Mary Medlicott, Storyteller and Author - Storyworks

Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

Storytelling Starters ~ Old Lady’s Delight

Saturday, May 16th, 2015

StrawberriesYesterday, my local supermarket had English strawberries – first time this season. They immediately reminded me of my favourite dessert, even though that recipe calls for a tin of strawberries, not fresh ones. So memory goes. Thinking about the dessert brought back to mind the person who gave me the recipe and then I thought I’d write about her here, partly because she was so striking in herself, partly because she raises an interesting question.

How is it possible that someone you meet can remain a huge influence even when, later, you scarcely remember anything at all about them? I guess we storytellers hope it’s so with our storytelling – that a story we tell or an occasion when we tell it may leave an impression that becomes a lasting influence on some person who receives it.

A woman of influence

Cicely Williams-Ellis was the sister-in-law of Clough Williams-Ellis, creator of Portmeirion, the fantastical Italianate village on a luxuriously wooded hillside on the coast of north-west Wales. She was in her old age when a colleague and I went to visit her. At the time, we were doing research for an investigative piece for The Sunday Times about the country’s National Parks. Meeting Cicely was of interest because she’d played a leading part in the movement to form the National Parks and also the CPRW, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales.

But what do I remember of Cicely Williams-Ellis now? (more…)