdown were in a similar situation to us, looking to meet new, likeminded people and seeking that sense of community and belonging which is crucial to personal wellbeing.

How would you like to see your community expand in the future? What’s in store for 2022?

M: With over sixty members already, we would like to keep growing and providing this sense of community. A couple of local businesses have mentioned the idea of sponsorships, and with exposure on our social media and to our growing members, this would be beneficial to both parties.

Do you find mental wellbeing as important as physical wellbeing for explaining why people join in?

M: Definitely, I think we know from personal experience that running in general is really good for mental health. This is one of the reasons we both enjoy it; it gives us headspace. But so many of our runners said to us, “This has come at such an important time for me”, “I was feeling really low” or, “I was going through a really difficult time”, particularly because we’d had a year of lockdown.

L: I don’t think we quite appreciated how many people coming out of

L: With the money, we are looking at putting some of our runners on run leaders’ courses as the group expands. Some members have asked about doing track nights, so we could hire running tracks too. Sponsorships will help keep membership free - we never want to charge. It would be great to give back to the community and help local charities through our club too.

If you’re interested in joining ERC, you can tag along on any Wednesday at 6pm in the Brewhouse & Kitchen car park, Victoria Embankment. Run 5km or 10km and finish with a drink at the pub.

interview: Yasmin Turner photo: Wilson Lou

We chat to Luke Myers and his partner Millie Caffull, founders of the Embankment Run Club, about how their project came about, and how it’s helping to improve people’s wellbeing and create a sense of togetherness in Nottingham…

I don’t think we quite appreciated how many people coming out of lockdown were in a similar situation to us, looking to meet new, like-minded people

With

ENVIRONMENT GREEN INNOVATORS

My lab group focuses on cross-breeding traditional wheat crops with its wild relatives to introduce more varied genes into the populations that we commonly use for farming, which can then be screened for useful traits such as higher nutrient content or disease resistance. These wild relatives often just look like weeds, but contain loads of useful genes!

Wheat was hybridised from three plants, 10,000 years ago, so we’re speeding up the natural process of combining chromosomes from different plants with the different characteristics we want to reproduce, and then seeing what effect that has on the new variety. A little known fact - whereas we only have one

set of chromosomes, wheat actually has three. The research all ties very much into climate change, because changes in the climate mean we need more drought and heat resistant crops, and with changes in the weather comes a growing risk from pests and diseases. Fungal pathogens, for example, like the kind of hot, humid weather that we’re likely to experience more of in the near future.

The work we do as individuals might seem insignificant to outsiders, but it’s a big collective effort focused on incremental gainseach tiny step gets us a little closer to avoiding the impending doom of global food insecurity.

I'm working with a microbe which can eat carbon dioxide (CO2) - a greenhouse gasand then it transforms that CO2 into valuable products. This could be useful chemicals, typically ethanol, or you can turn it into biomass for fish feed, which means we don’t have to feed farmed fish with other wild fish, which is the norm, and that means fewer trawlers in the sea killing off the ecosystem. Some of this is already being done at a large scale.

What I'm doing with this organism is trying to modify it to produce chemicals which are more interesting than ethanol or biomass, which makes economical sense and provides potential

ecological benefits. For example, you could convert the CO2 into things like plastics which would ‘lock-up’ the carbon long-term, while taking the oil out of that process. With this microbe you could also begin to decarbonise industries - for example, you could potentially make low-emission steel.

It's never going to be enough to fill all the demand which is currently met by petrochemicals, though. It’s one way of addressing it, but we'll never be able to do enough for the lifestyle we have today. Big companies try to use this technology to say, “Oh, we can keep drilling new oil pits,” but that's not how it works.

According to the Clean Cooking Alliance, cooking on open fires and on inefficient wood-burning stoves emits 25% of global black carbon emissions. Hence, clean cooking is vital to combat climate change and to reduce environmental degradation. My research into sustainable, appropriate technologies includes the design of novel fuel-efficient wood-burning stoves and biogas cooking systems.

But developing new cooking technologies is only one part of the solution - it can be very hard to convince people who have been cooking in a certain way to change their behaviour, particularly since cooking is embedded in cultures around the world, with

many invisible rules and traditions that may not be immediately obvious to an outsider. Replacing smoky stoves with slightly less smoky stoves will probably have little positive impact on the environment, particularly where there is no way to dispose of rubbish or crop residues apart from burning.

Instead, a whole community approach is required, which tackles all the sources of smoke and comes up with safer alternatives which are acceptable to everyone. I’m working on such an approach with the Smokeless Village Project in Malawi.

We were approached by a product development team in 2020, who wanted to produce an alternative tree guard to the oil-based and nonbiodegradable plastic ones commonly used, which at the end of their life litter the countryside and break down into microplastics and do a lot of harm.

Reforestation is essential for fighting climate change, so we relished the opportunity of creating something that worked in harmony with growing trees and hedges. Over a period of nine months, Print 4 Ltd invested heavily in creating a tree guard that not only removed all plastics from the product, but also encouraged growth of the saplings. The guards use a

specialist card which is FSC-approved, carbonbalanced, has a unique water-phobic barrier and the inks used are all vegetable-based.

We took a lot of advice from arboriculturists on the design. They not only naturally break down, but they also encourage the growth of the sapling because they create a friendlier climate for it to grow.

Thousands of guards were deployed all over the UK with fantastic feedback, along with the Woodland Trust having them on test at various sites, and now the consortium of product developers has formed a business called Grown Green (growngreen.co.uk).

our universities and businesses starting to come up with innovative and exciting methods for protecting our planet, Nottingham now finds itself at the forefront of the fight against climate change. We hear from four local minds who are helping to lead this fight…

interviews: Adam Pickering

photos: Hannah Cattell, William Morris and Andy Peat

Nikki Walter - PhD student in Plant Science, University of Nottingham Creating climate change-resistant wheat crops

François Seys - PhD student in Synthetic Biology, University of Nottingham Engineering microbes to eat CO2 and produce valuable chemicals

Dr Mike Clifford - Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham Designing more eco-friendly alternatives to traditional cookstoves

Matt Boam - Director at Nottingham-based sustainable printers, Print 4 Ltd

Creating biodegradable cardboard tree guards out of recycled materials

STUDY FOUNDATIONS

Some sceptics argue that science and technology has little to offer the natural world but destruction, and it’s easy to point out our many past efforts at fixing things that have led to harm. But I’d argue that innovation is intrinsic to the human spirit, and so it’s crucial that we harness it carefully.

