Recognitions | Victoria Louise Bacon

Past events and productions

'Victoria has hosted three very successful 'In Conversation With ...' evenings at the Fisher Theatre; the first was on 2nd May, an interview / discussion with author Tom Parfitt about his journey across the North Caucasus region; followed by a book signing of his book 'High Caucasus.'

On 25th July, professional harpist Zoe Anderton joined Victoria in a lovely evening of discussion about the history of the harp, her journey to becoming a professional and - of course - lots of music! Home (zoeanderton.co.uk) - we are very pleased that Zoe will be accompanying the Castle Singers at their Christmas Concert on Saturday 21st December, in Bungay. Details to follow!

And on 21st September Victoria spoke to double amputee Duncan Slater - who suffered life-changing injuries in 2009 as a member of the RAF Regiment in Afghanistan. In Victoria's words 'I was so proud to sit on the stage with Duncan as he spoke about his amazing achievements since receiving prosthetic legs - including being the only amputee ever to have achieved the Marathon des Sables (six marathons in five days in the Moroccan Sahara desert!) In spite of his strength and bravery, Duncan is immensely humble; he spoke too of the funds he has raised for charity - military charities and also of his work, with me, supporting child amputees in Africa and India.'

William performed on the Saturday evening in front of around 120 people with 'WillPower' - he was the singer and drummer, accompanied by pianist Will Fergusson and cellist Will Bass. They performed a collection of folk related songs and poems, including works by Benjamin Britten, Bartok and Bob Dylan!

Both William and Victoria, with Artistic Fields, supported the new Bungay Folk Festival, which took place between 7th and 8th September, and was a huge success.

Victoria ran a 'Story-telling Workshop' at Bungay Library for children, drawing from some of the true wartime recollections in her (children's) book 'Their Second World War', debating how difficult stories (about complex life events such as War) are written to ensure history is preserved in a correct way, and how/if story-telling can ease the pain of these stories, whilst preserving the truth.

William wrote all the music and the words for 'The Journey' which was a community production for the Bungay Black Shuck Festival at the beginning of August - people were invited to sing in the Chorus, regardless of their singing, or acting, experience. We were delighted that over ninety people took part, learning their parts on the day during workshops in the morning and the afternoon. Only the band members - Steve MacLachlan on the drums, Lloyd Turnbull and Chloe Drew-Batty guitars, Natasha Gawlinski flute/saxaphone - and soloists A.J. Deane and Dide Siemmond rehearsed in advance.

'The Journey' told the story (as William imagined it!) of the legendary Black Dog of Bungay's journey from Bungay to Blythburgh Church in the middle of the night on 4th August 1577, during a terrible storm after he terrorised the people of Bungay, at St Mary's Church ...

It was a wonderfully exciting, energetic performance - watched by a packed Church, concluding a very successful festival. It can be seen in full here:

Selection of photographs and short films taken at the Thursday lunchtime recitals, during 2024 - next series due to start in the Autumn!

On 22nd March, William presented an evening of poetry with music, and imagery, called 'Everything's Electric Blue', poems taken from his book 'Waterlogged'; at the Fisher Theatre.

Mike Davidson and Cathy Edwards-Gill performed readings with Victoria, and Rollo and Ranulph Bacon. All the music was written and performed by William and the brilliant electronic images were done by William's sister Kate Langran.

Victoria's most recent book about WWII was printed this summer; called

'Their Second World War', this book contains ten true stories of the war, written especially for children and illustrated by Kerry Timewell.

This is available on Amazon Kindle www.amazon.co.uk/THEIR-SECOND-WORLD-WAR-through-ebook

This book is endorsed by children's author Ian Whybrow, who describes it as 'History brought to life' ... and WWII historian Joshua Levine, who said 'Victoria focuses on hope, on liberation, on the smallest details - but without ever trying to step clear of the darkness.'

Victoria continues to work closely with her publisher, the History Press; and has recently had the following articles published:

thehistorypress.co.uk/article/d-day-the-closely-guarded-secret-that-secured-victory - An article to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, on 6th June this year

thehistorypress.co.uk/article/remembering-patricia-rorke-a-remarkable-woman-who-lived-through-world-war-ii - An article about Patricia Rorke, whose story is Victoria's book 'Remarkable Journeys of the Second World War.' This is an obituary piece, also published in The Times (www.thetimes.com/uk/article/patricia-rorke-obituary-phtvt9h62)

thehistorypress.co.uk/article/eighty-five-years-ago-the-outbreak-of-the-second-world-war-was-confirmed-what-have-we-learnt - An article written to mark the 85th anniversary of the declaration of war, on 3rd September this year.

ALSO:

Victoria has run workshops at the Fisher Theatre over the past year; three successful workshops for eight weeks each. These have been:

'Pen to Paper' - which was about letter-writing, by hand
'Short stories'; and
Poetry

Victoria is currently putting together a poetry book, incorporating some of the poetry written by members of the group - and a short story book is almost ready! Details of how to purchase it T.B.C. This is called 'Short Stories and Tiny Tales'.

Victoria's next workshop will be about Journal / Diary writing - details T.B.C.!

William's community choir, Castle Singers - performed Antonio Vivaldi's 'Gloria' for their summer concert this year, on 6th July - which was very exciting, possibly our most challenging piece yet, but we did it and it was a wonderful experience.

We sang other songs too - including William's own arrangement of a song by 'The Killers' - 'All These Things I've Done'; and a selection of other medieval and folk songs; and improvisations.