Merl Fluin | Performance Storyteller

#LiveStorytelling

A 17th-century Dutch illustration showing a creature with a dog's body and a bird's head.

Current obsession: MacPhee’s Black Dog. A traditional Highland tale with rhizomatic roots in Scots fairy lore and Irish mythology. It’s a magnificent epic, but condensed into 15 minutes. And it’s started keeping me awake nights.

I’m gonna tell it very soon.

#LiveStorytelling #FolkTales #Folklore

Tonight’s supermoon above my little hometown. Always remember there is beauty in the world. #IsleOfWight

A photograph of a mountain range in Japan, with snow on the peaks in the background, and trees and a river in the foreground.

Today's story research involves finding out all about mountain huts in the alpine areas of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It is definitely VERY SERIOUS RESEARCH and not just looking at lovely photos and daydreaming, oh no. #LiveStorytelling

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A white wooden windmill standing behind a hedge against a blue sky.

Sunset behind a row of trees in a flat landscape.

Back from my Suffolk retreat.

Twin sepia photos showing a bearded man outside a dilapidated wooden hut, surrounded by tall grass.

Tomorrow I head off on solitary retreat for a week. Yes, in an actual hut. With no phone and no internet. But possibly with a beard by the time I'm done. I'll reply to any messages when I get back. Be good to each other, people, it's cold out there.

Very sorry to say that tonight's Story Club is cancelled due to illness ☹️

Hope to see you at our December meeting instead – Thursday 11 December, 7pm at Sandown Library.

A lit hand-held sparkler against a dark background.

Come and join the Island Storytellers for the Isle of Wight's monthly story club! A relaxed, friendly evening of traditional storytelling. Tell a tale yourself, or just sit and listen. All welcome.

Thursday 20 November, 7–9pm, Yelf's Hotel, Ryde

#LiveStorytelling #OralStorytelling #IsleOfWight

TONIGHT. If you’re lucky you might be able to scoop up a pair of ticket returns, but you’ll have to be quick! #IsleOfWight

The Dead of Winter: Chilling Tales for the Festive Season Tuesday 16 December Better Days Cafe, Ventnor Cafe opens at 6.30pm for hot food, drink and cake Ghostly storytelling starts at 7.15pm Recommended age 16+ Book now: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/storytelling The image on the flier shows a painting of a Victorian parlour lit by an oil lamp, with a ghostly woman playing a piano in the foreground.

Step in from the December cold and enjoy the fine tradition of ghost stories for the festive season. @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and I take you on a journey to the places where wraiths walk at night.

More info and booking: www.ticketsource.co.uk/storytelling

#IsleOfWight #LiveStorytelling

A last-minute cancellation means a couple of tickets have become available for this previously sold-out #storytelling gig by the two best tellers on #IoW. So if you tried to get a ticket and couldn't, you've got another chance! Highly recommended.

That's gorgeous Doug.

She looks like she's lived a bit.

THE DIABOLICAL AND THE DAMNED Live storytelling for Halloween A hunted woman flees barefoot through the forest. A black cat drives a man to madness. A princess undergoes a dark transformation. Demonic spirits lurk by a moonlit road . . . Just pray they don't follow you home. Join storytellers Holly Medland and Merl Fluin for a night of spine-chilling tales in the atmospheric setting of Babushka Books, Shanklin, Isle of Wight. Thursday 30 October, doors open 7pm for a 7:30pm start Tickets £10 including snacks and drinks Advance booking essential: phone 07511220038 or 01983 652880 Suitable for age 16+ Background image: a detail from the painting Hell (1485) by Hans Memling, showing a winged and horned devil dancing amid roaring flames.

Fancy something a bit different for Halloween? Join @hollyofthestories.bsky.social and me for an evening of tantalising terror at Babushka Books, #IsleOfWight. Very dark, very scary, and strictly for grown-ups.

There's only a handful of tickets left, so grab yours while you can. Info in AltText.

And the bagpipes, Fran, the flipping bagpipes!

Finer than fine. He was wearing a pretty good outfit as well.

A big orange moon pouring light across a dark sea.

No, not the sun. Tonight's moon. #IsleOfWight

Three witches in silhouette against a parchment background.

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your brew, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 16 Oct, 11am, Newport Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale yourself, or just listen. Free entry. Broomstick optional

Get our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

A green landscape with a hill under a blue sky.

A tree with a clock face carved into a stump on the trunk.

A cup standing on a shelf beside an apple with a face drawn on it.

A leaf.

A person went to Wales. A person came back. Apparently both persons were me. But only apparently.

An image of the Tibetan Wheel of Life.

Heading off on retreat tomorrow. Will be away for two weeks. No email, phone or internet while I'm away, so I'll catch up with any messages etc. afterwards. The good news is I'll definitely have the world all sussed when I get back.

Words from the heart, and exactly what I needed to read right now. If you're a #storyteller or other artist, you might want to read them too. Art in spite of hard times, art because of hard times. Thanks Laura.

Tenniel's famous illustration of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your cup of tea, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 18 Sep, 7pm, Ventnor Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale of your own, or just sit and listen. Free entry

Sign up for our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

Hala told "The Stork Caliph" at the World Storytelling Cafe via Zoom from her home in Gaza in 2020. It’s a wonderful story, and Hala told it brilliantly, adding her own details and embellishments to make it her own, as all great storytellers do. I recorded a video of myself retelling Hala’s story for the Tell A Child In Gaza’s Tale project. The project was started by David Heathfield and Haneen Khaled Jadallah. It’s still ongoing. You can get involved by watching and sharing the videos – or even better, by retelling a Gazan child’s story yourself. Watch Hala tell the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHdvjjFykiA&list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS&index=10 Watch a video of me retelling Hala’s story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-eJVdgbAM&list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS&index=13 Browse a full playlist of all the project videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj-mcWeMmSZw63V5abQ4fw3JIITI_S_kS Find out more about the project here: https://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb24/tell-a-child-in-gazas-tale (Picture shows a white woman wearing glasses and a headscarf, gesturing towards the camera)

Be careful what you put up your nose. Especially if it’s dust from a box you’ve just been handed by a wizard.

“The Stork Caliph” is a story I learned from a Gazan girl named Hala. I retold it for Tell A Child In Gaza’s Tale.

More info, video and links in Alt Text.

#FolkTales #OralStorytelling

Tenniel's famous illustration of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

#FolkTales, #FairyTales, #legends, true tales, funny tales... if #storytelling is your cup of tea, join Island Storytellers Story Club, Thu 18 Sep, 7pm, Ventnor Library, #IsleOfWight

Tell a tale of your own, or just sit and listen. Free entry

Sign up for our newsletter: mailchi.mp/781efa6dcff3...

This will be excellent

A row of colourful motor scooters parked on a cobbled street. Public domain photo from Wikimedia Commons

Woke up this morning to the sound of angry wasps trapped inside a Morphy Richards hairdryer. Yes, it’s another August bank holiday weekend on the Isle of Wight.

That’s wonderful, congrats!

A white woman in red clothes and hat crouches in front of an audience of adults and children inside a marquee.

Storytelling fun at Chale Show on Saturday.

Photo and hat both courtesy of Sue Bailey.

#LiveStorytelling #IsleOfWight

Stop shady crypto cash flooding our politics 🚨 Nigel Farage’s Reform UK just opened the floodgates to dark money in our politics by becoming the first UK party to accept untraceable crypto donations. That's why I've signed the petition to stop s...

Everyone tracking this? Petition @38degrees.bsky.social

act.38degrees.org.uk/act/stop-sha...?