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During the mid-seventies WANGARI MAATHAI founded the Green Belt Movement, Kenya’s famous environmental and human rights campaigning group that has restored forests and provided income and sustenance to the Kenyan people through the planting of trees. She became a major political figure in Kenya, standing up to Daniel Arap Moi’s oppressive regime. In recognition of her work she became the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She talks about her tree planting and her fight for sustainable development, democracy and peace throughout Africa. Unbowed: One Woman’s Story is published by William Heinemann.

What are religious leaders and organisations doing to communicate the importance of safeguarding our natural environment? According to former Dominican Friar and devout Roman Catholic MARK DOWD they are doing very little. In his latest programme, God is Green, Mark goes on a personal journey to find out why the world’s major faiths are being so quiet about climate change, despite the fact that in their holy texts there are passages supporting environmentalism. God is Green will be broadcast on 12 February on Channel 4 at 8.00pm.

No other artist’s work has come to define a period of British history as powerfully and enduringly as that of William Hogarth. The Rake’s Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode were only two examples of his withering satire. His images have been borrowed by artists, advertisers and cartoonists; his Progresses adorn pub walls and dentists' waiting rooms, and have been turned into pantomimes, plays and operas. But a new exhibition at Tate Britain, the most comprehensive for thirty years, will stress the variety of Hogarth’s work, which extended to portraiture and history paintings. The curator, CHRISTINE RIDING, argues that Hogarth was in fact Britain’s first truly modern artist with a huge relevance to British art now. Hogarth opens at Tate Britain on 7 February and runs until 29 April.

The former Conservative defence secretary, MICHAEL PORTILLO, is used to controversy, which is perhaps a good thing, given the latest project he has become involved in. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has been heavily criticised for its new programme, The Verdict, in which a celebrity jury sits in judgement over a four day rape trial, presided over by a real judge. With the jury made up of people like Jeffrey Archer and Stan Collymore, legal experts have warned that, far from advancing viewers’ knowledge and understanding of the working of our jury system, it is likely to do the exact opposite. The Verdict will be screened on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 2 for five consecutive days from 11 February.