主播大秀

Fiona Allan, the artistic director of the in Cardiff, is standing down from her post to take up a role in Leicester.

听Fiona Allan inside the Wales Millennium Centre

She has worked at the Cardiff Bay arts venue since it opened six years ago in 2004. During her time there she has built relationships with local, national and international arts organizations and was responsible for establishing partnerships with the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and Cape Town Opera.

Wales Millennium Centre. Photo: John Evans

Prof Philip Tasker, Chair of Leicester Theatre Trust said: 鈥淲e are thrilled to welcome Fiona to Curve. This is an exciting time, as audiences begin to take us to their hearts and sales are increasing, Fiona brings a wealth of experience along with considerable energy and enthusiasm to lead Curve into a new and thrilling phase.鈥�

Allan added: 鈥淚 have visited Curve a number of times and I am exhilarated by the building and quality of work there... One of my key priorities will be ensuring that audiences and the community are at the heart of the organisation.鈥�

Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea, the childhood park of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, is to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of 拢820,000 in order to return the park to its former Victorian glory.

The park, once described by Thomas as 'a world within the world of the sea town', opened in 1874. Located within the Ffynone Conservation Area, it forms part of the Dylan Thomas trail and attracts thousands of visitors each year.

Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea

The grant will help to restore the park's Victorian character, including the bowls pavilion, cockleshell path and water garden.

Volunteering opportunities will be created, with volunteers helping to run guided walks, poetry and writing sessions as well as contributing to conservation and gardening work.

The park is nearby Thomas' birthplace, 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, in the Uplands area of Swansea.

Learn more about Dylan Thomas' Wales on the 主播大秀 Wales Arts site and find out more about the other Welsh parks to have benefited from grants on the .

Poet and academic Dr Meirion Pennar has died aged 65.

Dr Pennar was a lecturer in Welsh at University of Wales, Lampeter, and his specialist fields included medieval Welsh poetry and the Welsh novel in the 19th Century.

He translations of works of Welsh literature, such as Taliesin poems and The Black Book of Carmarthen, were well received and remain in print.

Read more on the 主播大秀 Wales News website.

The eagerly awaited sequel to the 1982 sci-fi film Tron opens in UK cinemas today, with Welsh actor Michael Sheen adding a touch of glam rock style to the proceedings.

Tron: Legacy follows on from the original hit 80s film, which starred Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer hacker who was abducted into cyberspace and had to team up with security program Tron to defeat the villainous Master Control Program.

The sequel shows how Sam Flynn, the son of Bridges' character, looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world where his father has been living for 20 years.

Tron: Legacy stars Michael Sheen (Castor), Beau Garrett (Gem) and Garrett Hedlund (Sam Flynn) 漏 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Sheen plays the role of Castor, a flamboyant, eccentric nightclub owner. And as you can see from the photos, his Ziggy Stardust-esque appearance couldn't be further away from some of his previous roles as Tony Blair and David Frost.

Tron: Legacy stars Michael Sheen and Garrett Hedlund 漏 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Tron: Legacy is in UK cinemas from today, Friday 17 December.

Additional links

• Michael Sheen on 主播大秀 Wales Arts
• 主播大秀 Newsbeat: Tron: Legacy vehicle designer reveals secrets
• 主播大秀 iPlayer: Film 2010 with Claudia Winkleman, featuring Tron: Legacy

Young Welsh actor Craig Roberts recently talked to Jamie Owen on 主播大秀 Radio Wales about his performance in film Submarine, and being likened to acting legend Dustin Hoffman.

Craig Roberts as Oliver and Yasmin Paige as Jordana in Submarine. Photo 漏 www.image.net

Listen to the interview:

Roberts, from Maesycwmmer in Caerphilly, south Wales, stars in the lead role in the film, which is an adaptation of Swansea-born writer Joe Dunthorne's novel of the same name. It is the d茅but feature film by Richard Ayoade (oddball Moss from Channel 4's The IT Crowd), while one of the executive producers is none other than Hollywood star Ben Stiller.

Having had its world premi猫re at the and its British premi猫re at the this year, Submarine is now set to screen at the in January 2011.

As reported on the 主播大秀 Wales News website this morning, the says it is 'relieved' it can increase funds to many of the 71 organisations it supports despite government cuts.

Its budget has been trimmed by four percent and it must save 12% running costs but it will spend an extra 拢3.6m on its portfolio.

