AROUND TOWN

The Paisley Book Festival takes place this weekend and we’ve got a couple of top tips for you. Firstly, The Paisley Music Trail: Punk, Paolo And The Poet Weaver (Saturday 26 April), from Glasgow Music City Tours, highlights the town’s musical story and features chart-toppers, cult heroes and rioters.

While Murderous Scottish Women (Sunday 27 April) at Paisley Town Hall is a journey into the murky depths of Scottish crime novels with authors Lucy Ribchester, Natalie Jayne Clark and Mairi Kidd.

And Scotland’s biggest coffee party returns to The Briggait this weekend. The Glasgow Coffee Festival (Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 April) is a caffeine-fuelled weekend of cuppings, tastings, workshops and talks, with plenty of speciality beverages to sample.

MUSIC

Known in the Scottish clubbing calendar as the first festival of the summer, Stereofunk Festival (Saturday 26 April) is back at Hamilton Park Racecourse. This 20th anniversary event features Fragma, DJ Sash!, N-Trance DJ Set, and a new Popped! arena headlined by Atomic Kitten, Rozalla and East 17.

One of the top dogs of the rap scene Central Cee (Sunday 27 April) is heading to Glasgow’s OVO Hydro as part of his Can’t Rush Greatness world tour. Expect tracks from that album, alongside massive hits like ‘Sprinter’ and ‘Doja’.

Celebrating Glasgow’s diverse music scene, Sauchiehall Street Music Day (Saturday 26 April) brings together students, local bands and residents across two stages. Featuring a pop-up street piano, post-event drinks at Nice N Sleazy, and much more.

STAGE

A show about censorship and freedom of expression, A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here (until Friday 25 April) is part autobiography, part fiction, questioning the limits of performance, what we make it for, and what we are willing to stand up for. Catch it at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre.

Edinburgh Playhouse is the setting for some award-winning razzle-dazzle as Moulin Rouge! The Musical (until Saturday 14 June) rolls into town for a lavish celebration of truth, beauty and love.

While the city’s Festival Theatre have another treat in store as they play host to Isobel McArthur’s Olivier Award-winning Pride & Prejudice* (Sort Of) (until Saturday 26 April), a mischievous and audacious retelling of Jane Austen’s legendary love story featuring a host of pop classics.

SCREEN

From debut director Leonardo Van Dijl Julie Keeps Quiet is a phenomenally restrained and sensitive film following a young female tennis star who comes under scrutiny when her coach is accused of abuse.

Surprisingly enjoyable sequel The Accountant 2 improves on the so-so original. It reunites us with Ben Affleck’s titular number-cruncher, turning the follow-up into more of a buddy action comedy co-starring the ever-excellent Jon Bernthal.

The fifth and final series of You has just dropped on Netflix. Penn Badgley’s serial killer antihero returns to NYC where he embraces life as a wealthy family man, married to Charlotte Ritchie’s Kate, before his dark past comes back to bite.

PODCASTS

Presented by the inimitable Katherine Ryan, What’s My Age Again? asks celebs to take a biological age test which reveals how their body’s age compares to their actual age. Comedian Joanne McNally is first up, and she has to digest some surprising results.

If you only know the story from the Oscar-winning James Cameron epic, then Titanic: Ship Of Dreams should fill in a few blanks. It tells stories of life and death upon the infamous ship, with host Paul McGann digging into his own family history and hearing testimony from survivors.

In Journey Through Time historians David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell delve into forgotten stories from history and reveal how they’ve shaped the way we live today.

VISUAL ART

Now showing at Dundee’s Verdant Works Museum, International Garden Photographer Of The Year 18 (until Monday 8 September) will transport you across the globe through glorious garden photography, featuring landscapes, flora, fauna and fungi.

Opening this weekend at Edinburgh’s Portrait Gallery is The World Of King James VI And I (Saturday 26 April – Sunday 14 September). It marks the 400th anniversary of King James’s death and charts his remarkable reign through stories, paintings, jewels, designs and more.

And finally, at St Margaret's House in Edinburgh, their Diana Hand exhibition Transformations: Shapes Of Nature (until Sunday 27 April) wraps up this weekend. Expect raw, unfiltered and surreal black and white images, inspired by horses in woodland.

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