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This Girl Can Teams Up with The Renewal Trust for Series of Sporting Summer Roadshows

The summer roadshows will offer women and their families the chance to try out a range of new sports and activities for free...

Film Review: Zack Snyder's Justice League

The director’s cut of DC Comics’ superhero team-up is four hours of wacky, over-the-top fun, writes Screen section co-editor Jamie Morris...

Metronome Have Expanded Their Virtual Line Up with Three Events from Nottingham Poetry Festival featuring Henry Normal

Following the success of the virtual festival and a string of gigs at the latter end of 2020, the venue announced further big names for their Metronome Sessions… 

Notts' Bella Ramsey Cast as Co-Lead in HBO's Adaptation of The Last of Us Video Game

Bella Ramsey will appear alongside The Mandalorian and Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal in the HBO adaption of video game The Last Of Us

Games Workshop Sees Record Profits During Covid-19

Nottingham-based Games Workshop has posted record profits and sales for the second year running and is now valued at at around £3.8 billion. The company has told investors that fans of its table-top games spent more on its products as they remained stuck at home for large parts of the period.

Poet Anthony Anaxagorou on Surrealism and Nottingham Poetry Festival 2020

As part of this year’s stellar online Nottingham Poetry Festival line-up, we chat to Anthony Anaxagorou: publisher, writer, poetry educator, Eliot Prize nominee and all-round prolific wordsmith. We talk lockdown, surrealism and his new book How To Write It...

Enter the Nottingham Poetry Hunt and Win Goodies from Rough Trade, Five Leaves Bookshop, Metronome and More...

Like a beacon of light in a seemingly endless sea of darkness, Nottingham Poetry Festival is back with (at time of printing) a nine-day programme of online events, performances and workshops. As part of this year’s festival, you can bag yourself some goodies by taking part in a poetry hunt around the city. 

Simply use the clues to work out these Nottingham venues – there’s treasure in poetic form waiting to be dug up in their windows, websites and social media pages.

"I started to cry because I just wanted to know what was wrong with me" - A 28-Year-Old's Battle With COVID-19

If you think that being young is protection enough from COVID, think again. 28-year-old writer and photographer Dani Bacon, who had no pre-existing health conditions, recounts her ongoing battle with the virus she contacted back in late July...

Why We Decided to Watch an Episode of Most Haunted in a Dark, Empty National Justice Museum...

We should do something Halloween-y for our October issue. Yeah, okay. How about with the National Justice Museum? Good shout. But what? I dunno. They made an episode of Most Haunted there, you know. Really? Yeah it’s on Amazon Prime. Imagine if we went over there and watched it in the dark where they spotted the ghosts. Do you think they’ll let us? We can ask...  

Sherwood-based Stone Sword Games Raised £90,000 in Two Days to Create a Hogs of War Minatures Game

There’s an element of risk in launching any crowdfunding campaign. If you don’t reach an audience, the failure can hang around the neck of a project like an albatross. But get it right, and the rewards can be limitless. The latter situation is one that Sherwood-based Stone Sword Games found themselves in recently, when their Kickstarter campaign for a miniatures version of classic PS1 game Hogs of War smashed through £90,000 in just two days. We caught up with co-owner Paul Allen to find out more...

Comedian Sara Pascoe on Her Move From Actress to Comedy and Singing For Robbie William's Dad

Stand-up comedian, actor, presenter, author, podcast host. There aren’t many things in the world of entertainment that Sara Pascoe can’t do. Ahead of her return to Nottingham to play Just the Tonic this month, we caught up with the popular comic to talk lockdown, her two new TV projects and being a backing singer for Robbie Williams’ dad…

The Nottingham Project's Greg Nugent: "We’re a creative city where culture thrives, but when other cities were upping their game, we stood still"

With a ten-year vision of turning Nottingham into a globally-recognised cultural heavyweight, and a board including the likes of Shane Meadows and Vicky McClure, last month saw the ambitious launch of The Nottingham Project. Spearheaded by the new Nottingham Board for Culture and Creativity, the project will seek to rejuvenate the city in the wake of a pandemic that has decimated much of the creative industry. As the director of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, Project chairman Greg Nugent knows what it takes to deliver on the biggest scale. We caught up with the man at the helm to find out more about what the city’s creative community has to look forward to...