Among the recipients of the biggest increases in funding are National Theatre Wales, Welsh National Opera and Ruthin Craft Centre. Funding will also increase to many community arts groups, and one-off grants will be given to 13 organisations for specific projects.

Five groups will receive less money, but five others have been awarded fixed funding for the first time. Read more on the story on 主播大秀 Wales News online.

主播大秀 soon! No more gigs, no travelling, no going anywhere before Twelfth Night. There's work to do, poems to write, competitions to judge, manuscripts to read, correspondence to catch up with, but it can all be done at home at the table in the glass-walled room from where I can see miles of Ceredigion, work done despite my primitive internet connection via a dongle attached to the light flex over the table by a clothes peg. I am NOT making it up. And there's our Christmas card to make: a poem by me, a photo by David. We'll be printing, sticking, assembling, addressing and stamping late into the night. The poem is not yet written.

It's the last day of the poetry tour, at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. I feel relaxed, in high spirits. It's always a good place to be, and the gig's been a sell-out for months. We drive to meet Carol Ann at Swansea station. She's fresh from her journey from Manchester through the snow-lands of border country, between the hills of the English midlands and the Welsh mountains.

We arrive at the venue to a warm welcome. There's a fine art exhibition on, portraits of writers by Gordon Stuart. Carol Ann stops at the turn of the stairs to look at a terrific painting of Beryl Bainbridge. "I want to buy that," she says. It is off the wall and wrapped in a trice.

In the 'green room' we plan the reading over sandwiches and a glass of wine. The theatre is buzzing. As we always do, Carol Ann and I read 8-10 poems in turn, then the same number again. This time Carol Ann begins the evening, and I finish. She is, as always, terrific: a glance spells out the irony in a phrase, a small hand-movement signals the ambiguity of a word. There is laughter, and that velvety silence of people listening, moved.

Old friends are there, from schools visited and courses taught, and one friend from my school days. Many have never been to a reading before. Old, new: the perfect combination, and a sign that we're spreading the word. Every time someone persuades another to give it a go, we move closer to the day when poetry really does reach its audience.

I read one poem I'm not sure about, a 'prayer' for the bereaved, commissioned by the cancer charity Tenovus. It's more poem than prayer, and it does the job, but is it any good out of context? I'm surprised when we sit signing books for an hour afterwards, several people mention it as the poem of mine that most moved them.

After, we drive to Cardiff to stay overnight, and before sleep we three sit late over a bottle of Pinot noir, plotting the spread of poetry throughout the land, talking about poems we're writing. Up early to take the Laureate to Cardiff Central. "Fablus!" she says. She's learning the lingo.

Gillian Clarke
National Poet of Wales

Gillian Clarke wrote for us during her seven-date poetry tour of Wales. With thanks to .

Pembrokeshire-born actor Christian Bale has scooped a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in The Fighter.

Bale plays Dicky Ekland in the film, the former boxer turned trainer to younger half brother Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg - who has a nod in the best actor category).

Much has been made about the actor's weight loss for the film, but it isn't the first time that Bale has lost weight in dedication to a role; he appeared almost skeletal in 2004 film The Machinist.

Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter 漏 Momentum Pictures

British actors also to receive nominations include Colin Firth, for his portrayal as King George VI, and Geoffrey Rush for his supporting role as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech. The film leads the nominations for next year's awards, with nominations in key categories including best film drama.

Dame Judi Dench, Hugh Laurie, Idris Elba, Hayley Atwell and Ian McShane also pick up nods for roles in television productions Return To Cranford, House, Luther and Pillars Of The Earth (both Atwell and McShane) respectively.

The ceremony on 16 January 2011 will be hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais.

Read more about The Fighter on , read more on the 主播大秀 Entertainment News website and see the.

It's been an action packed year on the arts and cultural scene in Wales, so here's a brief reminder of the past year's events.

January
2010 began on a sad note as January witnessed the death of celebrated film historian and critic Dave Berry.

Dave had completed a series of brilliant articles on Welsh film for the 主播大秀 Wales Arts website just months before he died, so we were fortunate to be able to bring you just a small slice of his encyclopaedic knowledge - and love - of film and cinema in these articles.

Dave Berry. Photo 漏 Media Wales

February
On a brighter note, University of Glamorgan lecturer Philip Gross won the TS Eliot Prize for poetry with his collection The Water Table, which was inspired by the Bristol Channel. It was to be the first of two major literary wins for the poet in 2010.

