Winner of Folkestone StoryMap short story award!

Congratulations to long-term Folkestone resident Louise Peregrina who has scooped Folkestone StoryMap‘s short story competition winning £100 for her story Time and Motion.

The free to enter competition was open over the summer for short stories inspired by one of Folkestone’s most famous writers, HG Wells.

Time and Motion will now be recorded by an actor and join the six other stories located in the Lower Leas Coastal Park which are all accessible via QR codes. 

Her story was partly inspired by her love of local history and the fact that HG Wells used to refer to Folkestone’s second now defunct funicular lift near his Spade House home as ‘his moving staircase’.  

Louise, a grandmother of seven, was born in Folkestone and used to live opposite a library, often devouring a book a night and visiting the library by day in search of new books.  It was only after retiring from a career in education that she’s been able to dedicate more time to her writing. 

Her first children’s novel Gramps and the Shield Bugs is published 28 September. You can find out more about Louise a louiseperegrina.com.

Short Story Competition: Win £100!

Could you write the next addition to the Folkestone StoryMap? We are looking for a short story to add to our popular story trail in Folkestone. The story needs to have some connection to H G Wells, who lived in Sandgate at the turn of the 20th century.
 
H G Wells was a prolific writer and came to Folkestone for the sea air. He liked it so much he had a mansion built on Radnor Cliff, called Spade House, which is now a nursing home. While the house was being built he lived in two other houses on the same road. 
 
While in Folkestone Wells wrote a great deal. The Sea Lady and Kipps both feature Sandgate and Folkestone.
We would like to extend Folkestone StoryMap to Radnor Cliff by adding a new short story written by a writer with a strong connection to Folkestone. You don’t need to live here to qualify – perhaps you went to school in the area, or holidayed here regularly as a child?
Your story needs to be between 500 and 2,000 words. The winning story will be read by an actor and accessed via a QR code on Radnor Cliff and our Folkestone StoryMap website.
Entry is free and open to people of all ages living in the town or district, or with a strong link to the town. Your stories need to have some connection to H G Wells and be geographically set in and around Radnor Cliff. It can be set in any period of time – past, present and future.
You have plenty of time to write your story – the deadline is July 9, 2022. 
Submit your entry here. Please read the Terms and Conditions below before you submit.

Terms and Conditions

  1. Closing date for receipt of all entries is at midday on July 9, 2022.
  2. Stories must be between 500 to 2,000 words excluding the title.
  3. The competition is free to enter and is open to anyone of any age who has a strong connection to the district. This includes anyone who lives in Folkestone and Hythe district, or who used to live in the district, or whose family are from the district, or who works in the district, or regularly used to/currently holidays in the district.
  4. Entries are online only.
  5. All entries should be in English.
  6. Online entries should be submitted via the online entry page of the website: https://forms.gle/7htayckTn37sLvoj7. All online entries will be acknowledged by an automated email. Online entries should be in a PDF and should be no larger than 10MB. We also accept audio files though please accompany it with a PDF document.
  7. Please format documents in 12 point Arial and double space with page numbers and the word count and title of the story at the top of each page.
  8. If you are over 18: Entries will be read and judged anonymously; entrants’ names and contact details should only appear on the entry form and not anywhere on their stories/manuscripts. The stories/manuscripts must be free of all personal information about the author.
  9. If you are under 18: Please put your name on the first page under the title.
  10. We’re looking for original stories peppered with lots of humour. Your story can be of any genre but strictly no obscene or violent content. It can be set in any period of time and must be set in Folkestone and mention the Coastal Park.
  11. Also consider your audience. The Coastal Park attracts thousands of families with young children. So though you don’t need to write your story for children, please think about use of language and suitability of content, as well as how well your story lends itself to being performed/read out by an actor.
  12. You can enter no more than two stories.
  13. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been previously published, in print or online, or broadcast or won a prize in another writing competition.  Any entry found to have been plagiarised will be disqualified.
  14. If your entry has been long-listed or short-listed in other competitions, and provided it has not won a prize or been published, then it is eligible for Folkestone StoryMap.
  15. Simultaneous submissions are welcome but please let us know if a story is to be published elsewhere or has won a prize in another writing competition as this will preclude you from winning prizes in the Folkestone StoryMap competition.
  16. All entries will be read by a carefully selected group of experienced readers who will select at least seven winning stories. The judges’ decision is final and no individual correspondence will be entered into.
  17. We will award each of the winners a cash prize, amount TBC.
  18. Authors will retain copyright on their work.
Spade House, former home of H G Wells. Photo by Paul Ryan

Tickets now on sale!

Roll up, roll up! Tickets are now on sale for all the Faversham Fringe shows. Pop over to favershamfringe.co.uk/whats-on/

With 30 fantastic shows to amuse, entertain and delight, there’s something for everyone – comedy, theatre, improv, workshops, poetry, hypnotism and family shows – all priced at just £5 a ticket.

Last change to enter Faversham Fringe 2021!

You’ve got until midnight this coming Sunday (13th) to enter a show into this year’s Faversham Fringe-lite. Get to it!
 
Full details and application form below, but feel free to ask us questions:

Shangri La

Janet & Steve live in Folkestone in the imposing house known as Shangri La, which overlooks the harbour. Rumours abound about the building’s previous residents, which are finally laid to rest in this memory. Less restful are the spirits Janet’s late father was able to contact with the help of his spirit guide…

Pop over to the Folkestone StoryMap website to read more stories and find out all about the project: Folkestone StoryMap: Your Stories project.

Faversham Fringe returns!

We are very, nay extremely, pleased to announce that we will be running a mini version of our festival in 2021, called Faversham Fringe-lite. Running over the last weekend of July (30th, 31st and August 1st), it will feature as many Faversham Fringe favourites as we can squeeze into the venue.

We’ll be taking over What Now?! at Baltic House, the bar and comedy venue on Standard Quay. It’s a fab little place, with lots of local drinks to sup and upstairs is a neat little room with a stage, lighting and sound. Perfect for fringe shows.

What Now?! at Baltic House, this year’s one and only venue.

We’re programming the shows now, and we hope to unveil the programme by the end of June at the latest. There will be a mixture of Faversham Fringe favourites and some new faces, and maybe even some surprise guests…

Keep an eye on the Faversham Fringe website and social media pages for further announcements. You can find the festival on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

Sea Rangers

Long-time Folkestone resident, Gwen shares her memories of being in the Sea Rangers in WWII. With a boat from Hythe Canal and a crew with only one member who could swim – Gwen herself – it was inevitable that their launch from Folkestone Harbour might not go to plan…

Pop over to the Folkestone StoryMap website to read more stories and find out all about the project: Folkestone StoryMap: Your Stories project.

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