Storyteller
Oral Storytelling is one of the oldest human crafts that brought pre-literate people and community’s together in ancient times often round an open fire to tell stories about the constellations above them, the animals and plants around them - some stories were magical there to entertain, others were told to pass on wisdom about how to survive and thrive in the world. Stories were told from memory and in this way, wisdom was passed from one generation to the next.
Every culture of the world has a tradition of storytelling, and even a specific name for the tellers. It is part of what makes us uniquely human as we connect emotionally with well told stories - and if we have connected - we remember them. Those that were remembered that survived became folk tales, wonder tales and myths and formed the basis of many religious texts. Interesting often the specific landscape in which a story is written comes alive in the story itself and sometimes helps shape it.
“Everybody is a story. Everybody’s story matters; our true identity, who we are, why we are here, what sustains us is in this story.” Reman
In a time filled with screens and information overload that invade every aspect of modern life and big tech companies looking to hook us in to addictive and lonely places, oral storytelling offers a place where people can reconnect as humans by spending an evening together as a community. There is a magic that happens at each telling, the listener is just as important as the teller, as they witness the magic which is the story itself. The story somehow manages to connect us to an older simpler human time and weave its way into our subconscious. In a world where answers are easy to find, stories often ask questions and open up our imagination and curiosity. Importantly they connect us - particularly when told in and for a specific community.
Sue has regularly performed myths and folk tales in storytelling circles and has always been struck how landscape and nature inform the myths that come from different cultures. She has toured 2 shows she created with Hannah McDowall. The first is a collection of autobiographical tales while the second is a piece researched from original source material about the life of Eleanor of Castile. She has performed at The International School of Storytelling, in story circles, for SOFAR events, at various venues in London and festivals, as well as at weddings and birthdays, schools and at the top of Mount Olympus!
In 2026 she is debuting a partnership show in Norfolk with local friend and poet, Maria Cornish, whose work explores themes of local distinctiveness, ecological change, connection, loss, and memory.
Flint, Sky and Spindrift is an evocative spoken word performance incorporating storytelling and poetry. The stories and poems conjure up the landscape of North Norfolk reflecting the coastline, farming land, buildings and people that live there.