Jules Verne: By Étienne Carjat/ Adam Cuerden - This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b84497879/f1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83065220 Before he became one of the most successful French authors, Jules Verne was a competent amateur pianist and had written songs and librettos for comic operas. The author once worked as a secretary with the Théâtre-Lyrique, one of four opera companies performing

Fancy some more sleuthing while we look forward to the next Band Festival? The title character of the Inspector Gadget franchise is a bionic police inspector who is always getting into trouble. You can see in him elements of Maxwell Smart (actor Don Adams spoke the part in the original series) and Inspector Jacques Clouseau (a Clouseau-like moustache featured in the original Inspector Gadget pilot, but was subsequently removed for copyright reasons). He is clumsy, dim-witted,

Detective fiction has left an indelible mark on our literary and cultural landscape, thanks to the unforgettable characters it has given...