March
Young Welsh actors Aneurin Barnard and Iwan Rheon both collected one of the highest honours in the theatrical world as they each scooped a prestigious Oliver Award for their roles in Spring Awakening, the stage adaptation of Frank Wedekind's controversial play.

Aneurin Barnard and Iwan Rheon with their Laurence Olivier Awards 漏 Charlie Hopkinson

March also saw the first production by the newly formed , following their announcement in November 2009 of their ambitious programme of 12 productions in 12 months. A Good Night Out In The Valleys was staged in various locations in the south Wales valleys, and starred Sharon Morgan, Boyd Clack and Siwan Morris.

April
April was a good month for Welsh comedy as the line-up for the inaugural Machynlleth Comedy Festival was unveiled. Read what resident 主播大秀 Wales Music blogger Bethan Elfyn made of the festival.

The longlist of the annual Wales Book of the Year Award was unveiled by organisers Academi in April - browse a collection of photos from the announcement.

And also in April we launched a new interactive map on the 主播大秀 Wales Arts site, charting some of the locations in which Doctor Who has been filmed in the country. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the map.

May
May saw Israel-born artist Yael Bartana scoop the 2010 Artes Mundi prize, the biggest contemporary arts prize in the UK. Read more about Artes Mundi and take a look at the work of all eight of the shortlisted artists.

Artist Yael Bartana, winner of Artist Mundi 4

The Hay Festival also took place at the tail end of May and the beginning of June. Read Nicola Heywood Thomas' memories of the festival over the years.

June
The Wales Book of the Year winners were announced, with Philip Gross winning the English language prize for his poetry collection I Spy Pinhole Eye, and John Davies scooping the Welsh language prize for Cymru: Y 100 Lle i'w Gweld Cyn Marw. Browse a photo gallery from the awards ceremony.

Minister for Heritage Alun Ffred Jones and Philip Gross. Photo 漏 Emyr Young / Academi

Elfyn Lewis was crowned Welsh Artist of the Year in June. The accolade was the second in a year for the artist from Porthmadog, who picked up the gold medal for fine art at the National Eisteddfod in July 2009.

And one of my favourite stories that we brought you in June was the unveiling of the sculpture at Point of Ayr lighthouse. The seven foot metal sculpture, named The Keeper, was installed at the Talacre lighthouse following many eerie sightings of a ghostly apparition patrolling the structure.

July
A host of bloggers kept us up to date with the latest news and views from the Maes as Ebbw Vale hosted the 2010 Eisteddfod. Contributors included 主播大秀 Wales' Dan Williams, Jason Mohammad and Eddie Butler, plus I gave you a sneak peek into the brilliant visual arts space that was created for this year's spectacular cultural event - Y Lle Celf.

The National Eisteddfod Pavillion in Ebbw Vale

Plus, Risen - the biopic of legendary听 Welsh boxer Howard Winstone - made its premi猫re at a three day boxing festival in Cardiff at the end of July.

August
The One Show sofa was graced with a new team in August with Welsh presenter Alex Jones getting her big break, having been a regular face on Welsh language shows for the previous decade.

The One Show presenter Alex Jones

We caught up with the new star, in which she told us about moving to London, her dream guests, and why it's never a good idea to go shopping in your pyjamas.

And also during August, rising Welsh comedian Elis James blogged for us from the Edinburgh Festival, in which he was performing his stand-up show Daytripper.

September
Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd returned to the big screen in September in The Kid, Nick Moran's adaptation of the best-selling novel by Kevin Lewis.

Browse a gallery of photos from the film.

October
National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke embarked on a reading tour of the country in the autumn, and she wrote a tour diary for the 主播大秀 Wales Arts website about her travels.

She visited Abergavenny, Skenfrith, Betws-y-Coed and Builth Wells before taking a detour to the Hay Festival in Kerala, India before returning to Wales and visiting Carmarthen, Aberystwyth and finally the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea.

Gillian Clarke. Photo: Poetry Live

Speaking of which, the annual Dylan Thomas Festival kicked off in October, with a whole host of Thomases being celebrated at this year's festival.

Giving the festival a literary twist, the lives and works of poets, writers and broadcasters who shared the surname with Dylan - such as RS Thomas, Edward Thomas, Gwyn Thomas, Wynford Vaughan Thomas and John Ormond Thomas - were all honoured at the festival.

