What Manchester reads today...

How do we access information? Print press, radio, television, or on the net?Often we use a combination of information sources, to find out what's going on in the world, what's worth seeing and where it might be worth going.

In days gone by, there were fewer trusted sources of information. The arrival of the Internet and the subsequent decline in newspaper circulation has made it harder for people to figure out what's kosher and what's not...

Manchester played an important role in the development of the British newspaper. For it was the city that was the birthplace of the left-leaning Manchester Guardian in 1821. The newspaper was established by the city's Unitarian community, who felt excluded from the political process - which was dominated by Anglicans at the time. At one time the paper was commonly called "Britain's non-conformist conscience". The Manchester Guardian became a daily in 1855.

The paper became known simply as The Guardian in 1959 and has retained the title ever since. The editor of the newspaper moved to London five years later.

The launch of Guardian Unlimited network of websites first went live ten years ago and the sites have helped the newspaper make the transition more smoothly and successfully than some of their competitors.

Mancunians regard their city with pride and rightly so. "What Manchester says today, the rest of England says tomorrow" was a popular phrase used to describe the city in late nineteenth century and it could, some might argue, still be applied today. Visitors and locals alike can hear more about some of the firsts pioneered in the city with the Manchester: Then & Now, Walk Talk Tour.

Manchester Libraries run a whole range of activities designed to engage people of all ages in the pursuit of knowledge (and have some fun).

The Central Library (pictured above from the Albert Square side) is one of the city's most striking buildings. Hear more about its architect and some of the famous and lesser known people to have studied there with the Walk Talk Tour Manchester travel guide. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

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The Manchester International Festival runs until July 19 at various locations in the city. For more information please click here.

Visitors can hire the Walk Talk Tour Manchester city guide from the Visitor Information Centre in the Town Hall Extension on Lloyd Street, just off St Peter's Square. Headphones and tour plan provided.

The lower picture shows the arhces which run beneath the Town Hall Extension, on the Mount Street/Albert Square side of the building.

Westminster Abbey orders a corona

Westminser Abbey the site of the coronation is set to have a new addition added to its roof. The feature will cost £10m and is known as a corona.

Confusingly, as is the way with the English language there are umpteen different meanings for the word corona. When I think of a Corona, I think of the beer of the same name. Apparently, a corona also is the name for a long, blunt ended cigar. In addition, the word describes coloured rings of lights, typically from red outside to blue inside, which sometimes appear to border the Sun or Moon. The origins of the word, according to A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford Paperback Reference, Oxford University Press, 2006) comes: "From a Late Latin name meaning ‘crown’; name of a minor saint martyred in Syria in the 2nd century, who was venerated in Bavaria, Austria, and Bohemia in the Middle Ages".

The corona planned for Westminster Abbey will be a crown like structure. According to Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent in The Times: "The intention is to create a gilded structure, which is likely to be composed in part of wood, glass and lead, in time for the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen's Coronation in June 2013".

Visitors to London can hear about the Abbey's rich history with The Palace Trail audio travel guide. The Palace Trail walking tour begins outside of the Abbey and concludes in front of Buckingham Palace. Listeners have the flexibility to enjoy seeing the sights at their own pace, as opposed to having their agenda set by a conventional tour guide.

A Benedictine monastery was established here in the middle of the tenth century. After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror elected to have his coronation in the Abbey. Every subsequent English - then later British - monarch has been crowned in the Abbey - bar two. Find out which two with The Palace Trail audio tour guide, discover why Westminster Abbey is a royal peculiar and more. To hear an audio sample from The Palace Trail please click here.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours. All of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free by entering the following promotion code into the shopping basket page: VL405.

The image above shows the West Towers of Westminster Abbey, which were begun under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren, but were completed in 1745 - after Wren's death - under the gaze of one of his pupils, Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Baked Britain - London set to enjoy sun

Temperatures in the British capital are set to soar over the next two days, Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30. Temperature could reach 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 F). Night time temperatures are expected to be as high as 19 - 20 degrees Celsius.

We are not used, or often very good, at coping with extremes in temperature in the British Isles. That's probably one of the reasons why the weather is such a popular topic of conversation throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The anticipated heatwave has led to the Government issuing an amber alert, which means that there is 60 per cent chance that an area, or areas, of the UK will experience high temperatures on two consecutive days - and in the night sandwiched between them.