Many offer the early Mesoamerican cultures that once spanned southern North America and Central America as examples of simpler, more harmonious societies - but they too were innovators, cultivating wild plants into the beans, squashes, corn (all of which were traditionally grown together in what’s called the ‘Three Sisters’ method), tomatoes, chillies, and humble spuds that form the backbone of so many Western diets.

ENVIRONMENT

up in August 2020 in a burst of furlough-fuelled “why not?” entrepreneurialism, Nottingham Vertical Farm, based in Carlton, is the city’s first commercial indoor farm. We talk to Will Glass, one half of the duo behind the business, to ask about their journey so far and how their approach can benefi t both the environment and food security…

So where did Nottingham Vertical Farm begin?

The Olmecs are one of the earliest such cultures on record - and the word Olmecs translates into “rubber people”, precisely because they were the first known to extract rubber from trees. When Europeans arrived we were often escaping resource-depleted lands. We came with a mindset to conquer not only the indigenous populations, but also to take their natural resources for our own; nature was our greatest rival, something to be dominated, and the emergence of modern capitalist society has gone hand-in-hand with wildlife’s destruction.

There’s something to be learned from such older cultures and their longevity, and today’s innovators are paying attention. We’re recognising the need for more holistic practises which bring nature and people together around our shared needs; modern movements like permaculture and regenerative farming borrow much from the past, and champion communitarianism over greed.

Scientists and innovators featured here spoke reverently about nature and being closer to it - many get closer than most of us can comprehendand were also aware of the cultural complexities of their work. Nobody deified themselves or claimed that their solution was the only one.

This work is incremental, iterative, and painstaking. I say we should honour our innovators for their often inglorious and tedious tasks, and each try to find small ways to innovate in our own lives, along more natural lines.

I was on furlough at the time and my now business partner Nik (Nikul Patel) knows the guy that’s renting out this warehouse space. He said, “I’ve got an opportunity to start a vertical farm.” He'd done some research on it and was really keen, and he knows that I'm big into growing my own food anywayI've got an allotment and I've been doing that for years, I love it. Nik originally wanted to start growing microgreens, and I said that I'd get involved provided we grow mushrooms as well.

Before this I was working for a distribution company managing 3D printing for them, which was great and really interesting, but I got tired of the corporate life and in a way it wasn't satisfying me. As soon as we started this we realised how much fun it is and how much more satisfying it is. So I decided to quit my job to focus on this full time.

Did you find much interest in the sort of produce you’re able to grow?

Well, we just had this space that we're in now to begin with. We had the grow tanks set up in here, originally for the first six months. But then we quickly realised that we needed more space. So at that point we took on the whole floor, and then it just grew from thereno pun intended... It's not paying the way for either of us yet, but it's getting there.

We’ve covered all the big investments we’ve put in, so it's now just about ramping up business and attracting more customers.

Mushrooms, in particular, there's massive demand for - I can't grow the mushrooms quick enough a lot of the time. At the end of last year we went around Nottingham and handed out a lot of samples to restaurants and we got a lot of good feedback from that, and quite a few more regular customers. That made us realise we really had to ramp up production, because the room

is capable of producing about 400 kilos of mushrooms a month, but the labour to do that is massive.

Is it sustainable in terms of the environmental impact? There is an amount of energy consumption involved in running this place. At the moment we're running on about £70 a month of electricity, so it's not astronomical. All of the lights that we're using are extremely low wattage, everything's on timers or on sensors to reduce the time that these pieces of equipment are on.

Ultimately, we’d like to have a bigger premises with solar panels on the roof so we can actually generate our own electricity, but I’d say what we're doing here is considerably more green than if you were to go and buy a punnet of, say, Oyster mushrooms from Tesco - because they've come from the Netherlands, or their King Oysters come from South Korea. So you can look at these products and say they're really good for you, which they are, but they've come a long way to here - and that means quite a big carbon footprint from travelling.

them back to us, we'll clean them out and we'll use them again. So we're trying things like that.

Do you reckon vertical urban farms have a role to play in addressing food security in the future?

I think so. We've seen even this past year the supply issues with stuff being imported into this country. So to have your food grown as locally as possible, it can only be beneficial. I think it plays a part of the bigger picture in future - it isn't the solution, but it's going to be a part of it. If you have hubs in every city that can produce food, at a low energy cost, or net zero if they've got their own solar panels, it can only do good. There are no setbacks that I can see.

In my opinion, agricultural use of land at the moment is just shocking. The farming industry, in terms of cattle and so on, it’s so unnatural in my mind, and that really needs to change. Even the way that we grow crops, blasting them with pesticides and herbicides, the soil is pretty much dead because what goes on your vegetable is going into that soil. So if you can produce food in a more controlled environment where you don't have to use pesticides or herbicides, then it's better for the planet, and better for your health, and it frees up space for nature. How amazing would that be, if we rewilded half of the UK which is farmland? It’d be fantastic.

How can people get hold of your stuff?

I'm always looking at ways that we can make it a bit more sustainable and reduce as much plastic use, for example, as we can. We were originally using the PLA containers, basically a plant based plastic, but I think it's a bit of a greenwash really because it can't be recycled in the vast majority of places. It's only biodegradable in an industrial process, which is not really that green.

So we use PET containers because they recycle easily, but we also say to people that if you want to give

People either message us on Instagram or they can email. A lot of it’s still through word of mouth, but we’ll hopefully be hitting a few of the local street markets in February like Sneinton, Sherwood, and The Park, which we’ll be posting about on our Instagram. Then we'll take it from there.

You can order from Nottingham Vertical Farm by emailing info@ nottinghamverticalfarm.co.uk or visiting their Instagram page

words: Adam Pickering

interview: Adam Pickering photos: Curtis Powell

Set

If you have hubs in every city that can produce food at a low energy cost, it can only do good

We should each try to find small ways to innovate in our own lives

BLUE-SCI THINKING

Does any genre embrace the boundless possibilities of the big screen like science fiction? The Matrix: Resurrections aside (it really didn’t need to be that long, did it?), it is a sphere of cinema that offers both overpowering joy and gut-wrenching tragedy, childish entertainment and thought-provoking introspection.

It has produced some of the most iconic franchises, movies and moments in cinematic history. “I am your father”. “I’ll be back”. “I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum… and I'm all out of bubblegum”. These are lines that have defined generations, have permeated popular culture, have won hearts and minds in such a major way and for such a long time.

So why does sci-fi strike a chord with so many people? For this humble observer, it is the genre’s ability to transport audiences to new worldsquite literally.

These worlds present the opportunity for amusing moments that can’t be found on Earth, like in Ridley Scott’s thoroughly enjoyable The Martian They allow viewers to become properly immersed in exciting cultures and concepts like in Denis Villenueve’s groundbreaking Dune. On the most basic level, though, they take moviegoers away from here, whichlet’s face it - has been more important than ever recently.

