Rats' Tales brings together a hugely entertaining, dark and magical cycle of folk tales from around the world. The volume contains two texts for each story: Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's wonderful prose and Melly Still's lively dramatization. Rats' Tales celebrates the power of storytelling and will be published to coincide with the premiere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in November 2012. On Beasts and Beauties, on which Carol Ann Duffy and Melly Still also collaborated: 'The first night audience did not exit from the theatre, they hover-crafted out of it on a balloon of bliss.' Independent

Melly Still's production of Janacek's rural opera set in the forest-covered rolling hills of Moravia. Produced for the 2012 Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the opera is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and sung in Czech with English supertitles.