London is a great place to visit whatever the weather, but there are a few precautions sightseers should consider taking to avoid the potentially harmful affects of getting too much sun. Make sure you and your companions drink lots of water, use a high factor sun-screen/cream and try and spend plenty of time in the shade.

Listening to a Walk Talk Tour London travel guide can be great way to enjoy the sights and stay safe in the sun. Each audio walking tour of the capital can be completed comfortably in two hours, but listeners have the flexibility to explore the sights at their own pace. So, you can get as much - or as little - sun as you want.

Each Walk Talk Tour London walking tour costs just £5.95. So, you'll have spare change to buy that bottle of water, beer or that ice cream that has your name written all over it. And each of our five London tours are available in English, French, German qnd Spanish.

Use the following code to buy one Walk Talk Tour and get a second one free: VL405.

The top image was taken from Trafalgar Square looking down Whitehall towards the new Palace of Westminster. The tower is St Stephen's Tower home to Big Ben. Hear more about Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and the equestrian statue in the foreground of the picture with the Palace Trail audio guide. To hear an audio sample from the audio tour please click here.

The second picture shows Buckingham Palace, the London home of the Sovereign and the administrative headquarters of the British Monarchy.

For more information about staying safe in the sun. Check out the following link to the NHS website.

Solitude in the City

What's your idea of hell? Getting stuck in a lift on your own? Being marooned on a desert island without human contact, or your favourite records and books? The idea of a life of lengthy isolation from the rest of the world - does not appeal to me.

But, others see the world a little differently. And difference is what makes the world go around.

Artist Ansuman Biswas has won the right to spend forty days in solitude at the Manchester Museum. The Calcutta born artist's spell 'in solitary' will begin on June 27 and end on August 5. He will not be entirely cut off from the real world, Mr Biswas will be blogging about his experiences via The Manchester Hermit's Blog.

Mr Biswas will be cocooned in a Gothic Tower within the Museum, which is part of the University of Manchester. Isolation is nothing new to Mr Biswas; he has previously being a living exhibit in a museum display in London. For that role at the South London Gallery, Mr Biswas went without food for ten days and 'lived in' a confined space.

Back in May, he told the BBC that: "Being at top of the this gothic tower is much the same way the brain is at the top of a spinal chord. The nature of loss, the cultural memory, I want to question what is important to us and how do we show that we value it?"

His exploits do have a hint of the David Blaine about them. They are attention grabbing and, some might argue, utterly pointless. Whatever you or I think, Mr Biswas has a platform (his blog) and he intends to use it to debate the merits of items and artifacts selected (before his seclusion) from the Museum's 4.5 million strong collection In the words of the Museum of Manchester's website: "He will be opening up a wider debate about why museums collect and preserve objects, whilst allowing species and cultures to become forgotten and extinct."

When he is 'released' from captivity, Mr Biswas will want to stretch his legs. He met want to take the opportunity to go walk about in Manchester. His home in the Museum was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect who designed Manchester Town Hall and the Central Library. Both destinations feature in the Manchester: Then & Now audio downloadable tour. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here.

Independent mined travellers - like Cornelius (pictured above), the only ornament in my garden - can hire the Manchester: Then & Now tour from the city's Visitor Information Centre, on Lloyd Street, just off St Peter's Square on a preloaded MP3 player. Cost: £6 per MP3 player plus a £10 refundable deposit. Earphones (not the kind Cornelius is wearing) and tour plan provided.

Spotlight on Chester's Rows

The Rows are public galleries that run uninterrupted through the front of buildings in the centre of the city of Chester. In Chester, for hundreds of years, the word ‘row’ has applied to small assemblies of shops connected by a single trade and sometimes owned by one merchant.

The original rows were built on stone undercrofts. A fire in 1278 may have served to act as a catalyst for the expansion of the Rows in the city. Many of these undercrofts are still used as commercial premises today.

The picture above shows the High Cross and the top of one side of Bridge Street. The Cross marks the centre of Chester where the four streets from the Roman fortress’s main gates - Bridge Street, Eastgate Street, Northgate Street and Watergate Street - met.

For readers familiar with Chester, in the UK, you may think of black and white timbered buildings. As Nikolaus Pevsner, the late celebrated architectural critic, wrote in The Buildings of England: Cheshire: - “Chester is not a medieval, it is a Victorian city. What deceives is the black and white. 95 per cent is Victorian..."

The nineteenth century architects responsible for the black and white revival sought to preserve the unique character of the Rows, just in a better ventilated, brighter form.