New to Nottingham and determined to find herself among like-minded people, Clelia McElroy set up a film course diving into the horror genre through a feminist lens. We chat with her all about Monstrous Flesh: Women's Bodies in Horror, female directors, and the future of horror…

Home to a plethora of female narratives while also notorious for its sexist bank of tropes, horror has a complicated and contradictory relationship when it comes to women. Trying to capture the complexities of a genre that both celebrates and punishes women is Clelia McElroy – facilitator of Monstrous Flesh: Women's Bodies in Horror, the feminist horror film course currently being held at Sherwood Community Centre.

“I take a few films that people know and love, and dissect them to within an inch of their lives,” Clelia jokes, referring to the ten-week course which dives deep into a new trope every session. “In the first session we talked about the origin of horror, for example, then in week two we looked at the vampire trope and how it was used to demonise female sexuality and female desire.

“I’ve always loved horror films. I grew up in the nineties and loved slashers and all that kind of stuff,” Clelia says. “I spent some time starting community cinema initiatives, so I’ve always been interested in that community aspect and teaching film. I’m also really new to Nottingham, and I thought the best way to meet my people would be to start a little course like this.”

years of hearing the genre referred to as a lesser subject of film study, she’s quick to defend it. “There’s an idea that horror doesn’t have any cultural value, but that’s not true. When you can contextualise a film, you can see which societal fears they are addressing,” Clelia says, eager to illustrate that horror is a mirror to society, reflecting the cultural thoughts and mores of its time.

There was a study done that showed it takes twice as long to kill a female victim on screen. Horror is a sensation genre, it’s like pornography

to kill a female victim on screen. Horror is a sensation genre, it’s like pornography. Those genres make people feel both horrified and titillated. It’s not fair, but it’s there.”

Nonetheless, horror also has a deep history of female involvement. Many of the first Gothic writers were women, from early contributors like Ann Radcliffe to iconic novelists along the likes of Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson. And in the modern era, we’re seeing a new cohort of exciting female directors and writers. “You can see the representation of women is changing a lot, women are getting involved behind the camera a lot more,” Clelia asserts.

It’s no surprise, then, that some of 2021’s most successful films have been of the sci-fi ilk. The aforementioned Dune was a cultural phenomenon and made enough money to greenlight a sequel - something very few thought would happen. Amazon Prime’s mindless action romp The Tomorrow War was one of the streaming giant’s most popular releases yet.

At a time when things have been so uncertain, so drab, these bold scenarios and weird worlds are there to take our minds elsewhere. Sci-fi often gets a bad rap - it’s for nerds, it lacks sophistication, it’s not real cinema - but it ultimately epitomises what films are all about: escapism.

So, to those who still shy away from the genre, I truly do find your lack of faith disturbing.

Horror is a subject Clelia is passionate about, and after many

In this way the course acts as a social history lesson, tracking attitudes towards women through the medium of horror films. As expected, the misogynistic history of the genre is unignorable and violence against women is often a visceral and central part of many of these films. “There’s no denying that horror depicts violence against women a lot more,” Clelia says. “There was a study done that showed it takes twice as long

The course, which plans to run until mid February, has received positive feedback so far. “It’s been just lovely, everybody has joined for very different reasons; either they love film, or they want to do something different, or they’re interested in feminism,” Clelia says. “We have a noticeboard on Facebook where everyone is sharing films, podcasts, suggestions, and readings. I’ve never had this kind of response, so that’s a real testament to how creative Nottingham is as a city.”

Find out more about the film course at facebook.com/monstrousflesh

To Do Colour of Love

The team behind Colour of Love, a powerful film highlighting the experiences of mixed-race couples in Notts, are hosting a screening and Q&A this Feb. Grab your tickets and get some questions ready.

Thurs 24 Feb, West Bridgford Library

It’s been two years since the release of one of the strangest films you’re ever likely to see - Little Joe. What isn’t strange, though, is that Nottingham’s own Janine Duvitski is in fine form as the creatively-named ‘Lady’.

Follow

Off the back of their successful screening session at One Thoresby Street, the gang at Jackie Treehorn have turned their Insta into a regular stream of quality film recommendations. The Dude abides.

Sci-fi epitomises what films are all about: escapism

words: Lizzy O’Riordan photo: Alex McElroy

To Remember Little Joe

SHORT REELS

To

Jackie Treehorn Productions

@clelia.mcelroy

GOODGOODBYE are you happier now? (Single)

Sporting chilled out guitar tunes that have us reminiscing about lying in the sun on a summer's day, GOODGOODBYE bring soulfully warm indie pop with their debut single. For a first release, this song is very promising for the duo. With soothing vocal harmonies and cosy, comforting, mellow basslines, this track is easy to listen to on a loop, flowing well throughout, comparable to artists like Wallows, Gus Dapperton and Rex Orange County, whilst still being unique in its own right. GOODGOODBYE have lots to come. Katie Lyle

Tori Sheard Ocean Mama (Single)

Nottingham’s own musical talent Tori Sheard brought out her new single Ocean Mama this month, and it is a blessing to the ears. I have to admit, the first time I listened to this track, I didn’t hear many of the lyrics as I was lost in the peace and serenity of the backing music; making me feel lost for a second. On hearing the song back, however, the wonderfully vocalised lyricism just highlights the tranquillity of the track and makes for a really easy and enjoyable listen. I would definitely recommend this for the playlist when you just want to feel relaxed. Matthew Benton-Smith

The Low Drift Deadwood (Single)

A trio of Nottinghamshire heavyweights Emma Thorpe, Matt Hill and Huw Costin come together with The Low Drift collaboration. The single Deadwood, released on Friday 7 January, is a taster of their debut album that hits us in March 2022. Emma takes lead vocals on this stripped back, haunting folk song, very reminiscent of Kate Bush, understated acoustic guitar and rhythms, with a retro synth sound of the early seventies. Deadwood is a moment of calm in our busy day.

Bassey

This three-track EP is one hell of a debut for Notts’ own Sasha Assad. Opening with the high-tempo Frankenstein, this exciting artist instantly establishes a sound that wouldn’t feel out of place in the latest FIFA soundtrack - and that’s no bad thing. The slightly more constrained Don’t Ask Me to Dance and Cut Loose bring the pace down a notch, but never lose the bite that makes this such an engrossing listen. Big things lie ahead for Assad. George White

NUSIC BOX

Drive Through Hazy

“A Hazily Electronic Duo” is the one-liner in DTH’s bio - and it’s pretty accurate. Sitting somewhere between Lana Del Rey and Chvrches but with a bit more… Britishness? A two-piece that look like they’d be your best mate on a night out, while at the same time serenading your soul with… well, something quite magical. Ethereal loveliness, destined to be talked about by chin strokers and your mum alike.

