A little bit of musical relief for you all. After months of Zoom singing, and before the second Lockdown, members of the Wonderful Beast Singers thankfully gather in a Suffolk cowshed as darkness falls, to sing together whilst a fire crackles, bats swoop and circle, and Rob Gildon coaxes the group into a more musical rendition of ‘Steal Away’.

Coming up on December 18th, a socially distanced  outdoor Christmas Sing in the same cowshed at 3.00pm. For more details contact [email protected] . Newcomers welcome. 

The Wonderful Beast Singers have been rehearsing in a garden with an audience of neighbouring cows - and it looks like they approve. Have a listen below...

Since our last entry about Lockdown Tales we have reached over forty stories and poems! They include the Indian tale 'A Drum' told by Anusha Subramanyam, with fabulous drumming by Prathap Ramachandra, and there's more music from opera singer Rob Gildon in the Yiddish story, 'Two Tunes for Three Hundred Rubles', in which he sings the haunting folk melodies that were the undoing of the protagonist.  Montserrat Roig de Puig delights us with a story she heard from her grandmother, 'The Vain Little Mouse', whose reprise 'I don't know, I don't know!' has become a Wonderful Beast household catchphrase, while  Martina Schwarz can be heard singing like a bee in the lesser-known but enlightening tale by the Brothers Grimm, 'The Queen Bee'. On Thursday, Morven Macbeth tells Switch on the Night, a story of a child conquering their fear of the dark.
 
There are only a few days to go before the closing date of The Quangle Wangle Competition on 31 August. Don’t let a young family member or friend miss out! Their art work will be displayed in an online gallery on our website and first prize is a gorgeous hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse, awarded by the Aldeburgh Bookshop.

Wonderful Beast and The Association for Suffolk Museums hosted the launch of 'I Am a Woodwose' and its involvement in the production of The Last Woodwose, in the historic Saxmundham Market Hall on Thursday 6th June.

Teachers from our eight schools, staff and volunteers from the local museums and churches involved (Saxmundham, Framlingham, Orford and Halesworth) joined Gary Battell (Forestry Advisor for Suffolk County Council), woodwose experts Matt Salusbury and Pete Jennings (both publishing books on the subject) and many of our loyal supporters came together to share in the anticipation and excitement of this ambitious and unusual outreach project.
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Actor Sally Ann Burnett treated us to a snippet of the play and brought the woodwose to life, and Alys Kihl invited everyone to join in singing Trees Grow Tall, Deep in the Forest, creating a fabulous atmosphere and stirring excitement all round.