and teachers on the grounds that they are too violent, the new understanding of their
psychological value is currently helping to change attitudes about their suitability.
Another factor behind the revival is the great increase in mobility in the twentieth
century with the consequent interspersing of peoples across the world and the new
valuation of ethnicity and culture. In Britain, during the 1970s and early 1980s, for
example, new cultural needs were felt—for instance for children to learn why the
celebration of Diwali is an important part of Indian life. This created a demand for story-
tellers from different cultures to tell the religious stories and folk-tales of their peoples.
Over a similar period, a developing awareness of ecology was combining with new regard
for the knowledge of primitive peoples to create an increased interest in traditional ways
of life and the wisdom enshrined in the world’s oral traditions. The growth in the
children’s book market, too, began making widely available, often in colourful picture-
book format, traditional stories which had previously languished in obscure collections.
Gail E.Haley’s version of an Ananse tale, A Story, A Story, and Joanna Troughton’s
version of the Aboriginal story of Tiddalik are examples of what has become an important
genre.
In Britain, revival was apparent in such developments as the forming of Common
Lore, a multicultural troupe of story-tellers and musicians, the foundation of the now-
defunct College of Story-tellers and the organisation of major Story-telling Festivals for
adults, the first taking place in Battersea in 1985. Story-telling gained ground in
schools, libraries and adult story-telling clubs, reminiscence work was done with elderly
people and story-telling therapy with disabled and ill people. In education, the National
Oracy Project was influential, with numerous projects and publications drawing
attention to the importance of story, the abundance of techniques for working with it
and the value of encouraging children to see themselves as tellers.
A new breed of professional story-teller has emerged. The renewal also gained
immensely from bringing fresh opportunities to traditional tellers like Duncan
Williamson, a Scottish traveller who claims to know more than 2,000 stories, some of
which have been transcribed in Fireside Tales and other collections. In Scotland and
Ireland, a new connection was made with oral traditions which were still surviving. In
America, ethnically a fertile ground, the same process had begun rather earlier. There,
the formation of NAPPS (The National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation
of Story-telling) gave focus to a renewal evidenced in regular story-telling programmes in
libraries and museums, numerous festivals and conferences, college courses, and a
flourishing market of books and cassettes related to story-telling. Canada too has made
a distinguished contribution.
The revival was not a sudden one. In Britain, the poet John Masefield, had had a
passionate interest although he failed to get a planned Guild of Story-tellers off the
ground. The librarian, Eileen Colwell, was a pioneer, instituting regular story-telling
sessions as a feature of England’s first children’s libraries in the 1920s. In A Story-
teller’s Choice and other books, she created useful collections of good stories for telling
with notes about how to tell them. In the USA, Marie Shedlock, author of The Art of the
Story-teller, and Ruth Sawyer, author of The Way of the Story-teller were both influential,
drawing particular attention to the value of story-telling with children.
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