After a lot of work and sacrifice I have built a reputation for storytelling and have a group of clients who I work with regularly.  I am grateful to those people who have given me opportunities as a storyteller and who have supported and promoted what I do (I hope you know who you are).  Now I hope to offer opportunities to other storytellers.

World Book Day is always my busiest time of the year (at one stage this year I was getting 5 enquiries a day about my availability for it!).  Whilst I can’t split myself I can work with other people and offer young storytellers the opportunities I once had.  This is much more than the word of mouth recommendation, this is guiding and training people I see as able to represent me and tell the stories I have spent time developing.  This spring I sent Paul Valentine and Rebecca Hutchins into schools to deliver sessions on my behalf and the feedback was very positive:

We had a brilliant day with Rebecca. She was animated and told the stories brilliantly.

Teacher, East Peckham Primary School, March 2017

From Reception to Year 6 he (Paul) involved the children well, was enthusiastic and the children were fully engaged with his storytelling.

Teacher, Woodland View Primary School, March 2017

When I first had the idea to do this I was keen to work with existing contacts.  I have known Paul for well over a decade and he has assisted me on workshop projects before.  Last summer we set up and managed an interactive play in a day project at Trinity College, Cambridge and I asked Paul to be involved.  It was during this project I met Rebecca.  Both are not only very able performers but also friendly, able to work with young people and enthusiastic about stories.

It has been invigorating to work with other people and to hear their ideas about telling stories to children.  It has made me reevaluate my repertoire of stories and consider how and why I do certain things.  I hope that Paul, Rebecca and my other storytelling associates will continue to support the work I do, covering sessions when I am unavailable and hopefully delivering sessions they have devised in the future (Dan McGarry will be delivering sessions for me this summer in Northamptonshire as part of the Summer Reading Challenge 2017).  Who knows what opportunities these creative collaborations might lead to?

For more information about my associate storytellers follow this link