For currently scheduled TTTs, visit the Diary page.
“But that’s another story for another time…”
Shonaleigh was taught 12 story cycles by her Grandmother, each containing hundreds of tales. These stories interconnect – you may start with the tale of the Diamond Girl and find yourself swimming with an Ice Fish on a distant shore before returning to where you began. There are stories hidden in the corners of other stories and each one brings up questions challenging the listeners to explore the depths of the tale’s magic and meanings.
The weekend form of Tellers, Tales and Tradition was dreamt up by Deborah Barker and Shonaleigh to create opportunities for the Drut’syla to tell a tale in full and for storyteller and listeners to experience these tales told in a more traditional form.
As Shonaleigh re-members and re-hydrates the stories told to her by Edith Marks, there will be a few weekends where these stories can be heard in full.
These have taken place around the country – wherever there is a willing host and venue!
Booking
Click Here to find upcoming Tellers, Tales and Tradition events. You can book your place on a weekend by following the links to the event’s website.
If you can’t find an event which suits you, have further questions or would like more information before you book then please do Get In Touch.
Do you think you may be the perfect host for a Tellers weekend? Click here to get in touch.
Tellers, Tales and Tradition: How does the weekend work?
The group will be able to interact with the story as was originally intended. It is the listeners that request stories, journeying through the lattice along a path guided by their requests. You will also be able free to ask questions directly about the stories and the environment in which they were told, from finding hidden trade routes locked within the tales to the reasons why a person might forgo a story in order to hear one of greater importance to the community.
Shonaleigh is the only known Drut’syla and the weekend will be a revival of a culture almost lost. The telling will start at 7.30pm on Friday evening and finish at noon on Sunday. It will take place within a relaxed atmosphere with plenty of cushions and sofas and tea, coffee and cake provided at regular intervals.
This is an unmissable opportunity for anyone interested in stories or in oral and lost cultures to come and help document and archive through listening, requesting stories and asking questions.
"What a rich, nourishing, fulfilling weekend of stories. I would like to wrap Shonaleigh in an enchanted cloth and take her everywhere and be able to hear these stories all the time! Her love of the stories she tells and the wisdom and humour she brings and the fabulous discussions we had transported me back to my childhood. Looking forward to more, much more." Siddartha (The Ruby Tree 2017)
"I cannot recommend this enough! Listening to the winding tales of Shonaleigh telling the tales of long past generations of women is a journey of the soul. Being a craft person, as I weaved my tapestry, I felt transported to a time between worlds - where so many have travelled under the direction of a master story-teller." - Rosie May
"I feel as if all my stories are nothing more but scraps and patches and now I see the wonderful cloak they might once have been - and I want to put them back together." - Jim Munro (The Diamond Girl and the Goat Horn Bee. 19 March, 2017)
"I came with my grown up daughter, having given her the weekend as a birthday present, and we were both captivated all weekend. These ancient stories had contemporary relevance. They were well told in a convivial atmosphere. We both came away nourished in the deepest sense of the word." - Annie (The Golden Labyrinth. 21-23 April, 2017)