Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade brings a sensual sophistication to her energised take on Cuban music. She is arguably the front-runner of the many talents that have emerged from Cape Verde in recent years.

On Monday 26 July, she’ll be sharing the stage of the Royal Hall with Krystle Warren…

 How does your music reflect your world view?

 My music is made from my past experiences and my spontaneity. It’s like an artwork that accurately depicts my way of perceiving the world, even thought everything has not yet been said.

 To audiences in Harrogate who aren’t familiar with your music, how would you describe it to them?

The roots of my music come from Cape Verde but are also naturally inspired by other sounds.

You’re from Cuba, but have lived in Paris and travelled all over the world, where do you consider home and why?

I am originally Cape Verdean (born in Cuba by pure chance). My home is there even if I grew up between Cape Verde and other destinations.

I find I can live and evolve in foreign countries that are not my own and still make the most of the experiences. The idea of living in Cape Verde today gives me a sense of confinement as I would not be able to have access to many things (culturally) which I use as inspiration. Perhaps later on….am sure as every time I go back, I have a sensation of belonging where everything is very familiar – it’s very reassuring…

 If you couldn’t sing for a living, what do you think your life would be like?

Since the day I was born I always had a deep conviction that I would sing and up till now I have never done anything else. I have often said jokingly that if I was not a singer, I would probably be a secretary of high level!! I am passionate about the organisation of French paperwork, post-its and stamps….it’s fascinating!

You’re sharing a stage with Krystle Warren, what do you think audiences can expect from this unique partnership?

I do not know what to expect. What I can safely say is that Krystle has a sensitive and special world. I believe it’s her body and soul that is expressed when she sings.

 Anything you’d like to ad?

Merci. See you soon! I can’t wait and I am very happy to be able to be on stage for the British audience again, who has always welcomed me with such enthusiasm. Thanks so much and see you soon!!

Mayra Andrade and Krystle Warren, Monday 26 July, Royal Hall, 8pm. Tickets from £12, under 25s: £5. Booking hotline: 0845 130 8840.

Lucy Parham is acknowledged as one of Britain’s finest pianists. And Harrogate is in for a very special treat as she brings her latest show, Nocturne: the Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin straight from her sell out appearance at the prestigious Wigmore Hall…

Lucy Parham

It’s been said that if you can’t play the piano, Chopin is the best possible reason to start. Chopin is one of the richest musical imaginations the world has ever known. This year, celebrating the bicentenary of his birth, acclaimed pianists have queued up to sing his praises; just listen to classical pianist Emanuel Ax in the Guardian: “His connection with the piano is so complete, it feels almost as if the instrument was created to allow his music to come into the world.”

Pianist Lucy Parham has attracted critical acclaim for her unique delivery of classical music – her shows features some of Britain’s most prestigious actors reading the letters and journals of great composers with her performance. Nocturne, The Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin is the third event in this unique Parham genre. Previous shows include Beloved Clara, mapping the story of passion, music and tragedy between Robert Schumann, Clara and Brahms. Odyssey of Love followed – a journey into the heart of Franz Liszt, and now, in the 200^th year since his birth, Chopin.

Sam West

And sharing a stage with the likes of Rufus Sewell and Greg Wise, Lucy Parham has certainly put the romance into the life of Chopin. Greg Wise? He’s gorgeous! “Lots of people offered to turn my pages!!” Lucy laughed. “Greg Wise especially prompted a lot of calls from female friends asking to sit in the front row. He’s lovely…and he read brilliantly.”

What inspired her to mix actors with music, rather than say a straight concert or play?

“I always talked to the audience before I played a piece,” Lucy explained. “I was playing Schumann and reading the letters really touched and moved me. And people said it made a big difference before they heard the music, and I found myself reading more and more, and I thought I’d love to hear them read properly by a professional actor’s voice. I didn’t know any actors at that time, so it was a learning curve. But I always loved theatre – it’s my way of switching off.”

She had seen Malcolm Sinclair in an Aykbourn play, House/Garden and had read in his biography that he loved music. “I was such a big fan of his – so I wrote to him as a groupie really and he replied…one thing led to another.”

