CITYIST

Meet Bristol-based author, Roger White

After the government set legal limits for pollution, putting Bristol under pressure to reduce its levels of pollution by 2023, Bristol’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will start on Monday 28 November. The zone aims to help improve air quality by reducing harmful levels of air pollution caused by traffic and make sure everyone benefits from a healthy and natural environment. CAZ charges have been set from £9 for smaller vehicles and up to £100 for larger vehicles. Any diesel vehicles that do not meet Euro 6 emission standards will be charged. They are likely to be vehicles registered before September 2015. Petrol vehicles that do not conform to Euro 4 emission standards will also be charged. They are generally vehicles registered before 1 January 2006. Over 71% of vehicles travelling into Bristol already meet the zone’s emission standards. Only older and more polluting vehicles will be charged. In the coming years, this percentage should increase even more as more people take advantage of the available financial support to switch to a cleaner vehicle or a different mode of transport. Check if your vehicle will be charged and how much you’ll have to pay at: bristol.gov.uk/residents/streetstravel/bristols-caz/charges-and-vehicl e-checker

• For more information about Bristol's Clean Air Zone and to view a map of the CAZ, visit: bristol.gov.uk/residents/streetstravel/bristols-caz

I moved here in 1973 to start an alternative school and became involved with many exciting projects and remarkable people (and met my wife), so we’ve lived here ever since. Bristol buzzes with creative energy and a depth of community activity that nourishes residents in every neighbourhood. I am pleased to be living in such a diverse city and the first in the UK to elect a black mayor of African descent, who grew up on a Bristol council estate and went to local schools. David Olusoga’s powerful BBC documentary Statue Wars about the removal of the Colston statue, and its subsequent display in M Shed, illuminates the leadership that catalysed public engagement in a wide-ranging and unique debate about how to better understand Bristol’s complex mosaic of history.

Degrees of Separation is both a love story and a war story, weaving connecting threads between China and Britain in WW2, and modern-day London and Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province, home to the pandas and our three-year-old granddaughter!). It explores the remarkable coincidences that wind through generations and across cultures. I hope readers find the story uplifting. It draws on China’s heroic (but little-known) role in the Second World War and celebrates the richness of the country’s culture and history.

The inspiration came from visits to Chengdu, in the far west of China, where our eldest son has lived since 2010. We discovered the city was bombed as badly as London in the Blitz, and that 30 million Chinese people were killed during WW2 –equivalent to half the entire population of the British Isles. Until then, I had no idea that, without China’s involvement as an ally to Britain and the USA, it might have been a very different outcome for the world in 1945. When I met a 95year-old Chinese soldier in a home for war-veterans in Chengdu, who talked about how he’d walked to Burma in 1942, with other Chinese Army comrades, to rescue British soldiers encircled by Japanese forces, I knew there was a story that had to be told.

I learnt (again) that political leaders create wars and ordinary people suffer the consequences, but that the human spirit can overcome adversity. We have had Ukranian guests staying with us since war erupted there, and are aware of the same tragic narrative in Ukraine.

Appreciating that China is an ancient culture, abundant in beauty and history, whose people are warm and welcoming to visitors. Its achievements are impressive, such as providing half of the world’s investment in renewable energy, building 25,000 miles of high-speed train track and creating 101 cities of over one million people, where citizens are safe from crime. We have visited many times and always been met by kindness and generosity of spirit. Of course, every country, including our own, has a shadow side.

Cycling across College Green and Castle Park or walking around the docks, I am inspired by the sight of so many people having fun with friends. Taking part in the Bristol 10K each year is equally uplifting, encouraged by rythmic bands, young volunteers distributing water, and people cheering on runners of all ages and abilities. Likewise, seeing all parts of the city and local stories celebrated in M Shed, experiencing terrific music and dynamic theatre at many venues, and enjoying events at our iconic Watershed and Arnolfini… the list is almost endless because Bristol bubbles with vitality and talent.

Dinner with our grand-daughter, Xu Ru Xi (English name Ava), on her 80th birthday, at the start of the 22nd century, to find out how humanity sorted the climate crisis and (hopefully) abolished war.

Time is precious, everything is connected, concentrate on the moment.

The Fifth Cary Comes Home

Festival takes its theme as “Class”, with accessible and inclusive film screenings, panel discussions and expanded cinema events that celebrate the working-class heritage of Archibald Leach is returning from 18 –20 November.

