Children acting out the wedding in The Frog Prince from Grimms Fairy Tales The storyteller (seen kneeling) playing the role of the Book of Common Prayer and prompting the vicar in the reading of the wedding vows.'

I tell traditional folk tales and fairy tales, particularly Grimms', and adapt them for my own needs. I spend a lot of time reading collections of stories and adapting them for my work and I reject a lot of stories on the basis that there is not enough action in them. At home I learn only the bare bones of a story I wish to tell, so that with each telling the story alters.

I work with the audience in a very active way (hence the name of my organization 'Active Stories'-coined by a friend). As I do work alone most of the stories I tell have one central character such as a king, queen, servant, cinderella, wolf, coyote. The children I work with come out voluntarily to play other characters and props needed.

So I may begin 'Once upon a time there was a very smelly king' (I will play the king) and then as I continue with the story I'll involve the audience. Asking them questions such as how often do they have a bath and how long do you think it was since this king had a bath. Then I will take the narrative on to the king going down to the river to bathe for the first time in a year. The audience will become the crowd gawping at the spectacle, some of the children will volunteer to be the king's soap and towel and we'll proceed from there.

At present I work in schools, pre-schools, playschemes, parks, at birthday parties and festivals.