12 Stories and Poetry Collections You Should Read During Lockdown

Our Literature Editor runs down some of the books that have kept her busy during these times...

A Guide to an Epic Games Night

A few months ago, the thought of joining all your friends on conference call software to partake in a quiz probably would have baffled you, but for most of us it’s now the norm. If the thought of yet ANOTHER Zoom quiz fills you with dread, fear not – as we’ve got the best ideas for hosting a games night during lockdown, without a pub quiz in sight...

Letters of Constraint: How the National Justice Museum are Documenting Life in the Coronavirus Era

With the aim of encouraging people to reflect on their lockdown experiences to create a written legacy of the COVID crisis, the National Justice Museum’s new Letters of Constraint virtual exhibition is looking for your participation. We talked to Dr Martin Glynn, the museum’s writer in residence, about how you can put pen to paper and be part of Nottingham’s lockdown story... 

The Parlour Games: The Photo Parlour's Answer to Isolation Boredom

With the aim of keeping traditional photography and its process alive, the Photo Parlour on Queensbridge Road had firmly established itself as the central hub for Notts photographers looking to shoot stills the old-fashioned way. With their doors currently closed for obvious corona-reasons, we chatted to Dan Wheeler about Parlour Games, the weekly lockdown photo challenges he’s started...

Just The Tonic Launch Online Comedy Night

Nottingham comedy club Just the Tonic have launched new digital live comedy night This Glorious Lockdown and there's an exclusive discount for LeftLion readers...

Why Video Game Adaptations Can Still Work

The lesson for filmmakers is this: if you are making a movie based on a game, embrace it

University of Nottingham Alumni Andy Wilson Works on the Call of Duty Franchise as Part of Sledgehammer Games

As Chief Operating Officer for Sledgehammer Games, University of Nottingham alumnus Andy Wilson has overseen some of the biggest video game franchises in the history of the medium, including Call of Duty. We caught up with him to talk about the current state of the industry, the unprecedented success of COD and violence in video games…

Local Game Developers Dambuster Studios Give Us the Lowdown on their Future Plans

Located in the heart of Nottingham, Dambuster Studios has been one of the country’s biggest video game developers for over twenty years. With projects including dystopian first-person shooter series Homefront: The Revolution and Dead Island, their Studio Development Director Rob Matthews tells us they have no plans of slowing down...

Bad Squiddo Games Are Addressing the Gender Imbalance in the Gaming Industry with Realistic Female Miniatures

Thought wargaming was just for boys? Think again, as Nottingham’s Annie Norman is addressing the gender balance in tabletop gaming, selling the largest array of realistic female miniatures in the world with Bad Squiddo Games...

February Mix Of The Month: Games With Galaxy Wolf In Space

In this mix series we invite local DJs to get creative with each issue’s theme. For February's game-themed mag, Galaxy Wolf In Space offers up a set of glitched-out bliss...

Tabletop Game Design Company Needy Cat on Creating the Official Hellboy Board Game and Their First In-House Release

Tabletop games studio Needy Cat are the fast-paced, sharp minds behind some of the most exciting board games on the market. Working with household-name franchises as well as other small creators, they have one aim: to get as many people playing games as possible. We spoke to them about their work, as they gear up to launch their first, completely in-house designed game, Robot Fight Club… 

Film Review: Just Mercy

Michael B. Jordan fights injustice within the justice system in this compelling true story...

Bird and Blend Tea Co. Are Smashing The Tea Game

Bird & Blend Tea Co. is an independent, award-winning tea company on a mission to reimagine tea. Started by Krisi Smith and her mate Mike, the business began in the bedroom of a house in Nuthall, and their range of over 200 teas now sit pretty in their eight physical UK stores...