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Bizarre stories from a peculiar place. On the edge of the West Cliff in Bournemouth UK, balanced between sea and land and sky, the twisting paths and dark pine trees inspire strange stories of the strange folk who have inhabited that weird place. A new story every week from the pen of master story-teller Peter John Cooper. Funny, sad, murders, spirits and the down right ordinary. Commuting to work, drifting off to sleep, making breakfast, there’s a story for you here. Tales from the Cliff Edge has been selected as one of the top 15 UK story telling sites by Feedspot: https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_storytelling_podcasts/ I live on the cliff top. I’m looking out across Poole Bay to the English Channel and the world beyond. This is a mysterious in-between sort of place, not only the meeting of sea and land and the sky but also a shifting, joyful, melancholy realm where nothing is permanent and reality and fantasy collide. I’m Peter John Cooper and I’ve made my living for the past fifty years telling stories. In this podcast I’m going to share some of them with you. They’re not all about this clifftop place, of course, but they all come from that strange in between world of the imagination. Let’s go inside, make a cup of tea and I’ll tell you today’s tale.
Episodes

Jul 31, 2021
Jul 31, 2021
19 min
Patricia Jantz spends all day on the West Cliff writing poems and hymns on her portable typewriter. She may be a bohemian given to wearing flowing dresses and Indian print chiffon scarves and to smoking Turkish cigarettes but her name is known throughout the world. An earthquake ensues when she is invited to broadcast on the BBC. Featuring Holly Cooper as Patricia Jantz (by kind permission of the Cliff Edge Operatic Society) #Bournemouth #WestCliff

Jul 24, 2021
Jul 24, 2021
24 min
Dorset smugglers have had a tough time over the recent past. Perhaps things will get better from now on. But for the Law nforcers things have always been difficult. The key is to pay attention to the details of the operation in hand. An absolutely true tale as told to Peter John Cooper. IMPORTANT; The apostrophe is in the correct place in the title because there is more than one smuggler. In fact there is a whole gang of them.#Bournemouth #WestCliff

Jul 17, 2021
Jul 17, 2021
18 min
Why does Angus not come when he's called? Perhaps he's hard of hearing or just deliberately obtuse. Either way there's a sharp twist and something of a sad ending. A new story by master story-teller Peter John Cooper.#Bournemouth #WestCliff

Jul 10, 2021
Jul 10, 2021
13 min
The most dangerous piece of clothing ever invented? A sharp gust of wind and an unwary lady could be blown over the cliff edge to have her brains dashed out on the promenade below. And what’s more it represented a prison for intelligent young ladies who yearned to escape the social restrictions of the Victorian age. Today’s story is about one such young person who turns the mad fashion item to her advantage. It is called “Crinoline” and is read by Elinor Rose Cooper.

Jul 3, 2021
Jul 3, 2021
17 min
This story could have taken place any time over the last 10,000 years. During all those ages people have been wandering along the beach, erecting their windbreaks and lighting their barbecues. Mainly just trying to find a bit of peace and quiet. Do you visit the sea side every year? Do you try to find the same spot and get annoyed when people try to take over your particular space? Another Tale from the Cliff Edge by Peter John Cooper

Jun 26, 2021
Jun 26, 2021
16 min

Jun 19, 2021
Jun 19, 2021
14 min
Leonard Smallbone was an ambitious lad. He was a passed fireman on the ramshackle LS&M Railway. But there was only one ambition higher than the top link of the driving ladder and that was the eventual marble staircase into the celestial paradise. He was wont to call the railway company Lord Save Me. And for his colleagues this made Leonard Smallbone something of a self-righteous prig.

Jun 12, 2021
Jun 12, 2021
18 min
Have you ever heard an Ambiphonium snuffling about in the gorse bushes at dead of night? Or creaking among the branches of the tall pine trees? How does an Ambiphonium work? Is it Dangerous? Why hasn't David Attenborough made a documentary of it yet? The answers to thse questions and more may be found in this off-beat story by Peter John Cooper

Jun 5, 2021
Jun 5, 2021
15 min
They call me Lucky. They think I have lived a charmed life. But this is another life. I am another man. All that… it was a virtual existence. Here, the reality, the greater part of my life I swim. Another story by Peter John Cooper

May 29, 2021
May 29, 2021
20 min
Do you have pizzas delivered to your door? Would you appreciate a delivery from the government sponsored Ooberoo? SciFi, Futurism set on the West Cliff Bournemouth from storyteller Peter John Cooper
