The Homing Stone Comes to Exeter in December

It is autumn 1919. Moscow is surrounded by counter-revolutionaries. Arthur Ransome is known to be a Bolshevik sympathiser. He’s fallen in love with Trotsky’s secretary. They both know they’ll be lynched or shot if Moscow falls. Somehow they must escape. On Ransome’s desk is a stone from Peel Island on Coniston Water. Is it a powerful enough talisman to get him home?

This story will be told by the great British storyteller Hugh Lupton who has created and performs “The Homing Stone”, an extraordinary “praise song” for his great-uncle Arthur Ransome, part biographic storytelling, part poetry.  It tells of Ransome and Shelepina’s escape through Estonia, an adventure in which they seemed to become characters from one of the folk tales Ransome had collected in “Old Peter’s Russian Tales”, surviving by a mixture of quick wit and good fortune.

The first half of the performance is a series of folk-tales collected by Ransome in Russia that prefigure his own adventures, and is suitable for children over ten years old. The second half of the performance is suitable for children over twelve years old.

Hugh Lupton is Ransome’s great-nephew and one of Britain’s greatest storytellers: don’t miss this rare chance to hear him in the South West.

“The Homing Stone” will be performed in the Matthews Hall, Topsham, Exeter, on Saturday 3rd December at 8pm. Tickets are £8 (or £6 for concessions) and are available now from Storytelling in Topsham.