Guest author: Will Macmllan-Jones – Let me tell you a story

“Let me tell you a story.”  How many of you, as I do, recall Max Bygraves on TV starting one of his routines with that phrase? Then (also on what used to be called the small screen, a description that seems entirely inaccurate now) there’s Jackanory and my favourite, the late night, adult orientated Crackanory… Television tells us stories in dramas and soaps – it is our modern-day inheritor of the most ancient art form of all: oral storytelling. Visual art forms are all very well and have their place, but for sheer entertainment nothing in (or out of) this world beats a good story, does it?

When as a race we were still huddled in our caves, waiting for the darkness to pass and the predators of the night to return to their lairs, storytelling began. Fun, relaxation, entertainment, and also in those days our only way of passing…