What are my favourite things? In no particular order, friends, writing, pubs – so imagine if you combined them, along with good beer? That’s what I was fortunate enough to experience last night. As I mentioned yesterday, The Black Cat in Weston-super-Mare (almost opposite the Playhouse Theatre, if you’re ever in the area) hosted a story telling night and obviously I went along. Once there, looking round as I supped a pint of Goats’ Leap (“from Cheddar Ales, full-bodied, strong with a striking bitter finish. A big beer brimming with hop character”) I realised that nearly all of our Writers in Stone group were there too. I was glad I had chosen a story which none of them had heard before, and marvelled at the coincidence that I was drinking Goats’ Leap and my story was entitled ‘Leap’.
We had a variety of stories, some I’d heard before, but all were well worth the re-telling, some were new and ranged across varying genres. There were a few other customers in the pub, some regulars, I guess, some visitors. Some stayed for quite a while, some drifted away, but there was an appreciative round of applause after each tale. There was one person, not in our group, who stood up and gave us a story – I wonder if there will be more spontaneous narrators if (and hopefully when) the pub hosts another such event. Another story-telling night is pencilled in for early January, so I must think about this – I have several January stories and several New Year stories, but should I maybe write something new, something specifically for The Black Cat? Maybe I will!
Here is a link to our writing Group’s latest anthology – “V” – by Writers in Stone.
Lois Elsden 