@drive_through_hazy

How I Learnt To Disengage From The Pack (Album)

How I Learnt To Disengage From The Pack was out 28 January and it's a must listen for this year. Released by Nottingham artist Ben McElroy on The Slow Music Movement label, experimental folk/post rock folk sounds all shout out on this album, where acoustic guitar, cello, fiddle, accordion/organ meet with drones aplenty, and he provides an intimate and fragile sound that demands your attention. If experimental folk is a genre, I'm a fan. Bassey

Midnight Rodeo

Basically a Notts supergroup consisting of some of NG’s finest musos, Midnight Rodeo make a type of music that is quite hard to describe. But to give it a go: it’s kind of like the seventies had nuptials with modern-day indie and then had a love affair with sixties sleaze, before it got high at an acid gig. Top that off with more than a hint of ‘hell yeah we’ve done this before’ swagger and you’ve got the recipe for a banging Midnight Rodeo cake.

Sasha Assad Screwed Me Up Like Frankenstein (EP)

Ben McElroy

UNDER COVER ARTIST

WITNESS TO HISTORY

Tell us a bit about yourself…

I moved to Nottingham to study at NTU. I completed my BA in Fashion Communication and Promotion and went on to study Textile Design for my Masters. I’m a mixed-media artist so I enjoy working with different mediums from textiles to collage and photography.

In September, I landed a job as Design Assistant at LeftLion and it’s pushed me as an artist so much. I love going to work knowing I can be creative and try new things artistically, but I couldn’t have done it without the support of such a great team.

What was the inspiration behind the cover?

I was given ‘Science’ as the brief and it was actually my least favourite subject in school. Despite me winning a competition when I was eleven called ‘Why I Want To Be A Scientist’.

However, I always found interest in the diagrams and drawings in science books and I’ve always loved vintage botanical and anatomical drawings. I wanted to use them as a starting point of inspiration but recreate them in a more futuristic way, so some of the drawings aren’t necessarily scientifically accurate.

How does it compare with some other projects you’ve worked on?

During my time at LeftLion, I’ve created various designs since October using painting, collage and digital illustration. I also designed the December Independent Christmas Guide, which was really rewarding. I like being given a specific brief to work from as it narrows down the scope of overthinking, but I did feel more pressure with this project as the cover is something big and it puts you directly face-to-face with the audience.

What was the biggest challenge that you faced in creating this month’s cover?

Getting over my own psychological brick walls, for sure. When I was first asked, I was afraid I wouldn’t do a good job of it, but realised it was my chance to have fun with it. LeftLion is a magazine I’ve admired since moving to Notts and I appreciate how different each of the covers are. So much so that I took inspiration from LeftLion when I created my own newspaper for my degree. If someone back then told me that I'd work for them and have my artwork on the cover I’d be asking, ‘Who paid you to lie to me?’

Tell us about some projects you’ve worked on in the past…

For my MA, I created a collection of 3D textile art pieces discussing climate issues and the importance of nature. My favourite was the Sad Earth Rug, which took me over six weeks to complete. Using ethically sourced yarns I hand-punched each individual loop using a technique called punch needling. My plan was to present them as an art installation, but unfortunately the final show didn’t go ahead due to the pandemic.

What have you got planned for the future? I try not to plan too much because the future can easily be unpredictable, but I just want to keep pushing myself creatively and keep trying new things.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers? Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s easy to be your own worst critic and you can never please everyone, so enjoy what you do and everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.

As Lakeside Arts presents two chilling new exhibitions, The Eye as Witness and Fragments of Sudan, our understanding of agency, suffering, and war are refigured through photography and virtual reality…

In Lakeside Arts’ Djanogly Gallery, a fascinating combination of exhibitions are now on display. The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust, an immersive multimedia experience which examines Holocaust photography, is exhibited alongside Fragments of Sudan, which displays a collection of photographs by Greek-born, South Sudan-based photographer Nektarios Markogiannis. Together, the two exhibitions aim to provoke viewers to think critically about the photographs that they observe, and consider the ways in which many photographs may not accurately depict the true nature of the experiences of the victims within them.

Markogiannis’ aim is to invite viewers to empathise with the suffering and resilience of those in Sudan who have been forced to flee to United Nations refugee camps

The Eye as Witness displays a variation of photographs of Holocaust victims, a visual testimony, and a rare example of a written note from a victim within the Nazi camp system. Interactive recording technology known as the Forever Project is also featured, providing the words of survivors speaking to us today. Alongside this, Virtual Reality technology gives viewers the opportunity to become immersed within a scene which displays a Nazi photographer capturing a photograph of Jewish people within the Warsaw Ghetto. It provides visitors with the opportunity of observing what is left out of the frame of the image. The outcome of this is that visitors can think critically about the way in which popular photographs of Holocaust victims are unreliable, as most of them were taken by official Nazi photographs for the use of propaganda. Rarely seen photos secretly taken by Jewish people and members of the anti-Nazi resistance are also exhibited. For the World to Know, by Ivanna Holowaty, showcases the images taken by holocaust victim Joanna Szydlowska in 1944 with a camera that was smuggled into the women’s concentration camp in Ravensbrück.

Serving as a contemporary response to The Eye as Witness, Markogiannis’ Fragments of Sudan showcases documentary photography of those affected by the civil war in Sudan. Refraining from the use of graphic imagery, opting instead to capture horrific moments in a subtle and sensitive way, Markogiannis’ aim is to invite viewers to empathise with the suffering and resilience of those in Sudan who have been forced to flee to United Nations refugee camps. The display offers a tragic yet necessary warning that mass genocide, ethnic cleansing and enforced displacement of people is still present in the world today. The photographs explore a range of events, from children playing football in Bentiu’s Protection of Civilians site, to peaceful demonstrations in Protection of Civilians site ‘PoC1’ after the World Food Programme announced a 30% cut in food rations.

Both exhibitions act as an important reminder that the forces that were so deeply interwoven in the Holocaust are still prevalent across the globe. The photographs taken by the Holocaust victims gave them a certain level of control over the way in which future generations are able to witness their suffering. Similarly, Markogiannis’ photography of civil war victims in Sudan attempts to develop an alternative visual language for capturing the violence and suffering which they have been subjected to.

The Eye as Witness and Fragments of Sudan are open to the public at Djanogly Gallery until Sunday 13 March 2022.

