This morning was spent in a training session with a group enthusiastic for storytelling in education as part of #NationalStorytellingWeek bringing together storytelling and reading. Thank you to our guest Liz Weir who inspired the group with her passion for both storytelling & children's literature.
Surrey Storytellers started 2026 by welcoming Marion Leeper with her heartfelt telling ‘Peronik: the diary in the attic’. Wound around the tale of Peronik, Marion told us a long-lost family story of illicit love and its inevitable conclusion. Thank you to all those telling - and those who baked too.
First talk of the year: Storytelling - The Social Art of Language
Nice to have a gig just up the road to ease me in to work.
Here is a reel of 'A Christmas Carol': extracts of me telling the story and Louise Howlett singing. A huge thank you to Gary Thomas for the video footage, Harvey for twiddling the knobs on the sound desk, Paul for the refreshments, and the audience who gave us a full house on 20 December.
We are looking forward to collaborating on 2025's Christmas offering in aid of St John the Baptist Old Malden - the first time we have been able to work together for a few years. If the performances aren't enough, there is mulled wine (& fruit juice) + home-made mince pies (& other treats).
The final Three Heads in Well club night of 25 started with stories from the floor, followed by The Firebird told by 6 members of Waxing Lyrical, Surrey Storytellers’ coaching group. This beautiful & entertaining telling was passed seamlessly between tellers to create a truly magical performance.
Yesterday, I led an online workshop on playful classroom storytelling. We discussed playfulness in relation to quirkiness, unpredictability, flexibility and sloppiness (engaging in storytelling that is not polished and is perhaps a bit chaotic).
#storytelling #play #pedagogy #learning #teaching
Last night, Surrey Storytellers gathered for an ensemble evening with Tales of Magic and Mystery. We were taken deep into the forest and across fields of snow, and realised that we were shivering at more than the cold.
#storytelling #storytellers #MaldenManor #WorcesterPark
It's that time of year when we think of all things mysterious, sometimes spooky, sometimes frightening and sometimes just very strange. Surrey Storytellers will be both in-person and online this month, so come along and get your ticket on the door, or pre-book at:
surreystorytellers.co.uk
This year, The Society for Storytelling is launching a National Young Storytellers Week. As our contribution to the week, Surrey Storytellers is sponsoring a day of workshops for young people (aged 8-25) on 25 October. For further details, or sign-up, go to: surreystorytellers.co.uk/Young-Storyt...
After the summer break, Surrey Storytellers club night, Three Heads in Well, returned with an evening of stories from the floor & our featured teller Shane Ibbs, who ably demonstrated his responsive and relaxed storytelling style drawing us in to his tales. #storytelling #maldenmanor #worcesterpark
It was back to school with a bump this week. I spent Wedensday storytelling on the theme of commitment with children from nursery age to Year 2.
The day was a reminder that children as young as 3 can contribute to shaping tales, as Gussin Paley says: ‘Storytelling is the social art of language’.
Yesterday, I provided storytelling training for folk who volunteer with a major UK nature charity. After identifying our skills as natural storytellers, we applied our (now) explicit knowledge to telling stories of place focusing initially on the human, and then on the non-human inhabitants.
This showreel brings together clips from the performance at Surrey Storytellers monthly club, Three Heads in a Well, on 25 July 2025 (and one clip shot in Dover Market Square). Filming was by Gary Thomas.
Alastair can be contacted through his website: www.storytent.co.uk
youtube.com/shorts/pcuK1...
Following stories from the floor, I brought ‘When the Gentlemen Go By' to Surrey Storytellers last night.
The whole room sang along with Kipling’s ‘Smuggler’s Song’ & then travelled across Romney Marsh to Aldington knoll, and from Dover Gaol to the haunted chalk pit of 'Smuggler's Leap'
On Friday 25 July Surrey Storytellers welcomes Alastair K with 'When the Gentlemen Go By: Stories and Songs of South Coast Smuggling'. Tickets on the door/pre-book at:
surreystorytellers.co.uk
(£10 full price in-person; £7 concession in-person)
There are taster videos here
youtu.be/BFxRP89T1Po?...
Earlier in the year I was interviewed by Despina Ariou and Simona Stambazzi for the 'Tell, Muses' podcast. We discussed storytelling in education and the fearlessness of young children with language, the use of objects in storytelling, & how stories speak to people: open.spotify.com/episode/77aH...
Yesterday, I was enjoyed being part of The National Centre for Family Learning’s Story Power conference. My contribution, Oral Storytelling as Playful Pedagogy, looked at the characteristics of play & how to nurture playful storytelling with and between children.
#storytelling #play #families #story
Belinda McKenna and I have had a great evening representing Surrey Storytellers for one of Surbiton Inner Wheel's 'Try anything once' sessions. Despite the heat, the multi-generational group threw themselves into storytelling activities and entertained each other with the tales they devised.
I am back home from the UKLA International Conference where I delivered an Expert Practice Session on 'Twisting Tales - challenging power, role and visibility in folk and fairy story' in which participants considered the nature, attributes & the lot in life of characters in well-known fairy tales.
Last April, I was in Marrakech with John Row and Sef Townsend for 'Merchant Stories: Marrakech to Manchester'. I was interviewed by the fabulous Zouhair Khaznaoui (co-director of the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival) for the Storyteller's Podcast.
youtu.be/hu4-kLXTKNQ?...
Join @akdaniel.bsky.social, The Story Tent, at the #StoryPowerConference on 3 July 🏕️
Alastair will share ways for teachers and learners to be playful in oral storytelling, using everyday items to spark stories. Watch the short video for more.
Book your place: bit.ly/StoryPowerCo... #FamilyLearning
What a lovely weekend at The East Anglian Storytelling Festival, meeting lots of old friends and making some new ones, listening to fabulous storytelling sets, getting in some stories myself, and eating far too much.
#storytelling #festival
It was back to the classroom this morning for me working with Yr 6 children. I love Gregory Rogers' wordless text 'The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard' which was our inspiration for group process storytelling - developing ideas together through telling, rather than performing to an audience.
Yesterday I attended the UK Literacy Association ITE SIG conference on oracy & was delighted to be asked to give a short talk of the nature of educational storytelling: any chance to bang the drum for storytelling is always welcome. Thank you to the organisers and contributors for a fascinating day.
Stories from the smuggling history of Kent and Sussex seem to be filling much of my waking hours at the moment, so it was a real pleasure to be able to walk the ground that both smugglers & the revenue men who pursued them had walked in previous centuries. Thank you Gary Thomas for the camera work.
While in Marrakech in January, I recorded two stories for the House of Stories website (curated by Richard Hamilton). You can find the collection here: thehouseofstories.com, and my two stories here: King John's Trout: youtu.be/YQxUlqwfSDM?... and The Longest Story: youtu.be/HSVa1E0H_fQ?...
To mark #WorldBookNight, I was invited to talk at Kensington Central Library on Folk and Fairy Tales and the Oral Tradition. We started with the pull of narrative on the human mind, looked at the development of the fairy tale tradition, & considered common characteristics of traditional tales.
If you are in Stoneleigh, or the environs, why not celebrate World Book Night at the library on Wednesday with Surrey Storytellers www.stoneleighlibrary.org.uk/what-s-on/co...
With a theme of New Beginnings, our April session sees Three Heads in a Well gives the floor over to an ensemble evening with our local tellers. We will be both in-person and online. Tickets on the door or at: surreystorytellers.co.uk
(£10 full price in-person; £7 concession in-person; £6 online)
