‘Nothing in the world will ever be the same’

34 years after having starred in the original West End production, Michael Ball returns to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s celebrated musical Aspects of Love at the Lyric Theatre for a strictly limited season, this time playing the role of George.

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart, based on the novel by David Garnett and directed by Jonathan Kent. This heart-breaking story of passion, love, life and loss in post-war France and Italy, follows three generations of the Dillingham family spanning 17 years.

Alex, played by Jamie Bogyo (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) falls in love with actress Rose and as the pair embark on a passionate affair, the unexpected arrival of Uncle George changes all their lives and those around them forever as they discover how love – in its many forms – truly does change everything.

Aspects of Love will be at the Lyric Theatre in the West End from 12 May 2023. You can book your tickets from £25 here

Please note, Michael Ball will not perform on Mondays from 29 May onwards.

Gardens Illustrated Reader Competition

Three readers will each win a pair of tickets to see Aspects of Love at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Valid for weekday performances from 12 May until 9 June 2023, subject to availability and excluding 25 May 2023.

Please read below for the full terms and conditions 

To enter, answer this multiple choice question:

What could turn a woman from a lover into a destroyer of love?

The third production @sohoplace theatre is Medea, which tells the story of a woman laid bare by grief and rage, and her terrible quest for revenge against the men who have abandoned her.

Sophie Okonedo brings her visceral, mercurial brilliance to literature’s most titanic female protagonist, whose complexity and contradictions have kept audiences on the edge of their seats, unable to look away, for almost 2,500 years.
Medea has been adapted by Robinson Jeffers from the play by Euripides. Dominic Cooke directs Sophie Okonedo as Medea and Ben Daniels as Jason/Creon/Aegeus.

Medea will be playing @sohoplace from 10 February to 22 April. For more information visit sohoplace.org

@sohoplace is the first new-build West End theatre in 50 years. A state-of-the-art auditorium configured ‘in the round’ with perfect sightlines from every seat and wonderful acoustics. The theatre interior was inspired by owner Nica Burns’ visit to the ancient Greek theatre of Epidaurus, and when you walk through the theatre you walk under crystal star lights, laid out in constellations.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
One member will win four tickets to see Medea @sohoplace and a pre or post-show meal for four at stars from a set menu, valid for week day performances until 14 April, subject to availability. No cash alternative available. Travel and accommodation not included. The competition will end on 28 February and the winner will be contacted by 10 March. Read the full Ts and Cs below

To enter, answer the multiple choice question below:

Win a stay for two at Middlethorpe Hall, the only country house hotel in York

Middlethorpe Hall is offering the chance for one Gardens Illustrated reader to win a two-night stay for two at their country house hotel in York.

Middlethorpe Hall, the only country house hotel in the city of York, is the perfect base to combine both a country and city experience. Set within 20 acres of its own award-winning gardens and parkland, the beautiful William and Mary house was formerly the home of the famous 18th-century writer and poet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), who is best known for her letters describing her travels to the Ottoman Empire with her ambassador husband. It was also home to Fanny Rollo Wilkinson (1855-1951), the first woman to make a professional career as a landscape gardener in the UK, and a Civic Trust blue plaque marking her achievement was unveiled in the walled garden last year.

The gardens at Middlethorpe Hall have much to explore. There are many specimen trees within the grounds, an enchanting walled kitchen garden, including a mellow brick Dovecote, dating back to 1681 and rescued from dereliction in 1980 and now used as a wine cellar. Other features include the Rose Garden, walled White Garden, Spring Garden and a lake surrounded by a glade of trees.

The hotel itself offers 29 bedrooms, an award-winning restaurant and boutique spa. Each of the bedrooms at Middlethorpe Hall is individually designed and has its own distinct story. The classically panelled dining room provides the perfect setting to enjoy the two AA Rosette restaurant.

The prize*

• Two-night stay for two at Middlethorpe Hall in a main hall room.
• Three-course dinner for two on one evening.
• Afternoon tea for two on one afternoon.
• Daily breakfast.
• A 25-minute spa treatment each and use of the spa facilities throughout the stay.
• A short guided tour of the gardens followed by coffee or tea.

Enter the competition by answering the question below

*Terms and conditions apply

Birmingham Royal Ballet revives Peter Wright and Galina Samsova’s glorious journey into Swan Lake for a national tour, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia performing Tchaikovsky’s superb music live, alongside BRB’s spectacular dancers.

Prince Siegfried is out hunting one night when he happens upon a flock of graceful swans. When one of them turns into a beautiful woman, the Prince is utterly smitten – but Odette explains that she has fallen under an evil spell cast by the wicked Baron von Rothbart, which keeps her in swan form from dawn to dusk. Can Siegfried’s love break the spell? Find out in this exquisite production of a true ballet classic.

**** “Supremely classy” The Daily Telegraph
***** “One of the best Swan Lakes around” The Daily Express

See Birmingham Royal Ballet’s treasured production of the world’s best-loved ballet this spring at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (2-4 February), Birmingham Hippodrome (15-25 February), The Lowry, Salford (2-4 March), Sunderland Empire (9-11 March), Theatre Royal Plymouth (15-18 March) and the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh (30 March-1 April). Book now. <<link: https://www.brb.org.uk/shows/swan-lake-2023>>

Three winners will receive a pair of tickets for the performance of their choice.

To enter, answer the multiple choice question below

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Three winners will receive a pair of tickets for the performance of their choice at either the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (2 – 4 February), Birmingham Hippodrome (15 – 25 February), The Lowry, Salford (2 – 4 March), Sunderland Empire (9 – 11 March), Theatre Royal Plymouth (15 – 18 March) or the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh (30 March – 1 April). All elements of the prize are subject to availability. No date or cash alternative. Travel not included.

