Nominated for nine major theatre awards Ghost the Musical is a timeless fantasy about the power of love.

An L S Lowry painting of an industrial landscape is set to fetch up to £1.8m when it is auctioned at Christie's in London next week. The 1944 artwork is one of 14 Lowrys belonging to the late multimillionaire caterer and hotelier, Lord Forte, who amassed his collection during almost three decades.

Notebook

A welcome return, and life doesn't suck for the faithful

The 39 Steps is the hilarious comedy based on the 1935 Hitchcock spy film with four actors playing a minimum of 100 and ‘39’ roles!

Etchings by Canaletto, engravings by Hogarth and prints by David Hockney can all be procured at the London Original Print Fair 2011 which opens its doors today.

Up to 500,000 people marched in London yesterday against the Government's cuts. Should we allow the violence of a tiny minority to detract from Britain's biggest demonstration in eight years?

If each of us were to masturbate into the same cup, it would "produce more of worth to the British taxpayer" than the section of the civil service called the Strategic and Tactical Development Team (acronym STD. T) where Dave, a young Welshman living in London, has the misfortune to work. Nursing a Coke and an existential hangover and clad in a dark suit and tie, Dave – portrayed with a wonderfully nutty charm by Trystan Gravelle – makes us his captive audience in the panelled snug room of the Queen's Head pub in Denman Street near Piccadilly Circus. The epic futility of a bureaucracy effective only at sustaining its own pointless existence has made Dave come unhinged. As he points out, even the name of his department is an offence against reason – "strategic" and "tactical" cancelling each other out and "development" meaning anything you like.

Discount fashion retailer TK Maxx is planning a London shop near Piccadilly Circus after being told it "wasn't posh enough" two years ago.

A rare chance to advertise among the famed neon lights of Piccadilly Circus has emerged after the Japanese electronics giant Sanyo withdrew from the London landmark after 33 years. Four leading companies are thought to be interested in taking over the billboard.

Small wonder if Blair quivers like a malaria victim who has lost his quinine

Michael Jackson's father says he suspects "foul play somewhere" over his son's death.

Ironically, she seems not to understand the sex industry

A brave band of British Jews returned after defeating Hitler to take on a new battle – against Mosley’s Blackshirts. Mark Gould reports