I love telling and sharing stories so when I was asked to share my story here of course I leapt at the chance!
Actually I believe that we’re all storytellers, it’s a large part of what makes us human, we make sense of the world through story. Whenever we’re interacting with each other, whether it be at work, in the playground, over a pint or a cup of tea, we’re all sharing stories… adverts are stories, our politicians tell tales all the time don’t they?!
Everything is a story, and if we don’t know what the exact story is then we have a tendency to make one up for ourselves, for example, if we’re looking at a piece of abstract art we reach for a meaning, it’s the same for contemporary dance or music, what story does it tell? In science we want to know the story of the universe, the atom, the disease. If we don’t know the facts, we make them up, like ‘Chinese Whispers’… stories can be used for good and bad – lies are often elaborate stories based on some truth, but then so are novels.
Ironically as a child I’d never heard of the word ‘storyteller’ even though I was always telling tales. I was sent out of class at school a lot for talking too much and being the joker.
For as long as I can remember I wanted to be on stage. I loved dancing up and down my grandparent’s sitting room, acting out scenes from various story books. Looking back I realise that I was forever fabricating, making things up. I would often chat to myself, pretending to be interviewed, about my ‘family’, five Sasha dolls that I loved dearly: Heidi, Paul, Lydia, Simon and Sarah.
The book I remember most vividly from my childhood was ‘Fairy Stories from Many Lands’. I still have it. One of my favourites was ‘The Magic Thread’. It made such an impression on me that I adapted it recently for an on-line Storytelling Festival, basing it in Yorkshire where I was born. But the story I asked my dad to read over and over again was also from that book, ‘Princess Reedcap’.
I subsequently discovered, when studying at university, that it was pretty much the same story as King Lear. What a lovely revelation to me, a full circle from child to adulthood understanding!
Profile first published in Cranleigh Magazine, September 2020