Upon my Word: storytelling, audio description and Romanticism in Leeds, Aberdeen, and Northumberland.
I bring narratives to life with oral storytelling performances and workshops, audio description for stage and screen, and research on early nineteenth-century literature.
Who am I?
Stories have always entranced me. They can open windows into different worlds — the world of the past, the world of someone else’s perspective, or a world that doesn’t quite make sense yet seems to touch something deeper.
For over twenty years I have been helping people connect to stories in academia and creative practice.
- As an academic, I explore the way that writers – Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Susan Ferrier – use their words to create new worlds and ask questions about existing ones. Find out more on my research profile.
- As an educator, I find ways to empower students of all ages and levels to reach their full potential. From tutoring school-aged children to running workshops for postgraduates, my research-informed teaching gets alongside students and helps them to develop.
- As a storyteller, I tell traditional tales to people of all ages from a few weeks old to 104 years! I trained with the Grampian Association of Storytellers and joined the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s directory in 2009.
- As an audio describer, I bring arts and culture alive for visually impaired people. I write scripts for screen and TV, write and read scripts for live theatre, and am involved in training and public engagement.
In the News
Sometimes we all just want to get up and fly away, and this is the experience I offer through stories when I …
In 2024, I was employed by the North-East Culture Collective to work with the Grampian Regional Equalities Council (GREC) to run storytelling …
