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About Me

... not stories, the truth now!

• Storyteller
• Musician
• Teacher
• Historical interpreter/re-enactor

I tell traditional stories to children, to families, adult groups, local societies, and in recent years the most demanding audience of all, our young granddaughter.

I've appeared on BBC Radio Northampton over the last few years, both in connection with my own work, and "The Feast of Fools": In 2014 I founded Storytelling at the Feast of Fools in Northampton, and have led its organisation ever since.

As well as a musician, I'm a composer, and in both 2015 and 2016 was commissioned to write and perform music for events in Northampton, most recently by the Royal and Derngate Theatre for the Shakespeare400 celebrations.

When asked how she liked the music she'd commissioned for the R&D, the lady's response was "Bl***y gorgeous!" (quoted by permission!)

Bankside by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, where I regularly play as a piper and tell stories in The George at Southwark for the Lions Part theatre company's Twelfth Night celebrations.

I came to working as a storyteller after years of incorporating stories, and storytelling techniques, into my work. For most of my career as a "proper teacher" I was responsible for music, after teaching training in English and Drama, to which I later added a 1st class honours B.Ed, majoring in Music and History.

In 1992 I went freelance, gaining a reputation as a well respected historical musician, presenter and workshop leader delivering performances and workshops combining history and music in schools, museums and heritage sites across the country, with enthusiastic feedback ratings of almost 100% throughout.

Places I have worked include:

• the V&A museum
• the British Museum
• the Tower of London
• the City of London Guildhall
• a live TV presentation for Time Team from Windsor Castle
• English Heritage castles across the country
• museums and heritage sites from Tullie House, Carlisle to Dover Museum
• National Trust sites
• hundreds of schools, with many thousands of children.

I incorporated storytelling into music & history presentations at English Heritage events before storytelling became my main focus, but I told my first traditional story proper for a Belgian audience, in a marquee in Brittany, in not very good French! - and I still got asked for more!
...It is just possible that this related to the entertainment value of my torturing the French language as well....

I learned, and continue learning, in ongoing study under excellent professional storytellers, among the best known being Shonaleigh, Taffy Thomas, the first Storyteller Laureate, (who has gifted me more than one story), Ben Haggarty, and others. From 2015 on I've also worked as resident musician with Taffy Thomas at residential storytelling weekends at Halsway Manor, the National Centre for Folk Arts.

Most of my stories are sourced from written collections.I am also fortunate enough to have learned some of my stories at first hand from storytellers, both professionals and some not in the public eye.
For historical period settings, I aim to tell stories either written down during the period I'm representing, or with sufficient evidence built into the story for me to credit that it was present at the time.

I'm forever, (now writing in 2018), working on playing more music while speaking in my stories. It's a very exciting skill, which can hugely enrich some stories.

I endeavour not to look so alarmingly Heroic or Bardic as Robert Glen, seen here in 1893, however.

I find that landscape resonates strongly with regional stories, and believe that there are many links between both the stories and music of a region, and its landscape - one reason for all those pictures on this site! There is theme to all the landscape pictures, but that's for you to find.

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