There's nothing like a dame

Evelyn Glennie is the world's first, full-time solo percussionist and was made a Dame Commander in the new year's honours list. She has been made a Dame because of her services to music, not because she is a brilliant deaf musician, she says her deafness is irelevant. "The career of a solo percussionist didn't exist before", she says, but Evelyn changed all that. "Young people who want to be a solo percussionist can actually do it and sustain a career doing it. The amount of pieces (or repertoire) written for solo percussion is far, far greater than before. Now you can walk into a record store and find percussion recordings, which you couldn¹t really do before."

Get prepared for digital switchover

More people are watching and recording digital TV as the date for the switchover gets closer. We put box solutions that allow you to receive and record Freeview to the test.

Points of view

This new feature is your chance to share your thoughts, tips and opinions with other members. David Boswell, Dorset writes:  Buying a new car? Got a hearing loss? IndIcators The sound of the left and right turn indicators is usually quite inadequate even for mildly deaf people, especially against background noise. So it¹s vital for the flashing indicators to be large and bright enough to be seen on the dashboard, especially when driving towards the sun.