The Artichoke treatment 

Do you remember the 30-ft elephant which paraded round London in 2006? Or the 40-ft spider which crawled round the streets of Liverpool  last year? Well, Durham is about to get the Artichoke treatment: this time a festival of light, from 12 to 15 November. A page from the Lindisfarne Gospels (now in the British Library) will be projected in light on to Durham Cathedral along with other images from inside the Cathedral; banks, bridges and weirs will be illuminated along a 1km stretch of the River Wear; huge light sculptures, 10-ft tall, will be installed near the Cathedral; and there will be torch-lit, fire-eating processions through the medieval streets of the city.