issue06 – spring2011

HAY FESTIVALwriters club hayf

estiv

al.o

rg/t

hescr

ibbl

ers

GunshotsTom Scruby, Alex Jones & Rhys Price

Boris rushed down the street, he looked

beyond the wilted birches then spotted the fleeing

motorcycle. He got into his ride, quickly speeding

off in pursuit of the terrorist. He could see him

winding through the crowded vehicles.

Boris followed. He retrieved his P90 from the

footwell, emptying its contents through the

windscreen. Gunshots echoed through the

enclosed street. Then, he noticed the biker go

down, bullets lodged in his spine. Boris smiled.

Job done.

...Notice anything out of the ordinary about this story? Can you spot what’s missing? Answer on the back page.

This issue we’ve taken an alternative, skewed, slightly curved look at the world.

RealitySerena Howard

Ode to WinterLeila Griffiths

Winter comes again,

the earth spins us away from

the sun.

Clouds give us an icing sugar coating,

a frosting with the frost,

snow flakes fall,

slush

to

ice

we slip and slide

but it does look nice

until

lorries jack-knife.

Trains stop.

Bus routes blocked.

Airports packed,

not so pretty any more.

Whiteness that was once so beautiful,

now harsh,

now bleak,

now cold.

Slush

to

ice

to

nothing.

But while it lasted,

it sparkled...

The world, but not as you know it (mental movies you must see)Leila Griffiths

Blair Witch Project

In this weirdly terrifying movie

three college students go

away for a weekend to make a

documentary about the myth of

the Blair Witch. The whole movie

is filmed on camcorders, and

the actors were not always told

what would happen next when

filming, so the film seems horribly

real and terrified audiences when

it was released in 1999. They

interview people in the village,

Birkettsville, where the myth

is based and collect different

accounts of the Blair Witch, a

mysterious hermit who killed

children hundreds of years

ago. The next day they go into

the woods searching for the

hermit’s house, armed with only

a map, a tent and a couple of

camcorders. After spending a

night in the woods they all report

hearing strange things during

the previous night, spooky...

Cue strange objects hanging in

the trees, weird rock formations,

children’s hand-prints

and disappearances.

Coraline

When Coraline and her parents

move to a new house she feels

bored and neglected, even after

making friends with a strange

boy who lives nearby. Exploring

the house Coraline finds a hidden

door to a curious passage.

During the night, tempted to see

what lies at the other end of the

passage she enters it and finds

a freaky parallel world where

everybody has buttons

instead of eyes.

At first this new

world seems so

much better

than her own,

with caring ‘other’

parents and all her

dreams coming true.

Then the Other Mother

invites Coraline to stay in

her world forever, as long

as she sews buttons over

her eyes. Safe to say I was

wary of buttons for weeks

after watching...

Edward Scissorhands

This very freaky film scares me

mostly because there’s a whole

lot of running around not holding

scissors correctly. The narrated

tale tells the story of Edward, a

man created by an old inventor,

who died before finishing him

and left Edward with scissors

instead of hands. One day when

the local Avon representative

calls at the eerie mansion where

Edward has been living alone,

she decides she likes him and

takes him home to stay

with her family. Edward

obviously finds it hard

to adapt to the new

life and environment

that he isn’t used to,

luckily he shows a talent

in cutting hair and

hedges, and wins

everybody’s heart.

But life isn’t always

so sweet...

Donnie Darko

You think Wallace and Gromit

were the first people to see giant

bunnies? Think again... This

film is set in America, during the

presidential election of 1988. A

teenager named Donnie Darko

sleepwalks out of his house one

night, and sees a giant, demonic-

looking rabbit named Frank, who

tells him the world will end in 28

days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12

seconds. To make matters worse

Donnie returns home the next

morning to find that a jet engine

has crashed through his bedroom.

As he tries to figure out why he

survived and tries to deal with

people in his town, like the psycho

school bully, his crazy health

teacher, and a not-so-helpful

self-help guru, Frank continues

to turn up in Donnie’s mind... dun

dun dun!

James and the Giant Peach

This slightly disturbing Roald Dahl

classic begins with James Henry

Trotter becoming an orphan when

his parents are tragically killed

by a rouge rhinoceros. So far so

strange. James is placed in the

care of his two evil aunties: Aunt

Sponge and Aunt Spiker. Soon he

finds himself inside a giant peach

on the Atlantic, getting chased

by 100 sharks with his new best

friends. One thing, no-one ever

questions the fact that they are

giant, terrifying bugs. Oh dear.