Visitors can go walk about in Chester with the Chester Revealed audio downloadable tour and hear much more about the history and development of the Rows. The audio guide is narrated by broadcaster and actor Jonathan Keeble and features a welcome to the city from David Mitchell, half of the world's only husband and wife town crying duo. To hear an audio sample featuring Jonathan please click here.

This August residents and visitors alike will be able to Roam the Rows over the four weekends in that month. For more information regarding the event take a look at the Chester Performs website.

The Chester Revealed tour can also be hired from the city's Tourist Information Centre, in the Town Hall, on Northgate Street. Visitors hiring the tour will receive a copy of the tour plan, digital stereo neckphones and an MP3 player pre-loaded with the tour.

Take One: EIFF kicks off Edinburgh festival season

Edinburgh's Festival season is upon us. The Edinburgh International Film Festival (or EIFF for short) started on June 17. The EIFF celebrates the best in film ends on the final day of this month. Last year, the EIFF took the momentous decision of moving from its regular slot in August to a new one in June.

Twenty-three world premieres will be screened at this year's EIFF and a whole host of new films by UK directors will be shown over the next twelve days.

Last year the Edinburgh International Film Festival attracted in excess of 50,000 spectators. This year organisers will be hoping to top that figure.

Walk Talk Tours have teamed up with the Festival to offer EIFF web members the chance to win one of three MP3 players preloaded with our Old and New Towns audio guide. To hear an audio sample from the Old and New Towns audio walking tour please click here.

There are two Walk Talk Tours of Edinburgh. Each retails at £5.95. Purchase both simultaneously and receive a twenty per cent discount.

A Walk Talk Tour is a great way to explore a city like Edinburgh as each audio guide gives listeners the flexibility to enjoy hearing about some of a city's better - and lesser - known attractions at their own pace. No timetables to adhere to - except your own. With a Walk Talk Tour, you are the boss.

Edinburgh in August can be great fun with performers from around the world showcasing their talents at a variety of festivals and venues throughout the city. The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) starts on August 14 and ends on September 6. The EIF's boisterous sibling the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest arts festival. The Fringe starts on August 7 and concludes on August 31.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is held in the Gardens in the middle of Charlotte Square. The EIBF runs from August 15 to August 31 this summer. For more information on the various festival in Edinburgh take a look at official Edinburgh Festivals website.

What's Cooking?

Sisters Helen, Lisa and Janet opened Sweet Mandarin on Copperas Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter in 2004. The restaurant is situated close to the Old Fish Market, on High Street, and near to the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. Helen has also penned an award winning book entitled Sweet Mandarin, which charts the survival of three generations of females in the family, starting with the birth of their grandmother, Lily Kwok, in rural southern China in 1918. Lily moved to Hong Kong in the 1930s and then onto England in the 1950s, where she opened one of the first Chinese restaurants in Manchester. The love of catering has sustained the family for three generations.

I had never been to a cookery school before and I was a little apprehensive at the prospect. My fears were soon dispelled by the warm and friendly welcome that Helen, Lisa and the other three participants on the Beginners Programme to Chinese Cookery gave me.

Lisa began by telling us about the five essential ingredients in Chinese cooking: ginger, onion, garlic, salt and sugar.

Then it was down to business, starting with a Dim Sum Masterclass. Lisa patiently explained the origins of the dish. She then demonstrated how to create mini vegetable spring rolls, crispy won tons and chicken fingers in turn. We each created a number of rolls ourselves.

Lisa explained and then demonstrated how to make Won Ton Soup and Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup. Won Ton literally means ‘hollow cloud’.

Lisa then explained how to make four dishes. Each of us would be responsible for cooking one of them. I cooked Crispy Vegetable Chow Mein Noodles. The other dishes were stir fried beef strips with ginger and leeks; egg fried rice and chicken and veg in a jung pao sauce. They tasted pretty good – for beginners.

Susan, one of the other participants, had sampled a number of different cooking courses and felt that Sweet Mandarin’s Cookery School was far and away the best. It was a really hands-on approach to learning to cook and I can recommend it to anyone. For more information about the opening times of Sweet Mandarin and their cookery courses available at the restaurant please click here.

Sweet Mandarin is located a short walk away from Cathedral Gardens where the Manchester: Then & Now audio tour guide concludes.

Helen Tse’s Sweet Mandarin book was nominated for the Portico Prize last year and Helen was also selected as one of eight great new writers in the Fall of 2008 by Barnes and Noble, the American bookstore chain.