And the winner of The Iris Prize - the Cardiff-based International Gay and Lesbian Short Film Prize - was unveiled as Magnus Mork from Norway for his film The Samaritan.

November
November marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Roald Dahl, one of the greatest children's writers ever to have hailed from Wales. Read our article on the great man.

December
The London 2012 Festival will form part of the finale of the Cultural Olympiad and to mark this the Royal Shakespeare Company will collaborate with National Theatre Wales. Read more about the planned production.

December also saw American poet Elyse Fenton scoop the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of 21st century war poetry, Clamor. And it was announced that Fingersmith by Pembrokeshire-born novelist Sarah Waters will be one of the 25 titles that will be handed out in a one million book give-away for World Book Night next March.

What are your memories of this year in Welsh arts and culture? If you want to have your say, on this or any other 主播大秀 blog, you will need to sign in to your 主播大秀 iD account. If you don't have a 主播大秀 iD account, you can - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of 主播大秀 sites and services using a single login.

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The in Swansea this evening opens the first of three new seasons of exhibitions focusing on film.

Ffilm 1: Single Shot is the first collection of films in a series that is set to run until April 2011 in various spaces across the gallery based in Alexandra Road.

Films going on show have recently been produced by , which resulted from a major collaboration between the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and Arts Council England.

Ori Gersht 鈥楶omegranate鈥� 2006.
Commissioned as part of 鈥楽ingle Shot鈥�. Funded by Arts Council England and the UK Film Council鈥檚 New Cinema Fund. Curated, promoted and toured by Film and Video Umbrella and managed by Film and Video Umbrella and Maya Vision International

Single Shot contains specially commissioned film and video pieces by both new emerging talent as well as more established artists, including George Barber, Clio Barnard, Sean Dower, Ori Gersht, Matthew Grinter, Julie Hill, Mike Marshall and Paul Rooney.

All the films, despite their wide-ranging themes, share a sense of the most basic of cinematic elements - the single, unedited shot.

Single Shot runs at the gallery from Saturday 11 December until 16 January 2011, with a preview this evening at 7pm. For more information visit the .

An independent, Bafta Cymru award-winning film that was shot in Swansea is in line for a $1m prize as part of a film competition.

Hailed by The Independent as: "The Royle Family meets Nil By Mouth... One of the best British films I've seen in years", Little White Lies is a film about a family gradually being torn apart by racism. It was first released in 2006.

Winning the movie competition could help production company get distribution for the film.

Little White Lies was directed by Caradog James and produced by John Giwa-Amu, and the film stars Helen Griffin - who wrote the piece, Brian Hibbard (of Flying Pickets fame), Jonathan Lewis-Owen and Sara Gregory.

Little White Lies film poster

The bleak comedy tells the story of a family living in fear of their country being overtaken by Islam. Mum Karen (Griffin) attempts to hold the family together but has her work cut out: daughter Serena (Gregory) no longer speaks to her layabout father (Hibbard) as he hates the fact that she has fallen in love with an Indian man, while son Steve is a closet racist.

Now viewers can help the film win the prize, as winners are decided on the number of times films are watched and rated.

You can view and download the film, free of charge, on the Amazon Studios website, and give it your rating: .

Little White Lies won the Bafta Cymru awards for Best Actress and Best Actor; the Best Film and Best Actress awards at the Cartagena Film Festival, and the Best Film and Audience Award at the Nantes Film Festival.

Helen Griffin (Karen) and Jonny Owen (Steve) in Little White Lies

Brian Hibbard (Tony) and Jonny Owen (Steve) in Little White Lies. Images courtesy of Red and Black Films

Additional links

A Caernarfon art gallery that has supported and exhibited the work of emerging north Walian artists for the past four years is looking for new premises for its future development.

Oriel Dafydd Hardy is an alternative, youth-focused arts venue that currently runs from the basement of Dafydd Hardy Estate Agents - who support the gallery financially.

The art space was established to give the opportunity for young undergraduates, graduates and post graduates in north Wales to meet and develop an artistic community in the town - and has resulted in the creation of , a collective of young artists.

There's a final exhibition of the year to view though before the gallery ups sticks, which highlights the work of Aberystwyth-trained, German artist Constanze Thielecke in Thoughts in Boxes, Repeating Minds.

It runs until Thursday 23 December, and the pictures below give a sneak peak of what's on show.

