Thanks to everyone who braved the slush to make it to last night’s True Stories Told Live at The Compass, which was our best-attended yet. It was so well-attended, in fact, that the listening throng spilled out on to the landing. They were treated to former army officer Lance Gerrard-Wright who told the story of how a date with a Bosnian interpreter led him into a Mexican stand-off and almost being arrested as a spy. Then there was Delia Ryan who came along to a previous event and felt like having a go. She described what it’s like to find out how unsuitable you are for the job of cabin crew rather late in the day. Our musical turn was the sainted MJ Hibbett who described how he played a gig in New York, culminating in a song enigmatically called “I Played A Gig In New York”. After the interval – with a brief pit stop for our compere Kerry Shale to relate what it’s like to voice a hamburger commercial for the Middle  Eastern market – Jude Rogers talked about a Welsh male voice choir, her brother and Robert Plant. We finished with Danny Brainin discussing the moral issues of dining out in a former Nazi stronghold in Austria. Thanks to all. Our next ‘function’ is on February 10th at the same place. Kerry thinks our storytellers should be given a less clunky name. I favour ‘turns’. Over to you if you’ve got any ideas.

We seem to have more demand than we can accommodate for next Wednesday’s True Stories. If you’ve had an email reply saying that you’re on the list, please make sure you’re there by 7.15. Otherwise please make sure you’re registered on the mailing list (right) to get details of our February event. Sorry if you couldn’t get in to this one.

Kate Bland, Kerry Shale and I met last night to talk about future TSTL’s. Up to now we’ve been asking people we happened to know but we want to cast our net wider all the time. Rather than people just waiting to be invited we wouldn’t mind if they put themselves forward.

Everybody’s got a story in them. Possibly a story or three. The danger is when you think you have more than three. I volunteered to do the first one at the first event back in September, thinking it would be easy to come up with something. I found it more difficult than that. I had to discard my first idea and my second, largely because when I went for a walk in the park and said them to myself they didn’t have the shape of a story that would work spoken out loud. They all relied on some piece of information that was difficult to introduce. Either that or you couldn’t tell them without giving the punchline away. They didn’t trip off the tongue. I finally decided on one about how I got a suit made because I had told it to some people at dinner parties and I could tell it held their attention, largely because it had a plot twist three-quarters of the way through.

Talking to Kate and Kerry we concluded that the stories that an audience can hold in their head have beginnings, middles and endings. The ending is the hardest bit. Obviously it helps if you’ve got the kind of delivery that people warm to but the acid test is, have you told them the kind of story that they will then go off and tell somebody else? It’s not as easy as you think but it’s not impossible either. If you think you’ve got a story that you’d like to tell at a future TSTL event, please get in touch and we’ll talk about it. Our rules are: it has to be true, it must be told without notes and it can’t be any longer than 12 minutes.

Our next event is on Wednesday evening at The Compass. We’l be starting at 7.30 and finishing no later than 9.30. If you’ve responded to the newsletter and asked to come that’s fine. We don’t have tickets but we just need to control numbers because we only have a small room. We don’t reveal who’s talking before the night because we don’t have to and in any case the whole idea of “billing” seems inappropriate. All stories are created equal after all. If you want to know more get in touch via truestoriestoldlive@googlemail.com.

Patrick Hennessey, Chris Neill, Paul Burke, Deborah Levy, Kerry Shale and Thomas Walsh.

Our second event took place last night at The Compass. Thanks to everyone who came to hear a terrific set of storytellers.

Paul Burke attended the previous TSTL and felt he ought to have a go himself. He began the evening with a cautionary tale of the dangers of being less than completely candid with one’s wife, even when you have nothing significant to hide. This caused sympathetic sucking of air through teeth from all the husbands in the room. Paul works in advertising and his latest novel is “Father Frank”. He was followed by author, actress and playwright Deborah Levy with one about the laxative effects of those exotic syrups sold in upmarket coffee shops. This found its mark among those people in the room who have known the unique terror of looking for a lavatory in south Kensington early in the morning. You can find out more about Deborah here. The first half was closed out in fine style by the estimable Thomas Walsh and his Pugwash colleagues who performed two songs, “It’s Nice To be Nice” from his new compilation album and, for the particular benefit of Mark Ellen, The Duckworth Lewis Method’s “The Age Of Revolution”.

When I first asked Patrick Hennessey to come and tell a story I didn’t twig the date was Remembrance Day. A former Guards officer (now a law student) and the author of “The Junior Officers Reading Club”, Patrick talked movingly and hilariously about Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren “Daz” Chant. Explaining the unique relationship between an untried officer and a hugely experienced NCO, Patrick said “we called each other sir but only one of us meant it and it wasn’t him.” Darren Chant was killed last week along with four other British soldiers. Following this, Chris Neill rightly decided that what we all needed was a good story about a dinner party, the gender properties of different food stuffs and the guest who rang up in the middle of the night to complain. He was hilarious. You can read his blog here.

Kerry Shale MC-ed, Kate Bland of Just Radio got it all down on whatever they use nowadays instead of tape and quite a few people were still enjoying the food and drink at The Compass when I came back ages later to get the iPod I’d left behind. Thanks to everyone who came and contributed, whether they spoke or sat and listened. Our next event is at the same place on December 2nd. Please get in touch via truestoriestoldlive@googlemail.com if you want to know more.