Welcome to The 12th Annual National Storytelling Week

Sat 28th Jan - Sat 4th Feb

Welcome to the world's widest vistas, in the country of the mind, on the rivers of the tongue. Here is the moment and all time; here time disappears. Come to the place that is... and isn't, more than so many times. Where in the end as light fades on breathe and gathers silence there is only the sound of a sigh and the "Wow" factor.

So come with us; join us. Over the past twelve years we have gone from strength to strength, encouraging all areas of the community to take part in creating and enjoying storytelling - this most ancient of communicative arts. National Storytelling week has an audience of an estimated 17,000 people.

Find out what's happening in National Storytelling Week 2012

The push is on to make 2012 an even greater achievement to give out to all cultures, tales long untold, tales told and forgotten, ancient and modern tales, and stories as yet unbegotten.

Here are just some of the organisations who are holding events for NSW in 2012:

Sure Start Children’s Centres; Bristol Storytelling Festival; York Festival of Storytelling; Winter Storytelling Festival, Devon; St Helens Libraries; Plymouth Libraries; The Idea Store, Whitechapel; The Story Museum, Oxford; The Art House, Southampton; Exeter Central Library; World Stories website; Roald Dahl Museum; Selfridges, London; The Horniman Museum, London; London Metropolitan Museum; Haringey Libraries, London; The Cuming Museum, London; Harrow Arts Centre; The Bulgarian Cultural Institute, London; Flag Fen, Peterborough; and hundreds of schools through the UK!

In the beginning was the word, so we are told, and the man who gathered the words spoke and lifted life through parable, fable, saga, tale and story - each an experience, one way or another.

Storytelling can be found enriching lives everywhere: from nurseries to schools, from bereavement aids in hospitals to strengthening communication in the business sphere, from reminiscence centres to support groups for those with special needs, and in theatrical performances.  The sharing between teller and listener empowers, feeding the imagination from one generation to the next.

Find our more about the history of National Storytelling Week

To find out more. Contact Del Reid, coordinator, National Storytelling Week.