What inspires your stories?

My project as a storyteller for the last two years has been finding LGBTQ+ myths and folklore. We know a lot of these stories featuring and celebrating queer characters have been lost to us. Racism and colonialism has done untold damage to many cultures that had wider understandings of sexuality and gender, and some of the famous men who categorised European folk and fairy tales into written collections actually mention that they deliberately left out tales that contained ‘sexually deviant’ themes as they called them. But the queer stories that have survived are being reclaimed, restored and celebrated across the world, and I want people like me, who have often felt like traditional storytelling doesn’t have space for them, to hear stories that feature queer heroes, queer deities, and queer community.

How did you become involved in professional storytelling?

I was introduced to storytelling for grown ups by watching Abbie Simmonds of the former Brighton Storytellers. I had trained as an actor, so I was quite used to standing up and pretending to be someone else, but I was blown away by the power of telling a simple story entirely as yourself. I became a regular at the club, learning from all the different tellers I saw, and eventually I bagged a slot to perform and told the happiest version of Orpheus and Eurydice you’ve ever heard – and people liked what I did! So I kept going from there, performing where I could and building my repertoire. Now I’m one of the founders of the local storytelling club in Shoreham, the Ropetackle Storytellers, and I’m mentoring other storytellers as part of the Step Up Commission for the Get A Word in Edgeways Spoken Word Festival, which is very exciting!