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 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 world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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---- 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 world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 peddlar. 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 from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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! 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 - or cornucopia if you will - of stories from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 taught English to, Iman Alharsha -  Iman and her sisters were told this story huddled together in the darkness by their aunt Aisha who raised them. Later Iman's family escaped Libya and gained refugee status in Germany. This story was accompanied by tears as Iman remembered Aisha. Simona then tells a story from India, ‘The bull that came from the sky’. The third story, ‘The sirens’, is a Greek myth told by none other than the wonderful Despina Ariou. 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 - or cornucopia if you will - of stories from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 nuclear power debris, fairies, and much much more! 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 - or cornucopia if you will - of stories from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 Roman myth, the story of ‘Pico and Canente’, which will make you look at woodpeckers in a different way from now on. Alan tells the very true story of ‘The hitchhiker’, and all together we will be shouting ‘But what was in the box?’ for the rest of our lives! 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 - or cornucopia if you will - of stories from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 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 world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.

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 supported me Ralph Chadis, who hosted me https://www.storyspace.org/Home.asp The stories I am telling are The Hunter and the Antelope which I learned from Benin Storyteller Raouf Mama, Abu Kasim's Shoes which I learned from our friend Amna Burki, Joha and the Bread which I learned from young storyteller Kenza Omayr and and Jayda, the Princess of the Water of Life which I first heard told by German Storyteller Micaela Sauber and had been collected and published by Idries Shah.   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 from all around the world and by as many tellers from around the world as possible.  So grab a cup of tea, chai, water or uisce beatha, relax and enjoy hearing tales that have been handed down generations, or even ones that were dreamt up yesterday! Music by Purple Planet. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. If you like what you hear, you can Buy Us A Coffee to help fund future episodes and the hosting of our podcasts.