Spooky stories

The Babe Magnet and I just spent a special  two days in York. I love this city with its ancient walls, the minster and the river.  We did some Christmas shopping  - how did it get to November? - and  on Thursday night we went to a production of The Woman in  Black  at the Theatre Royal.

Have you read  The Woman in Black? Or seen the film?  I've done both - and I couldn't begin to think of how someone could produce a stage performance of the book - like the film - but with only 2 actors!   I also didn't think that, having read the book and seen the film, it could scare me any more.

I was wrong. What a production. And it was all the more fascinating because it showed  the real power of the imagination in a way that  all the special effects/horror films can never create.  A bleak, almost bare stage, occasional light effects or sounds. . . .   2 men who changed costumes/characters with a different accent or a change of jacket. We were there on the night that a party of school children came to the theater. They must regularly see real horror films or video games - but  when the play worked on their imaginations they were more scared by what they couldn't see  than  what they could.

It was a real way of showing how powerful our imaginations are - which made me think of when people read my books and what are really just words on the page build up pictures in their thoughts and they grow stronger and clearer so that the story really takes off.  And probably no one quite see exactly the same thing whoever reads those words.  Isn't the imagination amazing?

It was also a great way of showing that there is no one way to tell a story - those 3 versions  of the original book have been so varied, different. But each one tells the story their way  - bringing it to life in their own special way.

We had a great night - and the walk back  through the dark, winding, cobbled streets of York had an extra thrill  as we looked at any dark figure of shadowy corner with a new and rather nervous  attitude.