Category: News

News 74 – Dinner and Judging

Here is the plain text version of the latest Newsletter.

For the HTML version, why not subscribe? – just drop an email to WilsonsTales@gmail.com.

 

Newsletter 74

Wilson’s News 74.  September 2023
Memorial Literary Dinner.
Contents
Newsletter 74 contents:
1. Wilson Memorial Dinner. October 2nd
2. 100 word Tale competition. Judging in progress.

** 1.  The Wilson Memorial Dinner.
————————————————————

The J.M. Wilson Memorial Literary Dinner will take place at The Maltings, Berwick, at 7:00 p.m on October 2nd, the anniversary of his death.

The 2023 J.M. Wilson “Beans & Bacon” Memorial Dinner.  is open for bookings, though space is limited, and many places have been booked already.  A vegetarian option will be available.
Payment preferred via Bank Transfer or by cash/cheque on the evening.
Please note that in view of the limited places, ‘no-shows’ will be charged.
You may reserve a place by email to wilsonstales@gmail.com (mailto:wilsonstales@gmail.com?subject=Ticket%20Enquiry)
Fuller details are on the website – click here for information (https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=33232c14a3&e=ce1248fcff)
tickets are available in the shop by clicking here (https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=2c9bff1d8e&e=ce1248fcff)
The Menu and programme is here, (https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=ee42102b66&e=ce1248fcff) and are also linked from the website pages.

The programme features Chris Adriaanse reading one of Wilson’s own Tales entitled The Festival, about Tweedmouth Feast. It was originally published as the lead Tale in edition 38 on 25th July 1835.

The shortlist and winner of the 100 Word Tale competition, which was originated at these dinners will also be announced and read.

Why Beans & Bacon?
For those who don’t know, Wilson was a poet, and wrote, amongst other material, a humorous poem called ‘Beans & Bacon. The Tale of Toby Toothpick’ which describes the tribulations of an impoverished young man, reduced to a tramp, who picks up a scrap of folded paper that turns out to be a £20 note. Making the most of his good luck, he books into the first Inn he finds and orders himself a large plate of beans and bacon, accompanied by a generous quantity of ale.
All does not go well…   Though there is a happy ending.
You may care to read it, and our commentary, in volume 5.
At the dinner, the poem is read as a precursor to our own ‘Beans & Bacon’ dinner.  Chefs to date have risen to the challenge and produced delicious versions which Toby wouldn’t recognise..

The full poem and companion item are on the website here (https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=ded9030785&e=ce1248fcff)

Monday 2nd October -Maltings Cafe, Berwick on Tweed.
Doors open at 7:00 pm.
The cost is £32 per head.   A Vegetarian option will be available.
2.  100 Words Competition.
This now annual competition was made into a prize competition open to all last year, and attracted entries from across the globe. This year’s competition closed on September 2nd, again with entries from round the world.
2023 entrants have been included in this newsletter, but you may unsubscribe from further mail using the optional at the bottom of the mail (there will be no effect on the judging!)
The addition of a stricture calling for a Tale which ‘could have been used by Wilson’ seems to have reduced the quantity slightly, but improved the quality, and it is especially pleasing to see many local entrants from the Borders beside the dozens from other continents.

Judging is now taking place, long listed authors will be advised by email, and the eventual shortlist and winner will be read and announced at the dinner.

Watch this space!

– Here is a 2022 shortlisted entry, by Jackie Latham

Tom and Dick

Dick was the best window cleaner in Northumberland, so thorough, took his time with every window.  The only thing that puzzled me was that he always came after dark.

Then last month he said he couldn’t use the ladder any more so was switching to a Reach and Wash system, so did I know that he could attach a camera to the pole to make sure he got into every nook and cranny?

I said I did. I kinda regretted that though when he was had up for being a peeping tom.  But my windows were so very, very clean.

100w
Stockists

We’re delighted to help the cause of local and independent bookshops.  Even more so when they stock Wilson’s Tales.
Now available from these high street locations;

Slightly Foxed, Bridge Street, Berwick.  :     https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=96f56566b8&e=ce1248fcff
Berwick Heritage Centre, Walkergate, Berwick  : https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=34fd01081e&e=ce1248fcff (https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=cf4993ea3f&e=ce1248fcff)
Greives, Church St , Berwick  : https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=abc5964a7a&e=ce1248fcff
Main Street Trading, Main Street, St Boswells  : https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=fcb90d7a9b&e=ce1248fcff
The Reading Room, The Square, Melrose  :https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/thereadingroommelrose
The Village Shop, Cornhill-0n Tweed.   : https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=2c530e7896&e=ce1248fcff

and if you missed last year and Volume 7, you may purchase them both together at a reduced price, but only on our website.
goto
https://WilsonsTales.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5ce587c60d73ecdcdb26ebcd&id=3ef68f36dd&e=ce1248fcff to purchase, or any of the booksellers above

============================================================
Copyright © 2023 Wilsons Tales of the Borders, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you asked to receive information when you attended an event or opted in via the website,

Our mailing address is:
Wilsons Tales of the Borders
Mill Farm
Tweedmouth
Berwick Upon Tweed., Northumberland TD15 2HP
United Kingdom

 

 Local retired Doctor wins playwriting prize.

