 Facts & Fiction 190 Burton Road Derby DE1 1TQ UK ISSN 1335-090X £2.50 Subscriptions: 4 issues £10 [£11 Europe; £15 RoW] Cheques [sterling only] payable to "Steel Carpet Music" email Facts & Fiction visit Facts & Fiction's website Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 11th August 2004. |
Facts & Fiction #40 | |
|
The Editor is Pete Castle and the initial impression is that F & F is designed as a showcase for his talents. Pete is available full-time as a storyteller and musician. He has produced various CDs which have been reviewed in the audio reviews section of this website. Pete describes himself as a 'fireside teller'. The idea is to perform in an intimate atmosphere where a story can develop from seemingly casual conversation without the audience being aware of it and where one item can link with the next.To do this one has to be creative, competent and confident. Most importantly, one must be fond of listening to a good yarn. There are a number of contributions from other authors, including reviews and web surfing. Pete has also researched into work produced in Afghanistan. An interesting magazine which captures the art of storytelling. Remember Jackanory? And do children really want to sit still and listen? Or are they more interested in computer games? With people like Pete around, the art will never die out. | ||
| reviewer: Sarah Crabtree. | ||
| Facts & Fiction #46 | ||
|
The function of storytelling has always existed in the real environment, an oral matter as distinct from tales embedded in books for readers. As such it is a continuance of an art which originated well before the printed book and the scribes even further back who sought to make permanent the events and tales of history. Confusions when mouth met pen were reflected in date anomalies, but that is another matter. To the listener the tale was the reality and the teller the supremo of an audience perhaps paralleled by the celebrity worship of the value-distorted stars of today. This vital communicative art has now a multitude of rivals in radio, television, video, &c. All the more power to its elbow that it is still responding to human appreciation, kept alive by festival tales, in performance rosters, or relayed by CD. Especially valuable therefore is F & F which keeps us up-to-date with such events and throws in a few stories of its own. March 20th 2004 (a Saturday) is strongly mooted as International Story Telling Day, corresponding to a Nordic storytelling day and similar days in Australia and Mexico. Selected items from this issue include news pages; Neil Latham's account of folklore, with anecdotes, in Suffolk which includes a vivid set of vignettes about PC Gunboats Smith, folk hero and 6ft. 7in. policeman; the elderly Bob Scarce who sings on CD of murder, poaching, seafaring, Napoleon, pirates and transportation; and some very short tales — CUNMAR THE ACCURSED, THE FOUR-LEAFED CLOVER, PETULENGRO THE SMITH, THE CHILDREN OF THE TREE — and lots of reviews of storytelling events. A very worth while literary project is F & F and I wish it well. | ||
| reviewer: Eric Ratcliffe. |