LeftLion’s Design Assistant Fiona Carr gives us the rundown on their first ever cover, a celebration of all things scientific…

Visitors can think critically about the way in which popular photographs of Holocaust victims are unreliable

He hated slavery, promoted the education of women, created far-sighted inventions, led the Midlands Enlightenment and made enormous strides forward in physics, biology, medicine, botany and numerous other fields. So why isn’t the name of Erasmus Darwin, perhaps the greatest scientific mind Nottingham ever produced, more widely known?

Having historical heroes is a dangerous business, and for very good reason. Time and again I’ve become fascinated with a figure from the past, only to find out that they’ve been involved in some horror which, even if justifiable (or as often, not) during their lifetime, still leaves you with a bitter taste in the mouth. I’m not naïve enough to think that by digging deep I will uncover some saint-like figure who never put a foot wrong, and understand that, as complex, flawed humans, we are all products of our cultural and societal environments. To steal a quote from John Dalberg-Acton, “Great men are almost always bad men.” As our understanding of the past shapes our view of the present, we’re in a constant state of re-evaluation about which figures are still celebrated today. Take Edward Colston as a recent, high-profile example of this. For almost two centuries his involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was overshadowed by his philanthropic work, despite the fact that such work was funded by his participation in the buying and selling of human beings. It wasn’t until the 1990s, over 270 years after his death, that the attention truly shifted towards his reputation as a slaver and, last year, his statue was unceremoniously torn down and dumped into Bristol Harbour.

It’s always with a certain level of trepidation that I begin researching figures from Nottingham’s history worth celebrating and, with this being the science issue, I was quite spoilt for choice. With my tin helmet firmly affixed, I started to wade through the minefield of potential wrong’uns, only to find myself pleasantly surprised. For all the enormous scientific forward strides the sons and daughters of this city have produced, one name appeared time and again. A man that, for the most part, appeared to be on the ‘right side’ of history and, despite not even being the most famous name in his family, made an incredible social and scientific contribution during his life.

Erasmus Darwin could best be described as a scientific all-rounder. A polymath who, perhaps in detriment to

now and then

his popular legacy, can’t be summed up for a singular creation in the same way a Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell can. But his contributions to the English language, poetry, natural philosophy, physiology, the burgeoning theory of evolution and enlightenment thinking were all groundbreaking. In the introduction to The Life of Erasmus Darwin (written by his grandson, Charles – more on him later), editor Desmond King-Hele says Erasmus is seen as “having achieved more in a wider variety of fields than anyone since.” Poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge described him as “the first literary character in Europe,” and, more recently, Erasmus Darwin has become known as ‘the Da Vinci of the Midlands.’

He was widely ridiculed for suggesting that electricity might one day have practical uses, as well as his belief that women should be educated

So why isn’t he as widely-known as, for example, his own grandson today? It’s a complex question, and the cogs of history have a habit of swallowing worthy people as they churn on, unrelenting. As much as I loathe the phrase ‘ahead of his time’ (as being of his time, he was, in fact, exactly of his time), there’s something of the Marty McFly playing Johnny B. Goode to a bemused 1950s audience about Erasmus Darwin. “You might not dig my Theory of Evolution,” he might have said, “but your great-grandkids will love it.” We’re also offered the benefit of hindsight when evaluating his place in the annals of time. He was right about so many things - be they the education of women, the abolition of the slave trade, the theory of evolution, or his numerous inventions – that it is only now, when looking at how integral he was at shaping the building blocks that serve as the foundation of our

modern understanding of huge natural, societal and philosophical questions, that we can truly appreciate his perspicacity. He was a man truly committed to progress, in all its forms.

But perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In 1731, Erasmus Darwin was born into a Britain of relative social stability. The population was at a steady seven million, and the increase of agricultural production ensured that, generally speaking, there was enough food to go around. There were deep cultural divides, particularly in the Celtic fringes – Ireland, Scotland and Wales – who had barely assimilated, and many of whom spoke no English at all. The throne was held by George II – the second monarch of the relatively new Hanoverian dynasty –and the nation found itself at something of a historical estuary between the old world and the new. Perhaps the best example of this can be seen with a pair of events occurring less than two decades apart in the years before Erasmus’ birth: astronomer James Bradley becoming the first man to calculate the speed of light in 1728, and Jane Wenham being the last woman to be condemned to death for witchcraft just sixteen years previously.

The seventh and final child of a Nottingham lawyer, Erasmus was born at Elston Hall near Newark. His schooling in Chesterfield led to three years studying classics and mathematics at Cambridge, followed by another three years of medical training at Edinburgh, before returning to the Midlands where he would stay for the rest of his life. Running a successful medical practice in Lichfield, he endeared himself to the local population by saving the life of a fisherman who seemed sure to die, and was elected a member of the Royal Society –Britain’s national academy of sciences – in 1761. His first wife, Mary Howard, died in 1770, leaving three sons, two of whom subsequently died. But the youngest, Robert Warring Darwin, married the daughter of Erasmus’ close friend, English potter, entrepreneur and fellow abolitionist Josiah Wedgewood. It would be this marriage

Goose Gate, 1849

Goose Gate, 2022

words: Ashley Carter illustration: Natalie Owen

that produced Erasmus’ grandson Charles Darwin. In the early 1770s, Erasmus fathered two illegitimate daughters with his son’s governess, Mary Parker, before marrying a young widow named Elizabeth Pole in 1781 and subsequently fathering another seven children.

He was a compassionate, energetic, sociable and caring man, beloved by his patients and enormously respected by his peers. A rather unflattering physical description written upon his death in 1802 reads, “[he] was of middle stature, in person gross and corpulent; his features were coarse, and his countenance heavy; if not wholly void of animation, it certainly was by no means expressive… in his gait and dress he was rather clumsy and slovenly, and frequently walked with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.” He struggled to deal with pain, both his own and his patients, and regarded alcohol as poison, having watched his first wife follow her father into alcoholism.

But for his apparent physical failings (despite marrying three wives and fathering, by some accounts, at least fourteen children), Erasmus Darwin possessed a remarkably modern attitude to sex. He had no issues with masturbation or homosexuality, and believed that sexual reproduction facilitated the imprinted patterns of experience to be passed on to each new generation. “Sexual reproduction is the chef d'oeuvre,” he wrote, “the masterpiece of nature.”

