Taffy Thomas,
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
is a
storyteller, based in
Grasmere in the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
.
Biography
In September 2009, Thomas accepted the honorary position of the UK's first Laureate for Storytelling, which was officially launched on 30 January 2010 at the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
as part of a series of national events for National Storytelling Week, for a period of two years.
Brian Patten
Brian Patten (born 7 February 1946) is an English poet and author. He came to prominence in the 1960s as one of the Liverpool poets, and writes primarily lyrical poetry about human relationships. His famous works include "Little Johnny's Confessi ...
,
Michael Rosen
Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is a British children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009.
Early life
Michael Wayne Ro ...
, Pete Suchil Chand, Patsy Heap, Del Reid and Simon Thirsk are patrons and official guardians of the first laureate for storytelling.
Thomas trained as a Literature and Drama teacher at
Dudley College of Education, before teaching in
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
. While teaching, he also founded two companies to promote folk theatre and rural arts. Thomas fronted and performed in the ''Fabulous Salami Brothers'', the popular touring unit of ''Charivari'', while ''The Magic Lantern'' traveled Europe illustrating folk songs by use of shadow puppets.
A stroke at the age of 36 brought another change in direction when he turned to
storytelling
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...
as self-imposed
speech therapy. Now widely acknowledged as England's leading proponent in the art of traditional storytelling, Thomas boasts a repertoire of over 300 tales and elaborate 'lies' collected predominantly from oral sources and
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
. With so many stories in Thomas's head, fellow storyteller Giles Abbot once remarked "when Taffy goes it will be like a library burning down."
In the 2001
New Year Honours List, he was awarded the MBE for services to storytelling and charity, and later in the year performed a new collaboration for the
Blue Peter Prom at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
in London.
Combining the fields of education and entertainment, Thomas has toured nationally and internationally, appearing at the Settle Storytelling Festival,
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
Arts Festival in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, the American
National Storytelling Festival
The National Storytelling Festival is held the first full weekend of October in Jonesborough, Tennessee at the International Storytelling Center. The National Storytelling Festival was founded by Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teache ...
, and a stint as storyteller-in-residence for the programme of summer residencies at the National Center for Storytelling in
Jonesborough, Tennessee
Jonesborough (historically also Jonesboro) is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. Its population was 5,860 as of 2020. It is "Tennessee's oldest town".
Jonesborough is part of the ...
in 2006.
Thomas is currently artistic director of Tales in Trust, the Northern Centre for Storytelling, in Grasmere, and a patron of the Society for Storytelling.
References
External links
Taffy Thomas' WebsiteGrasmere*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Taffy
Living people
British storytellers
Members of the Order of the British Empire
People from Grasmere (village)
Year of birth missing (living people)