Telling Tales
On the fence by the gate outside Gipsy House in Great Missenden, Roald Dahl used to have a huge postbox. ‘You have no idea how many of those little buggers write to me,’ he once said. For decades, he and Quentin Blake collaborated on books for children that changed our worlds, including the dark, often satirical, Matilda until, sadly, Dahl died in 1990.
Quentin Blake doesn’t have a large postbox outside his front door (as far as I know) but the 81-year-old illustrator does have a house at Hastings where he spends time looking at the sea and eating fish caught by the local fleet.
Blake, or ‘Quent’ as Dahl used to call him, was awarded a knighthood in this year’s New Year Honours list – although he tends not to use it. He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was the inaugural Children’s Laureate. But more importantly, he is the patron of the Hastings Storytelling Festival. Now in its third year, he has been involved from the beginning; his book signing at Waterstones last year was so popular that the queue had to be restricted an hour before the end, while the poster he designed and donated for fundraising sold out shortly after it was announced – this year’s glorious offering (shown below) will undoubtedly have a similar crowd-pleasing effect.
It is now almost commonplace for towns and villages to have a ‘literary festival’. That is not to say that all are not welcome; anything that trumpets the importance of books is surely a good thing. But the Hastings Storytelling Festival, over several days in November, is rather unique in celebrating as it does the oral tradition of entertaining and informing.
All stories are kept alive by being retold again and again, invariably being embroidered and embellished during the process. It is a system that works particularly well with young children, and those for whom literature is, quite literally, a closed book.
As in the past, this year’s event will feature original work designed to be spoken live, rather than written down or read from a page. Many performers will already be well known; the confessional poet and novelist Billy Childish left the crowd begging for more last year.
However, it is also an art open to all. The local fishermen, for instance, have a great tradition of storytelling (driven in part by practicalities; books tend to get rather soggy on a choppy sea).
So if you feel you have a story to tell, why not consider telling it? As Quentin Blake suggests: ‘Don’t wait for inspiration, just start.’
www.hastingsstorytellingfestival.org.uk
Next week: The Duke of Wellington…
Quentin Blake doesn’t have a large postbox outside his front door (as far as I know) but the 81-year-old illustrator does have a house at Hastings where he spends time looking at the sea and eating fish caught by the local fleet.
Blake, or ‘Quent’ as Dahl used to call him, was awarded a knighthood in this year’s New Year Honours list – although he tends not to use it. He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was the inaugural Children’s Laureate. But more importantly, he is the patron of the Hastings Storytelling Festival. Now in its third year, he has been involved from the beginning; his book signing at Waterstones last year was so popular that the queue had to be restricted an hour before the end, while the poster he designed and donated for fundraising sold out shortly after it was announced – this year’s glorious offering (shown below) will undoubtedly have a similar crowd-pleasing effect.
It is now almost commonplace for towns and villages to have a ‘literary festival’. That is not to say that all are not welcome; anything that trumpets the importance of books is surely a good thing. But the Hastings Storytelling Festival, over several days in November, is rather unique in celebrating as it does the oral tradition of entertaining and informing.
All stories are kept alive by being retold again and again, invariably being embroidered and embellished during the process. It is a system that works particularly well with young children, and those for whom literature is, quite literally, a closed book.
As in the past, this year’s event will feature original work designed to be spoken live, rather than written down or read from a page. Many performers will already be well known; the confessional poet and novelist Billy Childish left the crowd begging for more last year.
However, it is also an art open to all. The local fishermen, for instance, have a great tradition of storytelling (driven in part by practicalities; books tend to get rather soggy on a choppy sea).
So if you feel you have a story to tell, why not consider telling it? As Quentin Blake suggests: ‘Don’t wait for inspiration, just start.’
www.hastingsstorytellingfestival.org.uk
Next week: The Duke of Wellington…