 Local retired Doctor wins playwriting prize.

Berwickshire writer, Dr Michael Fenty’s reinterpretation of the “Leein’ Jamie Murdeiston” Border Tale has won the competition co-run by the Wilson’s Tales Project and Duns Playfest. This week he was presented with a commemorative artwork based on an 19th C. edition of the orginal Wilsons’s   to celebrate his win.  

Wilson’s Tales are a series of border stories written by Berwick Advertiser editor John McKay Wilson in the 1830s. The tales, many written while Wilson was living in Tweedmouth, were published by Wilson as a free standing weekly publication, which proved a run away success and they were then seldom out of print for the next 150 years. 

The Wilson’s Tales Project partnered with Duns Playfest, the annual drama festival, to present a competition for playwrights to reinterpret one of Wilson’s Tales. Part of the prize was intended to be a public performance of the winning submission, but inevitably, Covid meant those plans had to change. 

Michael’s wining work had to be premiered online. Instead of performing on stage in the Duns Players’ usual venue, The Volunteer Hall, it was filmed on a freezing day in Polwarth Church. “Not quite the premier I had envisaged ” said Michael,  adding, “While I’m amazed at what we managed to do in such difficult conditions, I’d still love to  put the play on live, as I wrote it with audience participation in mind, which, obviously we couldn’t do in a filmed version.” 

John McEwen, of Duns Playfest, commented “ Many of us have worked before with the Wilsons tales project on these border tales and it great to have a more formal arrangement of partnership for the festival, particularly given Wilson’s connection to Duns” (His father was from Duns) Andrew Ayre, from The Wilson’s Tales is also keen to repeat the cross-border creative collaboration, saying .  “There are some great tale’s in this body of work and it is wonderful that new  eyes are looking at these and presenting the tales in new and exciting ways for todays audiences”  

The play can still be watched online via the Duns Playfest website. Duns Playfest intends to return to in person performances in 2022, and you can find out more at www.dunsplayfest.org.uk/  

Wilson’s Tales run several events across the year: you can find out more at www.wilsonstales.co.uk/  or buy books featuring selected stories illustrated by local artists from the website of Grieves’ bookshop in Berwick. 

Andrew Ayre and John McEwen present Michael Fenty with his prize outside John McKay Wilson’s former office , Berwick. 

Radio Rooms to host Wilson’s Event July 2nd

Wilson’s Tales return home to Tweedmouth after 200 years. 

 

Local writer, John MacKay Wilson would be proud to know that almost 200 years after he originally wrote his Tales of the Borders, his stories will come to life on stage at The Radio Rooms in his native Tweedmouth this week.

Forming part of The Radio Rooms’ “Journey Through Genres” programme, on Friday 2nd July The Wilson’s Tales Project will present an evening of music and drama inspired by some of the hundreds of stories that were published in the 1830s.

Joe Lang and Jackie Kaines Lang will give a light-hearted retelling of “Grizel Cochrane: a Tale of Tweedmouth Muir”, complete with a touch of Covid-secure audience participation. Musicians Eilidh Campbell, Iain Petrie and Carol Whinnom will perform traditional and new songs and ballads inspired by the tales and their setting in the Borders.

The evening is the first in The Radio Rooms’ programme “A Journey Through Genres,” a series of twelve events showcasing different musical genres and featuring local performers. Supported by the Arts Council Grassroots Live Music, free tickets are available for people aged between 16 and 21 on application to The Radio Rooms.

“It is wonderful to bring MacKay’s tales back to his home in Tweedmouth,” said Andrew Ayre of The Wilson’s Tales Project. “He is buried in Tweedmouth Parish Churchyard, which is very near to The Radio Rooms, so he’d almost be able to hear what we’ll be doing on Friday evening. I wonder what he’d make of the venue’s name, though, as the radio wasn’t invented for almost a century after he wrote the stories!”

Tickets are available in advance at www.radiorooms.co.uk . The event is on Friday 2nd July at 6pm, at The Radio Rooms, 95, Main Street, Tweedmouth, TD15 2AW

image.png

image.png