books & plays
The Fairport Tour
David kept a daily diary whilst living aboard the crew bus during the 32-date UK winter tour supporting Fairport Convention in 1998. The diary was loaded onto the Folk Corporation web site each day and attracted world-wide attention. The book was published in August 1998 and has been acclaimed as a very funny, very true account of a band on tour.
The Maldonians
Published in 1996, this is a true story of the people in Victorian Maldon, David's home town. Not the normal local history book, the story was gleaned from the local weekly newspaper covering 1872 to the Great War. It is full of vivid characters weaving in and out of the events of the period but mostly it is people talking a hundred years ago.
Tablo's Top Twenty
The third one man play, written and performed by David Hughes. Retired fisherman, Tablo Yardley is asked to bring his "desert island discs" to a live radio broadcast from Maldon Town Hall. When he gets there, the presenter has gone missing and the radio station ask him to present the programme himself. Bad move.
Troubled Waters
A second one-man play, written and performed by David Hughes. First performed at a packed Maldon Town Hall on 21 June, 2005 and set to be repeated on 21 July at the same venue. The character, a 95 year-old Maldon fisherman gives his views on prostate trouble and in the process touches on local themes including the centenary of Maldon's marine lake and its destruction by the District Council. Very funny! (If it wasn't so sad.)
Local Knowledge
Commissioned by his local council to write a play for the Millennium, David wrote a monologue for his friend, West End actor, Stuart Rayner. The character he plays, Cocker Freeman, is a 90 year-old ex-shipwright and centre-half who tells the story of his life and gives his opinions about the town today. The play proved so popular that the production was repeated twice to full houses. A video in VHS format is available (see shop).
MALDON - a photographic history of your town
Published by Black Horse Books and available exclusively at W.H.Smith's is David's latest commission. This is a fifteen hundred year history of his home town in six thousand words to accompany a century's worth of the fine photographs taken for the Francis Frith Collection.
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