Tag: audio

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Alexander Pope: A Search For Perfection Is Back!

After a sold out run at Pope’s Grotto and Twickenham Library, Alexander Pope: A Search For Perfection is back! I will be performing the show at The Old Sorting Office in Barnes on 13th October – tickets are now on sale here.

Pope is a poet I avoided at Uni because his idea of poetry is so different to ours now – despite my father being a fan! Creating this show was intense and I’m so glad I did because he is truly inspirational. Imagine, a chronically and critically disabled man, an outsider to English society (he was Catholic) whose formal education stopped at 12 who nonetheless managed by sheer brilliance to make himself central to English cultural and intellectual life, a midget who remains a giant of English Literature?! It’s all true – come and hear his extraordinary story.

Here’s a little preview to get you in the mood…

 

1. Alexander Pope: A Search For Perfection clip - Giles Abbott     

But if you can’t make 13th October I’ll be back with the show next year at the National Portrait Gallery on 18th May and at the Twickenham Festival in June. For ticket details and further dates keep an eye out on Facebook, Twitter and of course, this blog (and if you’ve not subscribed there’s a handy box for that…).

Hope to see you there!
G;{~

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Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4, 20/2/16

I was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s “Saturday Live” on 20th Feb. Great fun. Programme started late because of a technical hitch and there was even a blackout in the studio (I confess, I didn’t really notice!). It’s a great programme, with Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir hosting. You can listen to the whole show here or, if you want to jump to my bit, I’m at 01:07:30.

Here’s the link;

BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Live

and here are some pictures from the studio. Who knew Zeb Soames looked like this?!

Zeb Soames, Newsreader

round the table, Aasmah Mir, Rev Richard Coles, Lorna Currie Thomopoulos, Laurence Fox and Lucy Cooke

us at end of show

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Why The Robin Has A Red Breast – A Christmas Story

And now for my final story before Christmas – Why The Robin Has A Red Breast (and became a hero).

Hope you all have an enchanting Christmas of love, happiness and good old overindulgence and check back on New Year’s Eve for something to see you through into 2016…

 

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Big Cattle, Little Cattle

Hey ho (ho, ho)! To brighten up your Christmas, I thought I’d share a couple of stories with you. Today’s is called Big Cattle, Little Cattle and is a traditional Russian Christmas tale with hearty borscht, glad tidings and an obscene amount of rats…

Check back for more tales of snow and mayhem and don’t forget to let me know your favourite Christmas story in the comments – you never know, it could be the next one I tell…! Enjoy!

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A new project and a new (old) story

A New Project, a new (old) story!
So, a BBC World Service journalist called Richard Hamilton, working in Morocco, has discovered and fallen in love with the public, open air storytelling traditions of Marrakesh and has discovered the tradition is under threat. For years, storytellers have been able to perform in a particular square and this is how they have earned their living for generations. Guess what? The citizen’s friend, DEVELOPMENT, has now deprived these storytellers of anywhere to work, to earn. Richard has started a labour of love to bring this tradition and the plight of these tradition keepers to a wider audience and, as part of this project, he is launching a YouTube channel to showcase as many stories and storytellers as possible. He and his assistant Nigel came to my flat and, despite an egregious cold, I told some stories for them. The first of them to be published is now online, a short Norwegian tale, and you can enjoy it here….

Stay tuned to this list for further stories in the weeks and months to come.

Best wishes,

Giles ;{~