In this section you can read about the latest Stories Leo has added to the catalogue and read his latest Blog posts.
The boy in this story makes a huge effort to realise his dreams. He reaches beyond his current potential to discover a whole new world of possibility. I like the image of Mr and Mrs Star all wrapped up in warm hats and coats and drinking tea with the boy at the top of the tree!
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
I like the Giant in this story, especially when he says “I’ve been working on these a long time…” when handing the Glasses-Maker the glasses that enable the wearer to see only the beauty and perfection in the world.
I’d like a pair of those myself, to be able to see everything in my life as perfect. Even the problems I struggle with, the obstacles I face and the ugliness that I see. I’m touched by the thought that it’s possible to see the world in this way. The way we experienced the world is shaped by the way we see it, and this itself can change, as the glasses maker discovers…
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
This story just kept on travelling. It starts out as a tale of a man selling a rather mysterious, apparently magical, rusty little tin in the market… and developes into a story about a princess and how she uses the tin throughout her life.
The story winds up a long way from where it started, with the Princess, now an old woman, finding her fading memories in that same tin. In the end she uses it as a bridge between this world and the next, so that her favourite grandson can feel her presence when he needs her.
I find that last section quite magical, drawing the listener into the mystery of what happens when we die. I’ve made it a “7 to 9 year olds” story, as there might be some 4 year olds out there who haven’t even wondered about such things, and I’d like to leave then to do so in their own good time!
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
I use a lot of big words in my stories. For example, just recently I used extravagent, ostentatious and conspicuous in Jim and the Colourful Coat. And I threw in the shorter but equally uncommon gourd, gradient and plateau when telling Counting to a Hundred. I know it’s not conventional, but I’ve never been able to shrink my vocabulary for children, not when I was telling regularly in Primary Schools, and not now that I’m recording stories for the Palace of Stories.
Partly this is because, as an intuitive storyteller, I need to lay my hands on words fast, and my job is made easier by having a big vocabulary (and by the English language having so many words to choose from!). But it also comes from a hunch that I’m helping children stretch their own vocabulary this way. Children pick up the meaning of a word from the context it’s in. And even if they don’t pick it up straight away, they’ll get closer to understanding it every time they relisten to the story. My son Luke asks me the meaning of any word in one of my stories that he doesn’t understand, and I imagine children listening to my stories are doing the same with their parents or older siblings.
And the flow of the story is not interrupted by such words. The other words carry the story along. Once a friend brought his Brazilian girlfriend along to one of my adult storytelling performances, at a time when she had a very shaky grasp of English. At the end, she came to me with a beaming face, “I understood everything!”
If we are engaged in the story, we are actively involved in creating its momentum. A few new words here and there are not going to stop our enthusiastic meaning-making. Rather, I can think of few better ways to learn new words.
Posted in Leo's Blog | No Comments »
There’s something in this latest story that I like about embracing whatever comes in our lives, trusting that even dark clouds have silver linings, and that everything is unfolding for our highest good, even if it doesn’t immediately appear to be so.
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
I knew this story was special as soon as I told it, back in the summer of 2010, but it’s taken me a while to record it. I love Jim’s dilemma, he has this huge urge to buy the outrageously colourful coat he’s just found, even though he can’t possibly see himself ever wearing it. Then he absolutely has to wear it, even though he’s dying of embarrasment to think of anyone spotting him in it. And one thing leads to the next…
I’m reminded of the many times when I’ve felt a strong impulse to follow my heart, even though I know that doing so will make me look a fool, even if only to myself. It’s by taking these kinds of leaps of faith that we can live into our full potential, which is what this story is really about.
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
The old woman in this story overcomes her loneliness by seeing bushes, flowers and trees as “kin”. Soon her sense of connection with all life has become infectious, and her once empty house is full of guests!
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
This story surprised me. Right until the end I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Why is the poor donkey getting whacked so often? But it makes sense in the end, and I love how the heavy sacks the donkey has been carrying are full of what will in the end magically renew him.
Needless to say Luke liked this story, and for days after was talking about the donkey getting WHACKED! Stella wasn’t so sure, and to be honest it’s quite rare that the stories I tell have any sort of violence in them. But there’s a deeper message to this story, about how the tougher experiences of life can turn out to be blessings by driving us on to discover the gifts that we carried but knew nothing about.
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | 1 Comment »
I like how the boy in this story learns something from the old man that helps him when he is as old himself. I also like the idea that slowing down is essential to remembering all the stories you carry inside, something that older folks know better than young ones, I guess…
For me, the listening to and telling of stories here stands for a choice that we can take to nourish our inner life, and connect to what is most meaningful and beautiful in life. The boy in this tale spends a lifetime gathering stories and the harvesting them in his dotage, but I like to think that he’s harvesting a lifetime of moments when he took care of his inner world and savoured the beauty that’s there, which of course is what stories do.
Visit this story page.
Posted in Latest Stories | No Comments »
For the 20+ years that I’ve been telling stories to children, I’ve pretty much always told stories in schools. One of the reasons for this is that schools are environments where, for the most part, you don’t have to worry too much about crowd control.
Now, I have told stories in some pretty rough schools, where creating enough attention in the audience was actually a stretch. But, mostly, I can rely on the teachers handling this.
I guess I’ve always liked being able to focus on just one thing, telling the story, and creating a relationship with the children out of that.
Recently, however, I’ve felt drawn to telling stories outside the classroom, and I’ve enjoyed my first forays into that wilderness!
The first of these was actually in a rather wild spot. I recently organised the first Nonviolent Communication Community Camp, in North Wales (www.communitycamps.org). We were camped in the mountains, huddled into a valley that was at the time being blasted by strong winds. Every day I would sit in a large tent with a small gaggle of children and tell stories.
There are some pictures here. I was experimenting with adding accordion to the stories, and rather liked the results.
And recently I gave my first public performance in Stroud, near where I live in England. I’ll be giving more of these in the autumn. Maybe soon some of those stories will end up here on the site…..
Here’s to unfamiliar contexts!
Posted in Leo's Blog | No Comments »
