Michael Rosen and the Homemade Orchestra

Michael Rosen and the Homemade Orchestra, led by saxophonist Tim Whitehead and composer and keyboardist Colin Riley, are to premiere their collaborative work, Nonsense, with a "playfully surreal UK tour of music and words". The project is funded by Arts Council England.

A "groundbreaking project aimed at a family audience", Nonsense combines new music - jazz, classical and electronica - with spoken word. Rosen himself will narrate the verses, accompanied by the Orchestra, and the performances will navigate "baked bean storms", "jellyfish under the rug", and "lonely toads in the middle of the road" in "an eccentrically joyful journey through an ever-changing musical landscape".


Dates so far confirmed are Sunday 3 May, Town Hall, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival (box office: 08445 768 970; tickets: £10/£5); Tuesday 5 June, the Spark Children’s Festival, De Montfort Hall, Leicester (box office: 01162 333 111; tickets: £10); Sunday 14 June, St George's, Bristol (box office: 08454 024 001; tickets: £10/£7; family ticket: buy four tickets and get the cheapest free); and Sunday 20 September, Scarborough Jazz Festival (box office: 01723 357 869; tickets: TBC). Further dates to be announced shortly.

Blue Peter Awards 2009

The three category winners in the Blue Peter Book Awards 2009 are:

Book I Couldn't Put Down and overall Blue Peter Book of the Year: Shadow Forest by Matt Haig (Corgi)
Most Fun Story with Pictures: Mr Gum And The Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton, illustrated by David Tazzyman (Egmont)
Best Book with Facts: Horrible Geography Handbooks – Planet In Peril by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips (Scholastic)