Along with a large sexual appetite, he possessed a mind quite unmatched in his lifetime. Coleridge described him as “the most inventive of philosophical men… he thinks a new train on every subject.” In his biography of Darwin, Hesketh Pearson said, “There is hardly an idea and hardly an invention in the world of to-day that he did not father or foresee, from the philosophy of Mr. Bernard Shaw to the phonograph of Mr. Thomas Edison, from eugenics and evolution to aeroplanes and submarines, from psycho-analysis to antiseptics.” Among the unpatented inventions credited to Darwin were the flushing toilet, weather monitoring machines, a copying machine, the steering wheel for carriages (which would be adapted for cars 170 years later), a rocket engine and a speaking machine manufactured to recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Darwin believed that the point of life was to change the world, not just interpret it. He promoted industrial

Object walk

innovation in the Midlands, maintaining that mechanical inventions would make life better for everybody. He invented new types of windmills and carriages, and transformed British manufacturing by promoting canal systems and the use of steam power. He sought progress through the introduction of scientific techniques into agriculture, such as in his Phytologia (1800), where he recommended the use of chemical fertilisers and other similar innovations for the ripening of seeds, improvement of timber characteristics and enlargement of fruit. His contemplation of nature led to the first recorded explanations of photosynthesis and the formation of clouds, as well as a description of the progression of life from micro-organisms to civilised society in his 1803 poem The Temple of Nature, confirming his belief in a shared ancestry decades before his grandson Charles presented the Theory of Evolution in his On the Origin of Species in 1859.

These views were shared at a groundbreaking coming together of the greatest minds of his generation as part of the Lunar Society, an ad-hoc gathering founded by Darwin in order to facilitate the sharing of Enlightenment ideals. Meeting in Birmingham during the full moon, members jokingly referred to themselves as ‘Lunaticks,’ and while the relaxed nature of the society ensured no surviving records, the group, at varying times, included the likes of Thomas Percival, James Watt and Benjamin Franklin. This exchanging of ideas led to what is now known as the Midlands Enlightenment, a pivotal link of intellectual advancement between the earlier Scientific Revolution and the subsequent Industrial Revolution. Topics of discussion included experimental science, polite culture and practical technology. In short, the Lunar Society were looking at tangible ways to implement the abstract knowledge of the generation before them to a world in desperate need of modern reform. P M Dunn says of the group, “they were the most remarkable group of thinkers and inventors in the eighteenth century,” continuing, “which had a more potent effect upon civilisation than that of any other in history.”

As Darwin grew older, his opinions became increasingly radical. He loathed war and castigated slavery, actively campaigning as an abolitionist and publicly praising the anti-slavery work of his friend Josiah Wedgwood. He

had compassion for the poor and homeless, to whom he provided medical treatment without requesting a fee, and was even farsighted enough to argue against excessive taxation of the American colonies, the primary cause of the American Revolution. He widely endorsed the education of women, establishing a school in Ashbourne, Derbyshire for his two illegitimate children, Susanna and Mary, where female students were encouraged to learn ‘appropriate’ subjects like physiognomy, physical exercise, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, and experimental philosophy.

A true republican at heart, he had little time for authority and declined an invitation to be a physician to King George III. Just six months after the French Revolution, during a time where the rest of Europe – not least of all Britain – was terrified that republican ideas would spread and topple ancient monarchies, he exclaimed to engineer James Watt, “Do you not congratulate your grandchildren on the dawn of universal liberty? I feel myself becoming all French both in chemistry and politics.”

His reputation as an atheist and republican saw his reputation suffer and, as a result, his work taken less seriously. He was widely ridiculed for suggesting that electricity might one day have practical uses, as well as his belief that women should be educated, lambasted for his stance of republicanism and democracy but, above all, despised for his outspoken views on dogmatic religion and the creation question.

By the time he died in 1802, aged seventy, his reputation had been largely destroyed. And it was this destruction of his grandfather’s name that prevented Charles Darwin from publishing his own findings on evolution for so long, only to suffer the same ridicule and abuse himself.

If Britain were ever to have its own list of Founding Fathers – the romanticised name given to the faction of men who helped drag the United States of America out from under the yoke of tyrannical British rule – ours would consist of men who ushered us out of a different kind of tyranny. Because it was men like Erasmus Darwin who helped guide in an era of reason and virtue, of science and tolerance, providing a light amidst the darkness of archaic, religious and social dogmatism that had served as the enemy of progress for so long.

We’ve teamed up with the National Justice Museum to put objects from the past into the hands of people in the present. This month, we took a pill maker, which medical staff in prison would use to make tablets for inmates, to Dan and Jimmy of Element in Hockley. After creating a medicinal mixture with a pestle and mortar, staff would lay the substance out in long strips and use the metallic area of the board to cut these strips into smaller shapes, helping to create several pills at once - long before mass production of tablets became the norm…

Dan: It looks like some sort of grate. Maybe an old school cheese grater or something? It looks like something goes on the wooden bit, it’s tilted… A paper shredder? I’m assuming you do something at the top and then stuff comes out the bottom.

Jimmy: Is it a type of grater? Or is it something to do with the actual prison? Maybe it’s got to do with washing clothes. I reckon rope or string could fit into those slots. Or it could be a torture device…

Dan: It’s definitely used to make something. Could you crush berries in it?

Jimmy: Yeah it looks like you put something in and essentially mush it up, and get a product at the bottom. Is that quite close?

Jimmy: (After learning what the item is) Ah, okay. That’s really interesting. You get what I mean with the grater, though. You could put a block of cheese on that and it’d probably work…

WHAT’S ON?

TUESDAY 1 FEB

������Chameleons Rescue Rooms £20, 7pm

������Lonelady The Bodega £12, 7pm

WEDNESDAY 2 FEB

���� Brush Painting Visual Arts Studio

£7.50, 6pm - 8pm

SATURDAY 5 FEB

������Samantha Fish Rock City £22.50, 6.30pm

������

LNC

The Chameleon £4, 7pm

���� Paul Foot - Swan Power Metronome £16.50, 6.45pm

���� Yoga and Art - Online New Art Exchange Free, 10am

WEDNESDAY 9 FEB

���� Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £38 - £73, 7.30pm

���� NCF Comedy Night Canalhouse £2 - £2, 7pm - 8pm

���� Glass Painting Workshop Malt Cross £8, 6pm

SATURDAY 12 FEB

���� Just The Tonic Comedy Club Metronome £6 - £13.50, 8pm - 10.30pm

���� Calligraphy DH Lawrence Pavillion Free, 3.15pm - 4pm

���� Chinese Knot Making DH Lawrence Pavillion Free, 1.45pm - 2.45pm

������James Blunt

WEDNESDAY 16 FEB

������She'Koyokh

Djanogly Theatre £5 - £20, 7.30pm - 9.30pm

���� Sumac Gardening The Sumac Centre Free, 10am

������Henge The Bodega £12.50, 7pm

������

The Bug Club Rough Trade £8.80, 7pm

������Banners The Bodega £12, 7pm

Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £29.75 - £103.20, 6.30pm

���� Tangled Film ScreeningDementia Friendly Mansfield Central Library £1, 1.30pm

