Birmingham Post

Culture: Take a Shine to Harvest Moon

Forget complicated plots, speed, shooting and anything else that gets those adrenal glands thumping, because this week's top recommendation for Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, is all about farming your way to happiness. But if this sounds a little too quirky then go for something less offbeat, like pole position game TOCA Race Driver 2, which gives Project Gotham a run for its money and then some. If reptiles are more your cup of tea, the Turtles or Dinotopia could be right up your street -if...

Country Refuge Fit for a King

The graffiti has gone but the window would still be familiar to the boy who etched his name onto the glass in October 1642. The early mullion arrangement is unaltered with its leaded panes and particularly good, 16th century Elizabethan fastenings which can also be spotted elsewhere at Arlescote Manor in Warwickshire. The writer who looked closely at the features in 1947, Arthur Oswald of Country Life magazine, made sure that a photograph was included in his detailed description of the house.

For What It's Worth ; in a Marketplace Awash with Million Pound Properties, a Budget of Half That Hardly Looks Excessive Any More. In Rural Locations and Top Villages, It Might Still Secure a Family House of Some Character in Large Gardens and Better-Than-Average Living Space. Marsya Lennox Finds Four Examples in Two Counties.

1, Oakhill House John German in Stafford is quoting a pounds 550,000 guide price for 1, Oakhill House at Upper Tean in Staffordshire, a large, period semi dating to 1689.

Residential Property: Grand Victorian Style and Status

We may think of the style as 'High Victorian' - and high it is, soaring upwards for maximum pavement impact, aspiration in domestic form. The grandest houses of the Victorian Gothic Revival were designed to 'urge the eye heavenward'.

Residential Property: Matching Buyers with Homes in the Sun

Independent estate agency, Hunters expects to have matched 60 Midland buyers with homes in the sun during 2004. It reports continued high interest in the apartments and villas being marketed by its spanish department in Knowle.

Residential Property: Rare Reclamation Opportunity

The sight is a familiar one: a picturesque cottage that has seen better days, situated right on the roadside. In villages, they were well placed for watching the world and for chatting, on the doorstep, with passers-by.

Residential Property: Delightful Country Package

The selling agents sum up Nethercote House in Warwickshire as a 'lovely listed family house'. It has everything one might hope to find at this level in the local marketplace in a rural, hamlet position 11 miles from Rugby, 15 from Leamington Spa and 19 from Banbury.

Residential Property: Treasure of a Small Community

Badgers Rise at Penn in Wolverhampton has bagged a rare natural site in the popular residential area. The housebuilders behind the scheme, Michael Richard Homes, describe the trio of family houses as a 'treasure of a small community' on the nearest thing to an 'island'.

Residential Property: Just Six to Go at Sibford Manor

There are six homes left to buy at Swan Hill's Sibford Manor scheme in the Oxfordshire village of Sibford Ferris. Recent months have brought a quick succession of sales at the interesting development, reports Emma Hartshorne of the Knight Frank selling agents.

We're Up for the Capital of the Blame Culture

There's a wonderful poster on the tube in London telling the tale of a man who gets thrown out of a bar because he's not wearing any shoes. He apparently returned with two slabs of meat tied to the soles of his feet. Don't ask me why -I suspect he was a student.

Perspective: Fastest On the Planet ; Funnny Fuel Cars Bring a New Sense of Drama to Shakespeare Country; Get Set for a Quick Read As Andy Rogers, News Editor of Eurodragster.Com, Talks Us Through the Big Meeting for Speedy Vehicles at Long Marston This Weekend

The UK's fastest cars and bikes are headed for Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend as the Excitement Nationals, the latest round of the 2004 UK Drag Racing Championship, takes place at the Stratford track. Over 200 competitors will be vying for the honours in 27 classes. Headlining this weekend's race are the Fuel Funny Cars, which are among the fastestaccelerating vehicles on the planet. 2003 British Champion John Spuffard, who holds the SCR track records of 5.3 seconds and 281 miles per...

Culture: You Don't Have to Be Barking to Watch This . . . ; It's the Biggest Scientific Pet Survey the World has Ever Seen, and Every Pet Owner Will Have the Chance to Contribute Thanks to Bbc1's Test Your Pet. Graham Keal Talks to Two of the People Behind the Two Shows -Rat Fan Kate Humble and Oxford Zoologist Tim Guilford

You'd think there must be a good reason why a highly intelligent man would construct a series of brightly coloured paper hats for a pair of peach-faced lovebirds, then watch them rip them to shreds. And you'd be right. What seems like barking behaviour is all being done in the name of research for BBC1's Test Your Pet, a uniquely massive experiment combining mainstream entertainment and scientific research. The two programmes on successive Saturdays (May 1 and 8) will form by far the biggest ...

Culture: Two Sides to This Story ; Victoria Brock Previews Two Up-and-Coming Birmingham Productions of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story

While the Second City has lots on offer in the way of theatre, there are rarely two versions of the same show in any one city, even one as large as Birmingham. On offer this summer are two versions of West Side Story, one by a local Birmingham amateur musical theatre group, (BMOS) and one by a student society at the University of Birmingham. Which one will be of a higher standard? Which one will be produced better? Which one will have a greater audience turn-out? It is surely town versus gown.

Culture: Old-Fashioned Psychological Thriller ; Mike Davies Reviews the Week's New Releases

SECRET WINDOW CERT 15 95 MINS As history demonstrates, Stephen King adaptations are very much a hit and miss affair, for every Shawshank Redemption, Misery or Stand By Me there's a Pet Sematary, Children of the Corn and Dreamcatcher. It's also true that his best works tend to be those involved with the craft of writing and the darker elements upon which it draws.

Culture: What's Hot and What's Not

Culture: Games Chart (All Formats Full Price)

Post People: Dinner with a Foreign Flavour

Lawyers from Eversheds and their clients enjoyed dinner with an international flavour at Bank Restaurant. In attendance were lawyers from Eversheds' Singapore, Madrid, Brussels, Paris and Milan offices. Alvise Dona del Rose, Matthew Woodford, Andre Bywater, Andrew Fordham (Iron mountain) and Sian Gilmor, all Eversheds.