Top authors read short stories in the Royal Parks
Listen to eight top writers including Will Self, Ali Smith and William Boyd reading stories they've penned about our parks in their actual settings with Park Stories
23 June 2009
Bookish Londoners can sprawl on the grass with some very appropriate reading matter this summer: eight top writers, including Will Self, Ali Smith and William Boyd, have penned short stories inspired by London’s eight Royal Parks.
You can pick up the £2 Park Stories pamphlets from the parks themselves and dive into stories about characters exploring, and hiding, in the green spaces.
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“I love short fiction and I love parks, and it struck me that they could work well together,” series editor Rowan Rouse says, pointing out that everyone from Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad to Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath has been inspired by the capital’s greenery.
To launch the set, there’s a series of open-air readings next week, including William Boyd on Tuesday, when the novelist will be telling his tale of a woman struggling to reinvent her life at the bandstand in St James's Park.
The following day, Adam Thorpe will be in the Ranger’s Lodge Garden in Hyde Park, reading from his own contribution, which follows a woman and her favourite park bench through peace time and war.
“Someone once described novels as ‘short stories, padded’,” adds Rowan, who wants to champion the form. “There’s something wonderfully concentrated about the short story.”
St James’s Park, 30 June, Hyde Park, 1 Jul, www.parkstories.org.uk, free. Reserve a place by calling 020 7298 2046
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