Movies

Film review: Guardians Of The Galaxy

This year’s summer blockbuster season at the cinema is well into its stride – week four, in fact.  Transformers: Age Of Extinction, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and Hercules have all had their turn.  But now come the unlikeliest bunch of heroes of the lot – a thief, two thugs, a murderer and a maniac – and they all have the fate of 12 billion people in their hands.  They’re the…
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Books

Books: WILBUR SMITH: THE EARLY YEARS COLLECTION

Wilbur Smith is a literary phenomenon: a truly global bestseller, he has published 34 novels into 26 languages with sales in excess of 122 million copies. As part of the celebrations to honour an incredible 50 YEARS IN PUBLISHING, Wilbur Smith: The Early Years Collection, a beautifully presented, special edition box set (Price: £19.99) has been released this Summer.  The Collection…
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Books

Behind the scenes of our JONNIE ROCKET COMIC with author John Chapman

Now that we are at the last installment of Comic Jonnie Rocket that London Mums magazine has been publishing exclusively in the last 4 issues, I chatted to the creative mind of its creator. You can read all comics in our exclusive series in our magazine archive here. Q: Where do you draw inspiration for your books from? JC: I drew my inspiration for the creation of the character of ‘Jonnie…
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Books

Summer books and storytelling activities for children

Holidays are stressful enough with kids and keeping them entertained all the time is often a challenge, let alone when you have to keep up the good work they have done at school and the teacher is not around. We have found some fun educational activities for school children to do during these school holidays. New educational titles including popular sticker books will certainly come handy. Books…
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Movies

Film Review: Earth to Echo

In the last couple of weeks I have watched a few mainstream movies but none of them really impressed me. The cinematic beauty this Summer comes from independent low budgets films and in the kiddies’ space two in particular caught my imagination because they are sensationally written: Boyhood and Earth to Echo. Kids-driven Sci-Fi Earth to Echo is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) meets The…
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Movies

Film review: Believe

While the blockbusters are dominating the summer box office, it would be all too easy to overlook the lower budget films on offer.  Which means that film makers have to be just a bit more imaginative when it comes to attracting an audience.  Take Believe, for example, which is released this Friday, 25 July. It’ll get decent distribution in cinemas but, so that it reaches a wider audience, it…
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Movies

Future Films Heads Up: The Unbeatables - AN AWARD WINNING 3D ANIMATION FROM OSCAR WINNING DIRECTOR JUAN JOSE CAMPANELLA

The Unbeatables is voiced by an all-star British voice cast including Rupert Grint (Harry Potter), Anthony Head (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘Merlin’), Ralf Little (‘The Royle Family’), Rob Brydon (‘The Trip’) and renowned impressionist Alistair McGowan (‘Arthur Christmas’).  Vertigo Films has dated award-winning 3D animation The Unbeatables (Foosball) for 15th August…
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Books

Can perennial bachelors change into husbands?

As one of the most famous bachelors gets ready to take his wedding vows, the question seems rather pertinent. Can perennial bachelors like George Clooney change and become longstanding husbands – able to weather the rough seas that accompany the great times? Remember those snippets of advice our mothers offered on our love life? My mother’s wisdom was that you should never marry a…
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Movies

Future Films Heads Up: Planes 2: Fire & Rescue

Last Summer Disney’s Planes was released and we were so excited to have the opportunity to meet both Teri Hacher and the filmmakers behind the great animation that went on to gross more than $219 million worldwide. That’s why we are pleased to announced that the second instalment Planes 2: Fire & Rescue is released to UK cinemas in 3D on 8th August 2014. Planes: Fire & Rescue is…
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Books

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is 25!

When my son was at the nursery and then in reception he was totally obsessed with Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. I ended up buying and reading many of its books and I have become a big fan of the elephant myself 🙂 Elmer, written and illustrated by leading children’s author and artist David McKee, celebrates its 25th Anniversary at Andersen Press this Summer and we thought we bring you 25 fun…
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