A Festive Prose Café

Taffy Thomas
The Story Telling Laureate

Taffy Thomas is the very first Story Telling Laureate; an honour bestowed on him by The Queen.
Taffy grew up in Yeovil and is an ‘Old Yeovilian’.

It is said that he carries a library of stories in his head all waiting to be re-told.  Come along and hear him tell festive tales and start the winter off in a traditional way.

We are the YCAA and it’s our Festive Prose Café, of course there will be mince pies!

Tickets in advance £5.00 from the Octagon Theatre Box Office,
Tel: 01935 422884. or at the door.
Nibbles and Bar.

We welcome our regular audience and all new-comers for this very special event.

A Prose Café

2010 YCAA and Waterstone’s

Man Booker Debate

Six panellists, including Tamasin Day-Lewis, will read the short-listed books for this year’s Man Booker Prize. See if you can spot the winner.  Audience participation is encouraged at this light-hearted event. It is advisable to book early as this is an extremely popular event.

Tickets in advance £5.00 from the Octagon Theatre Box Office, Tel: 01935 422884. or at the door. Nibbles and Bar.

Writer and poet James Crowden is a champion of all things pertaining to the west country. We welcome him to our Literary Somerset Prose Café. James is well known for his books on cider and the ways of Somerset, but his most recent book is a fantastic encyclopaedia of all the links between literature and Somerset.

Literary Somerset explores the literary highways and byways of Somerset. In so doing James has produced an intellectual road map of Somerset from Anglo-Saxon times up to the present day. His book reveals more than 350 writers: early chroniclers and opium addicted Romantic poets, philosophers, pirates and playwrights, eccentric clergymen, diarists, herbalists, novelists and historians, travellers, chefs and scientists - from Gildas to John Cleese, Fay Weldon and Terry Pratchett.

Many of these literary connections are well known: TS Eliot and East Coker, Wordsworth and Coleridge in the Quantocks; but did you know that Thomas Hardy once lived in Yeovil; or that John Steinbeck lived near Bruton to research the Arthurian legends; or that the weird electrical experiments of Andrew Crosse at Fyne Court inspired Frankenstein? Did you know that Cheddar Gorge inspired Lord of the Rings?

All our Café events are sponsored by the YCAA so the full price for a ticket is only £5, obtainable from the Octagon Theatre box office or at the door on the night. There is a bar available where wine or juice can be purchased to accompany the nibbles provided at each table.

We welcome our regulars and all new-comers to our Prose Cafés.

THE International 2010 YEOVIL LITERARY PRIZE is open for

ONLINE and POSTAL ENTRIES!

OPPORTUNITIES FOR NOVELISTS, POETS

 AND SHORT STORY WRITERS

Novelists, do you find it hard to discover a prize with a category for you? Look no further. The YEOVIL LITERARY PRIZE is open to poets and short story writers as well as novelists, with the top prize for the first three chapters and a synopsis being £1000.

The Yeovil Literary Prize can be entered online or by post.  Prizes are significant, the judges are all professional writers.

Several winning entrants have gone on to success!

For details see the website or write to:

Yeovil Literary Prize, The Octagon Theatre,

Hendford, Yeovil, BA20 1UX, and get writing!

Closing date is 31 May 2010.

Henrietta will tell us how Ragged Bears Publishing produce such well loved children’s books. Come along to our candle-lit café to hear about the world of publishing and what stimulates a child’s imagination and learning. 

Join in with a reasonably priced glass of wine or juice available at our bar whilst enjoying nibbles and listening to someone who will reveal the secrets of publishing to all aspiring writers, illustrators, avid readers and parents.

All our Café events are sponsored by the YCAA so the full price for a ticket is £4.

We welcome our regulars and all new-comers to our Prose Café.

Reporting Crime : Writing Crime

Does Crime pay?  Come along and be enlightened by Simon Hall, the BBC Spotlight crime reporter who is also a successful crime writer.  The YCAA has pleasure in sponsoring this candlelit café event which is guaranteed to put a spring in your step or maybe make you look over your shoulder! 

Join in with a reasonably priced glass of wine or juice available at our bar whilst enjoying nibbles and listening to someone who will reveal the secrets of writing crime.

All our Café events are sponsored by the YCAA so the full price for a ticket is £4.

We welcome our regulars and all new-comers to our Prose Cafés

Pictures from the Crime Café with Simon Hall

Alyson Hallett grew up in Street, Somerset. Her childhood was infused with the shoe factory, the view of Glastonbury Tor in the distance and the lattice of rhynes that criss-crossed the Levels. Did this influence her poetry?

She has been heard on Radio 4 recounting her work on the migration of stones.  Fascinating poetry.

Come along on what could be a cold wintry evening and be warmed by her words and candlelight. 

All our Café events are sponsored by the YCAA so the full price for a ticket is £4. There is a bar available where wine or juice can be purchased to accompany the nibbles provided at each table.

We welcome our regulars and all new-comers to our Prose Cafés.

The YCAA goes Christmas crackers! Come along and be surprised by readings with compère Bonny Sartin, and music by Sam Armitstead. What do you expect to find when you pull a Christmas Cracker? Find out whilst eating mince pies by a Christmas tree at a candlelit café in The Johnson Studio at The Octagon Theatre, Hendford, Yeovil.
All our Café events are sponsored by the YCAA so the full price for a ticket is £4. There is a bar available where wine or juice can be purchased to accompany the nibbles provided at each table. The fun and laughter of the Christmas season must start here. We welcome our regulars and all new-comers to our Prose Cafés.

Download Christmas Café Poster