My mad March: 21 days of workshops, assemblies and presentations summed up in 10 bullet points.

We’re almost at the end of March and I’m happy to report that there has been no recurrence of the tonsillitis which blighted me a year ago meaning I was able to fulfil all my World Book Week commitments as I visited Stoke, Warrington, Glasgow, Paderborn, Hertfordshire (twice), Slough, Horsham, Saltash and Knowsley.  It’d be quite a dull read if I were to recount everything that’s happened so instead here are 10 things that stood out for me during another mad March.

1. Planes, trains and automobiles – I love travelling, meeting new people and taking my stories to new audiences and over the past three weeks I have travelled thousands of miles in the name of storytelling.  I was thrilled to be invited to tell stories in Warrington and Knowsley in the North West and to visit Saltash in Cornwall for the first time and that on the way my beard flummoxed a biometric passport reader in Amsterdam – apparently I no longer look like me!

2. Audiences of all shapes and sizes – In a very short space of time I have worked with about 2000 young people through workshops, assemblies and presentations.  Everybody I met engaged in their own ways and together we were able to enjoy sharing stories.  The sizes of the audiences have varied dramatically.  At the start of the month I did two presentations at The Wee Write Festival in Glasgow to 800 children from 18 primary schools.  Four days later in Slough I told the story of Anansi the Spider to 5 children with profound learning needs.  These sessions had their challenges but both experiences left me feeling very satisfied.

3. I accidentally ended up on TV!I have been working with MOD schools in Germany for a number of years and before leaving the UK I had been aware that it was probably going to be my final visit to Paderborn.  A few years ago I had been involved in an event at RAF Wycombe during which British Forces Broadcast Service had done a nice piece for the radio and I was keen to do something like this in Germany.  When I arrived I set about recording my sessions rather like I did for the BBC during National Storytelling Week.  At the end of day one I learned that BFBS would be sending a reporter with a camera into school the next day!  The idea was terrifying but Rob Olver (the journalist) was totally unobtrusive and has produced a really lovely report.  He was even kind enough to edit my interview so that I didn’t sound completely tongue tied.

4. Question & Answer.  Question and answer sessions are an occasional part of my job.  Generally I talk about reading, resilience and my creative process but every so often the children offer a lighter moment.  Here are my favourites from the last couple of weeks.

Child wearing a silver coat: My jacket changes colour when it gets wet.

Me: Oh yes, what colour does it change to?

Child wearing a silver coat: Silver

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Child: Who is your favourite aunty?

Me: Who is your favourite aunty?

Child: Grandma Hazel

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Me (holding up a grey bobble hat): What animal do you think this could be in our story?

Child: A panda!

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5. Why would you book a storyteller who lives at the other end of the country?  Now as you read the list of places I have visited during this very small window of time please remember that I live near Brighton.  Imagine being the person who made the booking, having to explain to their colleagues that rather than getting a local storyteller in you’ve opted for somebody who lives at the other end of the country.  A few weeks back I had this exact scenario in Derby (I’m cheating a little but this is a good anecdote); when I turned up, the other staff members wanted to know why on earth I had been asked to do the job.  Since visiting that particular school despite living five hours away I have been added to the academy trust’s supplier list so that all 15 of their schools can call upon my services.

6. Old friends and new acquaintances – As I have already suggested, I get a lot of enquiries for dates in early March.  It can be depressing how many organisations are keen to work with you but lack the flexibility to host a visit on any day except World Book Day.  Traditionally I reserve WBD for schools I like working with and this year I was back in Harpenden at one of my favourite schools sharing old projects (a rare run out for Dennis and the Chamber of Mischief) and new ones (my first UK schools audience for The Enormous Crocodile).  In fact this year I only visited one new school during World Book Week and that was a large Junior School in Slough.  I ran four sessions of global folk tales.  At the end of my first session an elderly teacher stood up and addressed the room.  He told us that he had been involved in teaching for over 50 years and worked with over 250 schools.  He told us that in his career he had been at many such presentations but in his opinion mine had been fantastic.  It was an incredible and completely unexpected moment and one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

7. If it ain’t broke… – As a professional storyteller I am often guilty of falling back on what works rather than pushing myself particularly at busy times.  This is good and bad.  Doing lots of days has meant I can quietly consolidate The Enormous Crocodile before doing a series of public events later this year but in Horsham fell back on Goldilocks and the Three Bears again.  It’s a story that I have told in the particular setting on a number of occasions and whilst the children love it and I’ve experimented with role play and imaginative play scenarios around it I fear its lost some of its freshness.  Determined to address this, next year I’ll be working with the same centre to deliver a series of sessions which will allow me to develop new material for Early Years and Foundation children starting with National Nursery Rhyme Week in November.

8. Getting resourceful – Whilst in Horsham I could be accused of resting on my laurels nothing could be further from the truth in St Albans where I walked into the setting with nothing but a photograph of the contents of their craft cupboard.  Using open resources to tell stories is something I want to write about in the coming weeks so I won’t say much more than it was a lot of fun and very creatively liberating.

9. The future is bright/keeping the wolf from the door – Away from the frontline of storytelling I have been doing a lot of office work.  It’s no great secret that moving out of London presents certain challenges to my business model but I’ve decided to take a “just work harder” approach to the problem.  I’ve already mentioned what we hope to do in Horsham but in the last two weeks I have messaged every primary school in Surrey and Sussex as well as English language colleges in Brighton about potential projects and opportunities.  I’ve been updating my website calendar and had some interesting discussions with storytellers, libraries and educators about the future.  Just last week I delivered the local history assembly I devised for the London Borough of Waltham Forest at a Borough of Culture meeting and hopefully a new project will be approved that will see me visiting as many as 60 local schools to talk about the area’s history, identity and culture.

10. Making memories – Last Friday, as I began a very long journey from Saltash back home I was standing at a bus stop and a little girl and her great grandmother walked by.  The little girl who had been one of my volunteers in a session that day stopped and introduced me.  She then proceeded to sketch out one of the stories I had told in her session to her great grandmother.  It took me back; you see you forget that as you dash around the place that you are touching people’s lives.  The reason I work so hard to get the best stories I can and the reason I badger so many people to host my work is that I bring them something different, something happy, something fun and something stays with them when I am long gone.  I made a difference to that little girl and hearing her become the storyteller she made a difference to me.

This March has been full of special memories and before you know it we’ll be planning World Book Day 2020(!) but for now I’m looking forward to a couple of days at home and to seeing what April brings…

John Kirk is a professional storyteller.  To find out more about his work or to enquire about a booking contact me.