See full terms and conditions below.

To celebrate the wealth of gardening books published in 2022, and as a Christmas treat to our readers, we’re giving away the 14 gardening books we most loved that were published in 2022.

The books include Charles Dowding’s new No Dig, Claire Ratinon’s Unearthed, A Greener Life, by Jack Wallington and Wild: the Naturalistic Garden by Noel Kingsbury with photographs from Claire Takacs.

For the full list of the books and to read the reviews, head to our list of the best gardening books of 2022.

To enter answer the question below.

Closing date 3 January 2023. All entries must be received by 11.59pm on 3 January 2023. To enter you must be over 18 and resident in the UK, including the Channel Islands. Read the full terms and conditions below.
Head to our Christmas hub page for lots more festive inspiration. 

gardensillustrated.com/competitions/win-gardening-books-2022

THINK YOU KNOW THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII?

Think again! History is about to get over-throne in the must-see musical sensation, SIX.

Reigning on stages in London and across the UK, SIX is the hit musical everyone is losing their head over. It retells the sassiest story in British her-story – the one you weren’t taught in school – an unmissable, 80-minute celebration of 21st-century girl power.

Three members will each win a pair of tickets, worth up to £69.50, to see SIX The Musical at the venue of their choice, valid for all performances excluding Saturday and February half term, subject to availability. Tickets must be used by the end of March.

No cash alternative. Travel and accommodation not included.

SIX The Musical is playing at the Vaudeville Theatre in London and on UK tour. Click here for information and to buy tickets. 

Create Academy and Gardens Illustrated are partnering to offer a fantastic gardening prize this Christmas. One lucky reader will win two flower-filled Create Academy online courses – ‘A Year of Cut Flowers’ with The Land Gardeners and ‘The Fundamentals of Floristry’ with Willow Crossley – plus a year’s free print subscription to Gardens Illustrated magazine.

The prize for the winner is non-exchangeable, non-transferable and no cash alternative is offered. Prize includes two gift vouchers worth £254 redeemable at www.createacademy.com plus a year’s free Gardens Illustrated subscription.

The winner will be chosen at random. See below for our full terms and conditions

Win one of five window feeders

We’re offering the chance for five Gardens Illustrated readers to win a Cleaner Window Feeder (worth £23.95) from Finches Friend, simply answer the question below to be in with a chance of winning.

Cleaner feeder specialists Finches Friend have recently added this new feeder to their product range. It is the only window feeder specifically created to combat the spread of disease, which affects 8.3% of all garden birds.

If you want to find out more about diseases in garden birds and why cleaning feeders is so important, take a look at our article here.

The Cleaner Window Feeder has been designed around the company’s primary principle of ensuring the separation of food, feet and faeces.

The feeders also come with UV window vinyls to prevent window collisions, and are designed to keep feed dry.

The feed stations are removable, minimising wastage and making them easier to clean.

To be in with the chance of winning one of these feeders, simply answer the question below.

Terms and conditions apply

Win a luxurious stay for you and a guest at historic Bodysgallen Hall in Snowdonia

Bodysgallen Hall, a romantic country house hotel and spa on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, is offering one Gardens Illustrated reader the chance to win a luxury two-night stay for two.

Owned by the National Trust, 17th century Bodysgallen Hall enjoys a privileged location in North Wales with spectacular views of Snowdonia, and can also lay claim to one of Wales’s greatest hotel gardens. Surrounding the Grade I-listed house, the 220 acres of parkland include a rare 17th-century parterre of box hedges (shown below) filled with sweet-smelling herbs, natural limestone outcrops, a rockery with a cascade, walled gardens, a lily pond and several follies.

There is also a formal rose garden and a variety of well-established specimen trees and shrubs, including medlar and mulberry. Another highlight is the kitchen garden, which provides the freshest of ingredients for the award-winning restaurant, with an abundance of seasonal foliage used for arrangements through the house and luxury spa. To find out more about the hotel go to bodysgallen.com.

While staying at Bodysgallen Hall, why not take the opportunity to visit other notable National Trust properties? One not to be missed is Bodnant Garden, a historic Grade I-listed horticultural gem, while Powis Castle with its world-famous gardens laid out along French- and Italian-style terraces, overhung with giant clipped yews that shelter rare and tender plants, is within easy reach.

The competition prize includes*

• Two-night stay at Bodysgallen Hall with a stay in a main hall room
• Breakfast  each day for two
• Three-course dinner for two on one evening
• Afternoon tea for two on one afternoon
• One spa treatment per person, and use of the spa facilities throughout your stay
• A guided tour of the gardens followed by coffee or tea

Enter the competition by answering the question below

*Terms and conditions apply

Win Access to a new course on Create Academy hosted by The Land Gardeners 

We’re offering the chance for one Gardens Illustrated reader to win lifetime access to one of the new courses being offered by The Land Gardeners on online teaching platform Create Academy by answering the question below. 

Launching in November, The Land Gardeners are hosting two new courses for Create Academy. The first course, A Year of Cut Flowers (worth £127*), will teach you how to grow year-round flowers from The Land Gardeners’ flower farm in France, their studio in London and a selection of their UK gardens. They will teach you step-by-step how they grow, gather and prepare their favourite flowers throughout all the seasons. 

How to Heal Your Soil (worth £79*), the second course in the new repertoire, will focus on what soil is and why it is so important. This will draw on the pair’s decades of research into compost and soil health. 

One lucky winner will be given access to one of these new Create Academy courses.

To be in with the chance of winning access to one of these new courses, simply answer the question below. 

*In the magazine we printed that each course was £127, the price for How To Heal Your Soil has been revised and it now costs £79.