UK's First Laureate of Story-Telling

Taffy Thomas, M.B.E. / Image courtesy: Irene Wise  

According to the Federation of European Story Telling website (F.E.S.T.) since the early eighties storytelling is experiencing a renaissance all over Europe.

Professional artists tour around the countries with performance storytelling. Clubs for enthusiasts are organizing local events. New applications for storytelling are being developed among educators, in health care, business life and community builders. International festivals of story telling are organized in many countries and special educational programs for storytellers are springing up.

Since 2002, the idea of a Federation of European Story Tellers has been incarnating, and manifested in 2008 with the F.E.S.T conference in the Summer in Oslo 2008. FEST is the brainchild of Abbi Patrix (France) and Mats Rehnman (Sweden) and the occurrence of the conference, a testimony to the energy and tenacity of Heidi Dahlsveen (University College, Oslo) who rescued it from the sudden demise of the Stavanger symposium which had been cancelled due to a local authority’s withdrawal of funds.

The conference was attended by over sixty representatives of nineteen countries from all over Europe: Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales. Information about the varying states of health of story telling in the various countries was exchanged and discussions held about future funding and approaches that may be adopted by FEST. Topics covered included future festivals, the exclusion of non-English speaking story tellers from the conference, and the healing benefits of story-telling in relation to such fields as speech therapies, autistic behaviour, broken communities and prisons.

Martin Manasse described the FEST conference as a “lighting of an Olympic torch. It must stay alight and be carried by successive relays of torchbearers.” In 2009, the second FEST (The Federation of European Storytelling) Conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland demonstrating again a wide breadth of support and commitment to the advancement and celebration of the oral tradition of storytelling across Europe.

Two significant events this year flag the growing impetus of interest in storytelling and increased recognition of it as an alive traditional cultural form in the UK: the University of Reading is hosting the 2010 F.E.S.T. conference and this January, Taffy Thomas was made the UK’s first story-telling laureate. The launching of his position was held at the British Library on Saturday 30th January, 2010. The second was at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Tuesday 2 February and the third was at Seven Stories museum in Newcastle on Saturday 6 February, 2010.

The position was conceived of by Adrian Johnson, Birmingham’s “Poet Laureate” and brought to realization by the further enthusiasm and support of poet and broadcaster, Michael Rosen, Simon Thirsk, then MD at Bloodaxe books, Patsy Heap from Birmingham City Council, Del Reid - the national director of storytelling week and Pete Chand – recently nominated Arts Foundation award contender for storytelling.

Adrian Johnson writes in his article, in November 2009, that the idea came out of concern for the public’s ignorance of the story-telling tradition and that “something should be done, something to honour the tradition of the storyteller in this country and perhaps, bit by bit, little by little, help to change this situation”.

The position of poet laureate as poet to the monarch was created during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685). According to Thomas Warton in his History of English Poetry 1774-81, its more informal origins lay with Henry I who paid 10 shillings a year to a Versificator Regis. Geoffrey Chaucer was also referred to as the Poet Laureate, being granted in 1389 an annual allowance of wine. Today the position of Poet Laureate is held by Carol Ann Duffy.

Returning to more recent times, in 1999, the position of the Children’s Laureate of the UK was created, springing from a suggestion by Ted Hughes (the then poet laureate) and the writer, Michael Morpugo. Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Rosen have worn the mantle biennially of Children’s Laureate and today the position is held by Anthony Browne.

With a similar biennial structure, the Laureate of Story-Telling has been created this year to tidily converge with the 10th year of Story-Telling Week which commenced on 30th January – 6th February 2010.

Whilst many other countries host a poet laureate, the interest in the UK in story telling is as healthy as can be. The Story for Telling website lists hundreds of story telling events occuring over the next year all over the UK.

The range of locations and story subjects reveals the unique capacity of story-telling to extend to all people, all inspire interests and the desire of people to gather together in real, physical space. The subjects of the story events include: Irish Myths, Sufi tales, Women’s stories, open story nights, medieval comic tales, school performance story tales, Gaelic tales.

The history of oral story-telling is as old as history itself. Many would argue that the popularity of television and its place of honour in the centre of many living rooms testifies to the deep human need for “stories around the hearth” which manifest in all cultures in a multiplicity of forms.

In appearance, a little like a Merlin combined with and a character from a Thomas Hardy novel, sporting a white beard and his trademark “coat of tales” (a patchwork coat full of images and characters) Taffy Thomas’ appearance has a timelessness that links the massive history of which he is a carrier to the exciting future of story-telling that beckons in its new visibility.

The once-teacher and street entertainer turned 60 in 2009 and found himself drawn to story-telling following a debilitating stroke in his thirties which had impaired his speech for a time. His home is in Cumbria, though his life as a storyteller sees him more often on the road, touring the UK, a life that will be more itinerant than ever for his next two years as Laureate.

Taffy Thomas is a keen believer in the direct, personal relationship between teller and listener being a key to the alchemy that story telling effects. Michael Glover records Thomas’ words:

"The essential components are a storyteller, a listener and a good tale. The teller and the listener bring something of their own life experience to the moment. Together they're both making the same journey. A warm relationship grows between the two through that storytelling moment. A good story well told has the potential to draw together a very disparate group of people."

In an interview with Adrian Johnson in November, on hearing of the position Taffy declared with rightful aplomb: “Over the two years, I will do all within my power to promote the art and to encourage the passing on of both repertoire and skills. I will endeavour to lay a firm foundation for future Laureates for storytelling and believe this is an exciting new development for storytelling, I am delighted and honoured to be involved at the start of a new chapter in the life of our art and It is with huge pleasure that I accept the invitation to become the first Laureate for storytelling."

It is an exciting time for those of us who love to curl up and listen; Taffy Thomas is a compassionate ambassador for the art, characterised by his unfailing acknowledgement of the role of the listener in the success of a story and an ability to touch the hearts of whoever he addresses, whatever the context.

“Remember,” Thomas always reminds his listeners at the close of one of his stories, “If speaking were more important than listening, then we would have two tongues and one ear!”