BBC News
By Lynette Horsburgh
image captionBlackpool hotels which have been closed since October
Lockdown rules have eased in England, meaning pubs, cafes and restaurants can welcome customers inside, hotels can have overnight visitors and one of the country s oldest resorts can open for business again.
Blackpool s hoteliers, which have been closed since October, say while they have to adhere to limited capacity rules because of Covid, their establishments are full and they have had excited holidaymakers arriving hours before their check-in times.
Nigel Seddon, who owns the family-run Elgin Hotel said while dealing with the lockdowns had been an emotional rollercoaster , it was a pleasure to all be back together and seeing so many familiar faces .
John Mayall and
John Mayall and
(from left) his tree house, Lead Belly and a copy of Weird Tales. Composite: Getty/Alamy
As a huge box set of his work is released, the 87-year-old British bluesman reminisces about the thrill of discovering boogie-woogie piano and buying his first six-string in Japan
Fri 29 Jan 2021 04.00 EST
My tree house
I lived in Acre Lane in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester, and became a teenager on 29 November 1946. My parents had divorced and I lived with my mother and my grandfather. The house was a bit crowded, so I built a tree house in the garden, which basically became my room, my world. I built it with window frames and tarpaulin, but eventually it had a paraffin lamp, a bed and all my 78rpm records and such up there. It was about 25ft (7.6 metres) up an oak tree.