Ellen Cheshire

In February I was lingering in the shadowy rooms of haunted houses. In March I found myself drawn onto the stage. Here the Gothic no longer belongs to architecture but to the body itself. Performance becomes the threshold and crossing it comes at a cost. March’s theme, Obsession and Art: When Performance Takes Possession, was shaped by seeing The Red Shoes at the Mayflower Theatre. Seeing this ballet adaptation, choreographed by Matthew Bourne, of the 1948 Powell and Pressbu

I had only ever seen A House for Essex once before — glimpsed from the path across the marshes at Wrabness, its striking tiled exterior rising like something between a chapel, a fairytale house and a monument. Even from a distance it felt extraordinary. So the chance to stay there felt like an essential bucket-list must-do. And in March 2026, that item was ticked off. Created by artist Grayson Perry with FAT Architecture for Living Architecture, the building is conceived as

A recent day in Kingston upon Thames made for a perfect cultural double bill. The morning began at Kingston Museum to see the Eadweard Muybridge collection . Muybridge, born in Kingston, was a pioneer of motion photography, and the museum holds an impressive selection of his work. Seeing the original handpainted glass and of galloping his horses and gaining an insight into the man and hisprocess was fascinating – the very beginnings of what would become cinema. Worth poppin

Few novels have cast a longer cinematic shadow than Frankenstein. Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s story of creation, rejection and responsibility has generated hundreds of stage and screen interpretations, most of them circling the same familiar narrative: Victor Frankenstein creates life. The creature is rejected. Tragedy follows. Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride! When the trailer for The Bride! appeared, I admit I had some reservations. It seeme

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is directed by Baz Luhrmann, so it was never likely to feel like a quiet trawl through archival material. Instead, it plays out as a full-scale sensory experience - immersive, kinetic, and unapologetically heightened. There was this one sequence in particular which draws on never-before-seen footage from Elvis’s first Las Vegas shows and in rehearsals. In Baz’s hands, it isn’t simply presented; it’s orchestrated. Flash and frenzy give way to ti

After January’s journey into the dark forest — where fairy tales unravelled and wishes carried consequence — February moved indoors. The Gothic lens shifted from tangled woods to enclosed spaces, from external threats to the unease that seeps through walls and settles into floorboards. February – It Walks Around the House at Night Venue: Chichester Festival Theatre Theme: Haunted Houses It Walks Around the House at Night is a contemporary ghost story rooted in one of the mo

Here's the 25th batch of #52FilmsByWomen watched since taking the pledge in 2016. This batch of 52 films, 1250-1301, are those watched between November 2025 and February 2026. They included 26 feature films, 1 full-length documentary, 1 event cinema, 23 shorts and 1 TV episode. Read about films: 1 – 52, 53 - 104, 105 - 156, 157 - 208, 209 - 260, 261 - 312, 313 - 365, 366 - 417, 418 - 469, 470 - 521, 522 - 573, 574 - 625, 626 - 677, 678 - 729, 730 - 781, 782 - 833, 834 - 885,

For the first screening of Wuthering Heights at my local cinema, my mum and I settled into our favourite seats, surrounded by around sixty other people ready to watch the latest interpretation of Emily Brontë’s novel. We had both enjoyed Saltburn , and I had been particularly taken with Promising Young Woman , so expectations were high. The trailer promised something bold, stylised and unapologetically Gothic. The heightened aesthetic, anachronistic music and costuming did n

In 2026, I’m exploring theatre, film, and fiction through a Gothic lens. Each month revolves around a key stage show, paired with films and novels that echo, extend, or twist its themes. The goal is to step outside my usual choices, dive into stories that unsettle, delight, or surprise, and see familiar genres in a new light. From fairy-tale forests to shadowed halls, the year promises a journey through imagination, consequence, and a little delicious darkness. Read more abou

It’s January 2024, and time to rewind back to 1976 as I watch seven films from that year that I’d never seen before. Alongside them, I revisited a long-standing favourite, Murder by Death , to see if anything new might challenge its place at the top. The Seven Films: The Bad News Bears (1976, Michael Ritchie) ★★★½ Walter Matthau is in fine grumpy form as a washed-up ex-player drafted in to coach the worst little league team in town. What starts as pure cynicism slowly soften

