Tell me about a complicated man

Who, having overthrown the sacred town

Of Troy, was kept from going home, endured

Great suffering on the the deep: his life often

In peril, as he laboured to bring back

His comrades to their homes. He saved them not,

Though earnestly he strove; they perished all,

Through their own folly. This is his story.

For thousands of years, epic poetry was how we told our stories. We gathered around the campfire, or in the halls of kings, or by the hearth in the homes of our friends - and listened. No other distractions or complications, just one voice, in one room, telling one epic story.

Local writer and performer Kate Knott wants to bring this ancient communal storytelling art back. Join her and pianist Irene Nicola for the first in a series of long-form poetry performances, as they tell the story of Odysseus and his quest to return home, in a newly abridged version of William Cullen Bryant’s 19th century translation.

Experience Homer’s poem the way it has been told for millennia, at the Rose Read Bookshop this November.