What’s on in York: Holiday Spanish – your Essential Survival Guide

 Acomb Explore Library :

Mon 16 Apr for 7

weeks :

1.00pm – 3.00pm :

£74

Make the most of your holiday in a Spanish speaking country by learning the essentials before your trip. Or if you are interested in learning a language this could be an opportunity to try some basic Spanish and see if you would like to take your study further. All hand outs will be provided and websites will be recommended.

Learn to greet Spanish speakers, introduce yourself, order something to eat and drink in a café and find your way around the town using public transport. The lessons will be very practical and you will learn by listening to and repeating new words and phrases, reading simple texts, doing a variety of exercises and practising the language in role play situations. Gain extra tips about the country and its customs and traditions from your tutor.

To book on the course please click here.

You may be interested to know we have two other holiday language courses running too.  Please click the links below if you would like to find out more.

China in What’s on in York: Drag with Michael Bristow, BBC World Service editor

Apr _14China In DragYork Explore Library :

Sat 14 Apr :

2.00pm – 3.30pm :

£5

When the BBC’s Michael Bristow decided to write a history of modern China he turned to his language teacher for help and discovered a fascinating perspective on his host country.

Approaching the end of his eight-year stay in Beijing, Michael Bristow decided he wanted to write about the country’s modern history. To assist him he asked for the help of his language teacher, who was born just two years after the communist party came to power in 1949. The changing fortunes of his life have mirrored the ups and downs of his country, which has moved from communist poverty to capitalist wealth in just a single generation. It came as a surprise though, to learn that the teacher was also a cross-dresser. Michael gradually realised that the teacher’s story is the story of modern China.

Michael Bristow is Asia/Pacific editor for the BBC World Service in London. He appears on radio and TV, commenting on developments in the world’s fastest-changing region. For five years he was a BBC correspondent in Beijing, covering everything from earthquakes to the Olympics. Apart from his family, China is his great passion, an interest that began while at university in Newcastle. He’s spent much of his adult life trying to learn Mandarin; a task he imagines might take many more years. He lives in Yorkshire with his wife and their two children.

To book tickets please click here.

What’s on in York:The Genius of Grinling Gibbons: From Journeyman to King’s Carver

GibbonsFairfax House :

Sat 14 Apr – Fri 14 Sep :

Normal Opening Times :

General admission price

To celebrate the ‘home-coming’ of the exquisite ‘King David Panel’ and to illuminate the extraordinary skill of Grinling Gibbons, Fairfax House will be mounting a major new exhibition in 2018, The Genius of Grinling Gibbons: From Journeyman to King’s Carver.

Opening on the 370th anniversary of his birth, this exhibition also marks the 350th year of Gibbons’ arrival in York. Drawing on new research and bringing together artworks and sculpture by the hand of this iconic individual from across the country, it will explore his development from an obscure journeyman to becoming the country’s most celebrated master-carver.

Ticket Prices :

Included in admission to the museum:

Adult: £7.50
Concession: £6.00 (applies to over 60s and students)
Children: £3.00 (over 6 and under 16) and include the Townhouse Mouse Trail or Townhouse Mouse Quest.
Family ticket: £17.50 (2 adults and up to 3 children)
Friends of Fairfax House, York Civic Trust members, York Pass holders, National Art Pass holders and Historic Houses Association members: Free Entry

For more information please click here.

What’s on in York: CSIs in York: the truth about forensic investigating

Apr _7Csis In York

York Explore Library :

Sat 7 Apr :

2.00pm – 3.30pm :

£5

Crime writing duo Ashley Dyer will reveal the truth about forensic investigation with pictures, practical demonstrations, chat and laughter.

You will learn how forensic investigations happen, see how an expert ‘lifts’ fingerprints, and you can even try your hand at identifying footwear evidence. Known for her dramatic readings, the ‘writing arm’ of Team Ashley Dyer will chill you with the fictional art of murder, explaining how forensic science, research, location – and conversations with murder detectives, pathologists, and prosecutors – inspire plot and stories, and bring characters to life.

Ashley Dyer is the penname of novelist Margaret Murphy working in consultation with forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy is a former RLF Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector, past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics’ award for crime fiction as well as the Dagger in the Library. She has written novels under her own name, and as A.D. Garrett.

Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, SOCO, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager, and has co-authored, and contributed to, professional policing texts. In great demand with crime writers, she is a CWA Non-Fiction Dagger judge, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetlandtelevision series.

Splinter in the Blood: Utterly engrossing and filled with masterfully crafted surprises, Splinter in the Blood is a propulsive roller-coaster ride, filled with secrets, nerve-jangling tension, perplexing mystery, and cold-blooded murder, in which a police officer on the hunt for a macabre serial killer is brutally attacked, and only his partner knows the truth about what happened—and who did it. This debut thriller sold in multiple competitive auctions across Europe and in the US.

To book tickets please click here.

What’s on in York: Sofa to Saddle

Apr _4Sofa 2 Saddle

York Sport Cycle Track :

Thu 5 Apr :

6.30pm – 7.30pm :

£20

The Sofa to Saddle course is a new 8 week course to get you back into cycling again and gaining the confidence you need to cycle independently.

It will be starting on Thursday 5th April at 6.30pm at York Sport. The first two sessions will be based at the track to build confidence and get to know your bike again.

The course will cost £20 and you will receive a free t-shirt at the end.

The course is designed to use your own bike.

For more information or to book a place please call Hannah Reeder on (01904) 551431 or hannah.reeder@york.gov.uk.

What’s on in York: York’s Museum Gardens: a history

Apr _5Museum GardensYork Explore Library :

Thu 5 Apr :

6.15pm – 7.45pm :

£6, or £5 with a YorkCard

Join Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s Peter Hogarth as he delves into the Society’s own archives, pictures and maps, answering some of the many questions about the history of York Museum Gardens and telling the story of the site through the eyes, and in the words, of those who were there.

We are all familiar with the Museum Gardens. The history of the land before the Yorkshire Philosophical Society came on the scene can be pieced together from the surviving remains – St Mary’s Abbey, the Multangular Tower – and historical sources: a patch of non-descript land outside a legionary fortress was shaped by the Romans, Earl Siward, William Rufus, the Benedictines, and Henry VIII, among others, until it eventually became available for the Society to create their own botanic garden.

Join Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s Peter Hogarth as he delves into the Society’s own archives, pictures and maps, answering some of the many questions about the history of York Museum Gardens and telling the story of the site through the eyes, and in the words, of those who were there.

To book tickets please click here.