Valentina Russo  joins John on Afternoon Delight to talk about her career and her new release.

Valentina was born in Rome, Italy. She started her career at a very young age participating to different TV Shows and touring and performing with her father’s band. Coming from a Musical family she was always encouraged to study and improve, so she started with learning guitar, then bass, piano and drums. She wrote her first piece of music on guitar at age of 10 years old. Having  worked in Italy with different bands, performing on TV Shows and touring with artists all around the country as a lead and backing vocalist.

Valentina moved to London 9 years ago to further her career in music and work as a singer. She’s also a songwriter-producer and a DJ. She now performs in famous venues in London as well as other countries collaborating with several international artists and producers.

James Cracknell joins John and Frances on Tuesday 14^th January for Afternoon Delight between 1 and 3 pm

Enfield resident James Cracknell, who has edited Waltham Forest Echo since 2015, is the editor of Enfield Dispatch and is now combining both jobs.James will talk about the decline for so many local newspapers around the country.James was shocked when the long-running local paper Enfield Gazette & Advertiser was suddenly. He previously worked as a freelance reporter for the Advertiser and felt that its closure left a big hole to fill.

“Local papers play a fundamental role in their communities, as a platform for people to raise concerns, promote events and projects, and hold authority to account. I hope that Enfield Dispatch will help fulfil this role in Enfield and I would urge local people to show their support for community media and get behind it!”

The monthly Enfield Dispatch is published by Social Spider Community Interest Company (CIC), which currently publishes two successful newspapers in north-east London; Waltham Forest Echo (established 2014) and Tottenham Community Press (established 2016).

Like its sister papers, Enfield Dispatch will be written by and for local people and be made available to pick up for free in cafes, pubs, doctors’ surgeries, libraries, community centres, hair salons, places of worship, and outside railway stations. It will include local news, features about community projects and campaigns, comment and opinion on what’s happening in the borough, interviews with local people, and previews of local events.

Adriana Davoli joins John this Tuesday on Afternoon Delight 17^th December We will discuss Yoga and Mindfulness Adriana felt in love with yoga practice and its philosophy when she was 14 years old. Yoga has absolutely changed her life; helped me to live happier, healthier emotionally and physically. Adriana feels privileged to be a yoga teacher and to have an opportunity to pass this ancient wisdom to other people. Summary of work experiences relevant to Yoga teaching: 2012-2015 I studied and worked under supervision of Jackie Lee- British Wheel of Yoga teacher; my responsibilities were to manage part of class, to provide suitable adjustments and to teach class as supply when needed. 2013-to present teaching yoga to teenagers (age 11 to 19); and to teaching staff members in Kingsmead secondary school, Enfield, EN1 1YQ 2015-to present –supply teacher in North London Yoga – yoga for beginners, general hatha yoga, hot yoga and dynamic yoga, ashtanga 2017-to present – I have opened my own ARYA yoga studio. I am teaching small groups and one to one sessions. Sessions are design to address the clients’ individual needs. Summary of qualifications relevant to Yoga teaching:

Lauren Lucille shares her love and life lessons and stories through a musical fusion of folk/jazz/pop. She has a sassy, soulful and versatile voice and either plays solo or with a band!

​Born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, Lauren was surrounded by music from an early age. Her original musical inspiration came from her parents, in particular the musical family of her mother, renowned jazz vocalist Sharny Russell. She could often be found at her mother’s gigs, learning how to swing before she even knew what swing was.

Lauren’s songwriting started at the age of ten, and through her teens, Lauren was writing folk and pop songs on guitar and piano. She is now acknowledged by her peers as a great composer and performer and was twice a finalist in the QMusic Awards for two of her jazz compositions.  James Morrison the great Australian trumpet player added one of Lauren’s compositions to his ‘best of jazz’ list for QANTAS international and national inflight entertainment!  She is blessed with a magnificent voice, a sound grasp of harmony and sophisticated rhythmic sense.

Lauren has been performing professionally since 2006 firstly around Australia, and since her move to Europe in 2013, mostly in London, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Vienna.   Her desire is to travel and sing and ‘to make people feel something’ with her music.  She has performed in the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival, Noosa Jazz Festival, Valley Jazz Festival (Brisbane), Yeppoon Village Festival, WOMAD (UK) and Jazztime (Germany).

Lauren launched her 2012 all original album ‘Hidden Here’ produced by Garry Smith to a sold out theatre (200 people) in July 2012, and had an encore launch to which 100 people attended.  This album has been received well by the general public and also radio stations across Australia including ABC.  The genre is mostly melancholy jazz with pop influences using a jazz quartet and string trio.

And finally, in 2019, Lauren released her second all original album ‘Let Go’ produced by one of UKs top pop and jazz producers – Troy Miller (Amy Winehouse, Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Gregory Porter). This has more pop influences using electric guitars, a moog and a hammond.

Lauren will tour this new album in 2019/2020 and she is still doing jazz gigs and solo gigs in London and Germany.

Helen is a freelance food writer & photographer who has been writing about achievable, affordable and mostly healthy food on Fuss Free Flavours since 2007. She also contributes articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print food magazines.
We will talk about the preparations for Christmas as this year, it’s time to banish your festive fears; with a little menu planning you can be ready to take it all in your stride. We have all the necessary recipes for the perfect Christmas dinner, along with all the other festive accoutrements you might need including Christmas biscuits, cranberry sauce, dinner party ideas and wickedly potent Christmas cocktails. Looking to up your side dish game? We asked a whole host of the UK’s best chefs for their favourites, and we’ve got plenty of recipes to browse if you’re after a little Italian flavour this year over on Great Italian Chefs. Read on; from icing the cake to keeping stockings stuffed with edible gifts, our guides, recipes and menu ideas will see you through every stage of the Christmas season.

This Tuesday Neil Mawson is on Afternoon Delight between 1 and 3 pm
Currently Chief Executive of a small community based association Neil has over 40 years’ experience in Social Housing. He previously held senior management positions at a national housing association for many years as well as senior roles at a local authority.  Neil lives in Enfield and has over 30 years experience working on all aspects of asset management

Chris joins John Smeeton and Frances on Afternoon Delight 1 to 3 pm to talk about The Totteridge Academy who pride themselves on the quality, challenge and rigour of their teaching. The Totteridge Academy was nominated for ‘Maths Team of the Year’ at the TES Awards in 2018 and Tom Knott, one of our maths teachers, is a silver-award-winner of the ‘Pearson Teacher of the Year’. They were also nominated for two further teaching awards locally in the borough.

Kate Smith from Holtwhites Bakery & Deli joins Afternoon delight this Tuesday 29th October to talk about Holtwhites Bakery which is owned and run her and husband Richard . Holtwhites was initially a micro-bakery run from their home, where we baked up to 100 loaves of bread each Friday night and sold them from our kitchen door on Saturday mornings. They eventually left their day jobs in 2011 to open Holtwhites Bakery & Deli at 119 Chase Side with the aim of bringing excellent quality food and great customer service to our local area.