Welcome on this December 28th to the final show in our holiday schedule for 2025. This is an encore presentation of a Christmas show we made in 2017. Maureen Mullally, reads a poem that she and her late husband Bryan worked on together called Two Old Gents. Felicity Sidnell Reid shares her story, Stage Struck, Ron MacKay gives us his story, My Papa Invites Angels and Gwynn Scheltema reads her story, set in Africa, about her mother’s gardener and his search for mistletoe. We hope you enjoy this episode and wish you a Happy New Year!
Ronald Mackay
Ronald Mackay
Ronald Mackay’s first book tells of life in an isolated village in Tenerife, one of the CanaryIslands, in the early 1960s. His second, recounts his exploits during the two years he worked in Romania under the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In 2024, he published “Windows on My Worlds”, a collection of 31 short stories. They cover seven decades and are set in many countries. In these, Ronald tries to capture tiny insights into the joys and the heartbreaks of everyday life. Recently, he put aside a draft of a Cold War novel to prepare, in Spanish, stories that take place in Spanish-speaking countries. He’ll launch this new book in Tenerife in 2026, to coincide with his being embraced as “adoptive son” of the Municipality of Buenavista del Norte.
Holiday Show 2
Welcome once again to Word on the Hills with me Felicity Sidnell Reid and our studio editor Anne Sidnell. This week we’re broadcasting our new Christmas program for 2024. Our guests today are storytellers well known to you, Gwynn Scheltema, Christopher Cameron, Ron Mackay and poet, Katie Hoogendam. Gwynn’s story, set in Zimbabwe, recalls how her mother celebrated Christmas in a tropical setting, while Ron’s story is about a young woman struggling to achieve her ambitions in Tenerife. Chris has once again written a new story for this show and Katie will read one of her collection of poems, which she has just released as a chapbook to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
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