A Cornucopia Of Tales and Tellers

In this episode, Simona and Alan are joined by three wonderful storytellers to share spooky tales from around the world.  David Heathfield shares a story about a miser, Despoina Aristeidou shares a Jack tale with a spooky encounter, Alan shares a story about something that happened to his grandfather when he was young, Manuela Kelly Calzini shares a story about the quayside selkie and Simona share...

This week we took on a storytelling challenge, to retell a well known story from the point of view of an inanimate object in the tale.  Alan tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood from the point of view of the Apple, titled Arthur's Apples, and Simona tells the tale of Nasreddin and his Pot, from the point of view of the Pot itself.  We had great fun with this one! Let us know what you think, a...

Alan gives an update on his summer, having moved to Cork after IATEFL in Belfast, where he met up with the gang in Cork Yarnspinners.  They meet up the first Thursday of each month, and you really should make an effort to get there, as it’s some craic.  For those interested, you can listen to a live version of the song Grace here. We also finish this week’s podcast with a good old Nasreddin story.

This week we have not one, not two, but six storytellers and/or storytelling teachers online to discuss a point we raised in our last episode - should we change, edit or update our tales to fit with the current zeitgeist or feeling of the times? Alan and Simona were very pleased to be joined by Enedina Sanna, David Heathfield, Manuela Kelly and Jackie Ross to discuss storytelling, tradition, mytho...

Just a short update on the project and podcast.  As we're both teachers, the podcast does take time, effort, energy as well as funds to host the podcast services.  That's why we have launched a Buy Me A Coffee page to help pay for hosting and long term support of our project. This is a passion project from the both of us and we're keen to continue telling tales long into the future, so give us a s...

Alan tells a personal tale about the first time he met a fairy, Simona tells an Italian story about a clever peasant. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking part in our debate and let us know what you think in the comments. ----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 cornu...

This week we are publishing an interview carried out at the IATEFL 2022 Conference in Belfast, Ireland which first appeared on IATEFL TV and can be viewed here. David, Haneen and Alan were interviewed by Georgia Papamichailidou and Shaun Wilden and tell a few tales along the way.  We find out what 'the big fish' really is in Belfast, how storytelling connects people and all there is to know about...

In this episode, Simona talks about her recent first experience with telling a story in a nature context and tells the story of Awangaleema. ----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 from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the...

In this episode, Alan, David and Simona each tell a tale about springtime. Alan tells an Irish tale about Hares and Oisin, the Irish hero son of Fionn and member of the Fianna.  David tells a European story called 'The Silver Birch' - the passing of the seasons will enchant you. Simona tells a story about a happy king who loses his happiness, 'The Song of Spring'.   ----more---- A Cornucopia of Ta...

Enedina Sanna joins us from Sardinia, Italy, where she tells us all about storytelling, The Oxman, sharing tales of the land and flying the flag for folklore in Italy.

The magical David Heathfield joins Simona for a spontaneous conversation about his storytelling journey. Listen to learn about his books, how he learns stories from the people he meets and much much more.    ----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 storie...

This week Despina Ariou joins Alan and Simona to tell tales of diversity and tales of morality which come with a whole host of ideas for how these can be turned into activities in a classroom or any storytelling session.

In this episode, Ukrainian teacher and storyteller Alla Goesku shares with us her thoughts on the current situation and how storytelling can help children understand their identity in a world full of change. Listen to find out about her wonderfully HUMAN take on storytelling.    ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona,...

In this episode, Manuela Kelly Calzini and Sarah Ellis join Simona to talk about how Storytelling could be used in education, the importance of having childhood memories of people telling us stories, the Hands Up Project, the World Storytelling Cafe and much much more.    ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who wan...

The sidhe make their first appearance on our Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers podcast as Alan joins Simona to tell the tale of when he was captured by The Other Crowd and taken to a sídh where it looked like they were getting ready for some music and a feast (ceol agus craic).  But how is he still here then? Listen in to find out how clumsiness saved the day!

David Heathfield joins Simona and Alan to discuss the Around the World in 88 Tales project and feedback, which was carried out with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.

Welcome to our pilot episode of A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers, where we link Ireland and Italy for our initial story.  In this short but sweet trailer episode Simona from Italy joins Alan from Ireland and tells a tale of the Elephant and the Ant.