Thursday 12.11.09

Ghost Tour!!

7pm...we went to Ham House to be told the very legends that still linger here today. We aproached the house from the front which sat there in darkness, only lit by candles in a few of the windows. The weather was hideous which only added to the atmosphere. Now of course we were expecting things to jump out at us and to be frightened this way, but the emphasis was on the language in the stories we heard tonight and the way they told them.

Both men had very different attributes to their storytelling that both worked equally as well. The first volunteer, Ken took us around the house and his storytelling was so inspiring due to the content in his stories. The language flowed incredibly well without a sense that he had learnt from a script. The second volunteer was Raymond who took us around the gardens. The success of his storytelling were due to the methods he implied to tell them. He created an atmosphere of unease with the use of dramatic pauses and with his naturally soft voice. He posed questions to the group throughout the tour. What is a ghost? Why are we scared of ghosts? Which he answered with the fact that we as humans do not like the unexpected and unknown and if there's something we can't explain this phases us. Raymond ended the tour beautifully with his own personal touch, saying that the only real ghost is the house itself.

I am so glad we came on this tour as not only do we know even more about the house but we can now take these storytelling ideas and implement them in our own work. The atmosphere they created just by themselves was incredible so I can only imagine what we can do.

Zoe x