From Sinclair, the pedigree of actor Parham attracts is astounding. “A lot of actors will like this kind of recital, usually in a play they’re one of eight or so,” Lucy explained. “And of course there are lots of actors who love music. Once you have a good number of high profile actors others become more interested – it’s a certification of being okay. Asking Juliet Stevenson saying that Harriet Walter has done it gives it a certain kind of gravitas. But they seem to enjoy doing it and I love working with them…it’s very exciting having these beautiful actors’ voices on the same stage, I get such a buzz out of it. Harriet and Juliet are both amazing, how lucky am I? I’d have never of met them otherwise. A solo pianist’s life is quite solitary so it’s really nice to socialise with other people.”

Harriet Walter

She must have some great dinner parties? “Actually I did have a great one recently!” Lucy said, “with Martin Jarvis [one of Britain’s most versatile actors], Gemma Jones [who plays Bridget Jones’ mother], Phyllida Law [Emma Thompson’s mother], Petroc Trelawny [Radio 3 presenter of Music Matters], and Richard Sisson [of the cabaret act, Kit and the Widow]. It was weird, surreal having everyone there, but I’ve never laughed so much in my life! Most of my time is spent just practising, doing house work, more practising, teaching,” Lucy added.

Chopin is, Lucy says, probably the most popular of the three composers she’s profiled. The musician’s life has inspired contrasting responses – Schumann described the textures in his B flat minor Sonata (the Funeral March) as “cannon ­concealed amid blossoms”. To some he was an effete romantic, un-showy and ill at ease with the world.  But in his home country Poland, he is considered a national hero; his heart is buried in a pillar of the Holy Cross church in Warsaw. For Poland, Chopin is far from withdrawn, sentimental or consumptive, but ‘a lion of the keyboard’. Writing in the Guardian Tim Service puts this down to his enigmatic music being a ‘tapestry of poetic paradoxes’ embodying everything from ‘revolution to raindrops’.

Does Lucy enjoy the research behind the concerts? “I do enjoy it because I like using my brain in a different, creative way being immersed in books and letters. And I like thinking about how the music goes with the words – I like the marriage of the two. It’s a long but fulfilling process. And it’s ever changing, after the first performance of Chopin some edges get polished and the actors have an input too – they have ideas and over time some things change, it doesn’t stay static.”

It seems tragedy and genius is a prevailing theme for these great composers, do they go hand in hand? “Yes they do, and it’s a very good point and one seems to follow the other. None of these composers, possibly except from Mendelssohn, led a charmed life. Schumann suffered dreadfully with illness and Chopin was ill most of his life.”

Did she uncover anything that changed her mind or opinion of the man?

“I didn’t change my mind for the better. I had quite a benevolent attitude towards Chopin the man because his music is so extraordinary, but the more I got to know him, the less I liked him. Chopin was not particularly a nice character as a man. And you think how can someone like that make such heavenly music? If you were ill all the time you’re not going to be at your best but he was very pernickety, quite pedantic, fussy, and anti-Semitic: not a very generous spirit. Schumann was the opposite, he was very generous, he wanted to help other composers and he adored Clara. I never get the sense Chopin adored George Sand.”

Why did she focus on his romantic life?  “If you ask people what they knew about Chopin, if they know anything it will be the affair with George Sand – the affair in Majorca – and that he wrote the Funeral March. She was an immense part of his life, it would be impossible not to feature her.”

Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist who is regarded as the first French female novelist to gain a major reputation.

“In a sense her letters and her journals are so beautifully written, it’s almost worth having a one woman show without Chopin,” Lucy adds. “I hope through the show one gets a sense that he was quite fussy and fastidious, cantankerous and difficult. But everything is forgiven because writing music like that you can forgive anything.”

Sands and Chopin were polar opposites. “He liked everything just so with his hot chocolate before bed, she was bohemian, free spirited and wrote till 2am and got up at noon, their lives never really fused. But it must have worked creatively, she completely recognised his genius, and nurtured his genius.”

What is it about Chopin’s music and life that speaks to Lucy? “I think there’s probably no one that can write piano like Chopin for a start,” Lucy said. “He’s one of the few composers when you hear his music you instantly know its Chopin. His output in such a short life is extraordinary. If I had to pick two composers to take to a desert island it would be Chopin and Schumann.”

