Telling Tales

Storytelling often borrows from real lives and real conversations - usually without permission. For some Jewish writers, this unease can perhaps feel sharpened by a cultural and religious reluctance to “tell tales”.

According to the laws of Lashon Hara (evil speech), pretty much any commentary on other people’s behavior is frowned upon. This moral tension - between the urge to tell stories and the responsibility to protect others - sits at the heart of Deborah Freeman’s short story collection, ‘Tell It Not’, which spans forty years and moves between the familiar landscapes of England and the vivid, sunlit settings of Israel.

In layered and intimate tales, a mother speaks into the night to soothe her screaming baby. A recently released prisoner recounts his journey with the help of two determined volunteers. A woman enters a dressmaker’s studio and is trapped in a room of mirrors – confronted by six silent versions of herself.

With characters young and old, caught between cultures, causes and personal crossroads, the stories explore the everyday and the extraordinary: family tensions, political divides, love, loss and the long shadows of history. Presenting her collection of stories, Deborah reflects the quandary of writing fiction that draws on real people and real relationships.

Deborah Freeman, playwright and short story writer, grew up in Bristol and lived in Leeds, Ashkelon, and Manchester, before moving to London in 2013. Plays include Candlesticks, The Song of Deborah and Xanthippe, and radio plays The Bad Samaritan, and Fat. The Song of Deborah was translated into Hebrew and staged at the Khan Theatre, Jerusalem in 2017. Along the way, she trained and worked as a Psychiatric Social Worker.

She is currently working on a memoir and discussing her latest play, Doors, with a director. Short story collection ‘Tell it Not,’ was first published in 2022 by Red Heifer Press, California, and the current edition was published in 2024 by Wrate Publishers, London.