Hippy Valley
Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Hippy Valley by Shaggy Dog storyteller and author George Murphy is now available in paperback from Fantastic Books Publishing and from Amazon for £4.50.
George says Hebden folks might like to buy it as a Christmas stocking filler. It contains his original stories and songs about round here.
George Murphy is a performance storyteller who began writing and performing comic monologues for adults after his retirement.
People across the North of England (and as far south as Nottingham!) have paid to laugh at George’s comic monologues and songs which he sometimes performed alongside Rod Dimbleby in The Rod and George Show.
George retired from a long and varied career, having served time in an Education Think Tank, done research for BBC Scotland, been lead singer in a rock band, a chorister in G&S productions and built up a rich and varied body of published works for schoolchildren, which you can find in the best-selling folktales for African schoolchildren
When he wanted to write about the recent history of Hebden Bridge and the other towns and villages of Upper Calder, George Murphy decided to use the almost dead genre of the comic monologue. He learned the craft of performance in front of audiences in pubs, libraries, comedy and storytelling clubs and on local radio stations, in particular, the Shaggy Dog storytelling evenings once a month at the Stubbing Wharf. (See HebWeb What's On for details of the next session.)
George has told the HebWeb that he often uses the news and discussion pages of Hebweb for inspiration. In keeping with musical hall tradition, George includes bawdy humour in his act. He hopes he has written tales that all - above the age of 12 - can enjoy and some monologues or songs that a few people might want to learn to perform for themselves.
The 2016 ebook version for Hippy Valley, containing many of George's stories is still available from Pennine Pens! (Amazon Kindle version - Apple iBooks version.)
And to order the 2018 printed version, click here.