Arts
NARRATOR: ‘Long Necked Visitors’ by Under 18s competition winner Lily Hewitt, aged 17. Herald: And to welcome the Tsar of Russia to Chiswick Gardens, we have for the audience’s pleasure, four giraffes on show originally from the distant land of Africa. Giraffe: They say I’m from Africa, but I don’t remember it now. I was just a calf when I was shipped over, rammed tight into the crates so we didn’t fall over in the storms that brewed, turning the sky into a bruised blue. I remember the colours of Africa though; the yellow brown of baked sand under the scorching sun, the green of leaves as I strained up to reach them. The sky here is grey and fat droplets of rain fall year round. I was brought from Surrey Zoo. They say that I’m long-necked, but look at them! The women crane their heads to stare while the children poke fingers against my leathery skin. As I look around at the pink blossom trees and frothy, brown evergreens it makes me smile because doesn’t every creature look for something bigger? The animal looks at the wilderness of the plains, the boys in their breeches tip their heads up […]