Lorna Easterbrook
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Jackanory

In the summer of 1975, the BBC TV children's programme Jackanory ran a writing competition. Fifteen thousand entries were received, and my story - about the retailers HHH Todd & Co and what happened when they ran out of their bestselling product - was one of the winners.

The winning stories and poems were broadcast during one week in December 1975. My story was read by Kenneth Williams.

It was very exciting. But with no VCR at home, no recording was made - just a very poor quality sound recording on a cassette tape straight from the TV set. (Illegally. Although the cassette police never found out.)

I remember it though: Kenneth Williams sits in the back of a Rolls Royce. An ornate telephone rings, he answers, and then starts telling the story.

Years later, a boyfriend* contacted the BBC's archives to see if a copy could be obtained, but the answer was that those tapes had long been recorded over, as was common at the time. It was kind of him though - perhaps the kindest thing he ever did for me, given that this same boyfriend also thought the best birthday present he could possibly buy me was an unasked-for-and-not-needed laundry basket.

Sadly, not one big enough in which to hide the corpse ...


*not the one who used to sing in his sleep. I know: admitting to at least two boyfriends. I've led a shocking life.


One of the really great things about this competition was that everyone at Jackanory with whom I had contact, and the BBC more widely, treated us properly as contributors. So, we were paid a fee for the BBC's right to broadcast the story. Mine took 4 minutes to tell and I received £7.50, which felt like a lot of money to me (context: admittedly, my level of pocket money was on the lean side, but I got 60 pence a month then; and yes, I can see you at the back, playing an imaginary miniature violin in pretend sympathy ...).

As well as the fee, I got 3 books (see above), a £2 book token (no idea now what I bought, sadly), and a signed bookmark. And in April 1976 my story was included in the annual Puffin Books exhibition in London organised by Kaye Webb, who'd been one of the judges. I didn't know it at the time, but one of the other Jackanory judges was a writer called H.E. Todd. I always hoped he liked the sound of the business his close 'relative' ran.

At the time, writing stories was simply my norm. It's lovely to look back at it now. In all truth, if it's the most success I ever have with any of my fiction, it will be more than enough.

Anyway, here is the story: this is one of the original versions, with my own illustrations. Sorry it's not as legible as it might be and, although it doesn't say 'copyright Lorna Easterbrook' all over it, I''ll take it as read that you all get that. I can't imagine you're the sort who'd nick an 11 year old's story :-) . It's also got some missing grammar and the odd spelling mistake, and two words are transposed (see if you can find them! sadly, no prize ...), but as this was pre-Tippex in my house it's not too bad for an 11 year old typing on a very old typewriter. I'll aim to type up - on a slightly more modern laptop pc - a 'good version' at some point (for 'at some point', read 'in the next decade') ...
In the meantime, sorry you'll have to rotate this copy (really sorry). If you're not sure what to do, when you open the story, look at the small icons in the top right hand corner of the screen and click on the one furthest to the right (it looks like a double arrow, or a chevron), and then click on the option to rotate the document clockwise. Or you could stand sideways.



© Lorna Easterbrook 2016-2020  All Rights Reserved
Top image: Front cover for 'Book of Nonsense' made by Lorna: leather and fabric on leather (with apologies to vegan readers)

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  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
    • Novels
    • Flash Fiction
    • Jackanory
    • Museum Girl
    • St Ives
    • Dr Dog
  • Storytelling
    • Daisies
    • Beige
  • Consultancy
  • Photo films
  • Contact