Mrs Beeton: Harrow’s Domestic Goddess

Discover the trade secrets of the original domestic goddess. Mrs Isabella Beeton was a young, dynamic career woman who wrote a comprehensive guide to running a Victorian household. Titled Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, it was published in 1861 when she was just 25 years old, and heralded a revolutionary development in home economics. It contained advice on everything from fashion and childcare to the use of local and seasonal produce and, most significantly, more than 900 recipes, earning Mrs Beeton the title of one of the world’s first and best cookery writers. None of these recipes went into her book without a successful trial, and her home in Pinner was the scene of many culinary experiments.

  • Headstone Manor Museum, Pinner View, Harrow, until Sunday, August 23. Details: 020 8863 6720, harrowmuseum.org.uk

Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen – The Comedy of Errors

Take one pair of estranged twin brothers (both called Antipholus) and one pair of estranged twin servants (both called Dromio), keep them in ignorance of each other and throw them into a city with a reputation for sorcery, and you have all the ingredients for theatrical chaos. Basing his plot on a farce by Plautus, Shakespeare caps the mayhem of his Roman original to build up a hectic tale of violent cross purposes, furious slapstick and social nightmare.