During the Jubilee bank holiday weekend we visited Cornwall and stayed in a valley lodge on St. Tinney’s farm. It’s a beautiful location, in rural Cornwall. Although it rained heavily at times, the air was fresh and the woods were perfect for exploring. On one of the sunny days, we headed out to the Eden Project which is not far away from where we were staying. After roaming through their breathtaking landscapes, we stopped for a break in the Citrus Grove of the Mediterranean Biome where one of their storytellers was about to begin. Storytelling at the Eden Project began capturing the audience with a tale of far away lands and unrequited love.
Some of the themes were a little too complicated for my young children. I glanced around the Biome and am not sure if it was the intense heat, or the complicated themes, but children were fidgeting and finding it hard to concentrate. I closed my eyes and imagined myself as the storyteller and conjured up ways to capture their attention and interact with the children.
I would choose to tell stories that I’d been told as a child, stories with a magical element that would make us smile, laugh and teach us about another culture. I decided that I would re-tell Anancy stories – trickster stories about the half man, half spider.