The Advisory Circle's "Autumn Cycles" cloudcast

Here's a new cloudcast from The Advisory Circle to keep you going until the Radio Belbury transmitter is re-erected this December.

Annual Magic

Earth mysteries, crafts, folklore, ghosts, puppets, eccentrics, landscape archaeology and rude rhymes; The Puffin annual series commenced in 1974 with distinctive cover art by Puffin's in house illustrator Jill McDonald and illustrious guest illustrators such as Raymond Briggs, Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake, Fritz Wegner and Tove Jansson. With fiction and articles by the likes of Michael Bond, Susan Cooper, Tove Jansson, Norman Hunter, Roald Dahl and Nicholas Fisk. Contributors to number one also incuded Joyce Grenfell and Prince Charles !

I post these excerpts not simply as an exercise in nostalgia - I never owned them as a kid and I can't imagine there would have been many children who were completely absorbed by them -  it would have been a disappointing Christmas gift from a distant "auntie" perhaps, that would  slowly grab your interest later in the year. But its instructive to remember how childrens' entertainment of this period, for some at least, lent a sense of enchantment to the world, maybe educated, but also mystified, terrified and occupied. You could say that these annuals are a kind of snapshot of British childrens' fiction and television of the period too. Its a glimpse of a world before CGI, licensing, Cowell and Cbeebies drained any real magic from our childrens' culture.

Watch out those wires are live !

This weekend why not discover
your own ley lines, or... 

make some Smilers.

Dad ? What's a palimpsest ?

Did this Peter Edwards character come from Clinkskell ?

A little sinister maybe but not as much as this...

at home with the author of "Cruise of the Happy-go-Gay".

Will this be in the test sir ?

Concert of new work by Drew Mulholland

Drew Mulholland, the founder of Mount Vernon Arts Lab, is currently working as a composer in residence at Glasgow University. A concert of new pieces commissioned by the Department of Astronomy including Stella Nova inspired by the early 19th c. belief in the "Nebular Hypothesis" will be held in Glasgow in November.

Performers: Drew Mulholland, featuring the Edinburgh String Quartet, Jemma Knox (Percussion), Laura Baxter (Piano), and The Madrigirls (Choir).

This FREE concert begins at 7.30pm on 2nd November  in the University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel.

Helping you make the right clothing decisions.

A new range of Advisory Circle garments is available now in the Ghost Box shop. The Advisory Circle mandala design by Julian House is featured on the As The Crow Flies album artwork, and  comes in white on green T shirt, yellow on black T shirt or yellow on black long short sleeve T shirt.

Study Series 07: Pye Corner Audio

18th November sees the release of  the next single in the Ghost Box Study Series, No. 7 "Autumnal Activities". This time its by special guests Pye Corner Audio with the B side in collaboration with The Advisory Circle. Until then here are some clips...