Detail from Constanze Thielecke's exhibition Thoughts in Boxes, Repeating Minds. Photo: Patrick Higgins

Constanze Thielecke's Thoughts in Boxes, Repeating Minds. Photo: Patrick Higgins

Constanze Thielecke's exhibition at Oriel Dafydd Hardy. Photo: Patrick Higgins

will collaborate with the as part of the finale of the Cultural Olympiad - the London 2012 Festival.

The festival will be a 12-week UK-wide cultural celebration that opens in mid June 2012 and runs until the last day of the Paralympic Games on 9 September 2012.

The first group of commissions for the festival were announced yesterday, and part of this is the , produced by the RSC in collaboration with UK and international partners.

One of these partners will be National Theatre Wales, and specifically Mike Pearson and the creative team behind the company's production of Aeschylus' The Persians that was staged earlier this year.

The training house on the military range for The Persians. Photo: Toby Farrow

The curiously-titled Coriolan/us is set to be directed by Mike Pearson, and the concept was developed by Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes. As the press release states:

"From the National Theatre Wales team that created Aeschylus鈥檚 The Persians on the military
training range of mid-Wales, the story of Caius Martius 鈥� Coriolanus 鈥� is re-imagined in the
era of 24-hour news, celebrity culture, and a new global polity.

"Outside broadcasts from the battlefield, popular grievances straight to camera and audience participants as the body politic provide a 'mash up' of previous attempts to get to grips with a figure contrary and perplexing, ever contemporary and ever challenging of our beliefs."

Read more about the other commisions for the London 2012 Festival, and the artists and companies involved, on the . And read about the news on the .

There's more Christmas cheer to be had as here in 主播大秀 Wales Arts towers we've learnt of another production of Dylan Thomas' festive tale A Child's Christmas in Wales.

Earlier in the week we told you about Clwyd Theatr Cymru's production, which starts at the Mold theatre tomorrow - Thursday 9 December.

Next week the welcomes the to Swansea as they bring another version of this affectionate tale to life in Christmas in Wales.

Fluellen's festive celebration, in words and music, of Christmases past and present features a complete performance of their adaptation of Thomas' A Child's Christmas In Wales, with Delyth Jenkins on harp.

Christmas in Wales takes place on Tuesday 14 December at The Dylan Thomas Centre at 7pm and is suitable for all the family. Ticket availability is extremely limited, so contact the centre on 01792 463980 for the latest information.

A painting of Conwy Castle by JMW Turner sold at auction in London last night for 拢325,250.

The painting was sold as part of an Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours sale, held in London by .

The painting Conway Castle, North Wales by JMW Turner. Image: Christie's Images Ltd. 2010

The pencil and watercolour work, which was sold by a private collector, is based on drawings that the young Turner made in his Hereford Court sketchbook. The sketchbook contains seven drawings of the castle, all from differing angles, and as a result several paintings of the castle were painted.

Earlier this year, a painting by Turner of Flint Castle sold for over 拢540,000.

If you're looking for something to entertain your little ones this month, how about a trip to the theatre that won't involve bellowing 'It's behind you' or 'Oh no, it isn't'?

For their latest production, have teamed up with the Cardiff-based company to bring to life a wintry children's story for under-sevens and their families.

Snow Child / Plentyn yr Eira tells the story of four children - Big Sister, Little One, Snit and Boy - who live in a house by a forest. After playing games, making music and telling stories, the children venture out into the cold and discover a child made out of snow - who magically comes to life.

Elin Phillips, Clare Hingott and Cari Barley in Snow Child. Image courtesy of Sherman Cymru.

Aled Herbert as Boy in Snow Child. Image courtesy of Sherman Cymru

The production has both English language (Snow Child) and Welsh language (Plentyn yr Eira) performances and was inspired by the children of Kevin Lewis, the Artistic Director of Theatr Iolo and co-creator (with Sarah Argent and Dafydd James) of Snow Child. He commented:

鈥淥ne of the initial starting points for this play was remembering when my two sons were aged 3 and 5. Using sheets, pillows, towels and duvets they would create a winter landscape in their bedroom and, sitting in cardboard boxes surrounded by their furry animals, pretend to ride on sledges and have adventures at the North Pole.鈥�

Cari Barley (Big Sister) with the Snow Child. Image courtesy of Sherman Cymru

The cast includes Cari Barley, Aled Herbert, Clare Hingott - who has recently starred in the popular 主播大秀 daytime drama The Indian Doctor - and Elin Phillips, star of 主播大秀 Cymru Wales drama Crash.

