LIVEREAD, the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo's online literature festival, starts tomorrow and ironically it's been so busy that I haven't had time to read any books lately. I found the same thing when I was studying for my MA in art history and working full time so barely had a spare moment to visit a gallery (obviously I wasn't doing this job then).

But I tend to think that some things are worth putting yourself out for, and fortunately so does the newspapers' web team who have spent the past few weeks filming author readings, interviews with curators and creating picture galleries while I've been working on the rest of the festival.

LDP ARTS guest blogger Jamie Bowman went to see Miles Jupp's show Fibber in the Heat - A Cricket Story at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool

BETTER known to adults as Nigel from BBC show Rev and children as The Inventor from Balamory, Miles Jupp's charming one-man-show, Fibber In The Heat tells the true story of Jupp's attempts to con his way onto the England Cricket Team's touring party by posing as a sports journalist.

Armed with a sheet of headed note paper from a friend at BBC Scotland and the vague promise of exclusive access to Cardiff's Simon Jones from a Welsh newspaper, Jupp soon finds himself on a plane to India, only to find out Jones is injured and his contact in Scotland is on long term sick leave.

IT'S an intriguing concept - the story of an Elvis Costello fan so obsessed that she changes her name to Elsie and starts believing his past is her own. Her descent into madness is told through the Shipbuilding singer's poetic lyrics sung live on stage.

And with a celebrated performer of his work at the show's centre and talented musicians on support it surely can't go wrong. But it does, sort of. Or at least it never quite goes right.

A SOLID black banqueting table appears to be the only thing of substance in Sophocles's Ancient Greek whodunnit, retold by Steven Berkoff to compelling effect.

Kings metamorphosise into vagabonds then slaves and then back to kings again, while sons transform into husbands and wives into mothers.

The truth slips mercurially from one shape to another and divine intervention battles it out with free will in a war with no clear winner.

I'M VISITING London this weekend to see Tate Britain's Watercolour exhibition so was interested to see this video about Callum Innes, who is pushing paint to its limits.

The exhibition opens today and challenges our preconceptions about watercolour. Works span 800 years and include pieces by JMW Turner, Thomas Girtin, Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin.

THE public art programme Liverpool Discovers launched this afternoon with works inspired by the city's heritage dotted at points of interest around the city centre.

There are various strands to the project so it's best to get hold of a copy of the trail map from Tourist Information or the O8 Place, which explains everything and shows you where they all are.

This one is Sugar and Chain by Andy Hazell.

I am most looking forward to seeing the work May Bamber - A Revolutionary Woman, having interviewed the artists behind it - Carrie Reichardt and Nick Reynolds (who is also in the band Alabama 3, runs the UK's only death mask manufacturing company and is the son of one of the Great Train Robbers).

Here are some of the large-scale pieces to look out for:

IN THE interest of romance (and this is pretty much the only concession I'm making to Valentine's Day apart from sending a card and meeting in Waterstone's to choose a book from my husband - he gets to choose one from me too) here are some pictures from the Liverpool Academy of Arts' new open exhibition - What is a Valentine?

 Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day? by June Lornie

FURTHER to my post about attending the national press night of Jeremy Dyson's Twisted Tales at the Lyric Hammersmith before it comes here to the Liverpool Playhouse, the theatre has produced a video of some of the famous faces among the audience that night including Stephen Fry, Mark Gatiss, Mark Wootton and Derren Brown.

PAINES Plough, the theatre company working in collaboration with the Everyman & Playhouse on Laurence Wilson's Tiny Volcanoes, is creating "a theatrical tapestry of the UK, woven by writers asking if home is truly where the heart is".

I think this is a brilliant idea - not least because it draws the regions together when often we can feel isolated.

Liverpool is represented by Helen Blakeman, Lizzie Nunnery and Michael Wynne. Click here to listen to their plays.

I INTERVIEWED art collector David J Lewis earlier this week for a feature about the A Collector's Eye exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. He's spent the past 35 years amassing around 400 art works spanning five centuries.

It made me wonder which works of art I would buy if I had the resources. It's an almost impossible question, but I think this one would have to be on the list. . .