GoGo Penguin Peggy's Skylight £20, 7pm

������

����

Fascinating Aida

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall

£23 - £29, 7.30pm

���� Bill Murray's New Worlds Savoy Cinema £9 - £11, 8pm

THURSDAY

3 FEB

Bad Manners Rock City £20, 7pm

������

������Onipa Metronome £12 , 7pm - 11pm

���� Hidden Garmz - Pop Up Hidden Warehouse Free, 5pm

������Underdark Stuck On A Name £5 - £8, 7pm

FRIDAY

4 FEB

������Diamond Head Rescue Rooms £17.50, 6.30pm

������

Example Rock City £25.50, 6.30pm

������

The Halle Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £11.50 - £37.50, 7.30pm

After Hours - Laefer Quartet Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £5, 9.45pm

������

������

The Hits of Whitney with Janine Johnson Peggy’s Skylight £18, 6pm

♫ Jungle Cakes Hidden Warehouse £15 - £18, 10pm

SUNDAY 6 FEB

������Ascension of The Watchers Rescue Rooms £17.50, 7.30pm

���� SMUT! The Verbal Burlesque! The Playwright 38 £6, 7.30pm

������Bastille - Live Intimate Show The Level £22, 6pm

THURSDAY 10 FEB

������Lloyd Cole Albert Hall £25 - £40

���� Winter Bird Walk

Bestwood Country Park Free, 8am - 11am

���� Story Structure 101 - Online Writing School East Midlands £40 - £45, 10am - 2pm

SUNDAY 13 FEB

���� Tea and Poetry with Xi Chen DH Lawrence Pavillion £5, 3pm - 3.45pm

THURSDAY 17 FEB

������Simply Red Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £55 - £65, 6.30pm

������Echo & The Bunnymen Rock City £35, 6.30pm

������Celestines The Bodega £7, 7pm

����

The Best of Kendal Mountain Festival 2021 Broadway Cinema £7 - £14, 8pm

������

The Slow Show (Live & Signing)

Rough Trade £12.50, 6pm

MONDAY 7 FEB

���� Stacey Dooley

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall

£23.50 - £32.50, 7.30pm

������Kiefer The Bodega £15, 7pm

����

Eco Flower Arranging Beeston Library Free - £20.25, 10am - 3pm

TUESDAY 8 FEB

������

The Stranglers Rock City £32.50, 7pm

������Bedouine The Glee Club £14, 7pm

������

Jane Weaver Rescue Rooms £13, 6.30pm

����

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK:

Series Two Tour

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall

£39.15 - £55.40, 8pm

������

Necronautical The Chameleon £10, 7pm

������Nova Twins Rescue Rooms £10, 6.30pm

���� Digital Marketing and Social Media for Beginners - Online Inspire Culture HQ Free, 10am - 11am

������Mark Lockheart's Dreamers Bonington Theatre £5 - £12, 7.30pm

FRIDAY 11 FEB

������Carioca Soul - Spirit of Brasil 66 Peggy's Skylight £14, 7.30pm

���� Katherine Ryan Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £27, 8pm

������Bicurious JT Soar £7.70, 7pm - 11pm

���� Nottingham VS Coventry Nottingham Rugby & Sports Club £3 - £15, 7.45pm

���� Sleep In Motion Rough Trade Free, 7pm

���� Comedy Showcase The Carousel £8, 7pm - 10.30pm

���� Lion and Dragon Dance Djanogly Theatre £5, 1pm - 2pm

���� Polski Klub Comedy The Glee Club £15, 6pm

���� Two Pints Podcast Live! Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £24 - £27, 7.30pm

MONDAY 14 FEB

������Paradise Lost Rescue Rooms £25, 7.30pm

���� Romeo and Juliet ROH Savoy Cinema £11 - £13.50, 7.15pm

������The Tom Ollendorff Trio Beeston Library £12, 7.30pm - 9.30pm

TUESDAY 15 FEB

���� The Art of Activism

DH Lawrence Pavillion £8, 10am - 12.30pm

������Ossian Huskinson Djanogly Recital Hall £5 - £16, 7.30pm - 8.30pm

���� Cardboard World DH Lawrence Pavillion Free, 10am - 1pm

���� The Book of Dust Broadway Cinema £14 - £16, 7pm

���� Editing & Publishing an Award-Winning Novel - Online Nottingham Writers Studio £15 - £19, 6.30pm

���� A Magical Adventure in Springtime (Aged 7-13) Nottingham Playhouse £6, 10.30am

������Stand Atlantic Rescue Rooms £13, 6.30pm

FRIDAY 18 FEB

♫

The Famous Baby and Toddler Disco (Ages 0-4) Nottingham Playhouse £6, 10.30am

������Dave Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £41.30 - £1,450, 6.30pm

���� Andy Bell - Live & Signing Rough Trade £13.50, 6pm

������Texas Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £31 - £52, 7pm

������Rob Green The Bodega £10, 7pm

���� The Delines Metronome £22, 7pm - 11pm

���� Franky Wah

Unit 13

£10 - £11, 9.30pm

���� Andy C - XO3.0

The Brickworks £20, 10pm

���� Mulan (1998) - Family Film New Art Exchange Free, 10.30am

���� Julian Siegle Quartet Peggy's Skylight £10 - £16, 6pm

���� CBeebies - Justin Live Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £18.50 - £21.50, 11am - 2.30pm

���� Drew Thomas The Bodega £8, 7pm

SUNDAY 20 FEB

���� Eco Dyeing & Embellishment Debbie Bryan £48, 10am - 1pm

���� Unbelievable Science Djanogly Theatre £8.50 - £10, 1pm - 2pm

���� Sunday Piano Series: Ke Ma Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £12, 11am

���� Metronomy (Live & Signing) Rough Trade £15.50, 6pm

���� Edgar Macias Quintet plays Buena Vista Social Club Peggy’s Skylight £12, 12pm

MONDAY 21 FEB

���� Rolo Tomassi Rescue Rooms £15, 7.30pm

���� Toy Story In Concert

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £32 - £68, 7.30pm

���� Sad Night Dynamite The Bodega £11, 7pm

TUESDAY 22 FEB

���� Starset Rock City £17.50, 7pm

���� BBC Philharmonic - Elgar Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £15, 7.30pm

