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The Box

You can communicate effectively…!

David Porter Communications
with the Human Touch

The Box

where experience counts

Human Communication is the Name of my Game

A service to business and individuals in need of confidence building, trouble shooting, problem solving, public speaking, report/letter writing, quality written web content, editing, event enabling, voice-overs, third way and lateral thinking.

I work with others rich in life’s experiences:

We think outside the box.
But we don’t neglect what’s already inside the box, too

Whatever your problem, we can help
We can do it for you, or work with you
We can talk to people for or with you
We facilitate
We teach you or your staff the know-how from writing English to speaking it
We organise, arrange, plan, question
We come up with blue sky thinking
We brain storm for or with you.

What’s in the Box?

I lead a team of older, wiser, widely experienced people from business, education, public sector, arts and sports worlds running this unique service to help you and keep our brains lively.

Research from the University of Texas (Aug 2011) found that older people are more adept at strategic decisions which take the future into account than younger people. Decision-making ability doesn’t decline with age (60-80). On the contrary, the more experience of life and challenges, the better you are at them!

After years of work in many and varied fields, we have learned skills in solving problems, decision making, team building, motivation, performing, writing in all genres, approaching people/situations and brick-wall tackling.

Sometimes the solution to a problem lies in your mind already, it just needs bringing out.

An idea needs a nudge, people need to be brought together, writing needs to be done, presentations made, documents edited, events set in motion, publicity planned in local media and on line, people briefed and records correctly kept.
Your staff might need specialised training that is outside your field, including spelling, punctuation and grammar or spoken presentation..
You might need a starting point for a vision, a project or a dream.

Lift the Box lid and see the light!

David Porter, former Member of Parliament, English and drama teacher and head of Performing Arts in secondary education, political organiser, experience in public speaking/performing, writing on line and off, editing, trouble shooting and examining/assessing.

email: david@davidporter.co.uk

Check out my self-published novel and short stories.

Headline

No Lack of Madmen

No Lack of Madmen is my third self-published novel.

Drawing on my experiences in Parliament (1987-97) and my own ageing processes, I’ve set it in an East Anglian care home designed for one-time MPs, Lords and senior civil servants. Furthermore, the place boasts its own ‘Commons Chamber‘ for residents to relive their glory days.

The Protagonist

Prone to increasing falls and mobility issues, my former MP James Ellington reluctantly moves in to calm the worries of his family. Straightaway, he’s immersed in a nightmare world of deluded, confused, decrepit shadows of their former selves.

He’s attacked from a mobility scooter and a meat cleaver by a loopy fellow resident with an historic grudge. Gradually, he uncovers dastardly plans to hasten residents’ departures once they have left bequests to the home.

The Antagonist

Meanwhile, the man behind his troubles is a former, close Parliamentary ‘Honourable Friend’. Ralph Dines spends his days extorting money and herding madmen residents behaving not unlike cats.

Eventually, helped by his young family and after a crazy fight, Ellington exposes the plans. It does him no good as his own grip on reality crumbles.

Why this title?

My No Lack of Madmen title is from a Bible quote: ‘Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this?’ It was when King David feigned lunacy. Yes, it’s a comedy about a deadly serious racket.

It’s published through IngramSpark. They are connected to the ordering systems of 40,000 independent and chain bookstores, libraries, and online retailers worldwide. This includes Apple, Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bertrams, Waterstones, Booktopia. I have published print-on-demand and ebook versions. This sits alongside my Old Men’s Dreams and Detestable Things, also self-published and set in East Anglia! I’ve put three collections of my short stories, Wild Beasts and Plague, Scoffers Will Come and The Scapegoat Keeper out there.

Latest

The Scapegoat Keeper

The Scapegoat Keeper and other short stories is my third self-published anthology in both print and Kindle versions  It’s an album of short stories, some from old and reborn writing and novel ideas. It also publishes more recent work, particularly tales inspired by the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Like the stories in my earlier collections, Wild Beasts and Plague (2018) and Scoffers Will Come (2019), these yarns are often dark with unexpected outcomes. They emanate from what people do to each other, how they perceive others and value themselves. Or not. The title tale, The Scapegoat Keeper, is a dystopian, futuristic story in the remains of a city. Here shadowy powers maintain order by periodically sending … Read entire article »

Detestable Things

What are detestable things? Detestable Things is my new novel. It’s self published under my Walk In My Shoes imprint. And it is just what you need if you’re in self-isolation and/or social distancing mode with time to kill on a yarn! Yes, it’s available in paperback or Kindle versions on Amazon. So what’s it all about? Well, drawn by the darker side, the world of revenge often with an element of surrealism and humour, my stories and novels are about often ordinary people. But those ‘ordinary’ people may behave or respond in unusual or strange ways. This one is what I intend to be the first of a series of novels set in Anguish Street. Here almost every front door hides the seen detestable things spoken of … Read entire article »

