Author | Lightnews

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 1d

TONIGHT. If you’re lucky you might be able to scoop up a pair of ticket returns, but you’ll have to be quick! #IsleOfWight

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 14d

Fancy something a bit different for Halloween? Join @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and me for an evening of tantalising terror at Babushka Books, #IsleOfWight. Very dark, very scary, and strictly for grown-ups.

There's only a handful of tickets left, so grab yours while you can. Info in AltText.

THE DIABOLICAL AND THE DAMNED
Live storytelling for Halloween

A hunted woman flees barefoot through the forest. A black cat drives a man to madness. A princess undergoes a dark transformation. Demonic spirits lurk by a moonlit road . . . Just pray they don't follow you home.

Join storytellers Holly Medland and Merl Fluin for a night of spine-chilling tales in the atmospheric setting of Babushka Books, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.

Thursday 30 October, doors open 7pm for a 7:30pm start

Tickets £10 including snacks and drinks

Advance booking essential: phone 07511220038 or 01983 652880

Suitable for age 16+

Background image: a detail from the painting Hell (1485) by Hans Memling, showing a winged and horned devil dancing amid roaring flames.

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 4d

Step in from the December cold and enjoy the fine tradition of ghost stories for the festive season. @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and I take you on a journey to the places where wraiths walk at night.

More info and booking: www.ticketsource.co.uk/storytelling

#IsleOfWight #LiveStorytelling

The Dead of Winter: Chilling Tales for the Festive Season

Tuesday 16 December
Better Days Cafe, Ventnor

Cafe opens at 6.30pm for hot food, drink and cake
Ghostly storytelling starts at 7.15pm

Recommended age 16+

Book now: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/storytelling

The image on the flier shows a painting of a Victorian parlour lit by an oil lamp, with a ghostly woman playing a piano in the foreground.

Reposted by Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller

Paul Cowdell @paulcowdell.bsky.social · 4d

A last-minute cancellation means a couple of tickets have become available for this previously sold-out #storytelling gig by the two best tellers on #IoW. So if you tried to get a ticket and couldn't, you've got another chance! Highly recommended.

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 14d

Fancy something a bit different for Halloween? Join @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and me for an evening of tantalising terror at Babushka Books, #IsleOfWight. Very dark, very scary, and strictly for grown-ups.

There's only a handful of tickets left, so grab yours while you can. Info in AltText.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 14d

That's gorgeous Doug.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 14d

She looks like she's lived a bit.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 14d

Fancy something a bit different for Halloween? Join @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and me for an evening of tantalising terror at Babushka Books, #IsleOfWight. Very dark, very scary, and strictly for grown-ups.

There's only a handful of tickets left, so grab yours while you can. Info in AltText.

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 19d

And the bagpipes, Fran, the flipping bagpipes!

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 21d

Finer than fine. He was wearing a pretty good outfit as well.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 22d

No, not the sun. Tonight's moon. #IsleOfWight

A big orange moon pouring light across a dark sea.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 22d

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your brew, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 16 Oct, 11am, Newport Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale yourself, or just listen. Free entry. Broomstick optional

Get our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

Three witches in silhouette against a parchment background.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · 25d

A person went to Wales. A person came back. Apparently both persons were me. But only apparently.

A green landscape with a hill under a blue sky.

A tree with a clock face carved into a stump on the trunk.

A cup standing on a shelf beside an apple with a face drawn on it.

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Sep 18

Heading off on retreat tomorrow. Will be away for two weeks. No email, phone or internet while I'm away, so I'll catch up with any messages etc. afterwards. The good news is I'll definitely have the world all sussed when I get back.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Sep 18

Words from the heart, and exactly what I needed to read right now. If you're a #storyteller or other artist, you might want to read them too. Art in spite of hard times, art because of hard times. Thanks Laura.

Laura Packer @storylaura.bsky.social · Sep 17

An essay about art and storytelling in a time of performative cruelty. Free for everyone on my patreon.
www.patreon.com/posts/art-in...

Art in a time of performative cruelty | Laura Packer — storyteller, coach, real-time dreamer

www.patreon.com

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Reposted by Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Sep 7

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your cup of tea, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 18 Sep, 7pm, Ventnor Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale of your own, or just sit and listen. Free entry

Sign up for our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

Tenniel's famous illustration of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Sep 16

Be careful what you put up your nose. Especially if it’s dust from a box you’ve just been handed by a wizard.

“The Stork Caliph” is a story I learned from a Gazan girl named Hala. I retold it for Tell A Child In Gaza’s Tale.

More info, video and links in Alt Text.

#FolkTales #OralStorytelling

Hala told "The Stork Caliph" at the World Storytelling Cafe via Zoom from her home in Gaza in 2020. It’s a wonderful story, and Hala told it brilliantly, adding her own details and embellishments to make it her own, as all great storytellers do.

I recorded a video of myself retelling Hala’s story for the Tell A Child In Gaza’s Tale project. The project was started by David Heathfield and Haneen Khaled Jadallah. It’s still ongoing. You can get involved by watching and sharing the videos – or even better, by retelling a Gazan child’s story yourself.

Watch Hala tell the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHdvjjFykiA&list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS&index=10

Watch a video of me retelling Hala’s story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-eJVdgbAM&list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS&index=13

Browse a full playlist of all the project videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS

Find out more about the project here: https://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb24/tell-a-child-in-gazas-tale

(Picture shows a white woman wearing glasses and a headscarf, gesturing towards the camera)

Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Sep 7

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your cup of tea, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 18 Sep, 7pm, Ventnor Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale of your own, or just sit and listen. Free entry

Sign up for our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Aug 25

This will be excellent

Paul Cowdell @paulcowdell.bsky.social · Aug 24

#IsleofWight #folk types: I'm doing a short (5-song) guest spot at the Waverley folk night (Carisbrooke) this Wednesday coming, from 7pm

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Aug 22

Woke up this morning to the sound of angry wasps trapped inside a Morphy Richards hairdryer. Yes, it’s another August bank holiday weekend on the Isle of Wight.

A row of colourful motor scooters parked on a cobbled street. Public domain photo from Wikimedia Commons

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Aug 11

That’s wonderful, congrats!

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Aug 4

Storytelling fun at Chale Show on Saturday.

Photo and hat both courtesy of Sue Bailey.

#LiveStorytelling #IsleOfWight

A white woman in red clothes and hat crouches in front of an audience of adults and children inside a marquee.

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Reposted by Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller

Clare Murphy she/her @storyclare.bsky.social · Aug 3

Everyone tracking this? Petition @38degrees.bsky.social

act.38degrees.org.uk/act/stop-sha...?

Stop shady crypto cash flooding our politics

🚨 Nigel Farage’s Reform UK just opened the floodgates to dark money in our politics by becoming the first UK party to accept untraceable crypto donations. That's why I've signed the petition to stop s...

act.38degrees.org.uk

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Jul 28

Hey, you! Stop your tyrannical ways!

Last night I told Tales That Topple Tyrants to a lovely warmhearted audience at #vfringe25.

Tales That Topple Tyrants will return in new formats and venues before too long. Watch this space!

#livestorytelling #folktales

Photo by @paulcowdell.bsky.social

A photo of a white woman with short hair and glasses, dressed in red, with one hand raised above her head and the other pointing at the camera.

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Jul 22

Wow!

Reposted by Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller

Ed Finch @edfinch.bsky.social · Jul 21

Who's going to arrest him?

A packaged action figure wearing a keffiyah and with a placard reading 'Stop Genocide' labelled Palestinian Action Man

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Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller @merlfluin.bsky.social · Jul 21

Sniff that!