���� Benjamin Francis Leftwich The Bodega £16, 7pm

���� Drag Bingo Rough Trade Free, 8pm

WEDNESDAY 23 FEB

���� Sons and Lovers Djanogly Theatre £3, 7pm - 9pm

���� Snapped Ankles Metronome £17.50 - £17.50, 7pm - 11pm

���� Mark Thomas - Product Broadway Cinema £15 - £17.50, 7.30pm

THURSDAY 24 FEB

���� Beans On Toast Rescue Rooms £15, 7pm

���� Safe Distance Djanogly Theatre Free, 1pm - 2pm

���� Maverick Sabre Metronome £18.50, 7pm - 11pm

���� Henry Rollins Albert Hall £29.50 - £40, 7pm

���� The Lumineers Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £47.70 - £123, 6.30pm

���� Death Blooms Rock City £10, 6.30pm

���� Poetry Scum The Sumac Centre £3 - £5, 7pm

���� Benefits The Bodega £8, 7pm

���� Alina Hip Harp Quartet Bonington Theatre £5 - £12, 7.30pm

���� What’s For Dinner...? All American Menu Malt Cross £28, 7.15pm

FRIDAY 25 FEB

���� The Night Cafe Rock City £13.50, 7pm

ONGOING EVENTS

FRIDAY 25 FEB

���� Looking After Treasured Objects - Online The Harley Gallery & Portland Collection Free, 12pm - 12.30pm

���� Alicai Harley Metronome £10 - £16, 8pm

���� Bass In Ya Face Live Motorpoint Arena Nottingham £63.90 - £92.15, 7.30pm

���� Natalie Duncan Trio Peggy's Skylight £12 - £18, 5pm

���� Palace - Live & Signing Rough Trade £15.50 - £26.50, 6.30pm

���� Stiff Kittens Malt Cross Free, 8.30pm

SATURDAY 26 FEB

���� Guided Walk: DH Lawrence 38 Carrington Street £3, 2pm

���� Tony Kofi - Inside Straight Peggy's Skylight £12 - £18, 5pm

���� Feet Rescue Rooms £12, 6.30pm

���� Soul II Soul Rock City £31.95, 6pm

���� Punk 4 The Homeless The Sumac Centre £5 - £10, 7pm

SATURDAY 26 FEB

���� Green Lung, Morag Tong and Old Horn Tooth Rough Trade £11.30, 7pm

SUNDAY 27 FEB

���� Sunday Jazz Jam Peggy's Skylight Free, 4pm

���� Dry Cleaning Rescue Rooms £16, 7pm

���� Puma Blue The Bodega £10, 7pm

���� Nottingham Rugby VS Bedford Blues Nottingham Rugby & Sports Club £3 - £20, 3pm

���� Jack Lukeman Rough Trade £17.60, 7.30pm

♫ Northern Soul Rough Trade Free, 2pm

MONDAY 28 FEB

���� Dana Gavanski Metronome £10, 7pm - 11pm

���� Holocaust: Untold Stories Djanogly Theatre Free, 1pm - 2pm

���� A Concert to Celebrate the Commonwealth Nottingham Playhouse £5.50, 7.30pm

���� English Functional Skills - 18 Week Course

Mansfield Central Library Free, 9.30am - 12.30pm Mon 21 Feb Mon 25 Jul

���� Nederlands Dans Theater 2 Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall £17.50 - £34 Fri 25 Feb Sat 26 Feb

���� Cluedo

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall

£18.50 - £40.50 Mon 28 Feb Sat 5 Mar

Wardrobe

Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall

£15.50 - £47.50 Tue 1 Feb Sat 5 Feb

Fri 4 Feb Sat 5 Feb

- 3pm Mon 21 Feb Mon 28 Mar

BEST OF FEBRUARY

Onipa

When: Thursday 3 February, 7.30pm

Where: Metronome

How Much? £12

Blending African music with electronics, Onipa are on a mission to connect people through the power of music. Describing themselves as Afrofuturistic, the band promise to bring a sense of Ghana to Nottingham, alongside a night of energy, groove and dance. This show follows their 2021 album release Tales of Utopia, so look forward to hearing some new tunes.

Nottingham Light Night

When: Friday 4 FebruarySaturday 5 February

Where: City Centre

How Much? Free

Light Night is returning to Nottingham once again. After taking a COVID-sized break, the electric light installation is back for two days this February, following the theme of rebel city. Exploring Nottingham as a city of rebellion, the castle is set to come alive with a fire garden, while the Old Market Square will be lit up with a thought provoking installation, courtesy of Nonsuch Studios.

Festival of Science and Curiosity

When: Monday 7 FebruaryWednesday 16 February

Where: Various Locations

How Much? Various Prices

In case you hadn’t already noticed, this edition of LeftLion is jam packed with everything science. Naturally, therefore, we have to mention the Festival of Science and Curiosity which spans the month of February. Set up to inspire curiosity, the festival invites the people of Nottingham to learn more about science through a series of online and in-person events. You can also watch out for The Curiosity Show on Notts TV.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

When: Tuesday 8 FebruarySaturday 12 February

Where: Theatre Royal How Much? From £21 Mystery, murder, and a shortlived dog: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is coming to the Theatre Royal this month. Adapted from Mark Haddon’s bestselling book, the story follows fifteen year-old Christopher (David Breeds) as he navigates the mystery of a dead dog. Exploring neurodiversity and adolescence, the play is tender and thought-provoking.

Bastille

When: Wednesday 9 February

Where: The Level

How Much? £22

After rising to success with their 2013 album All this Bad Blood, Bastille have remained an important name in the pop rock world. Now the band are heading to Nottingham for a live intimate session at The Level, in celebration of their brand new album Give Me the Future. Set to be released in early February, Nottingham will be among the first to hear it live.

Rollo Tomassi

When: Monday 21 February, 7.30pm

Where: Rescue Rooms

How Much? £16.88

Known for their DIY ethic and chaotic style, Rollo Tomassi are an experimental rock band hailing from Sheffield. We can spot them in Nottingham this month, though, as they visit the city to play the Rescue Rooms stage. Showcasing their brand new album, Where Myth Becomes Memory, you can look forward to a night of heavy rock supported by Pupil Slicer.

Alicai Harley

When: Friday 25 February, 8pm

Where: Metronome

How Much? From £10

Born in Jamaica and raised in London, Alicai Harley is famous for her sound that combines pop, grime, and dancehall music. Full of infectious energy, this exciting young artist can be found at the Metronome this month, performing from her latest album The Red Room Intro (Yard Gyal Inna Britain) Known for her dynamic live performances, get ready for a night of dancing.

Trinity

When: All of February

Where: The New Art Exchange

How Much? Free

Exploring his own Indian heritage, alongside the power of physical language, Hetain Patel’s largest solo exhibition to date, Trinity, is running at the New Art Exchange for the full month of February. Combining dance, martial arts, and sign language, the exhibition will be showcasing the artist’s new film of the same name, alongside its predecessors The Jump (2015) and Don’t Look at the Finger (2017).