I’m on a train right now, whizzing through the Buckinghamshire countryside as dusk falls. I’m floating. I’ve just taught, for modern business leaders, a class in Rhetoric, as defined by Greeks and Romans between 2-2½ thousand years ago. They found it hard so I pushed them. They struggled, so I pushed them harder. My colleagues who hired me to run this session came to listen to the results. What we heard was astonishing, inspiring, moving, so moving that both my colleagues had tears in their eyes.
So, I learnt these techniques from my colleague Leon Conrad, with whom I founded the Academy Of Oratory. Both storytellers, both rhetoricians, both voice teachers, we are passionate about bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds. The results today were more than worth every time we’ve heard people say “you do what?” It makes perfect sense to us. It made perfect sense to my clients today. It felt wonderful. G ;{~
Started my work day today reading Alexander Pope’s Chaucer parody to my assistant and making her laugh! I still find it very strange that the complete works of Pope seem to fit on my iPhone… Looking forward to diving into the research for the Pope’s Grotto project. First proper meeting next week at the Grotto in Twickenham to get things started. Until then your Interesting Pope Fact of the Day is this – as a child Pope had TB and instead of it going to his lungs, it went into his bones so he never grew beyond 4’6″ and left him with a hunchback.
And now for my final story before Christmas – Why The Robin Has A Red Breast (and became a hero).
Hope you all have an enchanting Christmas of love, happiness and good old overindulgence and check back on New Year’s Eve for something to see you through into 2016…
Hey ho (ho, ho)! To brighten up your Christmas, I thought I’d share a couple of stories with you. Today’s is called Big Cattle, Little Cattle and is a traditional Russian Christmas tale with hearty borscht, glad tidings and an obscene amount of rats…
Check back for more tales of snow and mayhem and don’t forget to let me know your favourite Christmas story in the comments – you never know, it could be the next one I tell…! Enjoy!
A New Project, a new (old) story!
So, a BBC World Service journalist called Richard Hamilton, working in Morocco, has discovered and fallen in love with the public, open air storytelling traditions of Marrakesh and has discovered the tradition is under threat. For years, storytellers have been able to perform in a particular square and this is how they have earned their living for generations. Guess what? The citizen’s friend, DEVELOPMENT, has now deprived these storytellers of anywhere to work, to earn. Richard has started a labour of love to bring this tradition and the plight of these tradition keepers to a wider audience and, as part of this project, he is launching a YouTube channel to showcase as many stories and storytellers as possible. He and his assistant Nigel came to my flat and, despite an egregious cold, I told some stories for them. The first of them to be published is now online, a short Norwegian tale, and you can enjoy it here….
Stay tuned to this list for further stories in the weeks and months to come.
My story is based on the extraordinary life of Richard Burton; it is a story that runs to the heart of Empire and travel. Beginning at the foot of his peculiar mausoleum in the form of a Bedouin tent in a Catholic church, my tale of the great and enigmatical explorer becomes a journey to the edge of the known world.
Burton was an Englishman fluent in over 40 languages, with the support of the The Royal Geographical Society he led an expedition to the true source of the Nile; he was the first non-Muslim to enter the holy city of Harar and he completed the Haj from Suez to Mecca. ……..Burton turned exploration into a practice of human freedom. These stories are complemented by the soaring, melancholic, and yearning vocals of the Iraqi Kurdish singer Nawroz Oramari.
‘Tongues of Flame’ was one of the highlights of a great storytelling year in Cambridge…. They [the audience] were enthralled by the vibrant colours of the piece, and the masterly crafting of the material….. Its picture of a colonial past has an immediacy for modern culture and the 21st century legacy of British colonialism…Best of all it held me riveted, laughing, appalled – what more can I ask from a storytelling show?
2014, Marion Leeper, Cambridge Storytellers Programmer
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Started my work day today reading Alexander Pope’s Chaucer parody to my assistant and making her laugh! I still find it very strange that the complete works of Pope seem to fit on my iPhone… Looking forward to diving into the research for the Pope’s Grotto project. First proper meeting next week at the Grotto in Twickenham to get things started. Until then your Interesting Pope Fact of the Day is this – as a child Pope had TB and instead of it going to his lungs, it went into his bones so he never grew beyond 4’6″ and left him with a hunchback.
My story is based on the extraordinary life of Richard Burton; it is a story that runs to the heart of Empire and travel. Beginning at the foot of his peculiar mausoleum in the form of a Bedouin tent in a Catholic church, my tale of the great and enigmatical explorer becomes a journey to the edge of the known world.
