Kent's Hever Castle, near Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG (01732 865224) Don't start with the maze, or you may miss the Italian garden, sculpture, cascades and fountains that decorate the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Open daily, 11am-6pm. Admission pounds 4.90/pounds 3.90.

CLASSICAL: Monteverdi's Orfeo; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and touring

I Fagiolini play at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London (0171- 377 1362) on 16 Dec at 6.30pm

Worldly-wise but lovelorn still, this Swedish combo deal in bittersweet songs of romantic confusion, their tart reflections served up in crisp, candy-pop coatings. The results on this third album are part-brilliant, part-formulaic, suggesting at times a too-calculating approach: a Scandinavian St Etienne, perhaps.

Derek Pringle believes only foul weather can stop Whitaker's men in the final game

One of the most powerful roles for women comes to life again tonight. Robert Hanks examines the modern appeal of a classical avenger

Househunter Cowden, Kent

The themes at the heart of Michael Frayn's latest play are secrecy and revelation - how the one can be the lubricant that enables us to rub along together, and how the other can be a potent destructive force. Now You Know is set in the offices of a campaign for freedom of information, all of whose staff have their own secrets, their own little worlds: there's Kevin in the mail-room, with the bag that is never opened, Liz, giggling behind her hand at her own private jokes, and Terry, the campaign's charismatic director, whose upfront, open manner hides some dark corners.

This long overdue collection from 'the living legend of rock journalism' comes Judy Garlanded with quotes about Kent from such celebrated interviewees as Morrissey and Lou Reed. It also boasts the considerable coup of an introduction by Iggy Pop, in which the author is described as 'a great palsied mantis'. If there is an element of fantasy in the idea of a rock journalist whose peer group was not other journalists but the stars he was writing about, no one feels the need to acknowledge it.

There were two triumphant returns at the Bath Festival last Friday. Britten's 'church parable' The Prodigal Son appeared again on stage, after what seems like a long period on the shelf, in what was certainly the most convincing performance I have ever heard or seen. Reborn along with it was Kent Opera, silent since its dissolution in 1989, but showing here that it is very much back with the living and still able to deliver the musical and theatrical goods.

Walter Kent, composer, songwriter: born New York City 29 November 1911; died Los Angeles 1 March 1994.

READING some of these Heart Searching features makes me, as a man, feel that life holds nothing for me any more. Sentiments such as 'just as peculiar as the rest' (19 June) and 'lying seems to be endemic in these arrangements' (17 July) crop up - frequently with the word 'hopeless'. Always written from a female point of view, and in line with the 'seeking-the- earth' tone of many of the advertisements below. Who do these women think they are?

Tony O'Connell of Surrey B is down and on his way out of the EBA pairs semi-final, eventually beaten with his partner, John Birch, 21-8 by the Kent pairing of Gary Smith and Andy Thompson, the holders, at Worthing yesterday.

Australians 391-4 dec and 34-0 dec