I love a good historical romp, and The Alchemist of Souls doesn't disappoint. Set in an alternate Elizabethan history, where a race of beings known as Skraylings have voyaged to England from the New World, and are grudgingly welcomed for their advanced technologies, while shunned as witches for the very same reasons.

A seemingly down-on-his-luck nobleman, Mal is the son of a British ambassador, with more sword skills than you can thrust a rapier at. He is pressed into service as bodyguard for the Skrayling ambassador, and yet his reticence to serve seems to run deeper than the usual distrust of strangers.

I have been watching Jennifer Saunders off the teleovision on the teleovision since I was 11 or 12 and became aware of Absolutely Fabulous. I was then introduced to Jennifer Saunders as the straight woman in a double act, via a video (yes I possibly am old) my aunt gave to my mum of French and Saunders. And it's been love ever since. So when I was asked to review the audiobook of the official Jennifer Saunders memoirs Bonkers: My Life in Laughs on Audible.com for Squeamish Bikini I was probably the most stoked I have been about this site since I got a free packet of popcorn at a launch last week.

If you haven't already got the idea that this review is going to be gushing then allow me to be clear. My only criticism of this book is Jennifer Saunders off the teleovision's mispronunciation of "wrath."

Short listed for Museum of the Year 2013 Horniman Museum and Gardens sits pretty on the top of what I can only assume is the hill referred to in the London area of Forest Hill. While birds, bunnies and alpacas roam in the garden outside the beautifully mosaic building, there are plenty more feathered and furred friends housed inside. The time warp curiosity that is the Natural History Gallery dares you to stare into the glass eyes of still and silent creatures, the biggest being in the collection is the famous overstuffed walrus. Somehow these dead animals are more intriguing than the very cute and alive pygmy goats on the hillside animal walk.

Home is where the art is. This weekend saw the city of London open its front door(s) and hopefully a few more minds. There was not one but two major arts and culture events on the go. Open House London and London Design Festival  both vied for my attention. One won out, satisfying my ‘nosy neighbour disorder’ as well as my imagination. I found myself at the latter but still at an open house, a South Kensington bedsit. Bare concrete stairs that back on to a pristine white façade lead down into something a little darker and a lot more interesting…

Mermaids have a long history and are guaranteed to set imaginations flowing, even if their most famous recent portrayals have been via Disney and Starbucks. So we were excited, back in May, to hear about the Poems Underwater project. 

A collaboration set up by Kirsten Tambling and Laura Seymour, the project, Kirsten told us, aimed to: "start some conversations about the mermaid figure and some of the things they might represent...one of the things we've noticed is that their symbolic significance is pretty much limitless."

We are pleased to say they have now certainly achieved that with Lines Underwater. Grown out of the initial collection of poetry is an anthology featuring contributions from over 40 people, which you can buy on their website. 

This review contains spoilers, for both Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2, so here's the spoiler-free summary: it's a hell of a ride. If you go into the cinema knowing no more about this film than what's in the trailer, it's likely you're going to spend the next 2 hours laughing, gasping and cheering and come out with a grin on your face. I certainly did - having seen it with a group of friends, the first words out of my mouth when we left the cinema were, "how awesome was that?!" The problems come if you start to think about it too much (or as some would argue, at all). 

I think I am not alone when I say that: When I think of the zoo I think of the buttock-clenchingly embarrassing time my sister and I bought my dad CDs for his birthday. We scoured HMV for Harvey Andrews, Led Zeppelin (who's he?) and Tom Paxton. That birthday was a day of discovery. Led Zepp was a band, my dad had super eclectic taste in music and an adult had recorded, on an adult album, the song Going to the Zoo.

Last Friday I was going to the zoo (zoo, zoo) for the last Zoo Lates on this year at London Zoo. Oh I had read so much about this event 'you will be greeted by an anteater!' I was told (by the press, who I planned to hold responsible for my actions if I was not greeted by an anteater), 'You can watch them feed the pygmy hippos - and the hippos demand the food is put directly in their mouth!'  I was told by Squeamish Louise, who seems to have had more influence than I'd like on my after school activities as it were.  'I didn't see the lions last time' said my friend Eileen.

Last August Squeamish Louise was looking for an Edinburgh Festival style comedy action in London as an escape from the Olympics. She found it with Rosie Wilby and the show How (Not) to Make it in Britpop. I like to think the show contributed to the explosion in 1990s revival fashion - it was a real slow burner to begin with to convince people to wear backwards baseball caps and tiny round sunglasses but it’s finally happened. 

It certainly inspired Squeamish Louise to dig out some old Britpop albums and gear (of the fashion variety), How (Not) to Make it in Britpop made her: "pine for 90s fashions of jeans, t-shirts, feather boas and stripey shirts. Damn." I, however, never got to see the show in spite of the sage and specific advice from Squeamish Louise "Just go and see her. Seriously."

Well after a fairly disappointing series Moffat redeems himself with a fantastic episode that answers a lot of the questions he had left hanging over the last couple of series and really makes me excited for the 50th anniversary episode in November.

Moffat, who has spent the last year saying that multiple Doctors will not appear in the 50th episode, proves once again that he, like The Doctor, lies. Or at least manipulates the truth, this wasn't the 50th anniversary, but featured every (or at least most of them - I didn't see Paul McGann or David Tennant, but am prepared to believe I missed them) previous Doctor. He claimed there would be no two-parters this series, but this was totally the first half of the fiftieth anniversary episode. In an age where every spoiler is revealed months in advance this was a huge coup!

Isadora Duncan had a penchant for floaty scarves. Back in the late 19th Century the American dancer had made quite the name for herself in Europe, as she reclaimed dance and movement as high art. She was exiled from America due to her Soviet Union sympathies and resided in Europe until her dramatic and tragic death. In September 1927 Isadora was holidaying in Nice, France. In the seat of a convertible next to her lover who could have known her long and delicate accessory (scarf, not man) would be the cause of her demise?