About this event
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark.
Brandy for the Parson, and 'baccy for the Clerk.
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy –
So watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
For periods of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, parts of the south east of England were almost lawless, with contraband travelling unchecked in long trains of horses and armed men from the coast towards London. In this set of smuggling tales and ballads, storyteller Alastair K Daniel contrasts the romantic mythology of smuggling with the brutal reality of a violent trade – there are gun battles, street fights, deception, betrayal, and a spectral encounter with a ghostly revenue officer along the way.
Audience Feedback:
"Absolutely excellent"
"Music and audience participation were perfectly judged"
“The best evening – smuggling tales galore”
Alastair K. Daniel is a performance storyteller, researcher, writer and storytelling consultant working in the UK and abroad. Following twelve years touring schools in the UK and the Low Countries with The Story Tent, in 2010 Alastair made the move from professional storytelling to academia. In the summer of 2022, Alastair ended his term as Principal Lecturer in Primary English at the University of Roehampton to focus on storytelling once more, and develop his work as an independent scholar.
