Phillip Jeays, Paul Currie, Meg Rosoff, John Knepler and Richard Jobson.

Paul Currie, an engineer from Christchurch in New Zealand, has only been in Britain for a few months but he’s already told the story of his experiences in last year’s earthquake at True Stories Told Live in Brighton and we were glad to have him tell it in London as well.

Sasha Hails told the story of having to get urgent medical assistance for her handicapped 14-year-old brother one night in Paris. This is probably not the first time that somebody has used True Stories as a way to say thank-you to someone they’ve never seen since.

Our musician Philip Jeays had a story which was also based in France. In Arles, in fact, where he went as young man hoping he would be magically transformed into a painter. What he discovered was the cross-over between the snack business and the sex trade in that part of the world.

Architect John Knepler talked about his quest to find out exactly what happened to his uncle who was stranded in Austria during the war. Apparently Austrian sloppiness could often be relied on to redeem German bureaucracy during that dark time.

And finally punk singer turned film director Richard Jobson described how he persuaded Lou Reed to allow him to use one of his songs on a film soundtrack by calling in a very, very old debt.

If you’d like to come to our True Stories Told Live evening at the First Direct Dialogue Festival on November 5th, which is at the Earl of Portobello in Notting Hill, you can book your free tickets here.

And if you think you’d like to tell a story at a future event please get in touch via mail@truestoriestoldlive.com