Today York, tomorrow... Ilkley
This is probably the last time I'll mention the storytelling evening at this year's York Festival of Ideas, but I wanted to convey a tiny bit of the buzz we got from the evening. OneMonkey (who was ably assisting with the technical gubbins) took a couple of action shots (with no flash so as not to disrupt us) so here is my friend Alice Courvoisier in her off the cuff storytelling groove:
and here is me reading from the marvellous book I made for the purpose:
For those that know me (too) well, yes I have had that shirt since 1994 and it's wearing fine, thank you.
We told stories from around the world, in a variety of genres, all linked by the theme of secrets and discoveries. Two were stories that I'd written (one set in the past about Luddites, one set in the near future about the dangers of scientific discoveries in the wrong hands) and I'd hoped to record them so you could listen to them here, but unfortunately the computer's built-in microphone made it sound like I was reading from the bottom of the garden in a storm, and the tablet sounded like I'd been recording with a sock over it (which I'm fairly sure wasn't the case). However, should I find myself in a situation where I can record them more clearly I'll do so and post them somewhere in this vicinity.
It seems like I'm going on about this event, I know, but we had such a great time putting it together, rehearsing, and then finally performing it to a (pretty full) audience, almost all of whom were complete strangers. One of those strangers, rather wonderfully, described the evening as 'random, mad & fab' which Alice and I are quite happy with as our first review. I say 'first' because we'd quite like to do this again sometime, and other people have also expressed an interest in us doing so.
In the meantime, Ilkley Writers (which, as regulars here will know, includes me) this week kicked off their preparations for a second appearance at the Ilkley Literature Festival. Clear your diaries for the first week of October, we're going to be fab.