Lucy has a long relationship with Harrogate, the Festival and the Royal Hall: “Harrogate is particularly special to me. I first came to the Festival 15 or 20 years ago. And more recently for the opening of the Royal Hall – I was very involved in that, seeing the Hall rebuilt. So I feel like it’s a second home for me. Lilian did an amazing thing, rebuilding the Hall.” Lilian Mina was the Royal Hall Restoration Trust Chairman who lost her fight against cancer in 2008, dying just five days before the Royal Hall was due to be reopened. “Although not officially, it’s in her memory I’m coming, it’s an honour. She’ll always be in my mind every time I come to Harrogate. I do feel particularly attached to the place and to the Royal Hall.”

Nocturne: The Romantic Life of Chopin by Lucy Parham featuring Sam West and Harriet Walter is at the Royal Hall on Thursday 29 July at 8pm. Tickets from £15 to £57 for boxes (under 25s: £5). Ticket hotline: 0845 130 8840 or book online at www.harrogate-festival.org.uk

New Music New Venues is a weekend of laid back world and contemporary music in a PapaKåta style tent in Crescent Gardens. Muntu Valdo is the headline act on Saturday 17 July…

Can you explain the character behind the Sawa blues for audiences unfamiliar with the music?

Sawa Blues is a concept which aims to enlighten the richness of the Sawa culture, and the Sawa people (all the population living by the sea in the coast of Cameroon). It’s a rich and diverse culture where music plays a significant role by supporting almost all the activities of day to day life: fishing, farming, hunting, washing clothes, carrying water, all kind of work, celebrating or mourning. Why blues?  Because the word is more internationally recognisable, in ‘Esewe’, ‘Ndutu’, ‘Bolobo’, ‘Ngoso’, (names of the different ways of singing & doing music) we see a similarity with the ‘work songs’ in the sugar cane fields in slavery America which gave birth to what is known today as blues music. So the origin of this music is rooted deep in the centre of the planet earth, in a place known today as Cameroon. But beyond that, it’s the story of all the people around the world who use water, sea, river as a mean of communication, of travelling. So it’s the journey or the story of the human kind through migration, exchange and collaboration.

Muntu Valdo

I read you played your first guitar aged 8 (made of plasterboard and fishing wire). How important was it discovering music in childhood?

It was as important as being able to recognise or identify the names and the faces of different people, as important as knowing how to speak or read. It was just one of the key moments in my life.

You were injured as a student by the military during protests in Cameroon. It sounds like a difficult place to grow up – did the political situation inform your music or make music more important as a creative act? 

Of course, just like an event as big as the Football World Cup in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela after 25 years in prison for false and political reason, or like the Catholic Clergy paedophilia business or all the big news or issue in life. Everything that captures my attention is a source of inspiration.

You live in London now (via Paris!) which must be a world away from your childhood. Do you miss Cameroon or is life too full in London?

Yes you always miss home. Even if London is another home for me now, you always miss your home. Imagine if you have 3 brothers. Even if you see one of them everyday, you’ll still miss the others. Home is home. One, two or three homes. You always miss your home.

What kind of impact do you hope your music has on audiences?

I want my music to bring joy, happiness and positive thinking to the audience. I want them to share good moments in my company and to remember in their life when they came across an important moment by watching and listening to live music.

What would you say to Harrogate  who haven’t heard your sound before to entice the to come along to your show?

See Munto Valdo on July 17, 7.30 – 8.50pm in the New Music New Venues Papa-kata tent on Crescent Gardens, Harrogate.

To read a recent review of a Munto’s gig at the Slaughtered Lamb, click below:

http://thelondoneer.blogspot.com/2010/07/muntu-valdo-sawa-blues-tour-slaughtered.html

Can’t bear to drag yourself away from the box? Not even for some of the world’s most inspirational artists, musicians and writers? Well the Harrogate International Festival is offering all of you square eyes something really special – a giant movie screen at the bottom of Montpellier Hill.

