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  • [ 14th October 2026 ] Portsmouth Library Event to Explore Giving Democratic Power to Communities Politics
  • [ 14th October 2026 ] Planetbuilding Blues: Gosport Time Machine Culture
  • [ 24th September 2026 ] Planetbuilding Blues: A Letter to My Dead Parents Events
  • [ 24th September 2026 ] Local Authors to Launch New Novels at the Portsmouth Guildhall Culture
  • [ 10th September 2026 ] Portsmouth Union Branch Calls on University to Address Pension Inequality News
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Poetry

Portsmouth Performers for Palestine: ‘Gaza’ by Paul Valentine

1st June 2025

There are ten days to go before the Portsmouth Performers for Palestine event and tickets are still available. In advance of the event, which is brought to you in association with Star & Crescent, the [… read more ]

Poetry

Portsmouth Performers for Palestine: ‘Complicit’ by Deborah Shaw

28th May 2025

In advance of the Portsmouth Performers for Palestine event, brought to you in association with Star & Crescent, the University of Portsmouth, the Universities of Sanctuary and Unite the Union, we present a poem by writer and academic [… read more ]

Culture

Lockdown Novelist: How I Finished My Book in a Pandemic

1st July 2020

Christine Lawrence describes finishing her novel, which had not been touched for a year, while in lockdown, and how she managed to write over 87,000 words during the pandemic. I sit and stare into the [… read more ]

Culture

89 Not Out: Day 66, There’s Nothing Like a Good (Audio)Book

21st May 2020

S&C contributor and Pompey Politics Podcast host Ian Morris shares his experience of the lockdown, as someone with diabetes. It’s Day 66 and Ian shares some of his best – and worst – reads from [… read more ]

Culture

Book Review: The Dark Nest by Sue Harper

21st May 2020

S&C Arts Correspondent Paul Valentine is impressed by a funny, irreverent, macabre and inventive new book of short stories by Sue Harper, local author and Portsmouth University Emeritus Professor of Film History. If you thought [… read more ]

Fiction

The Cat Catches a Pheasant

1st May 2020

By Christine Lawrence Standing on his hind legs, sure he’d heard a sound from the other end of the garden, he stretched his neck, sniffed the air and listened. His eyes were not his best [… read more ]

Fiction

Tongues & Grooves Portsmouth #WritingChallenge3

23rd April 2020

Maggie Sawkins, who leads local poetry and creative group Tongues & Grooves has unleashed a local #writingchallenge and they kindly let us publish the responses. This week’s challenge is to write a poem of 14 lines in which [… read more ]

Fiction

Tongues & Grooves Portsmouth #WritingChallenge2

8th April 2020

Maggie Sawkins, who leads local poetry and creative group Tongues & Grooves has unleashed a local #writingchallenge and they kindly let us publish the responses. This week’s challenge is to write a Cinquain, a syllabic form invented [… read more ]

Fiction

Tongues & Grooves Portsmouth #WritingChallenge1

3rd April 2020

Last week, Maggie Sawkins, who leads local poetry and creative group Tongues & Grooves unleashed a local #writingchallenge and they kindly let us publish the responses. Make sure you get involved and give Tongues and Grooves [… read more ]

Culture

This Pompey Event Didn’t Look For, But Found Me

25th October 2019

S&C’s newest team member and Contributing Editor, Esti Chivite, describes her experience of the recent launch of a local arts project and a pleasant, if unexpected, surprise. When my editor Tom Sykes emailed me asking [… read more ]

Posts pagination

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Latest News

Events

Planetbuilding Blues: A Letter to My Dead Parents

24th September 2026

Writer and planetary modeller David Angus recalls recent global and personal events in a letter to his dead parents, from anti-vaxxers to flying a Spitfire. By now Jill Mole should be with you and Arthur [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth Union Branch Calls on University to Address Pension Inequality

10th September 2026

The Portsmouth branch of the UCU (University and College Union) has passed a motion calling on the management of the University of Portsmouth (UoP) to address pension inequality. The Branch contends that UoP has been [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth Constituents Urge Stephen Morgan to Protest Oil Drilling and Support Fair Energy Transition

21st August 2026

Portsmouth constituents have sent a clear message to their MP Stephen Morgan demanding urgent action to help bring our energy bills down and increase energy security for our communities. The UK government is set to [… read more ]

News

Green Open Homes Week: How Portsmouth Residents are Taking on the Energy Crisis

26th June 2026

Energy prices are a growing concern – but for some, getting ahead of the crisis has paid off. Local residents have been opening their doors to Nicholas Sebley of Portsmouth Climate Action to reveal how they [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth UCU Branch Condemns Iran War and Calls for University Ethics Review

27th May 2026

The Portsmouth branch of the UCU (University and College Union) has passed a motion condemning the US and Israel’s illegal wars against Iran and Lebanon, and calling for an ethical review of the University of [… read more ]

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