Author Kenneth shares tale of boyhood dreams
Perth band The Sandemans will be stepping into the spotlight at a charity music night in Methven.
On Saturday, Bluesky Rocks - a big bash to support Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) - is welcoming music fans to Bluesky Experiences at the country airfield in Methven.
The bill for February 10 includes big hitters Red Pine Timber Co as the evening’s headliners.
Other acts include Longstay, Stop the Rain, Brainglue, Benedictus, Timed Out, Ella England and The Sandemans, who lit up the community stage for the Perth Christmas lights switch-on event last year.
The bands will be playing to a strictly 18+ audience.
BlueSky Rocks opens at 5.30pm on Saturday and the charity music night will also see an action and a big raffle draw.
Transport from Perth to the venue and back again can be part of the ticket deal.
It costs £10 a ticket and £15 to include a seat on the shuttle bus.
●Tickets are available from Concorde in Perth or by calling 01738 840804. A story about a boy who hopes to find sanctuary from school bullies will be discussed by author Kenneth Steven when he appears at Winter Words next week.
The writer based his short story The Ice in a Perthshire setting.
Kenneth will be presenting his latest collection of prose works, Winter Tales at the literary festival at Pitlochry Festival Theatre on February 15 and The Ice is a particularly startling story from the volume.
The Ice was written by Kenneth from a secluded cabin in his mother’s garden in Aberfeldy.
In the story a boy fulfils his dream to spend Christmas alone on an island, accessed only when the nearby loch freezes over.
The 12-year-old comes home from a traumatic time at private school where he has been horribly bullied.
And to his delight, this year the loch is covered by ice and he can walk over to the secret island near his Perthshire home.
“The joy for the boy is the ice has finally come,” explained Steven.
“He’s lost his mother and at school he has been bullied out of his mind. But things start to unravel for him: the sanctuary of the frozen island does not turn out to be so kind.”
The Argyll-based author revealed that he too had spent time at a Perthshire boarding school and the bullying he describes in the story was experienced by him.
“I draw strongly on reality for some sequences,” he told the PA. “Writing it was a cathartic experience.
“Of all the stories I’ve written, I’ve always thought this one would work well if it was dramatised. I think it would make a really good short film.”
The Ice is the ‘lynchpin’ story in Steven’s Winter Tales. The other short stories come from all over the world, describing Russia, America, Scandinavia, a whole plethora of places he has visited over the last 20 years.
“I’m always listening; you pick up snippets, small ideas and they gradually form up as ideas, getting a life of their own,’’ he said.
“I work fast, I have to be in total quiet when I’m writing and in that deep space, I might bang out 1000 words in an hour, all in one go.” Sandemans Kenneth Steven
●Kenneth Steven is at Winter Words next Thursday, at 10am, tickets are £8.50, www. PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com The