LIFE? OR THEATRE? THE WORK OF CHARLOTTE SALOMON

“Take good care of it, it is my whole life”, said Charlotte Salomon of this display of hundreds of small gouaches, created by her between 1940-1942 and now at the Royal Academy of Arts, London W1. This “operetta” combines images, texts and musical references to depict a tragic life, marked by suicide - her mother threw herself out of a window when Charlotte was nine as did her grandmother when Charlotte was 23 - and by the march of Nazism in Europe (born into an educated Jewish family, Charlotte was to die in Auschwitz aged 26). Details: 0171 300 8000.

UNTIL NOVEMBER 15

DANNIE ABSE:POET AND DOCTOR

A 75th birthday exhibition at Church Farmhouse Museum, Greyhound Hill, London NW4, reveals the background to this distinguished writer’s poetry, plays, fiction, autobiography and television and radio broadcasting. Free admission. Details: 0181 203 0130.

UNTIL DECEMBER 6

TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES

The Classic Reaction Theatre Company is touring Michael Fry’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s powerful story of a young girl destroyed by a society rife with double standards, to Swanage, Fareham, Norwich, Brighton, Bexhill and Richmond, culminating in a four-week season at New End Theatre, Hampstead, London NW3. Details: Yvonne l’Anson, 0171 431 8956.

OCTOBER 24-JANUARY 31

SALVADOR DALI: A MYTHOLOGY

Exhibition at the Tate Liverpool showing the artist’s preoccupation in the 1930s with myth, legend and belief. Some rarely-loaned works from the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida, are hung alongside loans from European and other American collections. Details: 0151 709 3223.

Half-term activities.

OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 1

The 80th anniversary of the Armistice is being celebrated at the Imperial War Museum, London SE1, by an exhibition, “The First World War Remembered”. During half term, eight to 14-year-olds can talk to a “soldier” about life in the trenches and handle artefacts such as gas masks. Until January 3, they can send Christmas greetings from the trenches. The best entry will win Pounds 50 to spend in the museum shop. Details: 0171 416 5310.

OCTOBER 27-31

Young musicians aged 11 to 19 of about Grade 6 standard are invited to have a go at orchestral playing in workshops and rehearsals with the London Festival Orchestra. Membership of the London Festival Youth Orchestra is free and includes rehearsals every Saturday morning plus holiday workshops and social events. Details: Sarah Roseblade, 0171 928 9251.

The Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Road, London E2, is running free craft workshops on popular Regency styles, including making miniature screens, designing a silhouette lantern and carving plaster. There are also two cookery sessions for three to five-year-olds, October 31. Details: 0171 739 9893.

OCTOBER 30

WOMEN AND THE GREAT WAR

NOVEMBER 4

FRONT LINES

Readings by actors to mark the Imperial War Museum’s new exhibition, “The First World War Remembered” at Lambeth Road, London SE1, 7pm. At the first, Glenda Jackson will read from The Virago Book of Women and the Great War, edited by Joyce Marlow, and at the second Michael Maloney will read poems about the Great War. Tickets: Pounds 5 (including wine and private view of exhibition). Details: 0171 416 5311.