I have volunteered to tell at the Summer Fair. It seemed a pity to have a theme "Hooked on Books" without a storyteller! So I felt obliged!
What will I tell? Oh, the usual stuff, probably. That is to say, the stories that come most readily from my mouth and brain, and fit best with the needs of my audience.
I tend to start with The Tailor's Three Sons, because it's familiar, but not too familiar, and has the reassurance of some repetition but not too much.
After that, I check how much time people have, and maybe tell The Brave Little Tailor, which can be kept quite short, but still has some substance.
If people say they want a good, long story, then I'd love to tell Big Claus and Little Claus, from Hans Christian Andersen, which was the first story I ever told. But that definitely takes half an hour! The Lucky Boy also takes a fair time, but, if they're getting restless, you can leave out the second half with the Devil and his Granny. Another long one that I like telling is The Golden Bird.
Those are four tales from Grimm [though I've certainly made them my own over the years]. But I also like telling tales from Asbjornsen and Moe's collection of Norwegian folktales, such as Soria Moria Castle, and my favourite feelgood story, especially good to end a session, which I call The Widow of Wimborne.
Listeners often ask where the stories come from, and one answer is: other storytellers. Thus I tell three stories that I got from Taffy Thomas when he came to Salisbury: How Jack Became Mayor, The Parrot and the Moon, and The Cornish Tea-Room with the Cracked Flagstone.
I also think of stories in groups by nationality. I have a set of Japanese stories, and a set of Russian stories, and a set of Celtic stories, and a set of Jewish stories.
And I have a noisy story, The Village Band, which I like to do last, when I have a lot of enthusiastic children - or adults - in the audience, who want to let off steam.
