I promised to write something new for each of the festivals on the pagan calendar- expecting these to be short stories- but this is a bit stranger- somewhere between a poem and a dream. Hope you enjoy it and happy longest day all!

I hope this story explains itself- but just to say- storytellers come in to fill in the gaps of history. All we had was one one grainy black and white photo of the Skylark Cafe and no information- which left us free to create and imagine... so we did. The Skylark Cafe has been recreated in 2022 as a utopian storytelling, creative members club- where everyone is free to be themselves and enjoy themselves. Hope you like the story

Throughout Feb and March 2022, I ran a 6 week creative writing course called "The Scriptorium WINTER " with an amazing bunch of people. As winter turned to spring we explored, wrote about, and considered many themes together : dawn and dusk, fools and tricksters, luck and superstition, the moon and the stars, maps and murmurations. Our last session was inspired by the literary Salons and Hellfire Clubs of the 16th and 17th centuries. Each member of The Scriptorium received a box of curious items and ephemera, a "wunderkammer-through-the-post", and we wrote inspired by the objects contained within.

In this audio piece created and recorded on the night, we answered the question "why do we write?".

We hope you enjoy it

Many thanks to Debra McGee and Revelation Ashford who made The Scriptorium possible.

If you would be interested in future creative writing courses, please get in touch by email bernadette@thewhiterabbit.org.uk

More soon

Love Bernadette