WICKED women and what makes them tick will be revealed in north Durham next month.

The spotlight will fall on Shakespearian women in a new series of courses at Clayport Library, in Durham, starting in January.

The courses, run in partnership with Sunderland University and New College, Durham, range from family history and trees in winter to buying and selling online and impressionism art.

English Poetry from Caedmon to Skelton, gets the courses under way on January 15. The ten-week course runs from 7pm to 9pm.

Wicked Women runs on Saturdays from January 27 between 2pm and 4pm and looks at how attitudes to women in the 16th Century were presented, challenged, reinforced and contradicted. The course will focus on Shakespeare's women.

Charles Darby-Villis leads a 10-week course on Impressionism starting on Tuesday, January 16, from 7pm to 9pm, while Francis O'Sullivan leads Living and Dying: Applying Ethics, which looks at issues such as abortion and genetic engineering, on the same day from 7pm to 9pm.