My favourite story is Tam Linn, a story set near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. I love it because it is set in a real landscape, because it is a perfect fairy story (with scary fairies not twinkly ones) and because it has a strong heroine who gets her happy ending not because she is pretty but because she is brave.
I tell lots of other stories too: Greek myths and Viking dragon stories; African animal stories and Indian fables; tales from the deserts and ice and coasts and mountains of Chile; Scottish traditional tales and stories about wellies.
And I enjoy using history to create stories that are true but have perhaps never been told before. I have researched a lot of Leith history stories, but I also have some North East and St Kilda ones, and I'd love an excuse to find more from your area!
I became a storyteller because my own children kept asking me to tell them stories. So I got involved in workshops and mentoring at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and after listening to a lot of fabulous storytellers, and practising on lots of audiences, I got accepted onto the Storytelling Directory. So now you can invite me to come and tell you stories too.
Even though I am a fiction writer, there are so many wonderful traditional tales out there, which are perfectly shaped for telling to audiences, that I prefer to spend my time as a storyteller passing on the old tales. Though I do use my writing skills to create new stories from historical facts, and I will occasionally create new stories for specific sessions (like working with audiences with special needs).
I tell stories to anyone, anywhere.
I have told baby bear stories to eighteen-month-olds in nurseries; fairy tales to passing dogwalkers in a forest; picnic stories to teenagers with learning difficulties; pirate stories to Primary 6 classes in Leith; Greek myths to classics students; Edinburgh history stories to English schoolgirls. I have told riddles in a yurt; Santa stories beside some reindeer (they didn't listen, but lots of people in hats and scarves did); squirrel stories in a soft play area with a loudspeaker blaring behind me; and Leith history stories in a pub, competing with the football next door. I do lose my voice occasionally, but never until after the story ends!
I love to find new stories to tell to new audiences. And I believe that anyone can enjoy and benefit from stories.
If you want to invite me to inspire you with stories »