Up in London to stay with a friend and catch a couple of shows, I managed to bookend the weekend with some of my bucket list must-sees. On Friday, I battled the chilly wind and rain at the tail end of Storm Goretti to reach Bermondsey and tick off London’s only dedicated LGBTQ+ cinema, The Arzner , tucked into Bermondsey Square. I was in the area for theatre later, but arrived rather buffeted and windswept at this incredibly stylish independent cinema of around 50 seats, comp

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) made Sussex his home at a pivotal point in his life. In 1918, after years of travel, writing and public service, he settled in the ancient town of Rye, at Lamb House. He remained there until his death in 1940, and it was during these Sussex years that he produced some of his most enduring work. Rye offered Benson a place of continuity and containment, a town shaped by history and habit, where daily life unfolded on a human scale. Born in 1867, Benson c

As we step into 2026 it feels like the perfect moment to reflect on the films that shaped my year. Huge thanks to Letterboxd for making year end film navel gazing such a pleasure. In 2025 I logged 941 films , 733 first time watches , with the rest revisits. Some were seen in cinemas and at festivals while many were enjoyed at home. If you are curious about everything I watched you can find it all over on Letterboxd at cheshellen . This year was packed with memorable cinema mo

What a year. 2025 leaned hard into the joyful overlap between film, theatre, music and exhibitions – with event cinema sitting neatly in the middle. Across the year I saw 86 films at the cinema , attended 68 live performances (concerts, theatre, talks), and enjoyed 10 event cinema screenings . Plus according to my letterboxd , I logged 941 films* in 2025 but more to follow on my year in film! *This includes lots of shorts! Theatre played a particularly strong role, with

For 2025 I set myself a focused cultural project: to immerse myself in the work of Stephen Sondheim by watching his 40 favourite films (a list he drew up in 2003) , alongside related screenings, documentaries and a concerted effort to see his stage musicals I had never seen. What began as a structured viewing challenge gradually became a wide-ranging exploration of the ideas, forms and storytelling traditions that shaped Sondheim’s creative imagination. Working chronologicall

Continuing my journey through Stephen Sondheim’s top 40 films, numbers 31–40 offer another diverse batch of international cinema, from gripping political dramas to tense character studies and meditations on mortality. Alongside these, I watched bonus screenings celebrating Sondheim’s love of puzzles, performance and storytelling itself. 31/40: The Official Story (1985, Luis Puenzo, Argentina) In Buenos Aires during the final days of the military dictatorship, a history teach

Last Christmas I asked for experiences rather than things and added an Art Fund National Art Pass to my list. I was delighted when my mum gave it to me, and it quickly became more than just a gift - it changed how I explored, planned and thought about art. Over 2025 I used the pass to see 12 exhibitions at 10 venues. The full ticket value came to £159.50. I actually spent £65. That is a saving of £96.25, comfortably more than the cost of the pass itself at £63.25. What follo

There are bucket lists and then there are bucket lists . The kind that take you from the cathedral square of Wells to the quietly cinematic streets of Crouch End in pursuit of ice cream wrappers and impeccable comic timing. We are, slowly and with great reverence, ticking off the filming locations of the Cornetto Trilogy — first the Somerset serenity of Hot Fuzz , now the North London zombie lanes of Shaun of the Dead — armed with cameras, over-specific knowledge and my Exce

Some places have been quietly glowing on my bucket list for years, waiting for the right moment. A day in Walthamstow and Hackney gave me a chance to finally tick a few off - each one with its own distinct character, yet all threaded together by art, craft and imagination. The William Morris Gallery had long been near the top of my list and stepping inside felt like stepping into a carefully crafted world. The rooms are full of fabric samples, sketches, printing blocks and

Milne in 1922 By Emil Otto Hoppé - Shadowland, September 1922 (page 62), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58472213 On Christmas Eve in 1925, the first Winnie-the-Pooh story, The Wrong Bees , was published in the London Evening News. In celebration of this 100th anniversary, this latest blog in the Writers in Sussex series explores the Sussex landscape that inspired A.A. Milne’s beloved stories and the enduring magic of Ashdown Forest. Ashdown Fo