Stories and Storytelling

                                                          

Given the scrapes my now sixteen week old puppy is getting into, I've been sorely tempted to start a children's book entitled "What A Mess!" Certainly when my children were young I would regale them with stories about a pup of that name who was causing chaos in his new home - as is Bryn in mine now. Those tales, along with ones about the More Please Fairy and Thermople the Bear (after a teddy we came across in Blaise Castle museum in Bristol) saw us through many car journeys and long country walks. But actually writing for children is a highly skilled occupation (as many "celebrities" have found out); I'm not sure my skills are up to it.

Another highly skilled occupation of course is that of the oral storyteller. This weekend sees the Festival of Storytelling here in Monmouth, two days full of events around the spoken word, some family ones, some adult ones. I'm really looking forward to the three that I've booked for. Do check the programme if you're in the area. Our Savoy Theatre is one of the oldest in Wales, it's won a lot of awards and it's the ideal place to listen to expert storytellers weaving magic with words.

It was the autumn equinox this week, the turning point into darker days. Harvest Festivals - very much a feature of my childhood - have been celebrated in local churches, but I've noticed how there's also much interest now in other and perhaps older traditions, especially Celtic ones, associated with the time of year. I particularly like the story behind Mabon. It's based on a tale in the Mabinogion about Mab ap Modron, a baby stolen from his mother. The child is kept captive until freed by the heroic Culhwch and a posse of wise animals. This lovely story symbolises youth and the promise of life and renewal after a period of darkness. As one who finds the cold, dark days of winter very trying indeed, it's one I certainly hold on to! 

Home and Away - but mostly home

Our anticipated hectic summer was interrupted by some unexpected health issues - but thankfully not before the National Eisteddfod. Reading at the festival (once I'd stopped shaking) was a great experience and the launch party for Adar Y Nant most enjoyable. That publication will probably mark the pinnacle of my Welsh writing achievement - but two days later on a trip to Cardigan Castle I couldn't resist having delusions of grandeur and had some fun posing in the Chair commemorating the very first Eisteddfod there in 1176! 

Some enforced leisure allowed me to catch up with some very overdue correspondence and quite a lot of very interesting reading. A fascinating poetry collection that I was asked to review was Exposure, War, Media and Democracy (Culture and Democracy Press, 2026) by Angela Graham. I'd recently met Angela at a reading at Cwtsh in Newport and was profoundly moved by her poems. They have their origin in responses to journalism, photography and film generated by the wars in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza or in civic confrontations involving governments or citizen activism. In my earlier career as a nurse I was caught up in one IRA mainland atrocity which has stayed with me ever since; I related very much to the poems on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In many of the war poems I found it was the sheer humanity of Angela's approach to such inhumane events that was the strength of her work. The collection makes for very sobering, thought provoking reading. 

The last few weeks have been considerably enlivened by the arrival of Bryn, our new Border Collie puppy. He's now 14 weeks old and both delightful and the devil incarnate. During his first week with us he chewed through our internet and landline connection; he's very partial to a good gnaw on skirting boards and the corners of the sideboard. The garden room where I usually write is well nigh impossible to puppy proof so I'm working largely from a well nibbled camping chair in the kitchen or at the patio table. It certainly puts a different perspective on things!