I had a visitor! Not just any visitor though, it was the inimitable Ros Green, the director of the Essex Book Festival who has sent me to Talliston in the first place. It is safe to say that the Essex Book Festival does not stick to the standard script and it goes where other book festivals fear to tread. Ros has found ways around restrictions, due to world circumstances, that just make the book festival more exciting than ever and it is running from the 1st June to the 29th August this year. The programme is in the final stages of being finalised and has some true delights in store, both online and in real life.

Over the last few years, I have found myself involved in some wonderful projects, thanks to Ros’ ingenuity and ability, not just to see the bigger picture but to see a picture that nobody else had even imagined in the first place! I have had the privilege of storytelling in a secret nuclear bunker while having my head stuck in a toilet seat/art installation, being part of an amazing 40ft high people photos All In The Same Boat in Harlow, feeding peanut butter to badgers at a Radical Writing Retreat in Othona, laughing until my socks fall off at Ros’ ideas and meeting many inspirational, kind and big thinking people. Ros steps outside of the box, this is an understatement, and her intentions are all based on the wider good. Ros takes the festival to places that do not usually get a look in, like Jaywick Sands , who only ever get talked about in terms of poverty and deprivation, and gives space to people to shine their brilliance while taking none of the credit herself. Ros will continually lend people her strength rather than remind them of their weaknesses and, while this should not be rare, it actually is. While this may seem like a one woman accolade to Ros, it kind of is but there is something much bigger at play. It is the quiet brilliance that underpins all of the good things in the world, the generosity to wish others to thrive and to dine out on the magic that they have created. The wisdom and knowledge that we can do none of this wild life on our own, we need the help of others, the camaraderie, the differences and there is no benefit to be had in taking the credit if this outshines anyone else. The reason why I am (ever so slightly) banging on about this is because there are many crossovers between Ros and John, who has created Talliston. They both create with a generosity and a joy that others may dine out on this and take it forward in their lives, not just this week but for many many moons ahead. Both Ros and John are the very definition of planting a tree under whose shade you shall never sit.

Anyway, as any sane and intelligent person might, Ros beelined towards the investigators office, in New York 1929, as soon as she spotted the typewriter in there. This room was the first room that John completed at Talliston, creating the perfect office for himself to be able to write and work. That makes it sound that writing isn’t work which, of course, it is but there is other work also to be carried out in an office. John went about, in his very precise and joyful way (as I am rapidly learning) creating a room that he could spend many an hour writing and organising. As a complete aside, there is an actual thing called the Zeigarnik effect which is all to do with pressing tasks and how we remember things that we need to do, better than the things that we have already done. I think this is where lists come into their own. We all know about being distracted by the things that we haven’t done yet and, by making a plan, it can feel as though we have some measure of control over the situation. Well, John is the master of organisation. In the office in New York in 1929, every single box, file and drawer has in it exactly what it is labelled to have. There is no such thing as shoving a stapler in the wrong drawer and ‘I’ll sort that out later’, no, John is King Of Correct Drawers. John has the names and contact details of every single person who has volunteered with the house over the years, even down to how many sugars they have in their tea. This is streamlining and efficiency at its most glorious and I’m not sure that there are many things that make you feel more valued than someone knowing exactly how you like to take your tea. It is very easy to see how people keep coming back here.

There is the most drool worthy roll top desk in the office, whiskey at the ready, a super cool phone (that works) and any amount of bits and bobs that pertain to the occupant of the office who is John but is also a New York investigator, Anthony R. Kane, an author, publisher and investigator specialising in the exotic and esoteric. The artefacts around the room tell of Anthony R. Kane’s travels and interests and if you want to know how the investigator fits into the bigger picture then you will have to read the book. He’s a good one anyway, as a very mini spoiler alert. It is not just any old office in any old building in New York. John does not do general. The office sits within a mansion on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side overlooking Central Park. Built 1882-87, the design of the three-and-a-half-storey French Renaissance-style mansion is a blending of late French Gothic style and Beaux-Arts refinement. The house and second-floor office are currently rented by an esoteric investigator (Anthony R. Kane) with his many objects illustrating global explorations of its latest occupant. (I copied all of that). The mansion is called Trevalyan Vean. The house was built and owned by Jedediah Elston Trevillian until his death in late 1925. In a bizarre final twist to the wealthy eccentric’s life, his estate, company and fortune were willed not to his squabbling family, but instead to a boy caught trespassing in the grounds on the day of his death. Included in the many properties was Trevelyan Vean, this New York City mansion overlooking Central Park. (I copied all of that as well).

See what I mean about detail? This house has not been thrown together as some sort of fantasy gimmick, this is live immersive theatre happening through every single portal. Each room also has its own moon, season and element – fire, earth, water and air. Running through each room, and throughout the whole gardens, are also the 5 motifs – Ship, Butterfly, Bumblebee, Labyrinth and Oak which I had said on Day 1 that I would talk about one of those each day. There is no point in making a plan here. Time and plans get laughed at by multiple gods within this place so I give up and will just write whatever I am instructed to do at the time. I will talk about Labyrinths before I leave here, though. I’ll have a word with Papa Legba and see if he’s alright with that. Papa Legba is in the kitchen (New Orleans 1954) and is the spiritual god of the crossroads in Haitian voodoo, which is not scary at all as voodoo has been given bad press over the years, it’s fine honestly. Papa Legba likes to be offered keys, rum and/or lost and found things and then he will open up the communication lines with spirits passed across. He’s a bit judgy about how a life has been led and it’s probably not much fun getting past him at the finishing post if you have been a bit of a twat all of your life.

This place is inspiring. Ros is inspiring. John is inspiring. They make magic normal again. In the words of Rumi – Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.