Anna Selby

Contributor at The Arbuturian

Journalist, author, broadcaster

Featured in: Favicon

arbuturian.com Favicon

telegraph.co.uk Favicon

bmj.com (+1) Favicon

yahoo.com (+5) Favicon

fodors.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

jacionline.org Favicon

innerself.com Favicon

luxurytraveladvisor.com Favicon

silvertraveladvisor.com + 4 more

Articles

The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse

1 week ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

The time is the present and the place is Ancient Greece, we are told in the opening moments. And this really is a play that has been around a very long time. Aristophanes’ comedy was written in 405BC and performed at a festival in honour of the God Dionysus who is, in fact, the central character of the piece. Stephen Sondheim picked it up in 1974 and freely adapted it with Burt Shevelove. Its first performances took place in university swimming pools.
How under-the-radar Botswana got safari tourism right

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Anna Selby

In Botswana, they named their currency, pula, after their most precious commodity. Their diamonds? No – it’s the rain. The word means “blessings”, too, and perhaps that’s hardly surprising given the Kalahari covers 70 per cent of this parched country. The Kalahari, though, is not the endless expanse of sand that might first appear in your mind’s eye.
How under-the-radar Botswana got safari tourism right

1 week ago | telegraph.co.uk | Anna Selby |Claudia Winkleman |Nicki Grihault |Sarah Baxter

In this glorious region of southern Africa, the only crowds are the herds of magnificent wildlifeIn Botswana, they named their currency, pula, after their most precious commodity. Their diamonds? No - it's the rain. The word means "blessings", too, and perhaps that's hardly surprising given the Kalahari covers 70 per cent of this parched country. The Kalahari, though, is not the endless expanse of sand that might first appear in your mind's eye.
Spa of the Month: Lefay Dolomiti

2 weeks ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

It’s not usual these days to get excited about travelling to your destination – the schlepp to the airport, not to mention through the airport and all its security rituals, has long ago put a dampener on all that. Then you get to the gate, and it’s the usual hurry up and wait scenario. Deep sigh. So imagine my surprise when my fellow passengers were off their seats, taking pictures and pointing excitedly at the approaching aircraft for their flight. Why?
Jane Eyre at Sadler's Wells

3 weeks ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

Northern Ballet’s Jane Eyre has come at last to Sadler’s Wells. Created nine years ago by Cathy Marston, it was seen in Leeds and other venues in the North but the closest it came to central London before was Richmond. After positive reviews around the country, though, it has now been revived and is getting its central London premiere. And deservedly so. It is rare nowadays to find a new proper story ballet. Even better, it’s a story you will surely know.
A Chelsea Bloom: Sloane Place

3 weeks ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

Spring is here and, for Londoners at least, nothing epitomises this more than the Chelsea Flower Show. This year it’s from the 20th to the 24th of May and, as always, in Royal Hospital Gardens, the lovely park that surrounds the home of the Chelsea Pensioners, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1692. The grounds were originally pleasure gardens with a Rotunda used for balls and where the young Mozart performed for the fashionable 18th century crowds.
New Zealand's Natural Wonders, Part III: Marine Wildlife

1 month ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1770, his botanist, John Banks, recorded in his diary that the dawn chorus that would awaken him each morning in Queen Charlotte Sound was the most melodious wild music he had ever heard, almost as if the birds were imitating small bells. Of course, there then followed an influx of European migrants who brought with them various animals that preyed on the birds many of which were defenceless – often ground nesting and even flightless.
New Zealand's Natural Wonders, Part II: Geothermal Action

1 month ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

It can be an eerie sight, watching steam rising from the earth in the morning sunshine. In New Zealand – and particularly in the area around Rotorua – however, it is not an unusual one. New Zealand possesses a very visible level of geothermal activity and in these parts the steam drifts upwards from river banks and parks, even the drains and gutters, and the unmistakable (and not exactly delicate) smell of sulphur hangs in the air.
The Brightening Air at The Old Vic

1 month ago | arbuturian.com | Anna Selby

Conor McPherson’s last show at the Old Vic, Girl from the North Country, was phenomenal. A Depression-era musical set in Minnesota may not sound like an uplifting experience but it was joyous, full of McPherson magic and with a bunch of Bob Dylan songs powering it along to the delight of the audience. (Dylan himself is said to have wept when he saw it.)His new offering is The Brightening Air set in an equally economically depressed 1980s County Sligo.
The future of retirement homes could be at sea

1 month ago | aol.co.uk | Anna Selby

No one can accuse German shipbuilders Meyer Werft of a lack of vision. They are, in fact, currently looking far into the future. In 75 years, they tell us, the US will have the same number of over-80s as they do over-65s today. By 2100, then, there might just be a very interesting gap in the market. Instead of a conventional retirement home, octogenarians who still possess a spring in their step might opt instead for the Serenity, a ship designed just for them.