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...

Inspired by all the brilliant children's entries, our Quangle Wangle's Hat reader and competition judge Julia Blackburn couldn't resist getting her paintbox out too - and even her (grown-up!) son Martin has put forward his own artistic interpretation. Here are their paintings. There's something rather William Blake-esque about Martin's - would be right at home in the Book of Urizen!

We had so many fantastic entries to our Quangle Wangle's Hat Competition - all of which you'll be able to see on our upcoming gallery page, so watch this space, and a huge thank you to everyone who entered. After much careful deliberation from our lovely judge, author Julia Blackburn (who also read The Quangle Wangle's Hat poem for Lockdown Tales), we're delighted to announce the winner as Alice Reeves, aged 8, with her 'Ogglegog'. Isn't he marvellous? Alice wins a lovely hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse, kindly awarded by The Aldeburgh Bookshop. Thanks to Julia, John & Mary James at the bookshop and of course, all our fabulous entrants!

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.

Inspired by Julia Blackburn’s rendition of The Quangle Wangle’s Hat, here is an exciting opportunity for children to create an image of that crazy Edward Lear hat, and to add an even crazier animal or creature inspired by the famous poem.

We want as many children to take part as possible so share far and wide with everyone you know between the ages of 5 and 11!

First prize is a gorgeous hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse (ed. Louise Guinness) will be awarded by the Aldeburgh Bookshop. For more details and to find out how to enter, CLICK HERE!

​HURRAH!  We have now reached our 30th podcast episode, and it comes in the form of local actor Ann Bryson giving her brilliantly funny version of The Swineherd by Hans Christian Andersen. This marks an amazing three hours of continuous storytelling now accumulated, and Ann's reading has been preceded over the last two months by a fantastic variety of stories, which continue to increase twice a week, with new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We're looking forward to sharing more with you over the coming months, with many more performers lined up to record Spanish, German, Yiddish, Scottish and Indian tales as Lockdown Tales becomes increasingly international. We found out just the other day that we have over 200 listeners in Hong Kong!

We welcome you all and would love to hear from listeners anytime, either by using the hashtag #LockdownTales on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, or by getting in touch with us directly. 

Alongside our fabulous podcast series, Stories from the Archives, which has been entertaining listeners for the past few months, we wanted to do something more for our lovely audiences during these strange times. So, since Lockdown came into force, we have been developing Lockdown Tales.

​This project is a series of home-recorded stories and poems from actors and authors, combined with fun and imaginative activities for isolated children and their families during these difficult times. Children’s stories, folk and fairy tales, contemporary and a bit of Shakespeare are all in the melting pot, brought to life by voices new and familiar, from young Suffolk talents to seasoned stage, TV and film actors, as well as children’s books read by their authors. We launch next week, hoping you enjoy them and that they provide a little communal escapism for families separated from those they love.