It’s a chance to watch some absolute classic films open-air style with a programme destined to put a warm fuzzy glow onto your summer. Films in the pipeline include the DreamWorks animation, How to Train Your Dragon and instant classic, the Oscar-winning Up, which sees pensioner Carl Fredricksen tie thousands of balloons to his home to fulfil a lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Forget the kids; this film will cause some serious damage to your tear ducts. Don’t leave your tissues at home for this literally uplifting movie destined to leave you laughing and crying at the same time.

What do you get when you cross ‘swell’ and ‘elegant’? High Society, starring the iconic Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelley, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong brings some swellegant partying to proceedings with the sensational songs

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? True Love and Well did you Ever? With dialogue that zips, clothes that drip chic and songs that wedge themselves firmly into your hearts, this is a classic you won’t want to miss.

Other films include Ocean’s 11 and Dirty Dancing (‘nobody puts Baby in the corner’), and tying into the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival celebrating 120 years of Agatha Christie*, there’s a chance to catch a ride full of murderous twists and turns courtesy of Murder on the Orient Express and ITV shows Poirot, Marple and the Murdoch Mysteries from TV channel, Alibi.

In addition, the Festival plan to show student shorts from the Northern Film School and the work of other local young filmmakers.

(Please note times may vary by a few minutes). The schedule is:

Friday 16th July

1100 – 1200 Student Shorts

1200 – 1245 Episode 1, Murdoch Mysteries

1245 – 1330 Episode 2, Murdoch Mysteries

1300 – 1415 Episode 3, Murdoch Mysteries

1415 – 1548 Poirot: Five Little Pigs

1548 – 1731 Marple: Pocket Full of Rye

1731 – 1910 Poirot: Death on the Nile

1910 – 2106 Ocean’s 11

Saturday 17th July

1100 – 1200 Student Shorts

1200 – 1245 Episode 4, Murdoch Mysteries

1245 – 1330 Episode 5, Murdoch Mysteries

1300 – 1415 Episode 6, Murdoch Mysteries

1415 – 1555 How to Train Your Dragon

1555 – 1740 High Society

1740 – 1915 Marple: The Body in the Library

1915 – 2100 Dirty Dancing

Sunday 18th July

1100 – 1200 Student Shorts

1200 – 1245 Episode 7, Murdoch Mysteries

1245 – 1330 Episode 8, Murdoch Mysteries

1330 – 1506 Up

1506 – 1640 Marple: The Body In The Library

1640 – 1813 Poirot: Five Little Pigs

1815 – 2022 Murder On The Orient Express

* More Tea Vicar? Celebrating 120 years of Agatha Christie features Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, biographer Laura Thomson and crime author Andrew Taylor at the Crown Hotel on Friday 23 July, 5pm (tickets available at http://www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime or Ticket Hotline: 0845 130 8840.

Steve Blaylock is blasting out music in his farm outbuilding-turned-studio while he keeps fit on his multi gym. A magpie sits by the door in an open cage and sends out an alarming squawk. Quirky doorbell.

The sculptor has joined forces with the Harrogate International Festival to create bespoke sculptures to present to the arts charity’s premier partners: Cicada Communications, the Harrogate Advertiser, Harrogate Chamber of Trade & Commerce, Marshall Zoing Ltd, McCormicks Solicitors, R Stride and Co and Theakstons.

“I actually feel fairly honoured to be asked to do it,” Steve said of his involvement with Yorkshire’s leading arts festival. During the Festival, he’ll be exhibiting a few sculptures but mostly putting his written work and poetry on display – a first for him – at the Royal Hall.

The role of sculptor is one that seems to infiltrate Steve’s approach to life as well as art – not only does he mould what have become iconic pieces across Yorkshire, but he shapes his physique and cuts his own path. The son of working class parents, Steve had struggled with weight as a child. Now he lifts weights daily and looks, well, sculptured.

One of his four owls flaps up into the roof as Steve searches for a coffee cup complaining he spends his life searching for stuff he’s just put down. A brass bulldog falls perilously close to his computer that reveals his Facebook page featuring a photo of him surfing on a spider sculpture. He jokes if you fall over in his workshop you won’t need to bother with the ambulance, just call the undertakers.