Born in Bristol in 1904 as the son of a tailor’s presser, Archie went on to become the epitome of Hollywood elegance and style as Cary Grant. He returned to the city of his birth regularly and never forgot his roots. This tension between Archie/Cary is something the world saw Grant battle with throughout his life, in front of and behind the camera.

Taking class in its broadest sense, the festival’s programming will explore social mobility and identity across a range of performances from Cockney Cary in Sylvia Scarlett and None But the Lonely Heart, to Sophisticated Cary in The Bishop’s Wife and Charade. A ‘Looking for Archie’ walking tour celebrates Grant’s ongoing connections to the city and the festival is taking over the Former Bristol IMAX on Sunday 20 November for a rare chance to see two lesser-known Pre-Code Cary Grant films (Born to Be Bad and Blonde

Venus) on the biggest screen in town and the festival culminates with a screening of classic comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace. For all IMAX screenings the festival is piloting a sliding Pay What You Can Afford ticket scale –recognising the cost-of-living crisis, in an effort to bring Cary Grant to the widest possible audience.

Cary Grant on College Green. Credit: Bristol Post

• Cary Comes Home 2022 Festival is taking place from Friday 18 – Sunday 20 November; carycomeshome.co.uk

Royal Mail has revealed a set of stamps, celebrating Aardman’s most popular and beloved animated characters. The eight stamps showcase some of our most celebrated characters: Wallace and Gromit, Feathers McGraw, Shaun the Sheep, Timmy, Robin, Morph and Chas, Frank the tortoise and Rocky and Ginger. An exclusive miniature sheet, created especially for Royal Mail by Aardman, is also revealed. Wallace and

Gromit celebrate four of their favourite ‘cracking’ moments by displaying them proudly on their wall, in their humble abode at 62 West Wallaby Street.

Key moments on the stamps include memories from A Matter of Loaf and

Death, TheWrongTrousers, ACloseShave and AGrandDayOut.

Sean Clarke, Managing Director at Aardman, said: “We are delighted to partner with Royal Mail to celebrate some of our most iconic characters in this colourful and fun-packed stamps series. We have had the pleasure of creating these films featuring these much loved characters over the last 40 years, so it is a real honour for the studio to receive this royal stamp of approval. It’s a true testament to all the hard work that goes into making these productions and we are sure that our fans will enjoy them.” The stamps are available to buy now with the Presentation Pack, containing all 12 stamps, priced at £18.55.

• aardman.com

Tavaziva –Boy's Khaya

Films, food, music, theatre, dance and photography from more than a dozen countries in Africa will be on offer when Afrika Eye –south-west England’s biggest celebration of African cinema and culture – presents its 16th edition in Bristol from 7 –17 November. Programme highlights include:

More Than a Number, a free-to-see photographic exhibition, curated by Cynthia Maiwa Sitei of

Ffotgallery, Cardiff, showcasing images by 12 photographers from across Africa. It opens on 7 November at the Trinity Centre, Easton, and concludes with a photo symposium in Trinity’s Graffiti Gallery on 15 November. The symposium will be followed in the Fyffe Hall by a screening of the acclaimed

Moroccan film Casablanca Beats with a musical introduction from Mohamed Errebbaa.

An Art and Activism event for young people is taking place on 8 November in the state-of-the-art cinema in Bristol University’s Humanities Building and will begin with a screening of the documentary Les Fleurs de Bitume, which is about three young women using street dance, graffiti and slam poetry to become more visible in a male dominated society.

A food, music and conversation event at the Coexist

Community Kitchen, Easton, on Thursday 10 November (7pm start) stars musician Sisanda Myataza and celebrates the life and times of the South African singer, actor and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba.

Live music is on at Watershed café-bar on Friday 11

November (10pm start approx.) a free gig by ‘Harare’ –fronted by marimba maestro, Zimbabwean musician Kuda Matimba (ex Bhundu Boys) mixing marimba, mbira and swooping basslines to create irresistible rhythms and accompanying uplifting song. To conclude Afrika Eye 2022, the renowned Zimbabwean dancer/choreographer Bawren Tavaziva will present the film of his powerful and moving new work, Boy’s Khaya –a blend of contemporary, ballet and African dance with a spoken-word and music soundscape - at Arnolfini on 17 November (7.30pm).

• More details of the Afrika Eye 2022 programme can be found at afrikaeye.org.uk along with prices and booking links through Headfirst for all ticketed events