Snow Child / Plentyn yr Eira runs at the from 14 December until 1 January - visit the website for detailed performance times.

Read an interview with the new chief executive of the Wales Millennium Centre, Mark Taylor, on the .

The of Great Britain is currently welcoming applications for their 2011/2012 company, from acting stars of the future to behind-the-scenes technical talent.

Alongside acting, applications are invited for costume, lighting and sound, scenery and prop making, and stage management courses.

A recent National Youth Theatre production

The closing date for applications is 7 January 2011, with auditions and interviews taking place at venues across the country in early 2011; auditions and interviews in Wales will take place in Cardiff at the .

Everyone who applies will be offered the chance to try out, regardless of previous experience, and applications are open to anyone who will be aged 14-21 on 1 August 2011.

For more information and to apply online, visit or visit the for further details.

And in another opportunity, artists who have been showing performance work publicly for up to three years or who have performed two works in an independent public forum are being invited to apply for the .

SPILL, which began life in 2007, is a biannual festival that celebrates emerging artists and takes place at various locations around London. The 2011 festival will take place between 18-24 April 2011. - the closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday 7 January 2011.

is set to present one of Dylan Thomas' most loved works later this week as the festive season draws ever closer.

Dylan Thomas

A Child's Christmas in Wales at Clwyd Theatr Cymru

A Child's Christmas In Wales was published in 1955, and is an anecdotal sketch of the festive season that emerged from a piece originally written for radio.

It is an affectionate, nostalgic look back on Christmases past and an exercise in storytelling in which Thomas recreates the experience of Christmas as though it were a fairy tale.

Listen to an excerpt from A Child's Christmas on the 主播大秀 Wales Christmas website.

The production at Clwyd Theatr Cymru is a new adaptation by the theatre's Associate Director Tim Baker, and the cast features Michael Geary, Charlotte Gray, Iola Hughes, Owen Morse and Simon Nehan.

A Child's Christmas in Wales runs at the theatre from Thursday 9 December until Saturday 8 January 2011, before touring at Taliesin Arts Centre in Swansea, Torch Theatre in Milford Haven, Theatr Hafren in Newton and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Visit the for further information on the production and to see what else is going on at the Mold theatre during the winter season.

A novel by Pembrokeshire-born author Sarah Waters is one of 25 titles that will be handed out free of charge in a massive book giveaway as part of .

World Book Night will take place on Saturday 5 March 2011, two days after the annual nationwide reading campaign .

Key to the initiative is the idea that 20,000 members of the public will each hand out 48 copies of their favourite book (chosen from the selected list of 25 titles) in events across the UK and Ireland. A further 40,000 books will be distributed by the organisers to people who might not otherwise be able to participate.

Sarah Waters. Photo 漏 Charlie Hopkinson

Sarah Waters' Fingersmith is one of the 25 books on the eclectic list that also features the Man Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, New Selected Poems by Seamus Heaney, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights.

You can now apply to be one of the book-givers of your favourite book on the list of 25 titles. As the World Book Night website puts it: "most givers are expected to be passionate readers who will take pleasure in recommending a book they love to other readers.

"However, World Book Night will also encourage givers to pass the books on to others who either may be reluctant readers or who are part of communities with less access to books, bookshops and libraries."

Find out more about this exciting initiative, and how you can apply to be one of the book-givers, on the . And read 主播大秀 Arts Editor Will Gompertz's take on World Book Night.

, the new arts and innovation centre planned by Bangor University, has received a massive boost with the announcement of a funding injection worth 拢27.5million.

The university unveiled plans for the project earlier this year, which is set to include a 550-seat theatre, cinema space, studio theatre and an outdoor amphitheatre, plus social facilities such as bars, dining and family friendly park areas.

The Pontio project will receive 拢12.5m from the European Regional Development Fund, and 拢15m from the Welsh Assembly Government towards the 拢37m cost. Other funds will come from the Arts Council of Wales and the university.

An artist's impression of the Pontio project at Bangor University.

Read more on the story on the 主播大秀 north west Wales website.

A public meeting will be held next week in a last bid effort to save the future of .

In June earlier this year the north Wales theatre saw its funding of 拢70,000 cut by the Arts Council of Wales following a spending review.

A meeting will take place on Monday 6 December at 7.30pm to try to secure its future.

Members of the theatre's board, the senior management team from Coleg Harlech and representatives from Gwynedd Council are all set to attend to dicuss plans to keep the theatre open.

