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events

An Evening of Elephant Tales, With Peter Chand

From ancient stone carvings, to the Indian epics and many a folktale in between – the elephant has played a large part in many a story from the subcontinent. Whether it is the kind and trusting beast who suffers at the cruel hands of man, or the Remover of Obstacles himself the wise and powerful Ganesha- the elephant is as much a part of the myth and folktale of India as the pantheon of gods themselves.

In what we hope will be a story-filled 2023, the Island Storytellers are bringing professional storyteller Peter Chand onto the island for an evening of Indian Tales — Jayamala and Other Elephant Tales — at Cafe Isola, Newport, on Friday, January 27th, 2023, doors at 6.30pm and first story at 7pm.

Tickets, priced £10 (including booking fee) are available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/islandstorytellers

Biography: British Indian storyteller Peter Chand has bought together a collection of elephant stories that are at times whimsical and sensual, and also dark and disturbing in equal measure. From the mighty Indra’s flying white elephant, to the moving tale of Jayamala, this is a lovely collection of Indian stories bought to you by one of Europe’s finest storytellers.

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events

Announcing “Winter Tales”, 2022

Following on from our two previous sold-out performances (Island Tales and Sinister Stories), we’re pleased to announce our next show will be back at Boojum & Snark in Sandown on Thursday, December 15th, 2022. Doors open at 7pm, stories from 7.30pm.

Tickets in advance, priced £6 including booking fee, from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tis-tales.

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“Sinister Stories” Pop-Up Venue

For the sold-out first outing of our “Sinister Stories” set, we took to the woods in pop-up venue in the woods at Fort Victoria Country Park…

Thanks to everyone who braved it into the woods…

If you have any photos or videos from the event, please share them with our tistales Facebook page, tag them via @TisTales_IW Twitter account, or email them to mediashare@tistales.org.uk

To sign up to our mailing list, email subscribe@tistales.org.uk.


We’re hoping to announce our next performance in the next few days, so keep checking back here, or via our socials, for details…

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events

Sinister Stories at Fort Victoria

Taking a step out into the woods, our next ‘Tis Tales performance is a seasonal outing of sinister stories and chilling tales, at Fort Victoria on Friday, October 28th, 2022, 7pm-8.30pm (subject to weather…).

An atmospheric evening of chilling traditional tales.

The evening will start in the car park at Fort Victoria, where the tale tellers will meet you before guiding you to a clearing in the woods. There we will settle in for an evening of stories about Death and the Devil, spectres and ghouls, close calls and unfortunate ends.

The tales are chilling, but we don’t have to be! Dress for the weather, bring a hot flask and a chair, blanket or cushion to keep the chilblains at bay.

Suitable for ages 11+. In the event of extreme weather you will be contacted and the event will be rearranged to a later date.

Tickets, priced £5.50 (which includes the booking fee) available from the ‘Tis Tales ticket site, https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/tis-tales, or direct here.

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activities

‘Tis Tales Tellers Telling a Hullabaloo, Autumn 2022

Retrospectively posted, but it’s all about keeping track of the stories and lies…

Taking a step away from a troupe performance, Holly, Monty and Sue and all made individual appearances at the Sandown Hullabaloo science, art and community festival over the weekend.

Featuring early morning breakfast tales, animal tales, and tales of wonder, the three ‘Tis Tales tellers provided tales for all ages at this fantastic island event.

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events

Island Storytellers Promoted Event: Keith Donnelly

On Monday, October 17th, 2022, 7.30-9.30pm, the Island Storytellers storytelling circle are promoting a special event at the Ventnor Arts Club, a one-night only performance event by singer and teller of the tallest of tales, Keith Donnelly.

Tickets, priced £6 + booking fee, are available from the Ventnor Arts Club or via online ticket sales here.


The Island Storytellers meet once a month or so, typically on the third Tuesday of the month, typically in a pub somewhere on the Island, for an informal hour or two of round table storytelling. Tellers new and old, as well as listeners old and new, are always most welcome. Check out the Island Storytellers Facebook group, or the Island Storytellers page here on the `Tis Tales website, for regular updates about where the group is meeting next…

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events

‘Tis Tales Performance at IW Literary Festival, 2022, Now Sold Out

If your haven’t bought your tickets for our “Island Tales” performance this weekend at Medina Bookshop in Cowes, as part of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, 2022, the tickets have now sold out.

We are hoping to announce some dates for a couple of new performances in the near future, so make sure you keep checking back here for updates.


If you would like to book ‘Tis Tales for a storytelling performance, please get in touch via bookings@tistales.org.uk

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events

Upcoming Show at Isle of Wight Literary Festival

We’re pleased to announce that ‘Tis Tales will be performing at the Medina Bookshop, Cowes, on Saturday, October 8th, 2022, 7.30pm-8.30pm, as part of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, with another outing of our Island Tales set.

We may not have books to sell, but we certainly have tales to tell…

Tickets, priced £10, are available from the Isle of Wight Literary Festival website.

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reviews

A Weekend at Oxford Storytelling Festival, 2022

Last weekend seems to have been a busy one in the world of UK storytelling festivals, with both the Oxford Storytelling Festival and the East Anglian Storytelling Festival taking place.

Tellers at Oxford included Shonaleigh, Jan Blake, Emily Hennessy & Sheema Mukhurjee, Nick Hennessey, Tom Hirons, Riika Palonen, Lisa Schneidau, and David Heathfield. Shonaleigh also featured at East Anglia, along with other half Simon Heywood, Clare Murphy, Xanthe Gresham, Dave Tonge, Taffy Thomas, and more…

From the ‘Tis Tales camp, Monty took a trip (as a punter and story-round teller on the final night) to the Oxford event at Waterperry Gardens, in search not just of telling tips and new tales to tell, but also ideas we might be able to bring back to the island in terms of performance spaces and event programming.

The venue was split between two indoor venues and several outdoor venues.

The headline venue was an amphiteatre…

Do we have a venue like that anywhere on the Island?

The outdoor tented venues were in a single grassed area, along with stalls, a food stand and a bar, and came in a variety of styles: a large tipi, a smaller event shelter, and a small but beautifully decorated tented venue.

Viewed from the side, The Little Tent of Wonders showed what could be achieved with some imagination (note the floor was actually carpeted and cushioned over plastic sheet).

There was also a fire pit, with fire point, and a pond…

The small camping field was just a couple of minutes walk away, on the flat, with an adjacent car parking field. The only quibble, perhaps, was that there were no guiding lights (simple solar charged ones would have been fine) to signal the gateway out of the field, so with a moonless night, torches were advisable.

I’m not sure how well the outside venues would have worked with larger numbers, or inclement weather, but for the event as it was over the weekend, it all seemed to work really well.

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stories

In Search of the Pedlar of Swaffham

A couple of weeks ago, on a trip to see the roundy-roundy BTCC racing touring cars at Snetterton in Norfolk, I (Monty) took a slight detour via Swaffham in search of remnants of the traditional tale The Pedlar of Swaffham (as for example collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales [notes]).

In the Church there, you can find carvings of the pedlar and his dog.

The pew ends also have various other carvings, which makes me wonder whether there are stories attached to those as well…

One thing I’m rather regretting is not asking anyone from the Church, or elsewhere in the town, to tell me the story of the pedlar as they know it. It may well be there is some further localisation or elaboration of it. (Hopefully next time….!)

It also made me wonder about what statues or carvings in Isle of Wight churches might have interesting tales attached to the them. Suggestions, anyone?! Please let me know via the comments, or otherwise…

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