About Jess Smith B. E. M.
In picture 4, I was invited to man an old bus belonging to Stagecoach boss Brian Soutar. The bus belonged to his mum. In the fifties she would pick up berry-pickers in the fruit picking belts of Angus and Perthshire; the beginnings of the Stagecoach empire.
One of Scotland's most popular authors - a truly charismatic speaker with innate storytelling ability.' - Stirling Council
- Cultural awareness through storytelling
- Education - schools in Perth & Kinross, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh and Lothians,
Leeds, Highlands and Islands, Suffolk and London. - Public speaker at libraries, prisons, universities, clubs, church groups, etc and
after dinner speaker.
I am a member of the Scottish Book Trust.
Poetry
- Scotia's Bairn; featured in millennium edition of Sunday Post
Audio
- Jessie's Journey' - recorded first book for internet radio (VIP ON AIR) station for RNIB
- Radio Scotland (guested) several times, also three Counties Radio.
CDs
- Matted Cat, Dragonory
Television
- STV - featured on Gaelic programme - A teal
- BBC Reporting Scotland - storytelling to schoolkids
Storytelling festivals
- Traditional: Keith, Kirriemuir, Cullerlie, Aberdeen, Perthshire
- Australia: Perth, under the Southern Cross
- Ireland: Belfast, Sleive Bloom, Dublin and Cape Clear
- Shropshire: storytelling on the edge
- Yorkshire: Hebden Bridge - Shaggy dog storytelling festival
- Edinburgh: international storytelling festivals
Book festivals
- throughout UK
Workshops
- writing, storytelling, traditional singing.
Travellers having a fun time
Whole family pics were very rare, this one survived and is very special.
It was a quiet Sunday, July 1956. I was eight. I'm the one holding a little girl on my knee.
Time would split us and circumstances wipe away our happiness.
Our mother takes a moment from her busy day to pose amidst her happy bunch along with a family of relatives.
One sister is missing, she was probably taking the photo.
Jess sharing tales with an eager group of young people
