I have just spent three glorious days at Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival. It was all outdoors, in sunshine and rain, beneath the towers of Dynefwr, a ruined Welsh castle. The atmosphere could not have been more fitting for my first post-covid literary event. Numbers were limited, of course, and there were social distancing rules in place, but it still felt truly magical. Continue reading
storytelling
Book Review: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Thirteenth Tale is full of gothic mysteries and ghosts, stories and secrets. It is a tale of sibling rivalry and love on many different levels, yet it is also a story of loneliness and unimaginable grief.
It begins in a fairly ordinary way, with a young woman who likes books. Margaret Lea works in her father’s antiquarian bookshop, and she writes biographies. She hides a secret – a secret that brings great sorrow, a secret that follows her everywhere she goes. Continue reading
Book Review: Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
It was the beautiful cover design that attracted me to Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield and, as soon as I began to read, I was hooked. It’s a wonderfully mysterious, ghostly tale, set in a time before people travelled far, and centred around The Swan Inn, on the edge of the Thames, at Radcot, where the age-old tradition of storytelling holds sway. Continue reading
Three Years of Blogging – Part 1: Fiction & Festivals
I launched this book blog on 18th March 2016, with no idea where it would lead me. Looking back over the last three years it’s hard to believe all that has happened in between. Reviewing books written by other people gave me the courage to look back at my own writing again, after years of relegating it to a dusty shelf, and to send it out into the world. So, to celebrate my three-year blogaversary I’ve picked out some of the posts I’ve most enjoyed writing, including my top three fiction reviews and my top three literary festivals… Continue reading
Book Review: Arcadia by Iain Pears
Arcadia is full of stories overlapping stories until you don’t quite know which story is real. It begins with Anterworld, a fictional universe imagined into being by Professor Lytten, an old friend of the late Tolkein. It soon transpires, however, that there is much more going on than the telling of a story. Anterworld is a very simple world in which the storyteller is revered and celebrated, where knowledge is precious and everything refers back to ‘The Story’ – a set of written texts which scholars study and memorise, in order to understand them and preserve them for future generations. Continue reading
Topsy-Turvy Twelfth Night Celebrations
In the tradition of Twelfth Night, the Lord (or Lady) of Misrule presides over games and festivities where, for one night only, the world is turned upside down. Amanda Rackstraw, in the guise of Befana (the Italian ‘Christmas Witch’ who brings gifts) organised this unique spoken word / musical / storytelling event, in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières, as a fabulous, topsy-turvy finale to the Christmas season… Continue reading
Lit Fest Highlights of 2016
Telling the tale of Beowulf
This has been an incredible year for literary festivals and events. There are many moments that stand out, from the simple pleasure of sitting in a warm room listening to someone read a good story, to the buzz of meeting new people, seeing new places and trying new things. Highlights must include my first ever visit to the Hay Festival, and hearing well known writers such as Tracy Chevalier, Sebastian Faulks and Simon Armitage discuss their work. But there are three festivals that really stand out for me, as I look back over a year of literary events…. Continue reading
Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival
I had never been to Beyond the Border before, despite recommendations and the fact that it’s only a short drive from Cardiff. So this year I decided to go. It was a magical experience, and you can read all about it in my article on the Wales Arts Review website. Beyond the Border are fundraising for the next festival, which will be in July 2018, so quite a while to wait, but worth it! If you’d like to donate – visit their website.
An International Storytelling Festival
Storytelling is an ancient skill which dates back to the days before writing. And it is a dying art. I was fortunate enough to attend a three-day storytelling training workshop a few years ago, organised by Beyond the Border and taught by Jamie Crawford. I had totally underestimated the capacity of the human mind to remember. Previously, I had only ever told a story with a book in my hand, but Jamie Crawford taught us that storytelling is not as difficult as you might think. Continue reading
Re-inventing the Mabinogion
If you live in Wales for any length of time, you cannot avoid noticing the love of storytelling that has filtered down through centuries of tradition. The Mabinogion is the name given to an assortment of Welsh legends dating back to a pre-Medieval era of mythology and Arthurian romance. Seren books commissioned 11 Welsh writers to re-write these tales for a modern audience, bringing them to life in twenty-first-century Wales. Continue reading