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Latest
  • [ 27th May 2026 ] Portsmouth UCU Branch Condemns Iran War and Calls for University Ethics Review News
  • [ 19th May 2026 ] The Portside Pod: An Exciting Design Concept for Portsmouth Historic Dockyards Culture
  • [ 11th May 2026 ] Planetbuilding Blues: Science Fiction Special News
  • [ 8th May 2026 ] The People’s Emergency Briefing: How to Combat Climate Change in Portsmouth News
  • [ 1st May 2026 ] Shrooms and Stones: Two Plant-Based Pop-Up Restaurants Join Forces in Southsea Events
HomeJanet Ayers

Janet Ayers

Culture

Holmes Fest 2024: A Portsmouth Creative Extravaganza

7th November 2024

Does Holmes Fest ring any bells? Some of you might recall the successful festival from pre-pandemic days, when local writer Matt Wingett launched a celebration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous character, [… read more ]

Culture

Tongues & Grooves Portsmouth #WritingChallenge4

6th May 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 was – in Paul Klee’s words – to [… read more ]

Events

Don’t Miss Portsmouth’s International Women’s Day Celebrations, 6-10 March

2nd March 2018

Portsmouth is celebrating International Women’s Day with a week of events around the city. Get the dates in your diary, get your tickets and get involved! Tuesday 6th March, 7:30pm, FREE, Eldon Building, Winston Churchill [… read more ]

Events

Holmes Fest 2017 Celebrates Conan Doyle in Portsmouth

20th June 2017

Portsmouth’s very first Holmes Fest is coming up on 28th June, celebrating the world’s most famous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, and their relationship to the city. Holmes Fest host and [… read more ]

News

How a Portsmouth Pepper Went Viral and Became ‘The Trump Pepper’

30th May 2017

Leader of Southsea Community Choir and Natural Voice Practitioner, Janet Ayers, never expected a Facebook joke to go viral last December. In this S&C exclusive, Janet writes about how ‘The Trump Pepper’ is still making [… read more ]

Reviews

Diving into the Wreck: ‘How Easy It Is To Slip Into Addiction’

31st May 2016

Portsmouth writer and Star and Crescent regular Will Sutton reports on Diving into the Wreck, a moving performance on addiction and recovery by poet Maggie Sawkins and director Mark C. Hewitt, funded by the Big [… read more ]

Latest News

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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News

Planetbuilding Blues: Science Fiction Special

11th May 2026

Writer and planetary modeller David Angus reminisces about science fiction (SF) conventions over the years and his friendship with SF icon Brian Aldiss. During Easter I was in Birmingham Exhibition Centre at a science fiction convention. [… read more ]

News

The People’s Emergency Briefing: How to Combat Climate Change in Portsmouth

8th May 2026

Climate change is undeniably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, existential threat facing humanity. It is, however, quite difficult to grasp, and understand the impacts it currently has, and will have, not only [… read more ]

News

Planetbuilding Blues: Space and Time Projects

9th April 2026

  Writer and planetary modeller David Angus details his latest projects, including Time Travel (and Dinosaurs) in Gosport. I’ve worked a lot on Jupiter’s moons, as you do. Callisto has already been mentioned in earlier [… read more ]

News

Pompey Climate Choir Protests Outside Barclays Bank

27th March 2026

Portsmouth Climate Choir performed their song ‘We’re Gonna Switch Our Bank’ outside Barclays in Portsmouth in collaboration with PSC and Trans Pride Portsmouth. Viola Langley reports. Members of Portsmouth Climate Choir sang a rousing rendition [… read more ]

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