The first storyteller I heard was at a Native American conference in Saint Louis when I was a teenager. (That’s a long time ago.) It was a light bulb moment. I’ve been trying to spread the word about traditional tales ever since. 

I began by telling stories to people lining up outside a Viking Museum in York. I thought – they were stuck in a queue so they were less likely to walk off! When my children came along, I had another captive audience for a while, and when I became a radio producer, I was able to make a few programmes about storytelling. 

Storytelling combines all the things I love: rhymes, singing, other cultures and social history. I feel very lucky that finally, through podcasting I’ve been able to find a family of people who really ‘get it!’ Thank You.

To learn more about Kim go to kimnormanton.com

Godfrey Duncan (who likes to be known as Tuup) was born in West London, of Guyanese parents. He’s a storyteller, musician and poet. 

He’s been retelling traditional stories for many years. He’s taken part in numerous Festivals around the world including:Toronto, Wales, Tennessee, Iran, Jordan, Delhi, Germany, Netherlands and many more.  

His inspirational stories accompanied by percussion and songs are very popular on super great kids’ stories. If you like Tuup’s stories about ‘The Snake King’, and ‘The Whale in the Sky’, and Anansi, and want to contact him,

his website is here.

Since growing up behind the counter of a little sweet shop in Cork, in Ireland, Kate has loved listening to stories.

After University, she spent 3 years teaching in Kenya where she picked up a little Swahili and a lot of African folk tales.

She worked for many years with Winston Nzinga, as half of the popular Celtic/Caribbean duo “Spud and Yam”- www.spudandyam.co.uk and she’s currently a member of Everyday Magic www.everydaymagic.org  bringing storytelling to London schools.

She loves to tell stories from Ireland, and was recently honoured with a BASE award for ‘most outstanding performance’ in “Sweetshop on the Shore” – her autobiographical show.  

For further info contact katesay@hotmail.com

 Tiernan has been trying to convince people that he’s a comedian, storyteller and writer for quite some years. Most recently, and of the things he’s allowed to mention, Tiernan has written episodes for Hey Duggee, the award-winning Bust or Trust kids mystery podcast (which he co-hosts), and stories for Super Great Kids’ Stories. He also co-runs the Comedy Club 4 Kids, doing stand-up for children aged 6+ and their families – shouting jokes at other people’s children mainly because his own daughter is a much tougher audience.

In-between all that he mostly eats crisps.

Amy Douglas is a word-hoarder, a word-storer, a word-catcher and a word explorer. After winning ‘Young Storyteller of the Year’ at 16, Amy apprenticed to world-renowned traditional Scots Traveller and storyteller Duncan Williamson, and now holds many of his stories in trust. She’s been a storyteller performer and promoter for three decades. She plays with words, riddles and puzzles. She likes jumping in puddles, treasure hunts, and has a favourite tree where she likes to sit with a book and an apple.
She lives in Shropshire, which has stories hidden everywhere – she even put some in a book: ‘Shropshire Folk Tales for Children!’

www.amydouglas.com

British Indian storyteller Peter Chand is well-known in Europe as an accomplished teller of tales and is constantly in demand for his amusing narratives of wisdom, and love. 

He has shared his stories across Britain, and has also performed overseas in the US, Norway, France, Austria, Canada, and Singapore.  He regularly visits his family in the Punjab, in India and collects traditional stories which he then translates into English, and adds to his repertoire of world stories. 

Peter is very active in the running of ‘The Festival at the Edge’, which is the oldest storytelling festival in England. He’s also been Storyteller in Residence at The Story Museum in Oxford. If you want to contact Peter go to www.peterchand.com Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/peterchandstories

Nadine Wild Palmer is a writer and creator of: stories, books, songs, and poetry. Her debut children’s novel The Tunnels Below, is published by Pushkin Press.

She’s also an actor – with experience in both theatre and TV, and she also works regularly as a continuity announcer on various TV channels. 

She’s a talented singer, and you  can hear her singing in ‘The Girl Who Wished for Wings’, and ‘The Crow and the Jug’ and The ‘Race Between Donkey and Toad’ –a Jamaican version of the Aesop Fable The Hare and the Tortoise. 

To learn more about Nadine go to her website: www.nadinewildpalmer.co.uk

Emily is an accomplished storyteller based in the Lake District, UK. She tells stories from across the world for anyone who will listen!
With a Swedish background, Emily has a particular passion for Norse mythology and Scandinavian folktales. Travels in India have also infused a great love of Hindu myth and epic. Emily told the very popular story Bikhubhai and the Coconut -as well as several terrifying stories about Trolls.

Emily and her partner Nick Hennessey established the popular storytelling festival: ‘Stealing Thunder’ near their home in the beautiful Lake District in the North of England. https://stealingthunder.co.uk/festival-2023

For further info go to: www.emilyhennessey.co.uk

Nick Hennessey is a storyteller, singer and songwriter. Nick is a dynamic performer whose love for the traditional culture of the British Isles blends together the note, the song and the spoken word into a unique and engaging style.