Find out more on the .

Elyse Fenton has scooped the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize for Clamor, her collection of 21st century war poetry.

Elyse Fenton

Clamor was written in part while Fenton's husband was deployed as a medic in Baghdad, and is the first book of poetry ever to have won the title.

She is the third winner of the award following Nam Le with The Boat in 2008 and Rachel Trezise with Fresh Apples in 2006.

Fenton, who lives in Philadelphia, and the five other shortlisted writers have been in Wales during the past week, taking part in the prize鈥檚 newly extended education programme, DylanED.

The writers visited a collection of schools and higher education institutions, delivering workshops to students and pupils across south Wales.

Another winner on the night was 22-year-old Stefan Mohamed from Powys, who picked up the prize鈥檚 inaugural 拢5,000 Sony Reader Award category for unpublished writers with his novel Bitter Sixteen.

Read more on the story on 主播大秀 Wales News, and visit for further information.

in Cardiff will be involved in the first UK Disability Film Festival Day on Friday 3 December.

Friday marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. And to mark this, Chapter is one of over 20 venues in the UK screening films in this inaugural one-day UK Disability Film Festival.

Image to promote UK Disability Film Festival Day. Photo: Sarah Kennedy

There are three screenings across the day in Chapter, beginning with the best of the learning disability festival, Oska Bright, with audio description.

This is followed at 1pm by the first national screening of the short film project Magic Hour, an anthology of short stories by five different directors who each have impairment, plus a selection of other shorts from around the world.

And in the afternoon they will be showing the 1986 主播大秀 film Raspberry Ripple, starring John Gordon Sinclair as a young man confined to wheelchair who dreams about American gangster movies.

For more details visit the , and find out more about the film festival at and .

The influence of perhaps Wales' best known wordsmith, Dylan Marlais Thomas, on the English language is now available for all to see.

The has recently relaunched its website, and in doing so has introduced a fascinating insight into the etymology of words, and a league table of the top 1,000 sources in the dictionary.

听

Dylan Thomas. Photo 漏 Jeff Towns/Dylan's Bookstore

As to be expected, Britain's brightest bard William Shakespeare tops the list with a whopping 33199 quotations. But further down the list, Thomas is the 724th most frequently quoted source in the OED, with a total of 635 quotations.

Examples of his contributions include first evidences of words being used in the English language. These include the adjective higgedly (from Quite Early One Morning), the adjective wound-down, past participle of wind-down (from The Map Of Love) and the adjective nineties - to describe the decade - as noted in his letters.

Other more obscure offerings include moochin - a difficult or disagreeable person, especially a child - and prodnose - to pry or to be inquisitive.

The and the have reported on this today. Plus there's an interview with Professor John Koch of the University of Wales on the 主播大秀 Wales News website, in which he talks about how the influence that Wales has had on the English language has been underestimated.

All three articles argue the fact that many English words have Welsh origins. A prime example given is the word penguin, which is likely to have been constructed from the Welsh words pen and gywn, meaning white head.

The first citation of the word is noted in the log of Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind from 1577, reading: "Infinite were the Numbers of the foule, the Welsh men name Pengwin & Maglanus tearmed them Geese."[sic]

Other words frequently used in the Welsh language, or Wenglish - a hybrid of the languages typically spoken by some in the south Wales valleys - that are used in spoken Engish include cariad, bach and cwtch.

Take a look at the fascinating .

In their latest production, tackle a subject that every good Welsh person likes to natter about - the weather.

NTW have collaborated with and for the show, The Weather Factory, which has been created entirely on location in a single three-storey house in Penygroes, north Wales.

The Weather Factory packs a year鈥檚 worth of weather into one ordinary yet magical place, celebrating the natural geography that makes Snowdonia the engine room of the Welsh climate.

The production is designed for adults and children aged nine years and up, and aims to approach the timeless question of the weather with a lively and magical curiosity.

Image taken from National Theatre Wales' The Weather Factory. Photo: Dewi Glyn Jones

David Harradine, the creative director and co-designer of the The Weather Factory. Photo: Dewi Glyn Jones

The Weather Factory runs from Tuesday 7 to Friday 24 December, Tuesday to Sunday. The unusual location means that the maximum audience for each show, of which there will be six per day, is just six people.

For more information on The Weather Factory, and to see what other productions are in store in the new year, visit .

Image taken from National Theatre Wales' The Weather Factory. Photo: Dewi Glyn Jones