Medieval Stories at Merton Priory

Under the A24, between Sainsbury's, Pizza Hut and an electricity pylon hides a hidden gem and I was lucky enough to be invited to tell a tale or two there.
Merton Priory was as big as Westminster Abbey but was knocked down by King Henry VIII, reusing the stone to build a Summer Palace. The foundations of the Priory’s Chapel House remain in a wonderful museum tucked under the road.
Oh, the fun we had! I told tales of monks and monasteries, farts and flatulence and a tough Princess or two (I had to throw in a tough Princess!).
The National Trust hosted the event as part of their ongoing project to restore the remaining part of the Medieval Wall, Pickle Park and Pickle Ditch, but that's another story!

October 2023

Storytelling by Candlelight

What an absolute joy to be telling tales in the magical Asylum Chapel. The evening of storytelling and music celebrated #spaceforstorytelling. A wonderful project that will support, nurtue and develop storytelling in London.

Watch this space for more updates on events.

Southfield's Stories

Traditional tales spun from conversations with the residents of Southfields

'I love Southfields!' was a very common reply when I asked local residents about living here. As we chatted, they shared many memories and special stories of friendships, parks, sunflowers and even one about a broken lamp.

These conversations were the backbone to Southfields Stories, a very special evening of storytelling, where memories and traditional tales were woven together and complimented eachother to show the things that are really important to us, in the place we live.

Huge thank you to Southfield's Harvest who commissioned me to develop and perform Southfield's Stories but most of all to the wonderful residents of Southfields who shared their stories, hopes and dreams.

'Big thanks to the incomparable Hannah Need who held the audience rapt last night with an entertaining mix of local recollections and tall tales that summed up Southfields beautifully. What a treat!'

Feedback from Southfields Harvest

This project was commissioned by Southfields Harvest and funded by the Wandsworth Grant Scheme.

National Storytelling Week & World Book Day Walthamstow

Waltham Forest Libraries welcomed me back to celebrate National Storytelling Week with a series of Storytelling Workshops. So, in two and a half days I travelled the streets of Waltham Forest visiting seven of their libraries.

Oh the fun we had! Stories were shared and tales were told with the children adding lots of wonderful ideas to the stories. We had a blue dragon called Beth, a talking fish and we even helped Little Red Riding Hood pack up some yummy food to help Granny feel better, apparently chocolate cup cakes and broccoli work well!

One of my favourite stories, shared by a girl in Walthamstow Library went like this ‘A Princess had a pet fish but a cat came along and ate it. The End!’

I returned to Waltham Forest Libraries for World Book Day in March to share stories from around the World. It was brilliant to be back. Walthamstow has such a wonderful mix of libraries with friendly, helpful staff.

In the tales I told we travelled far and wide from Brazil where a rather shy beetle won a new coat to China where a rather annoying dragon was eating people. We headed home via Russia to make some soup and Germany to check in on some elves.

It truely was a trip around the world from the comfort of your local library!

I love my job,

here's a few more reasons why..............

Picnics and Stories - what's not to love?

You know how some things just go together perfectly? Like a scone needs jam and cream (or cream and jam), a cuppa tea is too wet without a chocolate biscuit, toast tastes better with marmite (controversial I know). Picnics are much tastier when accompanied by stories!

So, to celebrate National Picnic Month, I found myself touring the libraries of Waltham Forest telling tales, enjoying picnics and meeting some wonderful people. The libraries are inspiring, all different, some old, some new, some small, some big but they all had welcoming, friendly staff, wonderful audiences and beautiful spaces for children to enjoy stories.

Thank you Waltham Forest for having me and I look forward to seeing you again soon - subtle hint to watch this space........

Stories, books and an amazing charity

For World Book Week I was lucky enough to work with a wonderful charity, Acorn Book Club at a wonderful school, on behalf of London Dreamtime, wonderful storytellers. I appreciate that’s a lot of wonderfuls so let me tell you more……

Oh, the morning we had! On the Wednesday of World Book Week I met Jo Chandler from Acorn Book Club at Coopers Lane Primary School SE21. I told tales of cheeky monkeys, giant carrots and Goldilocks to Year 1 and 2, won over year 6 with stories of wishes going badly wrong and a very tough Princess and rounded the morning off with Year 3 and 5 sharing stories of a very clever beetle and Little Red Riding Hood being rather brave. The children loved it and it was great to be back in school.

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We were there to celebrate World Book Week, all things story and that Acorn Book Club had donated over 1,000 books to the school for their library. Paul Hooper, the Headteacher, gave us a tour of their new library space. The builders were in, bright bookshelves, furniture and a rather interesting Baba Yaga style house were being built. But you could already see the amazing space the library will be and imagine the worlds it will open up for the children through books and stories.

Here's a bit more World Book Week news from Acorn Book Club https://www.instagram.com/reel/CazfXiRA9H-/?utm_medium=copy_link

And finally here’s what they thought

 "Hannah, you were completely wonderful, the children were captivated!"

Jo Chandler Acorn Book Club

"The children absolutely loved Hannah, the World Book Day Storyteller and the incredible book donation will help to promote a love of reading for years to come.”

Paul Hooper - Head Teacher

Coopers Lane Primary School

Stories in my Back Room

We’ve gone hybrid!

