Hope Fades for the Hostages – 3am Reading at The Bluecoat

This was a lovely night of readings from Ailsa Cox with her story that was commissioned for the anthology, Hope Fades for the Hostages. Told in three distinctive voices (student readers were brought in to give this sense on the night) it considers the moment of 3am for people in other places. I found that really intriguing. 3am here, that old and lonely none-time when you somehow feel the world is quiet, and yet are somehow more aware of the rest of the world.

Alongside a beautiful stage which my photographs don’t do justice (a hung crescent moon and stars) students read poetry and fiction, written themselves or by old favourites. I read a tiny extract from Behind all the Closed Doors (Red Room) which I hoped was fitting, as it’s about the moment a young boy’s mother dies in the night.

The wind raged outside, perfectly (I thought) and we ended on a suitably biblical note. All in all, really good.

Here’s a great review of Ailsa’s collection The Real Louise

Plus a link to one of Ailsa’s stories  -  No Problemo