He first got into art as a teenager. “I did a lot of embroidery work on biker’s jackets, I used to chop people’s jackets up and do design fashion work I guess although I didn’t think of it as that at the time.”

In the eighties his then girlfriend suggested he applied to Art College. Aged 21, he got a place with the intention of becoming a commercial graphic designer. But then his life changed direction forever.

“I went to Paris in the spring of 85,” Steve smiled whimsically. “It sounds like a song…The spring of ’85.  I did a college trip and I went to the Rodin museum. He was, is, the best sculptor in the world with his natural ability. Rodin is far more talented than any of the old masters and present day sculptors for that matter. I didn’t know him; I hadn’t a clue who he was. I walked into his museum and silhouetted in a tall window was a sculpture called The Cathedral…and I just couldn’t stop staring. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. It was almost like having an outer body experience, and that second, literally that second, I became a sculptor.”

He moved into welding steel because it allowed him to create the kind of sculptures he was interested in quickly.

But despite finding his artistic passion, he “wandered in the wilderness” after college for seven years, restoring pocket watches, wheeling and dealing antiques, selling scrap metal. “I fell into stuff,” Steve explained, “I had a natural radar for collecting antiques. Underneath it all I still had this hankering to want to do sculptures.”

So what was the trigger into becoming a full time sculptor?

“I got a job as a milk man. Fantastic company, but I hated the job. I loved the customers; I’m a people person so actually serving my customers that was my job satisfaction. I had to get up at 3 or 4 am every morning. I didn’t just deliver milk, it was milk, cheese – everything and anything.”

But you were basically unhappy?

“Oh I was mega unhappy. I used to do a lot of writing. I carried a notebook in my back pocket and I’d write my thoughts. I delivered to a lot of nursing homes and listening to the old people in the nursing homes…I mean little things like you’d walk past a nursing home day-in day-out at half past five in the morning and the old chap at a particular nursing home was always up and always sat in the window and as I walked past he’d always wave hello. And one morning he wasn’t there. And I enquired and of course he’d died. Its things like that make you think, streuth …there’s got to be more in life.”

He applied for a BA.

“I felt I needed to do that if I was saying to my family I’m jacking the job in to become a sculptor because they would of all gone, ‘you’re mad’. So I thought if I go to college, get a degree, I’ve got the qualification to then turn round and say I’m going to follow art. If you have one chance of a midlife crisis mine was at the age of 29.”

So he carved his own unique path.

Working and exhibiting at the level he does, Steve sees himself predominantly in the contemporary arts/ garden sculpture market. He plans to build a 12 foot wing-span Liver bird and ask Liverpool’s football club to pose with him to promote an exhibition on the Wirral.

Steve thinks big.

“I want to build monumental sculptures.” His dream is to sculpt a 200 foot wing-span stainless steel eagle owl flying over the city of Leeds – the symbol of the city. “Try and envisage the owl, and underneath the owl would be a visitors centre, a sculpture park, there’d be a lecture hall…you’d be able to go up inside the owl and look across the Leeds cityscape. It could be the home of the Northern Arts awards…

“If the Leeds owl was built it would be the biggest sculpture of its kind in the world. It would show what can be manufactured in this great country and county of ours, and boost the economy of the area.”

One area where Steve becomes really impassioned is art and its relationship with everyday people. “One of the things I’ve always wanted to get off the ground since leaving university is the Northern Arts Awards – which would be the true grit version of the Emperor’s new clothes that is the Turner awards. Real art. One of the things that encourages me when I have a good exhibition somewhere, especially my bigger pieces, people like my mam and dad come up to me and say, we like your work because we understand it. It looks like what it looks like. If I make an owl, it’s an owl. A dragonfly is a dragonfly. It’s not three or four pieces of steel rammed together 60 foot high called ‘the Concupiscence of Being’,” he laughed. “There’s nothing pretentious about it. …”

There’s no doubt that the elitism of some art can be alienating. But if you’ve never experienced the Harrogate Festival, if you’ve ever questioned the ability of the arts to transform our lives or doubted music, art and literature are hardwired into our all too human make-up, Steve’s final story illustrates why the arts do matter.