His work has taken him all over the UK and around the world, playing at folk clubs, literature festivals, village halls and venues such as London’s South Bank and the Albert Hall. His voice whether singing or speaking is simply spellbinding. Nick’s beautiful stories and audio compositions on Super Great Kids’ Stories include: The Owl of the Oak, The Golden Bowl, Little Things and Molly and the Skeleton. 

To further info go to: nickhennessey.co.uk/

Rachel lives in Derbyshire in the north of England. She’s been telling stories since she was ‘nowt but a slip of a lass’. She’s always loved stories. She sees them as friends who like to pop round for cups of tea. She tells stories at festivals, in schools, libraries, cafes, and anywhere else she can, including once, at a composting conference. She also likes adventures, singing loudly, playing games, hiding in trees, and making interesting sound fx to accompany her stories. Her very popular tellings on Super Great Kids Stories’ include: The Little Red Hairy Man, Strawberries in Winter, and Tom Tit Tot. 

For further info go to: facebook.com/RachelMurrayStoryteller

Chris tells traditional stories, inspired by nature, gathered from around the world. His stories are chosen to encourage listeners to be curious about the world, to dream with open eyes and to become storytellers. Chris lives in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England, where he’s part of a group of Storytellers called A Bit Crack. His beautiful resonant voice and storytelling style leaves all his listeners asking for more. Chris’s popular retellings on SGKS include: A White Bear for the King, Why Evergreens Keep their leaves in Winter, and There’s a Goat in My House. 

www.chrisbostock.co.uk www.abitcrack.com

Emily is a singer-storyteller who hosts a storytelling podcast for children with her son Leo. It’s called Dragon Fly Tales. Emily is from London, and her parents are from Ireland, so naturally she grew up believing in fairies, selkies and angels.
She regularly tells stories to children and adults at schools, festivals, museums and to her son Leo. Emily believes that the role of a storyteller is to inspire the storyteller in others. She very kindly retold a brilliant version of Sicilian fairytale Mama Draga –on Super Great Kids’ Stories which continues to be super popular. 

You can find her podcast website at: dragonflytales.uk

Baden is an Antiguan-born performer and storyteller who has been a part of London’s thriving Live Literature and Spoken Word scene since the turn of the century (21st!).

Over the past few years, Baden has developed an impressive reputation as a storyteller, largely due to appearances at the East Anglian Storytelling Festival where he has delighted audiences young, old and young at heart. His repertoire incorporates “traditional” tales from the Caribbean and all over the world, as well as his own material.

Baden engages his audiences with a style that is warm, self-assured and displays an entertaining blend of insight and humour.

For more info go to: worldstorytellingcafe.com/baden-prince

Pamela has always been surrounded by her Jewish family stories. She began working with them in experimental theatre in the late 70’s with various improvising groups. In the late 80’s Pamela began working as a solo storyteller. She works with traditional storytelling material from all cultures. Her interest in history and the spoken word, led her to work for many years at The London Imperial War Museum where she captivated adults and visiting school children with her stories. Kim has vivid memories of Pamela running a World War 2 evacuation re-enactment day – mesmerising children with her version of the Pied Piper.

Contact Pamela via kimnormanton.com

Juliana (aka @AchiraStories) is a travelling storyteller from Colombia who travels the world telling tales on a shoestring.

A graduate of the Vivapalabra storytelling school in Medellin in Colombia, her travels are funded by her stories. She tells tales wherever she is – on street corners in Germany, festivals in Morocco, a beach in Cyprus and on a pyramid in Mexico. She and her partner have been on the road for 2 years, have travelled through more than 25 countries, and after their current stint in Europe, they’re planning on heading East. Juliana’s scary story A Girl from Galicia is a popular SGKS listen.

Wendy is a professional storyteller and writer based in London. She’s written several books of stories her most recent book being ‘Spooky Stories of the World’ published by Lonely Planet. 

She regularly performs stories in schools and institutions across the arts including The British Museum, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Her repertoire of stories is drawn mainly from her African-Caribbean ancestry. One of her most popular stories on SGKS is How The Leopard Got Its Spots.

Wangari is a performance Storyteller and children’s author based in Nairobi, Kenya. Wangari the Storyteller as she is popularly known, believes in the power of stories to make us reflect on life past, present and future.

She tells stories in schools, and to grown-up audiences. She also enjoys travelling to storytelling festivals and theatres in Europe, Asia and beyond. She’s appeared at storytelling events in the USA, Switzerland, Germany, India, and Iran. 

Wangari’s particularly popular stories on SGKS include: The Name of the Tree, Anansi and Number Five and The Magic Drum. 

For more info go to: wangarithestoryteller.co.ke

Masako was born in Japan, as a child she loved watching animated Japanese folktale stories on TV. She went on to teach kindergarten and then moved to Northern Ireland where she discovered storytelling and met her mentor – veteran storyteller Liz Weir.

She’s performed at Belfast Mela and the Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival and performed her show of Japanese folktales at the Black Box Arts Venue in Belfast.

The demand for Masako’s online storytelling has spread worldwide to audiences in India, Singapore, the United States and beyond.

Her stories: Snotty Boy, and The Child Gods and The Straw Hats are very popular on SKGS. 