Stories in my Back Room are a series of storytelling evenings featuring some of my favourite storytellers. It's a win:win situation because I get to collaborate with some amazing storytellers and the audience get to hear the wonderful tales we develop together. There'll be a small local audience (IRL) whilst the wonderful online audiences, who have kept us going through lockdown, can tune in as well.

Our first night in November saw Pyn Stockman tell her story of The Bee Charmer, a wonderful tale that is a spin off from her project Tell it to the Bees. Our stories grew together as my Tales of Sheep Thieves and Stone Soup and Pyn's Bee Charmer shared wonderful images of finding somewhere to call home. For December, Wendy Shearer and Hannah Brialsford joined me for some Wintry Tales which took us all over the world. We found warmth and gifts in amongst the chill of Winter in what was a cosy evening by the fire.

We kicked off 2022 with Sarah Lloyd Winder and yours truly telling The Wild Hunt. Sarah painted wonderful images in our minds of a very special evening where women came together and Sarah and I shared these women's stories. This is definitely the start of something and it'll be intersting to see how the story develops, changes and  grows. Exciting stuff!

Plans are afoot for more evenings and I'm very much looking forward to being joined by Emily Hanna-Grazebrook and other wonderful tellers throughout 2022.

Online Audience feedback: ‘It felt very intimate and special, like when you watch the Proms on TV, you look at the audience and feel you are part of the event.’

March 2022

Any stories

‘Any stories’ was definitely a very special night of storytelling which, via the wonders of the internet, brought together friends, family and an audience from all over the World. I’d like to say a huge thank you to The World Storytelling Café for their support and for hosting the event which was part of Wandsworth Arts Fringe.

It’s my fifth year performing as part of Wandsworth Arts Fringe and I’ve seen it go from strength to strength including adapting very successfully to get through the last 2 years. This year's Fringe saw a wonderfully wide range of shows, exhibitions and events, live, online and hybrid. The shows definitely did go on!

‘Any stories’ came about when my lockdown brain was struggling to plan ahead for anything, let alone develop a new solo storytelling show. Luckily I had the idea to tell any stories that popped into my head. On the night, the stories were a mixture of stories new to me and a few old favourites which  evolved and changed as new themes and ideas were added. The show was more political than I’d expected but I guess given the year we’ve all had, perhaps not that surprising.

The good news is the show is available to watch anytime, just click here and scroll down the page.

June 2021

The Green Meet at Fulham Palace

It was my first storytelling event outside, with a real live audience, after a very long wait in Lockdown and I found myself hidden away in The Bishops Wood at Fulham Palace telling stories. What an absolute treat!

In the run up to the event I was lucky enough to have a personal tour of the gardens with one of Fulham Palace's wonderful volunteers. She easily shared so much history, knowledge and anecdotes about Fulham Palace that stories started to pop into my head. The majestic 500 year old oak tree was just like an oak tree in a story I tell. The tree in my story provides a palce to escape to, where you  can gather your thoughts. The fruit trees in blossom in the walled garden reminded me of stories where apple trees have hidden magic.  So many more thoughts and ideas were inspired by those wonderful gardens.

And so, on a rather chilly May Bank Holiday, telling stories in the woods, I realised I'd definitey found my little bit of countryside in the midst of the city.

Dragon Fly Tales Podcasts

It has been quite a year but some great things have come out of Lockdown and here's another one. Dragon Fly Tales launched their story podcasts just over a year ago. Every few week Emily Hannah Grazebrook and Leo share a story, shout out to their listeners and also invite along a guest stoyteller. Their stories have taken us on advetures all over the world at a time when we can only dream about travelling. The podcast has grown steadily and now has an audience of over 13,000 listeners from around the world.

I've been lucky enough to join them sharing a story new to me, based on a story  called Dirty Earth about a very silly King and a wonderful wise old woman. I loved telling this story, so pertinent and really good fun. So if you fancy stories of donkeys and dirty earth click here!

There are 17 episodes to choose from, so far and more to come so why not tune in and enjoy!

May 2021

MAYhem and Mischief

Oh what a night! We had MAYhem and Mischief by the bucket load. Be it a strangely attractive mouse with a rather stinky, cheesy tail, a look at loosh morales somewhere in the South of England (names have been witheld to prevert any libel action) a clever woman winning over a king with her intellect. And that was only the first half. We then had a touch of nakedness, in the story I hasten to add, not the storytellers and rounded off the evening with a rather rotund, greedy monster of a child.

MAYhem and Mischief indded!

A huge thank you to a wonderful rather cheeky bunch of stoytellers......Emily Hanna-Grazebrook, Alastair Daniel, Hannah Brailsford and Lucy Lil.

Perhaps I overuse this phrase, but it was bloody brilliant!

May 2021

Gits, Goddesses and Giants

8pm, Wednesday 24th March

What started with me trying to read a mesage on my phone about a wonderful book called 'Girls, Goddeses and Giants' (it's a great book by the way). But in the blur of my eyesight I read it as 'Gits, Goddeses and Giants' and thought what a great name for a show. And what a great night it was.

Wendy Shearer, Hannah Brailsford, Olivia Armstrong, James Canvin and yours truelly treated everyone to a night of tales of lazy gits, great godesses and even a real life giant.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Lets do it again soon!

March 2021