“I once had a lady ring up, she’d seen an exhibition that I’d organized at Harlow Carr and wanted to buy a few pieces of sculpture in the middle of the exhibition. I explained to the woman that she couldn’t have the pieces in the exhibition till it ended…she said, she’d really like to buy the pieces she’d seen in the exhibition, it was important to her. And I said, ‘well it can’t be that important it’s not as if you’re dying.’ Long pause. ‘Actually I am.’ Long pause from my side. ‘Gosh I’m really sorry, are you being serious?’ She said, ‘Yes I’ve got less than six months to live and I want to spend the rest of the summer looking at your sculptures.’ At that point you realise a few bits of steel that you’ve made – a pale reflection of creation – will actually enhance and enriche people’s lives. I pulled the sculptures out of the exhibition and made similar pieces to go in and the lady had the summer with the sculptures, and passed away with her family and her thoughts. That’s one wake-up call. That’s really humbling and makes you think about the bigger questions in life.”

Raise your coat collar, hide behind your shades and fix a trilby on your head. Dr Mark Baldwin is exposing the secret world of smuggled intelligence and espionage in an intriguing talk: Codebreakers, The Story of Enigma.

Break the code, unlock the mystery and win the day – it’s the stuff of thriller novels! The ingenuity of the Allies deciphering Germany’s secret communications enciphered on the Enigma machine has to be one of the biggest triumphs in military history.

And Harrogate will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hold history in their hands and interact with a genuine Enigma machine. One of the UK’s leading authorities on World War II intelligence, Dr Baldwin, will give an illustrated talk about the legendary Enigma machine and the code-breaking work at Bletchley Park followed by a hands-on demonstration.

“There are comparatively few Enigma machines, and there isn’t another working machine on public display in the north of England. This is probably Harrogate’s only opportunity to experience the machine hands-on. Also it’s an experience on not just how it works but why it was such a challenge for the best of Britain’s brains.”

Dr Baldwin has delivered hundreds of lectures on the subject across Poland and the UK and is the only person to be invited to Germany to speak on the subject.

“Most people are delighted and astounded to handle such an iconic device – it’s the most famous cipher machine in history. It’s old technology but it played a very important role and it amazes people. The Enigma machine is something they value – lots of people gather around and have a go – it’s a direct contact with history. However much you read or watch films about it, touching the object brings it home, brings the history to life.”

Dr Mark Baldwin first became fascinated by the Enigma machines during his time as a bookseller and publisher. “I had to catalogue a book from 20 years ago it was called Very Special Intelligence – about WW2 code breaking – it was something I hadn’t known anything about so I thought I’d read it before I sold it and it was such an interesting book I decided to hang on to it. More books came in and I got more involved and I’d talk to customers about it …one thing led to another, I got so involved I decided to acquire an original Enigma machine.”

Dr Baldwin flew to Copenhagen to buy his first Enigma machine from a collector of WW2 radio equipment. He sold that and bought an even rarer machine from a Norwegian. Dare we ask for how much? “Prices are flexible shall we say, the last two that we sold were around $100,000. If you want one you could get one in six months or a year, there’s a small market but if you’re prepared to pay, you can find one.”

It isn’t the mechanics of this 100-year-old machine as such that fascinate Dr Baldwin, but the work of the people who managed to cipher the messages that ultimately helped the Allies win the war. “Perhaps the most important thing to say is that the Poles broke these codes first when nobody thought it was possible,” Dr Baldwin said. “It’s the size of a portable type writer but this small machine has a tremendous amount of possibilities. There are more cipher patterns from the Enigma machine then there are atoms in the observable universe. People think of grains of sand on the beach, but we’re talking millions of millions of beaches. And yet these Polish mathematicians tackled this enormous job – something that was thought impossible – they battled on and took two or three years and succeeded.”

The British then began to crack the codes at the now famous Bletchley Park.

“When they started there were two or three dozen people. By the end of the war there were 10,000 people there. They all gave what their country needed – many doing admin tasks – there was no computerisation – it was all done on index cards, yet all these men and women there kept it secret not just during the war but for 30 years after – it’s a very interesting achievement, it’s extraordinary.”

