As promised, after a long sabbatical, we’ve upgraded the website and although not all of our regular features are currently online, bear with us as these will be added to the site in due course.

One of our new features is a dedicated mailing list – sign up if you’d like to receive regular emails regarding news and updates. We also have a dedicated search engine for the website. There’s also a new Survey online: What future release by Virginia would you like to see?

Virginia has been very busy of late on a range of projects, so here’s an overview of what she’s been working on:

• The Words Between our Words: This is a mini-CD which features harp and spoken poetry and sees a collaboration between Virginia and her daughter Florence.
• The Stories of the Fields: A multi-media project which explores the idea of how fields were, at one point, given specific names and the stories behind that naming.
• The Woodlanders: Virginia has written a musical based on Thomas Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders. She is now trying to take this forward to being staged – possibly somewhere in the South-West early in 2007.

Virginia’s exploration into the world of poetry has been a keen interest for some time. She’s had some poetry published in poetry magazines and is looking at the possible publication of an illustrated book of poetry. Virginia had also been working on a draft of a novel, but has since shelved that idea for the time being.

There are some other ideas being mooted – including a possible Best Of album – and we’ll flag up news on these projects in due course. Meanwhile, Virginia now has a dedicated blog here: virginiaastley.blogspot.com through which she is also selling copies of The Words Between our Words

Virginia has also been given some exposure via the 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know as the film soundtrack features A Summer Long Since Passed. The film is currently available on DVD and a separate soundtrack has also been released.

In other news, a planned Best Of album by Kate St John has been delayed. All Saints Records reports however that the album is definitely planned for release at some stage. Meanwhile, Kate’s two solo albums Indescribable Night and Second Sight are due to be reissued at some point in 2006.

Kate has also worked with Kathryn Williams doing arrangements for Kathryn’s next album due to be released this year. Kate was Musical Director at the Cork Opera House last year which again saw Kathryn Williams performing alongside Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy and June Tabor for the Daughters Of Albion show. The show was also performed at the Barbican here in London earlier this year. More info via www.katestjohn.co.uk.