The Scrap Yard Rhys Price

The

scrap yard

of the future is

poles apart from

the scrap yard of today.

A scrap yard of the future is the

shop of today. A scrap yard of the future

is littered with Peugeot 206s, Macbooks, maps,

a sense of time, and other useless tat that people no longer have

a use for. There is an area of incineration to remove the worst of our past,

such items as Burberry clothing and a mountain of Red Bull cans as far as the

eye can see. All of it burnt and melted down and formed into an android’s lunch. A petrified

metallic forest of jerky lines and shards of silver shrapnel. Standing upon 3,000,000 hours of effort

but only 1,000 years of engineering greatness. Upon this Everest of refuse, stands a lonely, tired teddy bear.

WORKSHOPSFrom site-specific drama with dANTE ORdIE to paper free science with NNL, thisyear's teen programme is bursting at theseams with variety and opportunity.Rising Stars will focus on the flow of text,words and fictions, while the Universityof Worcester mash up The Apprenticeand Dragon's Den. Agony Aunt KarenDoherty chats friendships, families andlife, and Nominet bring the digital worldto Hay. A taste of Hollywood comes fromEpiphany Productions, plus there's theUPS driving simulator and this is justbetween 11.30am and 3.30pm each day!

MUSICEvenings roll over to our musicsessions with Roland and Cool FossilMusic, so if you want to sample life asa DJ, master some bass basics or turnyour bedroom into a studio these arefor you - more info online athayfestival.org/hf2.

LIVE EVENTSToo many by far to mentionhere, but our teen picks fromacross the 2011 programmehave to include: Brian Cox, Ralph Fiennes,Alyxandra Harvey, Josie Long,Monarchy, DBC Pierre, MegRosoff, Jason Wallace andThe Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

In association with

Check out the full breakdown ofevents at hayfestival.org/hf2 orFacebook our hf2 page.

SCHEDULE

GET INVOLVED01497 822 629hayfestival.org/hf2

THINK BIG

Every day at 4pm UK Youth andO2 will be hosting conversationson issues that matter to you.The question is, how can youmake a difference?

hf2(11)A4 POSTER 4/4/11 14:06 Page 1

Cre

dit

: ww

w.s

avag

eand

gray

.co.

uk

Gregor Samsa has woken up minutes earlier

and discovered that he has transformed into

a bug. Someone has just knocked on his

bedroom door...

... “damn it” he swore to himself as he jumped out

of bed. He suddenly realised who

was at the door. Earlier that week

Samsa had become so frustrated

with his creepie crawlie crisis, that he

had arranged for an expert exterminator to

come and deal with them. In this moment of

madness he gave all his money to this man to

do the job, and now not only was he as skint

as a skinless thing he was about to be

horribly eradicated by his employee.

He decided to take action

immediately, as the man shouted again,

“Gregor? Are you there?” He reached for the end

of his bed to pull himself up. His scaly back curled

up and stretched out pulling the sheet in between

his giant rows of half moon scales, as he forced his

body up to a sitting position on his bare

wooden pop-up bed. “If you’re in there

then shout ‘cause I’m coming in,” the

voice called again from the outside of

Samsa’s rickety driftwood door. “Damn

it!” he swore under his breath, then with

a sudden crash the man walked

in and, with one

look at an unusual

looking Samsa,

walked back out and began

to set his traps.

Kafka ‘The Metamorphosis’continued by Isaac Florence

“the man walked in and, with one look at an unusual looking

Samsa, walked back out and began to

set his traps.”

A Spark Alex Jones

A spark was all it took. It started as a tiny flicker in

the dead darkness, and only lasted for a fly’s breath,

but in its tiny lifetime, it spread and multiplied, moving

in strange angled patterns, lighting up wires, flowing

through nodes, forever growing and multiplying and

creating new sparks that whizzed off down metal

connectors and chips. Soon it became a growing

ball of electrical light, growing ever faster, powering

fans and spinning discs. It finally expands to its full

extent, about the size of a planet, completely covered

in circuitry, switches constantly flipping, calming blue

lights pulsing gently, the groans and creaks of discs,

and at last, as the sea of technology powered fully,

a great chord rings out across the world.

Floating on this expanse of circuitry, a lone

island, out of place in its crackly, flimsy texture.

Exclamations, fuzzy photographs and great jumbles

of small print covered the surface of the newspaper

island, unreadable in the chaos. The currents of

electricity diffuse themselves on the shores of the

paper land-mass.

