A Few Words about Juno Beach D_Day / Operation Overlord A 21 year old son of a WW1 veteran, the Kilted Tommy, finds himself part of the greatest invasion in history. He joined the Royal Marines and ended up commanding a Centaur tank for the Royal Marines Armoured Support Regiment as one of the first
A Few Words about Rochester Castle The Medieval History of Rochester Castle in Three Hats This year I had six bookings at Rochester Castle to tell stories around various characters and incidents in history of Rochester Castle. Out of this I have developed this talk. In one hat I tell the story of a
A Few Words about WW2 Stories Bring memories to life. Let your clients enjoy revisiting their family life in the 1940s.. I tell the tales of my maternal grandparents in WW2. I tell as if I was my grandfather. I talk about what life was like on a daily basis, dealing with rationing, work, air
A Few Words about The Tolpuddle Martyrs A Stain on British History and a factor in the rise of the trade unions Let George Loveless, the ‘spokesman’ of the farm labourers who were transported to the Antipodes for trying to earn a fair wage and to feed their family, tell of their heart breaking story
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A Few Words about William Marshal The most powerful man in medieval history, and mostly ignored in current history From a younger son of a baron, he rose to be the most powerful and celebrated Jouster in ‘Europe’; He was a Knight Marshal of England; he was one of the closest military and political advisors
A Few Words about A Medieval Stonemason How the medieval world was built A master mason was a man to be respected. His skill came from many years of study as an apprentice. He not only designed and built toe stone walls. He was in charge of the whole site, be it a cathedral, castle,
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A Few Words about Tintern Abbey Tintern Abbey and the dissolution The end of an institution and the start of a beautiful ruin What happened to them? Why didn’t they survive like the cathedrals? Ohh that Henry VIII, he has a lot to answer for. Him and his chasing wives. But what really happened? Many
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A Few Words about Wordsworth Wordsworth, The Romantics and Tintern Abbey. A young Wordsworth visits Tintern on a walking holiday His visit is in in unhappy circumstances. He has had a bad experience in France at the start of the Revolution, and has had to leave a baby and common law wife in France as
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A Few Words about D-Day D-Day. A Day In The Life Of The Kilted Tommy D-Day, the 6th June 1944 It’s the 75th Anniversary of D-Day this year. People are remembering the events on the coast of France and the sacrifices by so many men on the beaches of Normandy. But what was happening to
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A Few Words about my New Stories Researching two new stories in Middleham, Yorkshire I have spent a lovely week in Middleham, Yorkshire, having a wonderful rest in a wonderful cottage (shameless ad here – have a look, well recommended) and researching new stories. Its amazing how so small and pretty a town has such
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A Few Words about Property Developers Are property developers a recent phenomenon? Property developers are generally an unloved bunch these days. Making money from the expanding London property market. Buying up land, then moving people off the land. Building extravagant properties. Tearing down other beautiful buildings for their own ends. Wanting to make a name
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A Few Words about The Stoney Stratford Kidnapping Write something about medieval Milton Keynes…… umm… Wasn’t Milton Keynes only built in 1969? But.. Everywhere has a history. Everywhere has a story. Medieval kings processed around the country with an enormous retinue. Imagine being an innkeeper in a small midlands town who is told the king
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A Few Words about Saint Tysilio Saint Tysilio I will be Actor in Residence for the weekend on the Island and performing my story in the Church on Sunday afternoon Who? Was he martyred? Was he famous? Where is his cathedral? He wasn’t martyred, he isn’t famous, he has no cathedral. He was quietly religious
A Few Words about An Agincourt Archer An Agincourt Archer – Treason in Romsey There were lots of Archers at Agincourt, at least 3000. My first Archer story looks at a farmer signing up to the army of Henry V and enjoying his journey from Derbyshire to Porchester castle, meeting Chaucer and his pilgrims on
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A Few Words about Remmeberance Day Remembrance Day means different things to different people. Everybody’s feelings are coloured by their experiences and everyone’s experiences are different. Our Remembrance started after WW1. I’m sure other, earlier wars, resulted in people having the same feelings and the same needs which we now express on Remembrance Day. Two
A Few Words about Agincourt Day So its Agincourt Day again. One of our most famous victories over the French (in the Hundred Years War anyway). Immortalised by Shakespeare in Henry V and subsequently by several ‘based on’ films of varying quality. With the greatest respect to those involved in it originally, Shakespeare has done
A Few Words about Richard and his castles What does a king do when he doesn’t like a castle? Well he swaps it or he redevelops it. Both these happened to Sudeley Castle. I was commissioned to write a story illustrating Richard III ‘s connection with the castle and its general history for a celebration
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A Few Words about Hamming it up An event to celebrate the history of a deserted medieval village? Is there much in the way of historical interpretation in that? Well surprisingly there is! South Somerset District Council and the Ham Hill Park Rangers planned a weekend celebration of the park which includes, on top of
A Few Words about A House in History Some houses last a couple of hundred years and some leave some history behind. I was privileged to write about and perform in a house that has an amazing history. Adgors Farmhouse at the Museum of East Anglia Life in Stowmarket has been lived in continually since around 1350
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a few word about Stories and places The importance of stories to buildings and places I’ve been commissioned to write historical stories on three very different properties with 3 very different histories. All of which turned out to be pleasantly challenging. The first was for the East Anglian Living History Fair at the Museum of East
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A Few Words about my 2016 Performances Coming up in 2016 February 8th – 13th Playing Peter in ‘Last of the Haussmans’ by Steven Beresford at Beckenham Theatre Centre. April 8th and 9th Transgendered Shakespeare at Beckenham Theatre Centre May 14th, 21st, 27th and 28th Transgendered Shakespeare at the Brighton Fringe Festival in The Friends Meeting House. July 16th New
A Few Words about my Performance 15th Nov 2015 An Evening of Magic and Remembrance All Saints Centre, Lewes. BN7 2LE. Sunday 15th November 2015 at 7.45pm Be taken back to the time of WW1 for an evening. Enjoy the magic of Stuart Kelly, from Magic at Events, who will entertain you with some classic and
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A Few Words about Shakespeare and history I had the opportunity over the summer to play the Agincourt Archer in a key historical location. With my re-enactment group, the Paladins of Chivalry, we attended an English Heritage event at Portchester Castle in Portsmouth. This was where what is commonly referred to as the ‘Southampton /
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A Few Words about Erpingham The Church of Sir Thomas Erpingham, Erpingham, Norfolk I had the good fortune in September 2015 to be invited to a weekend event in the village celebrating the life of this grand old man, the Marshal of the Kings Archers at Agincourt. The local population were certainly proud of their association
A Few Words about Charles Dickens Mr Charles Dickens The Rochester Dickens Festival is one of the biggest celebrations of this author in the country. 2018 marked its 40th anniversary. I was asked to appear as Mr Dickens and to relate stories about his childhood.Slightly out of my usual character. I have always chosen ‘ordinary’
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