Authors Electric

                                                   ‘I had not thought that it would be like this’   This is the last line of a poem by Charles Causley called  Eden Rock . The poet is looking back at his parents as they were when they were younger and sees them gone ahead from him now beckoning him forward:                                                     ‘See where the stream path is Crossing is not as hard as you might think.’   Charles Causley is a poet that I have good cause to remember. When I began teaching at a tough comprehensive school in Tilbury in the 70s one of my first lessons wa...

(That's me at the original launch. I find the key to readings is the 45 degree angle) No, really. We’re all writers on this site, so we’re pretty used to sitting tapping and scratching till the words come out. But as we’re doing introductions this month, I thought I’d say something about what I love most in this storytelling business. Talking. Reading to a live audience. I say it a lot but as a writer you really can’t beat looking into an audience’s eyes and listening to their laughter and gasps as you lead them through the labyrinth of emotions that is a story. I never really knew I’d love doing readings and shows. I’ve always been a bit of an exhibitionist. There was that time when we’d just got off the plane in Athens and I walked over the other side of the square so I’d be in the sight-line of a local news crew. And there was the phase when I’d go on any game show that would have me – Countdown, 15-1, Mastermind (Hannibal Lecter novels), Weakest Link, er, Brainteaser and pon...