Further away from this

static-charged coast, over the

great creases of the landscape,

lie whole fields, silvery and shimmering, like fish

scales. A little closer up, and it is clear that these

fields are covered completely by sharp, shiny

needles. Hemmed by thimble hedgerows, these vast

areas of land dance and sway in the wind, clinking

against each other gently, all held in place by a tiny

thread poking out of the paper ground.

Pulling back from the fields and moving over

inland to the very centre of the island, a very different

picture unfolds. A vast jungle, seemingly made out

of paper, but without the overload of information

covering the ground. The tree tops like screwed

up pieces of paper with shredded strands hanging

down like vines.

Gigantic felt-tips and Sharpies hold the canopy of

paper aloft while small biros line the edges of the spilt

coffee lakes. Pencil shaving foliage curls at the base

of the pen-trees, while pencil stubs dart in amongst

the sharpeners, dipping inside, not to collect nectar,

but to sharpen themselves – at once bringing them

closer to death, but also arming themselves.

“Pencil shaving foliage curls at the

base of the pen-trees, while pencil stubs dart in amongst the sharpeners...”

As soon as you walk in, the citrus smell hits you.

It seems to bounce off the bright green walls and

floors, both bumpy with ripe fruit, and as it lingers

into your nose. You spot the desk in front of you and

realise it’s carved from the finest lime trees, which

makes the room around more unusual and more

abstract than anything you’ve ever seen.

This is no ordinary hotel, and as you spot the green

bar covered in green citrus wallpaper, and the lime

juice cocktails and cordials and limeades, you know

that even Willy Wonka would stare in amazement at

this wonderland. On the desk in front of you, you spy

a beautiful glass vase, filled with the purest lime juice

and sweet-smelling futuristic-looking green flowers.

The curtains are covered in the green fruit, in fact, the

only thing not green is the lonely receptionist, staring

down at her green-tinted lime-scented papers and

fiddling with the florescent telephone.

The Manager waddles in, hardly taking notice of

you, but glaring at something through his emerald

steel-rimmed glasses. He picks it up and stares at it

like it is something that does not belong to this world.

It is a simple red button, yet he continues to glare...

Make your own...3D anaglyph glasses

1) First, carefully cut out the frames included.

2) You will now need three pieces of coloured

cellophane. You could pick this up from a local

craft store, but that’s not as much fun (or as tasty)

as re-using Quality Street wrappers You will need

1 red (Mmmm! Strawberry Delight) wrapper and

2 blue (Coconut Eclair – delicious!) wrappers

(the colour is not strong enough with just one).

You will find the cellophane is clearer at the centre,

try to smooth out the wrinkles.

3) Carefully glue the cellophane wrappers into

place, making sure they cover the eyeholes of the

glasses. Push the wrappers firmly into place and

try to get as many of the wrinkles out as possible.

4) Patience! We’re almost there...

5) Trim the excess cellophane to avoid looking too

crazy. Careful not to cut into your glasses – or

your fingers!

6) Now’s your chance to decorate your glasses – add

crazy colours and glitter, or stay classy and keep

it simple.

7) Finally glue the arms of the glasses to the frame

and you’ve got yourself your very own pair of

3D anaglyph glasses. Stick them on and explore!

The Hotel of LimesRowan Pritchard

This magazine has been made possible through the generous support and creativity of writers

Jenny Valentine, Sam Llewelyn and Judith Wills. Paul Thomas of bwa designed this awesome

magazine. Thanks also to Maggie Robertson, Webster Wickham, Finn Beales, Jesse Ingham,

the good people at Powys County Council and all at Hay Festival.

Sophie Lording and Jo Rodell-Jones Hay Festivalthescribblers@hayfestival.org

The Scribblers go interactive for issue 07 – pick up your issue and get involved at the festival.

Are you a secret scribbler, closet novelist or part-time poet?

Every week The Scribblers meet up, chat,

consume an inordinate amount of biscuits, and

write. So if you’re at secondary school and can

get to the Hay Festival office after school on a

Wednesday, pop by and say hello.*

We produce a termly magazine (right through

from its editorial to its design and its distribution)

that explores and invesigates things we love.

* If Wednesdays are tricky, we’re also on the

look-out for remote correspondents, so get in

touch with ideas, recipes, lost property, etc.

We’d love to hear from you.

HAY FESTIVALwriters club– Coming up...

– Contributors

hayfestival.org/thescribblers Hay Festival of Literature & the Arts LtdThe Drill Hall, 25 Lion St, Hay on Wye, HR3 5ADRegistered in England & Wales Registration number 2258780

bwa-design.co.uk

Gunsh

ots

Ans

wer

: a