The team were cracking a million messages a year by end of the war. It’s thought their work shortened the war by two years, saving countless lives. What fascinates Dr Baldwin is the tension between cracking the codes and using the knowledge of enemy movements while ensuring this knowledge remained secret from the Germans. During the Battle of the Atlantic, the British struggled to read messages sent to the German U-boats.

“It was crucial because this country has not been self sufficient in food and raw materials for centuries – the Germans were going to try and starve us into submission like they tried in WW1. And they did this efficiently in the first 18 months of the war. Then the Royal Navy acquired codebooks and paperwork in May 1941, well into the war, but that enabled them to break the code very quickly and we got the losses down for a few months. At the beginning of 1942, the German U-boats up-graded the Enigma machine and we couldn’t read the messages for nearly a year; in that period we were losing the war – over 1,000 merchant ships were lost in the Atlantic alone.”

The Navy managed to gather more intelligence in October 1942 which effectively ended the battle of the Atlantic as it helped locate the U-boats, enabling the British to attack before they were attacked. “Everything in the theatre of war was connected to the ability to read those messages.”

There are, of course, tales or heroism from sailors who lost their lives retrieving the crucial intelligence to help crack the codes.

Colin Grazier was one such hero. After defeating a German U-boat using depth charges, and with the crew captured, volunteers were requested to go on board the sinking ship to retrieve valuable intelligence. Colin helped retrieve the boat’s Engima codebook before going back in for a second search. It sank with Colin trapped inside. “If you go to war you know you might lose your life,” Dr Baldwin said, “but the sad thing is he contributed to winning the war but had no idea how valuable his contribution was.”

Colin had got married just three days before he went to sea. A statue was unveiled in his memory in his hometown of Tamworth 60 years after his death.

The story of the Enigma machine is a fascinating one, with tales of intrigue and espionage. Its role in shaping the world we now live in is extraordinary. You can pay homage to this icon of history on Saturday 17 July 2.30pm at Harrogate Theatre and join Dr Mark Baldwin for his lecture: Codebreakers, The Story of Enigma. Tickets: £12 Unreserved.

Last year, audiences had the chance to dance, dance, dance the night away as the floor of the Royal Hall was liberated of its formal theatre seats for a special Strictly Dancing event, sweeping Harrogate off its feet with Camilla Dallerup and Ian White. Check out the pictures!

Last year - Dancing in the Royal Hall!

This year, dance fever is back in the form of some sizzling salsa. We’re inviting you to take to the dance floor and shake those shoulders along to Alex Wilson’s sensational Salsatak band. Alongside Alex, there’ll be professional salsa dancers mingling with the crowd to inspire you to show the professionals – Mark Ramprakash style – how to really shimmy. Anyone who saw Mark ‘snake hips’ Ramprakash on TV’s Strictly will remember his moves inspired judge Arlene Phillips to declare ‘Hot! Hot! Hot!’ after his salsa routine…well this is your chance to explore your inner Cuban and get temperatures soaring for a sensational night of salsa!

If you want to really impress on the dance floor, why not come along to the Find the Rhythm workshop with Alex Wilson and dance teacher Lee Weeks earlier in the day to make sure you’ve got the moves down!

On the night, the audience will be asked to take their seats before being invited onto the dance floor where, if you choose, you can dance the whole night away. For those who just want to sit back and watch, dancing is advisable but not compulsory!

Caught the salsa fever?

If you still feel the need to dance, dance, dance, there’ll be an after show party at Revolution Vodka Bar (just a two minute walk from the Royal Hall) until the early hours…Tickets just £2 on the door with a concert ticket (£4 without).

Ticket Hotline: 0845 130 8840  – Or book online www.harrogate-festival.org.uk

Alex Wilson and Lee Knights, Find the Rhythm Tonight! at The Royal Hall, Friday 23 July, 2.30pm, tickets £8.

Alex Wilson and Salsatak! at the Royal Hall, Friday 23 July, 8pm. Tickets from £15 (Under 25s: £5)

Check out these exclusive preview tracks recorded by Ayanna with her trio during her residency at Dartington. These are brand new and unreleased!

No Excuse (Edit) _by Ayanna

In Time_by Ayanna

Awakened_by Ayanna