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 wonder…

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 co…

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 tell…

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 …

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 A…

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 …

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 Morocc…

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 storie…

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 Co…

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 …

This week we both happen across two Irish tales we think are worth telling. Our characters experience ...a little change by the end of their stories for better or worse. Setanta grows up and Oisin heads off somewhere. Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who w…

This week we have a very special episode because joining David, Simona and Alan for the podcast is storyman Andrew Wright. We cover everything under the sun including - Story maps, the travelling storyteller across the world 55 countries and counting, Story men and women, ceilis in tents, the passing on of the tradition of being and becoming a stor…

This week Alan and Simona tell three tales, one fish who cant stop eating something, a farmer who finds an unfortunate horse and a little wooden robot who can provide his own stationery. We would be keen on your feedback for this one - we want your opinions on the content of the stories, not how they are told, but the what is told. We will discuss …

We always ask our guests on the podcast to tell us a story, and with Geraldine Nanjala and Rasheedat Sadiq it was no exception - we just tested your patience... listen to their wonderful tales in this episode! 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 …

Joining Alan, Simona and David on the podcast this week are two amazing storytellers, teachers and teacher trainers from Africa - Rasheedat Sadiq from Nigeria and Geraldine Nanjala from Kenya. Listen and learn about how and why they use storytelling with their students and the importance of spreading the joy of storytelling with everyone. A Cornuco…

All the way from Winnipeg, Canada, the amazing Amna Burki joins us to talk about the many wonders of storytelling - from bringing people together to keeping memory alive. Listen to Amna's deep words about why storytelling is important in so many fields and aspects of our lives as humans. A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brough…

Alan, Ewa and Simona join forces to enjoy two international days in one, World Storytelling Day and World Poetry Day. Simona tells a custom made story while Ewa and Alan celebrate the world of poetry by giving us five poems, classical and contemporary. Enjoy! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by Engl…

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig ort 2023! It's St Patrick's Day so of course we had to tell some tales from the Emerald Isle. Did you know how it came about? And did you hear the one about the King with odd ears? Keep listening and slainte! ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and …

We cross continents today for the same story, but told in very different ways, for different purposes - and in fact, not told at all. Gustavo in Lima, Peru and Bowen in California, USA joins Alan in the Glens of Antrim, Ireland to tell the Snow Girl / The White Maiden / Snegurochka, and give their versions of events, both in the story, and in their…

In this episode Simona is helped by the wonderful David Heathfield to interview a common friend - the wonderful, the magnificent, the marvellous Jackie Ross. Jackie is a Storyteller from the North-East of Scotland and in this episode she speaks about her own connection to stories, telling in Doric, cows, toilets and much much more. Enjoy! A Cornuco…

Busy times for Simona and Alan, but we're doing our best to keep up with the project and deliver something new and special every time. In this episode, Simona reads 'Locks', a poem by Neil Gaiman and tells the story of 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. Enjoy! A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers …

'Storytelling is an act of peace' - Christmas is a wonderful moment to stop and reflect on the importance of peace and on how much we need peace in this world. In this episode, Alan and Simona tell us about the World Storytelling Cafe event 'Storytelling for Peace' held on the 24th of December, and tell some of the stories they shared during the ev…

Tis Christmas 2022, Alan and Simona bring you different cultures of Christmas, as Simona has a tale shoemakers and elves, Alan tells us about the Icelandic Jólasveinar or Yule Lads, before reciting his favourite Christmas poem by Clement Clarke Moore. Nollaig shona dhuit, and to all, a good night :) ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is…

In this episode, Simona reflects on her first experience of going to a storytelling festival. She shares her thoughts about the Oxford Storytelling Festival and is joined in doing so by David Heathfield, Matt Sparkes and David Wigram. A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and Simona, who want…

This week we are joined by Hend in Palestine, who tells us of her storytelling experiences, mixing it up with learning the Oud and bringing that into the tales, plus we hear the tale of the idiom 'we buried it together' through a donkey. ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project brought to you by English teachers Alan and …

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…

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 …

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…

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 Jac…

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 te…

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 S…

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 storytellin…

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…

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 S…

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. You can buy a copy of Enedina's book, Piccolo Manuale di Storytelling o del Raccontare con la Voce, here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Piccolo-Manuale-Storytelling-Raccontare-Italian-eboo…

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 comp…

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. On this episode Despina mentioned the group Paramythiazo. ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion project bro…

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 broug…

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 y…

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…

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. Special episode music from Kimwei - I Can't Buy This World To find out more about David Heathfield check out his website. ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion pr…

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. Music: https://www.purple-planet.com ----more---- A Cornucopia of Tales and Tellers is a passion pro…