Meeting the Authors!



Much of my time during the past few weeks has been devoted to storytelling. After the solo gig in Droylsden and the floor spot among the top professionals at Matlock, I’ve done a couple of low-key sessions at the Buxton Festival Fringe (and the usual Buxton meeting on the second Sunday of the month) – and then, last Wednesday (July 15th), a joint “Meet the Authors” session in the Newton Suite, Hyde Town Hall, along with local writers Margaret Holbrook and Pamela Turton.

The Newton Suite is a beautiful room, built in an age when architectural elegance mattered, and thanks to the advertising efforts of the chief librarian of the area we had a good audience. I told a few Peak District folktales and Margaret and Pam read from their recent books. Margaret’s husband, Steve, took photos of the three of us performing. He’s a better photographer than I am!

This was me telling the sad tale of Fair Flora, and showing the audience the picture of her statue as photographed in my book…

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And here’s Margaret reading from her collection of short stories, Watching and Other Stories. (She read part of the title story, Watching, tantalising the audience into buying copies of the book – everyone wanted to know the ending… and it’s worth reading!)

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And here’s Pam reading from her novel The Life Coach Less Travelled, which is as amusing as the title suggests yet with poignant moments that make the principal characters sympathetic:

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It was a successful session – I sold two copies of Folktales of the Peak District and three of my CDs, and Margaret and Pam also got decent sales. And on Tuesday coming, July 21st, we’ll have another such session in the Craft Barn in Hadfield. Here’s hoping for more sales!

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