I had a great audience last night at Norwood Hall Hotel where I was asked to come along and tell some ghost stories to RGU and Penna staff at a corporate evening event.

The Norwood is well known to be haunted by one of its previous owners (“Soapy” Ogston), his wife and his lover… but I also told them about the “Beast of the Clash.”

The Beast was a vicious great black cat who was the familiar of one of the Menzies Lairds, reputed to dabble in the Black Arts. (The Menzies lived at Pitfodels Castle the motte of which is just to the north of the present day Norwood Hall). One night the Beast took umbrage at its treatment at the hands of the Laird and pounced on him from up on high, knocking him off his horse and ripping out his throat with its teeth. The next morning the laird’s lifeless body was found floating in boggy ground and the Beast was never seen again… except that its ghost might still roam the area, now the part of Aberdeen known as Garthdee!

The photo is not of the Beast, but is of another Cat of Garthdee. This is our new family member, Apollo, who some day may have the potential to maul me for not treating him like the God he knows he is. For now, he likes sitting in the bath and hunting our toes in the middle of the night. Truly another beast in the making 😛

Spooky Tales with Pauline Cordiner and Derek Jennings

The Book of Deer, possibly Scotland’s oldest surviving manuscript – is returning to the North East of Scotland for the first time in over 1000 years.

The book itself will be exhibited at Aberdeen Art Gallery but the Book of Deer Project, who have been campaigning for many years to have the illuminated manuscript visit the area, have many events running in the North East this year – many focussing around Aden Country Park and Deer Abbey where an archaeological dig will be carried out.

I’m chuffed to be doing a total of 6 sessions (3 on the 7th April and 3 on the 11th June) for families incorporating storytelling and living history – but I’m also going to be doing two adults only evening storytelling sessions with Derek Jennings from the Book of Deer Project. You can get your tickets for the first evening session on Eventbrite (details below)

“Join Derek Jennings and Pauline Cordiner for an adults-only evening of scary stories from Aden and the North East of Scotland. Expect ghostly tales of the Monks of Aden, the cursed families of Buchan and the canny chiel who summoned Auld Nick himself!”

Here’s an upcoming event on the 5th April for those of you in Tillydrone, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire (and beyond if you fancy a visit!)

Jackie Ross and myself are teaming up with the Tillydrone Community Development Trust for a storytelling event to raise funds and awareness for the regeneration of the Wallace Tower (or Benholm’s Lodging as it’s also known!)

The event takes place at Dunbar Street Hall and tickets start at just £1.67 – get your tickets booked now! (Direct link below)

“Join us for an exciting afternoon of storytelling , all to raise funds to help make the Wallace Tower a community space for Tillydrone.

About this event :

Local storytellers Pauline Cordiner and Jackie Ross will thrill us with traditional tales from Aberdeen and beyond, all to raise funds and awareness for our neighbours at the Tillydrone Community Development Trust (TCDT). TCDT plans to transform the Wallace Tower (Benholm’s Lodgings) into an active community space and garden for the local community. Come along to hear from two of the North-East’s most gifted yarn-spinners and to learn more about TCDT’s important community project.”

Well that’s World Book Day Week (for us storytellers it can stretch to a whole glorious week!) over for another year – and what a fantastic time I’ve had!

On Wednesday I had my first visit to a school in a few months – I told tales of fish and the sea, of diversity and equality to the amazing P1 to P7 pupils of Broomhill Primary who made me feel so welcome.

Then on Thursday (World Book Day itself), I was of to Lairhillock School where the stories had themes like “Titanic” “Science” “Space” and “Toys” – from the very smallest in nursery to the oldest P7s (and of course the teachers too!) I was delighted by their costumes and the questions they asked!

And finally on Friday it was off to my wonderful local school, Kaimhill, where I told stories to the very wee ones in the nursery, P1 to P3 and rounded the day off telling a story to the whole school in Assembly. I have missed you all so much and it was lovely to recognise a few little brothers and sisters now at school!

Here’s a few quotes from the teachers:
“Thank you so much for your visit Pauline. Everyone (big and small!) was very impressed and awestruck by the stories you told.” Mr Murray, Headteacher at Lairhillock School.

“Thank you so much for visiting us today. The children absolutely loved it and so did I. Your storytelling was fantastic.” Mrs Leslie, Headteacher at Broomhill School.

There will be three workshops coming up with the Grampian Association of Storytellers – the first being at 7pm on Wednesday 16th with Diana Peers – “Point of View”

Then the second workshop is on Wednesday 13th April at 7pm with Jackie Ross. It will cover learning your story – the Bare Bones

And finally my workshop, “Pacing your Story” will be on Saturday 21st May at 2pm.

All workshops are FREE and are on Zoom – contact GAS by emailing gas_story@hotmail.com to book your place! 🙂

At 11am tomorrow morning I’m going to be telling stories in the Central Library for Granite Noir 2022 I’m delighted to be the only family-friendly event in the festival – with stories of various crimes suitable for children aged Primary 1 and up.

“Join local storyteller Pauline Cordiner for some tales of thrilling thefts, vicious villains, pathetic pirates, dreadful deaths and maybe even some troublesome toilets! Pauline will tell traditional stories from the North East of Scotland, Europe and around the world in this session suitable for children aged 5 and up”

https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/…/granite-noir…/

Well that’s Spectra 2022 over for another year – and what an amazing festival it was! This year I was joined by my wonderful storytelling friend, Lindsey Gibb and we shared stories with an audience of over 800 over 4 evenings of the festival. Oh and we had a huge amount of fun too – I don’t know if Lindsey has forgiven Fizzy the Fairy for her impromptu beat-boxing, but many laughs were had and each and every audience was an absolute pleasure!

It was great to be back telling stories to a festival audience again and indoors too! (Well, this is Aberdeen in February!) We managed to see some of the exhibits which this year were fewer but GRANDER – just huge! And perfect for a country inching its way out of Covid restrictions.

I can’t wait to see what Spectra 2023 has in store for us!

Oh yes and there will be a fair amount of fisher folk stuff, Medieval stuff, Pictish stuff, Viking stuff and I’m really hoping we’ll get away for our usual festivals this summer.

Plenty of reasons to strut about like a Book of Deer Beastie! 😀

Just back from a great morning at Oyne Primary School – all Elfed up for the P1-4s for some Christmas stories and then the P5-7s enjoyed the death of Baldur so much * that they got a bonus Thor’s Wedding!

Now it’s time to de-Elf myself and get ready for some Tales from the Longhouse with Cathbad and Olaf with special guest Pauline Cordiner tonight!

*for the Yule/Mistletoe link

I’ve just done the first of my two sessions up in Balintore and all the classes were amazing with great engagement and questions at the end!

I told them all about Thor’s wedding and then the defeat of Pictish Chieftain Mael the Tusk by Sigurd the Mighty. (Definitely a contender for Stupid Deaths!)

Tonight I’m going to be sharing the stage at the Seaboard Hall with Andy Shanks who has been composing songs at the school with Ewan McVicar! Time for more Viking tales and fishy fables

#SISFstoryripple

Both events have been made possible due to the Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s Big Scottish Story Ripple initiative and are supported by Scottish Storytelling Centre and the Scottish Storytelling Forum (TRACS).