The Border Readers at Staveley Roundhouse

An evening with the Border Readers is always a treat and we especially enjoy their stories when they are read in the Staveley Roundhouse.

Staveley Roundhouse is an intimate and friendly venue and is absolutley perfect for the Border Readers' storytelling. Their offering this time was four contemporary short stories in different genres, all with coastal locations. 

Two of the stories - The Weather Gleam by Tony Glover and Touch and Go by Jo Scott – have been specially commissioned by the Border Readers and play out against the distinctive backdrops of Lindisfarne and Amble harbour respectively. The other two tales - Mud by Ann Cleeves and Crossing the Bar by Linda Cracknell – both happen to be set on the estuary of the Taw and Torridge rivers in north Devon.

All four tales were well told by Roberta Kerr and Stephen Tomlin. I particularly enjoyed Anne Cleeve's Mud, it was a haunting tale of teenage angst and murderous intent set on the Devon coast. I love Anne Cleeves' novels and this short story had all the hallmarks of her best novels.

In Tony Glover's The Weather Gleam, Violet seeks a guiding light on Lindisfarne. Jo Scott's witty romance Touch and Go sees Jenny anchored in Amble, will she ever set sail? Linda Cracknell's Crossing the Bar echoes Tennyson's poem of the same name, which acted as the inspiration for the story. The main character for the story is an elderly woman, daughter of a local pilot. She had enjoyed independent sailing as a child with strict respect for tidal dangers and the Bar, but is now curtailed from even minor adventure by arthritis and the cautions of her adult children.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening and some haunting and memorable stories.