Click for more info about Masako

Liz is a storyteller and writer from Northern Ireland. She was the first winner of the International Story Bridge Award from the National Storytelling Network, USA, which cited her “exemplary work promoting the art of storytelling”. 

Liz’s journey begins in the 1970’s. As Children’s Librarian for the City of Belfast, she learned about the healing power of storytelling …

Her passion for storytelling has taken her from Europe to America to Asia and beyond. She’s told stories in pubs, prisons and hospitals. Liz also works with a number of organizations including The Early Years Organisation in which she conveys important messages to children, about anti-bullying, racism, respect for the elderly, and much more. 

You can find out more about Liz here: www.lizweir.org

Maia has been a primary school teacher in Tanzania for over twenty years. She’s now come out of school, and has returned to India to explore storytelling beyond the classroom. She grew up listening to Indian folktales from her father who she describes as a ‘Master Storyteller’. She’s now in the process of collecting and telling those stories from his repertoire to help keep them alive. Maia’s first story on Super Great Kids’ Stories was the scary story: ‘The Hairy Toe’ – and crikey, that has that been a popular listen! 

You can hear more of Maia here: worldstorytellingcafe.com/performers/maia-ganatra/

Shane remembers his Dad telling stories about his days working as a lumberjack in Scotland, and also training as a young soldier in the Shetland Islands. Shane has taken on his Dad’s love of telling tales, in spite of being very shy when he was young. His big break came-  when he told a tale around a campfire at the East Anglia Storytelling Festival and there listening, was the grand storyteller – John Row who turned to Shane and said: ‘That was a great story!’  

Shane now tells stories all over East Anglia, London and the South West. This Summer he told stories for Super Great Kids’ Stories at the ‘Stealing Thunder’ Festival in the Lake District.  His tellings of: The Islanders and the Bear, and The Scarecrow and the Hare, are super popular on SGKS. 

You can find out more about Shane on his website: www.storytellershane.co.uk

Jason – the teller of ‘The very popular Old Woman and her Pig’ tale, has been a performer most of his life including comedy and sword-swallowing – but his passion lies in telling stories. “ There’s nothing like getting lost in a story, the pictures in your head are better than film says Jason who draws on traditional favourites and spins new versions. He’s particularly adept at making extraordinary vocal sound effects and giving his characters assorted accents from around the UK. Amongst the SGKS fans favourites include: The 3 Billy Goats Gruff, The Enormous Turnip, and The Brave Little Tailor. 

You can find out more about Jason here: jasonbuckstoryteller.co.uk

Sef has lived on five continents which informs all his stories and his storytelling work with refugee communities which he’s been doing since 1995. His depth of experience living and working with people from many cultures, shines through his stories. We learn to say ‘once upon a time’ in many different languages,  and hear stories and songs from all over the globe.  Sef’s main aims are to bring people together, to celebrate differences using the universal language of story and music. Gulbahar -an Iranian version of Rapunzel, and The Lake That Flew Away from Estonia,  are both particularly popular stories amongst SGKS fans.

You can find out more about Sef and his work on his website: seftownsend.co.uk

Simone Schümmelfeder is a storyteller and writer from Germany. She was born close to the “Fairy Tale Road” where the Brothers Grimm collected their tales and grew up surrounded by stories. She loves adventures and nature and moved to Ireland to be a storyteller. She founded the storytelling theatre StoryGate (www.storygate.net) together with her husband Michael Phelan who is a puppeteer and storyteller. They offer storytelling and puppetry shows all over Ireland and even have a Storytelling Yurt! Simone is always on the look-out for new stories and is the newly appointed Storyteller-In-Residence For Children for Dublin City Libraries.

Rebecca is a versatile Belgian-British storyteller based in the South of Spain. She tells stories for children and adults wherever the wind takes her, from Europe to Asia and Africa. Her passion is to look into people’s eyes and travel with them through stories, whether at a festival, in a prison, a yoga school, a Tibetan monastery in the Himalayas, a theatre, or a library. She often uses sounds (flute, kalimba, voice, and drum) to support the stories she tells. She says, “Storytelling is a form of communication that goes way beyond words; it is a heart-to-heart interaction, and that is why I love it!” For more information about Rebecca: www.rebeccalemaire.com

Daniel has enthralled audiences with his performances of traditional stories for more than thirty years. He is as comfortable in front of a nursery of small children as he is in a theatre with 300 adults. Though he tells many kinds of story, he is particularly known for telling mysterious fairy tales like the ones he has recorded for this podcast. He is also an award -winning author- his current book is called STRANGE TALES, published by Firefly Press. He lives in Abergavenny in Wales with his long-suffering family.

Emmy comes from a family of Maōri storytellers. She grew up listening to her Mum telling reading and writing stories for the radio, and her Dad reading Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Just So’ stories and Kenneth Graham’s ‘Wind in the Willows’.  Emmy and her daughter are Super Great Kids Stories fans. Emmy got in touch with us just when we were looking for a storyteller from New Zealand. She’s making her debut as a professional storyteller for SGKS. Hurrah! Emmy has four children, a ‘floofy’ dog, and two ginger kittens.