Scoffers Will Come

Scoffers Will Come is the second collection of my short stories. They draw on my experiences as drama student, children’s theatre performer, drama teacher, examiner/assessor, political organiser and Member of Parliament. There are also ideas from elsewhere. As I self-published my first anthology, Wild Beasts and Plague (2018) I had more stories than I could accommodate in one volume. So, Scoffers Will Come is the vehicle for new stories and re-dreamed tales from the 1960s to the present day and beyond. These tales play through both strange and normal times. They sit in absurdity and surrealism, dark humour, tragedy, revenge, suffering, thwarted personal plans and growing old. All the lot of human life. Through life’s quirks and character idiosyncrasies they reflect the voice … Read entire article »

Wild Beasts and Plague

Wild beasts and plague were two of the four dreadful judgements warned about by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel in the Bible – sword and famine and wild beasts and plague. It inspired the title of one of eighteen short stories in my collection, Wild Beasts and Plague, self published under my imprint Walk in My Shoes Publications and available on Amazon, in paperback and Kindle versions. Wild Beasts and Plague is an eclectic mix of short stories set in the 1960s to the present day and beyond exploring issues around life’s recurring and challenging themes including revenge, jealousy, growing old, inadequacy, thwarted ambition, memories, death and the dark side of life. Herein lies madness, humour and absurdity, the past, present … Read entire article »

School Productions from Devised Drama

My School Productions from Devised Drama, is a teaching resource for the drama teacher looking to experiment with developing devised dramas into full school productions as a change from the usual scripted suspects schools so often use. It’s now available. Based on real experiences of devising a range of ideas developed into public shows at both Benjamin Britten High School, Lowestoft and Kirkley High School, Lowestoft it provides over 200 starting points, development grids, character ideas, themed approaches, drama teacher ‘block buster’ suggestions and research references galore. School Productions from Devised Drama is published on TES Resources with a free detailed Introduction followed by 13 separate sections: 1. Getting started, getting excited 2. Using (local) history 3. Using the 1960s 4. Using teenage … Read entire article »

A Rebel’s Journey

A Rebel’s Journey My Life and Times   My autobiography – A Rebel’s Journey – has been published under the imprint ‘Walk in My Shoes Publications’, as was my novel Old Men’s Dreams. The story of my life has been a while coming, but it’s I something I wanted to do and set my heart, mind and time on it spread over a four year period. I’ve promised to make a donation from sales of this book to Charcot Marie Tooth UK, the organisation looking out for sufferers of CMT. I am one such and my deformed feet did not define or stop me as I did much in my life, but they were a problem that had to be managed. They still are. My … Read entire article »

Drama Resources for Drama Teachers

Drama resources! Drama resources! Drama resources! It’s the common cry of under-pressure drama teachers in all kinds of settings.   Through this website and my published articles about drama teaching and often when I visit schools as part of my exam work, I find I am asked frequently about easily available and accessible drama resources. I have no problem sharing the articles I have published on here with ideas that have been tried and tested. Of course, lack of finance is very much part of the issue. I do think many of the books written to support teachers and students directly with ideas in general and exam oriented material in particular are good value as they should last years. But … Read entire article »

The Sound of Musicals

Musicals!  – The Sound of Musicals, review published in the Eastern Daily Press, online edition on Saturday 30 September 2017. Musicals are worth celebrating anytime, but the Lowestoft Players have a special reason to pull out the musical theatre stops. Founded in 1967, the award winning Lowestoft Players open their golden jubilee year with ‘The Sound of Musicals’ at their very own Bethel Theatre. With over 50 musicals to their credit, not to mention pantomimes, plays and revues, this talented, continuously inventive all-age cast present a sparkling show offering a taste from most of those musicals! More than a concert of excerpts, this has dancing, moving, magnificent singing, comedy, emotion and a gripping sense of showbiz and spectacle – … Read entire article »

Hairspray (Lowestoft Players’ version)

Hairspray review of Lowestoft players’ show at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft in June 2017, published in the Lowestoft Journal, 9 June 2017 and also the Eastern Daily Press. Hairspray is one of those unlikely stories that became a big hit on film and stage. And big is the word. Lowestoft Players take the tale of oversize love triumphant in the cut-and-thrust of showbiz TV in early 1960s racially segregated USA and give it their special high energy, fun-packed treatment. Pace never slackens. Songs hit one after the other, with familiar Good Morning Baltimore, Nicest Kids in Town, I Can Hear the Bells and the standout I Know Where I’ve Been keeping everybody’s feet tapping. Cool choreography, smart direction, verbal and … Read entire article »