Movies

New short documentary about a mother raising a child with three cultures premieres on 1000 Londoners

How far would you go to have a baby? And how do you bring up a child with multiple cultural backgrounds? A new short film on 1000londoners.com profiles a woman who has had to deal with both of these issues. Rose is a Spanish mother who grew up within Stockwell and Brixton’s Hispanic community. Her husband, Artif, is from Egypt and speaks Arabic as his first language. After unsuccessfully trying…
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Movies

Film Review: Postman Pat: The Movie

Postman Pat: The Movie hits the UK cinemas on 23 May 2014. If you are a big fan of Postman Pat like my 7 year old son who has watched absolutely ALL (with no exaggeration) series many times on TV and on DVD, you are certainly disappointed for the first 10 minutes of the movie while you are getting used to the different voices and CGI faces. But then the characters become familiar again and you…
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Movies

Film reviews - our movie marathon: Tarzan and The Amazing SpiderMan 2

Last Saturday my son and I took a trip to the cinema for our first movie marathon together. We headed to Vue at Westfield London (in Sheperds Bush) because of the very comfy chairs and great viewing from any seat of the cinema there. Vue Cinemas are also launching an ‘All-inclusive Family Package’ in conjunction with First Choice holidays. The package gives families entry into a film, as well…
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Books

Books for early readers: FREE Secret Seven titles by Enid Blyton

What a great idea for McDonalds (for once) to offer books with all Happy Meals instead of useless and cheap toys.  The books being give away are those by no less than Enid Blyton and her Secret Seven adventures. Over the period of the Secret Seven Happy Meal promotion (Weds 30th April – Tues 2nd June 2014) Happy Meal customers will receive: –         A physical Secret Seven…
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Movies

Heads Up! Future Films: Maleficent

The other side of the Sleeping Beauty story hits the big screen at the end of the month with the arrival of Disney’s much-anticipated Maleficent. Angelina Jolie, complete with to-die-for cheekbones, brings animation’s most iconic villain to life.  And, as she reveals in this special feature, it was a character she was especially keen to play. [youtube id=”EaGyYq-7WGE&#8221…
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Books

Mother and Son

Hello, I’m a novelist & journalist…I’m also a mum. And I have to say that the way mothers are portrayed in fiction DRIVES ME NUTS. Think about the books you’ve read which focus on being a mother…it’s all about the hard work, the difficulties, the mess and the way in which your life is taken away from you. What about the good stuff??? Where is the joy of…
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Movies

Heads Up! Future Films - Postman Pat The Movie

Does Glendale’s finest have the X factor?  We’ll find out when Postman Pat The Movie trundles into town later this month. Pat (voiced by Stephen Mangan) auditions for a national talent contest – and sounds uncannily like Ronan Keating! Ronan’s isn’t the only familiar voice in the film, as the cast list also includes David Tennant and Jim Broadbent. And with such a voice, Pat…
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Movies

Heads up! Future films: How To Train Your Dragon 2

It’s been four years since we met the wonderfully named characters from How To Train Your Dragon.  And Hiccup, Toothless, Snotlout and Fishlegs are back again this summer, still dragon racing on the island of Berk but now venturing further afield.  There’s even more dragons to train and a mysterious Dragon Rider to contend with in How To Train Your Dragon 2. And if you can’t…
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Movies

Film review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

It’s been a great Easter for family movies!  Rio 2 and Muppets Most Wanted for the younger film fans, Captain America:The Winter Soldier for the older ones.  But the big film aimed at the holiday is The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s another super hero and another sequel.  But the great thing about Spidey is that he’s not like all the others.  True, he takes his mission very seriously but…
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Books

Putting Wrong Things Right during the Queen’s reign

It is often hard to see the overview of progress of an era while you live in that time. I find all reads fascinating that give you an objective analysis of the changes of your environment. A new book Putting Wrong Things Right published by environmental organisation is marking 60 years of improvement during the Queen’s reign highlighting with great photographs and stats records of the London…
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