CELEBRATING his 20th anniversary as a comedian living and performing in the UK, Reginald D Hunter comes to The Anvil on Friday, 21 June.

His honest material has gained him a popular fan base that spans the generations.

Over the two decades he has become one of the comedy industry’s best-known performers for his distinctive take on subjects including race and sexuality.

His work challenges issues head-on even, when the focus is on his own principles or beliefs.

His television appearances include Have I Got News For You and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

On Wednesday, 3 July, take a journey into the curious and unexpected origins of the words we use every day when Countdown’s Susie Dent comes to The Haymarket with her show The Secret Lives of Words.

Susie will retell the adventures that lie hidden within such words as lasagne (involving a chamber pot) and bugbear (a terrorising monster), and explain such oddities as the silent 'h' in ghost.

She will also recall some of the funniest moments from her 25 years on Countdown and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and the evening will also include some of Susie’s favourite words from the towns and regions she visits.

Susie will be asking the audience for their favourite words and will welcome any questions about word origins, usage irritations, the dreaded impact of Americanisation, and the very future of our language in her very own ‘word surgery’.

At The Haymarket the following evening (July 4), Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen shares heart-warming tales and honest anecdotes from her remarkable farming family life in North Yorkshire. It’s a life that has almost gone in today’s modern world, one ruled by animals and the four seasons.

Hear how Amanda grew up in Huddersfield, but was inspired by James Herriot’s books to leave her town life behind and head to the countryside.

After working as a freelance dairy milker and alpaca shearer, she eventually settled down as a shepherdess at Ravenseat, one of the highest and most remote places in England, where she has raised a flock of 1,000 sheep and a family of nine children with husband Clive.

Accompanied by some of Amanda’s wonderful photography, experience the highs and lows of the farming year, and hear how Amanda juggles life as a shepherdess, home renovator and mother with the Channel 5 hit series Our Yorkshire Farm.

For details of all the shows now on sale visit

anvilarts.org.uk

or call the Anvil Arts box office on 01256 844244.