Creative output

Tedd has a wide range of creative pursuits, from writing to giving talks

Tedd comes from an artistic family and he has a wide range of creative outlets. Most are passion projects, some are intensely personal. But they are all driven by his sense of curiosity, his fascination with the complex and the unusual, and his love for storytelling.

Writing

Tedd is a published author of non-fiction. His first book, The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965-1991: from Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale, was published by Cass Military Studies (today part of Routledge) in 2005, with a paperback and e-book version in 2012.

His second book was as co-author of Stirring Up Sheffield: An insider’s account of the battle to build the Crucible Theatre, published by Wordville in November 2021. The book was based on an account written by Tedd’s late father, Colin George, about his experience as the first Artistic Director of the Crucible (1971-74). Getting this story into print became a George Family Production, Tedd working through lockdowns to turn his father’s manuscript into a book, incorporating new material from the family archive and interviews with the surviving protagonists, while his sister Lucy set up an imprint at Wordville to publish it. 

The book was launched at the Crucible Theatre at the start of its 50th anniversary season and went on to win the Society for Theatre Research’s 2022 Theatre Book Prize. You can see a lecture Tedd gave for STR about the book by clicking here.

In tandem with the book, Tedd produced the Crucible @50 Podcast Series in collaboration with Ashley Barnes of Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Theatres, interviewing actors, directors, designers and writers about their experience of working on the thrust stage. Tedd also chaired two fundraising events for Sheffield Theatres, the first in May 2022 with the Crucible’s architect, Nick Thompson, the second in December 2022 in the renamed Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, exploring her work and the history of the original Sheffield Playhouse and the last 50 years of the Studio Theatre.

Following the publication of Stirring Up Sheffield, Tedd continues to work with his sister at Wordville, and was the editor of The World is Going to Love This: Up from the Basement with The Strokes, by Gordon Raphael, and The Production of King Oedipus, by Tyrone Guthrie and Tanya Moiseiwitsch

Tedd also writes creatively. He has completed the first draft of a children’s novel, set on Hampstead Heath, and is developing a project around his great writing hero, George Orwell. Tedd also writes blogs about things that fascinate him, such as this piece on the tragic poet Thomas Chatterton, or this article on Tyrone Guthrie and the Crucible Theatre.

Launching ‘Stirring Up Sheffield’ on the Crucible stage, 11 November 2021

Talks & public speaking

Tedd also likes giving talks at universities and schools on his favourite subjects, which range from the Cuban Revolution and the Falklands War to financial inclusion and Africa’s digital transformation. He regularly gives lectures and seminars to post-graduate and masters students at the London School of Economics (LSE), King’s College London (KCL), the Hult Business School and the Chicago Booth Business School. He has also given talks to students at his alma mater, the King’s School Canterbury (KSC), and at Eton College.