We present a Storynory Pantomime - A dramatic audio presentation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens adapted by Mike Betteridge of The Working Space Theatre Company.
 
 Illustrations by John Leech from first edition of 1843 are here.
 
 If you are interested in the text of the original story, you can read it here.
 
 He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching covetous old sinner! Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me? Even dogs appeared to know him, and then they saw him, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts.
 
 Once upon a time - of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve - old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather, foggy withal. And he could hear people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down.
 
 A Merry Christmas uncle! God save you! cried a cheerful voice.
 
 Bah! said Scrooge. Humbug! If I could work my will, every idiot with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
 
 Bertie and Storynory are pleased to present their first mini-play. Natasha plays many parts, including several ghosts who come to haunt the old miser Scrooge. She is joined by Robert Maloney, who peforms as Scrooge with a wonderful snarling voice.Natasha and Rob normally act out these roles for Working Space Theatre, which tours primary schools. We use this wonderful adaptation by kind permission of its author, Mike Betteridge. If you would like to hire the Working Space Theatre you should get in touch with Mike. Email workingspace_theatre@yahoo.co.uk. Telephone +44 (0)1268 417 864.
 
 As usual, there is a little pre-story about Prince Bertie the frog and his friends. Rob is on hand to play Colin the grumpy carp.
 
 Parts two and three of a Christmas Carol follow in the weeks coming up to Christmas - which people of all faiths still call Christmas here in the UK, and old Scrooge has not succeeded in sticking a piece of holly up our noses yet.
 
 Part one of A Christmas Carol is 13 and a half minutes long.
 
 
 
 With all the Christmas gift baskets available online to choose from finding the best holiday gift baskets for those who will receive it is easier than ever. Choosing the right gift can be hard but some people frown on the practice of just sending
 everyone fruit baskets to be done with the task.