Admiral Carolyn Primett leads the crew on their exciting adventures and ensures everything is in ship-shape. Not one for a dull life on the sea, she loves to explore wild and wonderful places capturing tales of daring do to share and inspire others. She is dedicated to the S.O.S RescueShip inspiring all young storytellers to develop their talent.
Nick Walker is a writer, theatre maker, producer and the first man to set foot on Mars (actually that’s not true, it’s what happens when you make things up for a living). He has written extensively for radio and television and has three fantastic novels under his belt. He also lectures in theatre and creative writing and is currently the director of The Core, a theatre in Corby. Nick founded Talking Birds Theatre Company and was the very first writer-in-residence for Save Our Stories in 2015. He created a thrilling first backstory for our S.O.S RescueShip.
Manchester born Andy Hazell has had an extraordinarily varied career, taking in everything from gardening for the Queen Mother, to driving a mobile library. Andy creates amazing works of Public Art, he also works as an automatist, photographer and film maker. Andy also creates wondrous award-winning Artcars, so was the perfect choice to bring to life our incredible S.O.S RescueShip. Find out more about Andy’s work at andyhazell.co.uk.
aka Pirate Zanzibar Zoe
Zoe loves to tell stories. Audiences have been left enthralled (and somewhat dubious) by her adventures beetle collecting in the Australian bush, Madagascar and the Amazon. Zoe also loves to act, her one man (or rather woman) BFG is legendary in Library circles. In 2012 Zoe won Grand Words, a one act play-writing competition run by Stage Write for The Grand Theatre, Blackpool. When not telling shaggy dog stories Zoe loves to relax Sky diving and indulging herself with her secret passion extreme macramé.
Dan is a popular local author and performance storyteller. He worked as a teacher for fifteen years before successfully pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. To date Dan has published 3 books. Impossible Tales, Eric Appleby: Zero to Hero, and More Impossible Tales. Dan’s stories are as fantastic and as wacky as his iconic striped Storytelling waistcoat. Dan has inspired thousands of local children with a love of stories and is a passionate advocate of libraries.
aka Stowaway Lemanieclaire
It was in December 2417, when Lemanieclaire was gliding the gazillion galaxies of the multiverse, having most excellent adventures and gathering both terrible and terrific tales from throughout time, when a band of gruesome and grisly story pirates captured her. Luckily, at that moment, the Save Our Stories rescue ship sailed past and she managed to jump aboard and be carried to Blackpool, May 2017. She has stowed away ever since encouraging children to help her retell the stories she gathered so they’re never lost.
Louise is a professional performance poet and storyteller, based in Wigan. In 2014 she won a Radio 3 Verb New Voices Award. Louise delivers Creative Writing workshops on a freelance basis and works extensively with children and Young People. Louise created the enigmatic and energetic character of Dr New to captain the RescueShip
aka Tony the Time Transporter
Tony Sharkey spent 20 years within the confines of the Local History Centre at Blackpool Library, where people were occasionally complimentary about his history and heritage witterings when we brought him out for special occasions. These days he continues his love of history by helping to sail the S.O.S RescueShip into new adventures – but be careful, with his sense of direction who knows where we might end up?
Illustrator, artist, performer and model maker, Vanessa Card has had a long and varied career spanning costume and prop design, puppet making, and creating set miniatures for creative industries (including for the classic TV series Pingu). In 2007 Vanessa set up Handheld Theatre, a puppet theatre company. Handheld Theatre produces performances and workshops for theatres, schools and community venues.
