Authors Electric

Logo  of the Crick Crack Club In the weeks before lockdown began, we had block-booked tickets for all the concerts in the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, ditto the West Meon Festival, several concerts at the Turner Sims and all the Crick Crack Club storytelling at the Earth House in Cranborne. All gone with the wind, of course. Not having the live music and stories is a big wrench, but infinitely worse for the performers than for us. We were able to contribute a bit towards cancellation fees for them, but even so they will all miss a chunk of vital income. All these wonderful talented people in theatre, music and the arts generally, not able to work – it’s a tragedy, not only for them but for all of us. Many people have put wonderful stuff online, however, free of charge, bless ‘em all. This earns them nothing but keeps them doing what they do best and gives us joy.  The latest such initiative I came across was by the Crick Crack Club (storytelling for grown-u...

The Lion of Sole Bay Halloween has snuck up and jumped me from behind. Several months ago I was visiting my friends at Kessingland Primary School near Lowestoft when I received an invitation to call on the librarian (oh, okay, Resource Centre manager) at the nearby secondary school, Pakefield High. It's a newly-built school and I was keen to visit as I knew that most of the Year Six children I'd met at Kessingland would be moving on to Pakefield. The school is still in a state of construction but the Resource Centre was impressive and there was a lovely buzz from the some of the younger students who were off to a poetry competition in Norwich the following day. I was therefore delighted when I was invited to take part in a 'Literary Leap Day' scheduled for the autumn term. “We're planning some sort of ghostly / Halloween theme” said the manager, Linda. “Oh fine,” I responded blithely. “I'll have my new book out by then and that's sort of Halloween-...

Recently I've been reading a lot of other people's work – stories by school children that I'd met on school visits who are hugely keen to be writers; another is a friend who's written a short novel about his travels; then there are 101 other pieces – yes 101 exactly, which are entries for a competition I'm judging – all requiring critiques. I get a fee for the competition, but whether you're getting paid to provide help with writing skills or not, there's nothing better than seeing someone's writing coming on in leaps and bounds - particularly after following your advice. I love doing workshops in schools and I'm often massively impressed by the standard of writing that can be achieved by youngsters as young as eight and nine with a little extra support and help. As for adults, I hope my courses have helped people, even if only to get them making time to write. The satisfaction of giving others a helping hand on their writing path pr...