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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

09 November 2024

Posted by Susan L. Edser

A Winter's Tale

Ali Sparkes is a children’s author who leads writing sessions for Junior and Young Writers every Saturday morning at MAST Mayflower Studios. To learn more about her, visit her website: https://www.alisparkes.com.

Susan L. Edser, MA graduate in Creative Writing and Publishing and winner of Bournemouth University’s Vice Chancellor Award 2024, is Ali’s assistant and writes the weekly blog. 


Autumn is changing to winter, so it is time for our writing to reflect this. Think cold nights, nestling around the crackling fire and drinking hot chocolate. The season for a winter’s tale has arrived!

The first exercise was fill-in fun, with vast open space for the writers to tell us what they did over their breaks, but with a twist. Ali wanted drama, which meant that they had to use their imaginations. One person was dressed in a dragon outfit, but they could breathe fire, like a real dragon. Another person conquered Europe with their bare hands, teaming up with another writer and their megalomaniac tendencies!

Southampton is packed with folklore and fantastical tales, making it the perfect setting for our winter tales. The groups watched a short video about Southampton’s walls so everyone understood their essential role in the city’s history. Ali then explained some of Southampton’s legends, such as Sir Bevis of Hampton and Escapart, the giant he befriended. 

Ali encouraged the Junior writers to write a fireside story, beginning with ‘The truth is…’ They added other sentences such as ‘There is no truth,’ ‘Can I go to the toilet,’ and ‘There was a big, fat pig.’ The older writers were guided to set their stories in 1324. Popular music from the 12th century added to the atmospheric effect as they conjured tales of brave knights, heroic women, and prisoners bricked within the walls. The setups were excellent and showed an understanding of the brief to write as a storyteller in medieval England. A sneaky game of consequences was slipped in (everyone loves it so much!), and we all returned to our Southampton homes with a new understanding of our historic city.

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