Thomas Hardy fans may know the town slightly indulgently as Knollsea but to everyone else it’s Swanage. To jazz fans the Dorset town is known primarily for the Swanage Jazz Festival, which has just unveiled its programme for the twenty-fifth running of the event this summer. The three-day event in July hosts “nearly 50 sessions”, and Swanage, uniquely, runs a steam train on the first day from Swanage to Harman’s Cross station on the Purbeck Line. It might even be a blue train, now there’s a thought.

Highlights of the festival this year include Ian Shaw, Alan Barnes, the Nigel Price trio with Vasilis Xenopoulos and the Ollie Howell quintet (Friday 11 July); the Arun Ghosh quintet, Gareth Williams and Dave Green playing the music of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro, the Laura Jurd quartet, Troyka, the Matt Ridley trio with Jason Yarde (Saturday 12 July); and the Darius Brubeck quartet, Fapy Lapertin quartet, Tina May and Lee Gibson, and Fletch’s Brew with Brandon Allen (Sunday 13 July).

Arun Ghosh, above