A Cornucopia Of Tales and Tellers

This week, Simona and Alan are joined by Elena Asciutti in Sicily, Italy, to talk about her life in storytelling.  From talking part in Radio Cavolo and hosting a programme Diffusione Fiaba to FEAST Mentorships promoting storytelling and the love of stories. Of course we are also treated to a tale at the end which we all loved hearing after a wonderful chat. Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tal...

This week we followed up on our water and fire stories with Earth and Wind, while throwing some cider into the mix as well for good measure! Give a listen to the Apple Tree and the Wind Whisperers... Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or cornucopia if you will - of stories...

In this two part episode we decided to use the four elements of the earth for a bit of storytelling fun - water, fire, earth and wind.  So this week, we take one each and find a story to tell, before next week, completing the four. Today's episode has Alan telling us about a Selkie who isn't having a great time on the Antrim coast, while Simona tells us about the Fire of London. Enjoy! ----more---...

Are they windows into our soul, are they haunted with all knowing beings, or do they show us images of what we want to see?  This week Simona and Alan tell tales of mirrors, or looking glasses if you prefer to avoid nouns, tales of fortune... and otherwise. We hear about the fortunes and love of three brothers, then we head to Derry, Ireland to see who is living inside a looking glass sold by a pe...

Welcome to the second part of our episodes on the theme of fantastic, mythological, legendary and imaginary creatures! This time our focus is all on… Faeries! Join us for an introduction to the world of faeries around the world and to learn how our perception of faeries has changed throughout the ages – listen to a wonderful story told by our own Alan Hall and for a couple of poems about faeries!...

Fantastic creatures, mythological creatures, imaginary creatures… with not one, not two… but three stories from around the world, this podcast is all about them! The first story is a tale from the African folklore about a scary ghoul, ‘The Seven Sisters, the Little Dog and the Monstrous Ghoul’ told by our dear friend David Heathfield. David learnt this story from a doctoral student from Libya he t...

Alan and Simona welcome their dear friend Despina Ariou back on the podcast to tell them all about the wonderful storytelling ventures she’s been up to this year! From Morocco to Greece, from England to Ireland – Despina travelled and told stories at festivals, enchanting her audience with her mesmerising storytelling. Join us to learn about Moroccan belly dancers and musicians, storytelling and n...

We’re back! Oh, it’s good to be back! After a summer break that lasted… well, a little bit more than expected, Alan and Simona get together to catch up, speak about the ‘Storytelling in Education – Global Online Conference’ that Simona co-organised with David Heathfield, and that Alan was a part of as a speaker, and to tell each other random stories that they’ve been working on! Simona tells a Rom...

David and Despina join Alan and Simona for a discussion on a previous episode - we chat about the origins of tales, what we tell, what we use as sources, and tools for helping us create new stories. (Catch up if you haven't listened to it yet, this episode makes more sense if you listen to 'Catching Rainbows and Emergency Glue' first!).    Enjoy!   A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion pr...

This week, David made a guest appearance on The Story Space.   The Story Space might be the longest running storytelling club anywhere and I had the privilege to be featured as the guest storyteller on 13 June 2023! It's a wonderful, friendly group and everyone is made welcome. Information is in the link below and I'd particularly like to thank: Bruce Marcus, who invited me Mike Cohen, who support...

This week we both happen across two Irish tales we think are worth telling. Our characters experience ...a little change by the end of their stories for better or worse.  Setanta grows up and Oisin heads off somewhere. Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or cornucopia if yo...

This week we have a very special episode because joining David, Simona and Alan for the podcast is storyman Andrew Wright. We cover everything under the sun including - Story maps, the travelling storyteller across the world 55 countries and counting, Story men and women, ceilis in tents, the passing on of the tradition of being and becoming a storyteller, puppets from before the times of TV, bein...

This week Alan and Simona tell three tales, one fish who cant stop eating something, a farmer who finds an unfortunate horse and a little wooden robot who can provide his own stationery. We would be keen on your feedback for this one - we want your opinions on the content of the stories, not how they are told, but the what is told.  We will discuss this in a future podcast. Enjoy! ----more---- A C...

We always ask our guests on the podcast to tell us a story, and with Geraldine Nanjala and Rasheedat Sadiq it was no exception - we just tested your patience... listen to their wonderful tales in this episode! A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or cornucopia if you will - of stories from all...

Joining Alan, Simona and David on the podcast this week are two amazing storytellers, teachers and teacher trainers from Africa - Rasheedat Sadiq from Nigeria and Geraldine Nanjala from Kenya. Listen and learn about how and why they use storytelling with their students and the importance of spreading the joy of storytelling with everyone.  A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project bro...

All the way from Winnipeg, Canada, the amazing Amna Burki joins us to talk about the many wonders of storytelling - from bringing people together to keeping memory alive. Listen to Amna's deep words about why storytelling is important in so many fields and aspects of our lives as humans.  A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who...

Alan, Ewa and Simona join forces to enjoy two international days in one, World Storytelling Day and World Poetry Day.  Simona tells a custom made story while Ewa and Alan celebrate the world of poetry by giving us five poems, classical and contemporary. Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create...

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig ort 2023! It's St Patrick's Day so of course we had to tell some tales from the Emerald Isle.  Did you know how it came about? And did you hear the one about the King with odd ears? Keep listening and slainte! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or cor...

We cross continents today for the same story, but told in very different ways, for different purposes - and in fact, not told at all.  Gustavo in Lima, Peru and Bowen in California, USA joins Alan in the Glens of Antrim, Ireland to tell the Snow Girl / The White Maiden / Snegurochka, and give their versions of events, both in the story, and in their own contexts. Alan discusses why storytelling is...

In this episode Simona is helped by the wonderful David Heathfield to interview a common friend - the wonderful, the magnificent, the marvellous Jackie Ross. Jackie is a Storyteller from the North-East of Scotland and in this episode she speaks about her own connection to stories, telling in Doric, cows, toilets and much much more. Enjoy!   A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project br...

Busy times for Simona and Alan, but we're doing our best to keep up with the project and deliver something new and special every time.  In this episode, Simona reads 'Locks', a poem by Neil Gaiman and tells the story of 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. Enjoy! A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation...

'Storytelling is an act of peace' - Christmas is a wonderful moment to stop and reflect on the importance of peace and on how much we need peace in this world.  In this episode, Alan and Simona tell us about the World Storytelling Cafe event 'Storytelling for Peace' held on the 24th of December, and tell some of the stories they shared during the event. If you couldn't attend the storytelling mara...

Tis Christmas 2022, Alan and Simona bring you different cultures of Christmas, as Simona has a tale shoemakers and elves, Alan tells us about the Icelandic Jólasveinar or Yule Lads, before reciting his favourite Christmas poem by Clement Clarke Moore. Nollaig shona dhuit, and to all, a good night :) ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teach...

In this episode, Simona reflects on her first experience of going to a storytelling festival. She shares her thoughts about the Oxford Storytelling Festival and is joined in doing so by David Heathfield, Matt Sparkes and David Wigram.  A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or cornucopia if you w...

This week we are joined by Hend in Palestine, who tells us of her storytelling experiences, mixing it up with learning the Oud and bringing that into the tales, plus we hear the tale of the idiom 'we buried it together' through a donkey. ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want to create a compilation - or corn...