Join master storyteller Viktor Wynd telling tales from his new book at bedtime. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the most tender ears.

This evening Mr Wynd will tell some of his favourite tales collected on expeditions around the world, from nasty Germans chopping up people and eating them, to disgusting, macabre and delightful tales from Borneo. Learn of the birth of the leeches, the reason mosquitos are always buzzing around human ears, why it is best not to suckle caterpillars – or indeed strange babies – and something about bedbugs that might give you nightmares.

Giant octopuses, man-eating pigs and a buried moon from Papua New Guinea, or possibly shapeshifting magical creatures from Wales, the Good People of Ireland, the Sea Merrow, a Scottish Selkie, Scandinavian trolls and an illicit love affair with an Ice Bear.

The tales will be accompanied by live music from Walberswick legends The Blackshore Collective.

“Viktor Wynd is a most disarming and feline storyteller. He leads us into dark corners, yet a streak of ebullient comedy always gleams there, to dispel gloom and turn fear into pleasure, disgust to delight. A fierce champion of stories’ autonomy and endless transformations, he improvises and invents, tossing his ingredients into the wondrous and grisly comic potion he is brewing. This collection of Dark Fairy Tales is unfailingly entertaining and mischievous – you could say, wicked.”
– Dame Marina Warner