What's happening in Coventry & Warwickshire

If you are looking for an unusual gift for a loved one why not get a beautiful  traditional Welsh love spoon. You can now buy them online on a new e-commerce website designed by Coventry web design company, CWN Design. The site has a full range of love spoons hand-crafted by leading Welsh craftsman Ken Jones. The lovespoons range in price from £7.50 to £25. CWN Design, the company behind CWN, has provided a professional web design service for the Midlands and beyond since 1994.

Free-entry jazz is back on Sunday evenings in August in the Oak Room at Stratford upon Avon’s 500-year old White Swan Hotel. The Oak Room’s perfect ambiance offers oak-panelled, lounge-style comfort, next to the bar with two real ales. The jazz is ‘modern’ from top Midland and visiting musicians with a different band every Sunday, 50 times a year for the last 20 years. Stratford Jazz funds Oak Room jazz with a raffle. See www.stratfordjazz.org.uk or phone Roy on 01789 298607.

Warwickshire band Lament have recently released their third studio album 'Sun Soaked'. This is an admirable collection of 12 great tracks that are guaranteed to set your foot tapping, your hips moving and your head gently swaying to the enticing Latin rhythms. Lament are song writers Kath Kimber on vocals with Anthony McTiffen on acoustic guitar, joined by Liz Ralls, Wayne Matthews and Chris Viggers. Their music is “a world fusion of latin, jazz and flamenco with driving bossa inspired beats and soaring vocals”. It's guaranteed to hit the groove and make you move!

Coventry's Positive Images Multicultural Festival will run from Saturday 13 June to Saturday 4 July. This annual festival celebrating the Coventry's cultural diversity will host over 70 events across the city. Events include a Community Information Fair, a poetry performance by Dreadlockalien, a Multicultural Book and Craft Fair and a Charity Begins at Home Exhibition. The highlight of the festival will be a free Multicultural Concert of Music and Dance at the Ukrainian Hall on Saturday 27 June.

Cricket giants - South Africa - have selected Harry Shaw to carry out all their coaching for the 20:20 cricket tournament this summer. The Harry Shaw VIP coach will accompany the team as they travel around.

Harry Shaw have a wealth of experience in handling coach arrangements for all sports teams - current customers include Coventry City FC and The Coventry Blades.

Bablake Weather Station (BWS), based at Bablake School in Coventry, has been running since 1977. Led by head geography teacher, Steve Jackson, and aided by a rota of school pupils the weather station has seen many technological advances over the past three decades. Now fully automated BWS provides daily weather information for Coventry as well as historical weather data going back to 1870 and a webcam. The station is recognised as an official Met Office Climatalogical Station.   www.bablakeweather.co.uk

Railway historian Mike Hitches has produced a new book detailing the history of railways in Warwickshire. From the opening of the first railway to serve the county in 1838 the book recounts the struggles and battles between the various companies - the L&B, TVR, LNWR, GWR and NWR - for supremacy over some of the Warwickshire branches. The book includes archive photographs, period timetables, company advertisements and loco-shed allocations. The paperback, published by The History Press, costs £14.99.

Gil Robottom has produced a new book detailing the history of Coventry's cinemas. Before being ‘Coventrated’ in November 1940, Coventry was home to 22 cinemas, though others had closed earlier. At the end of the war there were still 17. By the 1980s there were only three houses left devoted to the silver screen. Published by the Mercia Cinema Society at £ 14.50, the book is available from The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum or post-free from Mercia Sales, 29 Blackbrook Court, Durham Road, Loughborough LE11 5UA.