Storytelling is one of our oldest and most enduring arts. It pervades all cultures and experiences, and it unites and marshals our deepest emotions. Storytellers, somewhat like the weather-making Tempestarii of legend, modulate the soul’s atmosphere; their words electrify and vivify, frighten and amaze. “Legend-makers” are, as J.R.R. Tolkien maintained, “blessed.” Their tales cast audiences into fathomless seas, and lift them to superlunary spheres far beyond the clouded halls of Magonia.
In London–a diverse world of its own–Vanessa Woolf carries on this storied tradition, transporting her listeners to the remotest corners of the city, and introducing them to the hidden personalities, beings, and haunts that elude the untrained gaze of mere mortals. We caught up with Woolf to learn more about her art and how her storytelling project, London Dreamtime, has changed in the wake of Covid-19.
The Custodian: When was your first time speaking in front of a live audience? When did you realise that it was something you enjoyed and were good at?
Vanessa Woolf: I actually had a real complex about speaking in public, I also hated the sound of my own voice. I’m used to it now! Chatting to other storytellers, I find it amazing how many have had to overcome an innate shyness, impediment, or fear of public speaking.
C: Which books and personal experiences most shaped your approach to the imagination, magic, and folklore?
VW: I’m privileged to have grown up in a house full of incredible books, mostly bought in jumble sales! I had Pictor’s Metamorphoses by Herman Hesse in a–totally inappropriate–LSD soaked illustrated volume! Also 1930s fairy books and a ton of battered fantasies by Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynn Jones and many more. I was an only child for the first eight years of my life and I used to “play out” all day, re-imagining the stories I’d read.
My mum is a writer and would make up and tell wonderful tales to me, which was one of my favourite things in the world. I have always loved to wander, and between the ages 11-13 I rarely went to school. I’d walk on my own, the eight-mile return trip to Covent Garden in London’s West End. I was captivated by what I imagined was the wild and free life of the street entertainers: fire-jugglers, comics, acrobats, singers, dancers… I was so envious of their ability to work a crowd and make a corner of the street their special playground for 30 minutes.
C: How has Covid-19 affected your storytelling activities?
VW: It’s had a profound effect for all storytellers. Storytelling is all about face-to-face contact, whether that’s schools, gala performances or museums or whatever. Finding creative solutions to reach people’s imagination remotely has been the challenge and focus that has kept me going through the various lockdowns.
C: Have you found ways to simulate the physicality, or the ambiance of on-location talks?
VW: This is my mission! Most storytellers, including me, have taken to Zoom as the obvious replacement for face to face performing. The problem with Zoom is that it is not very magical or romantic, and you are stuck in one small room. So I am also exploring other possibilities. I would like to be able to deliver a walking tour live by Whatsapp call, this is something I am working on and if anyone wants to try it out as a listener, they should get in touch.
Meanwhile I like to mix Zoom and pre-recorded Youtube to open out the story and bring in aspects of the amazing details of the location. I am also doing site-specific stories that you can download as an MP3 and listen by yourself in the location. It’s definitely a challenge and I have to be a bit flexible to make a recording that can be listened to either in the specific London location (IF you can get there) OR, if you can’t get to the location, the recording still has to work in a garden or local woodland or whatever.
C: In your view, what are Greater London’s most beautiful but oft-overlooked places to see?
VW: The Thames path by Woolwich is magnificent and a fabulous place to wander. It’s still partly abandoned and industrial, the water is wide and dramatic and it has derelict Tudor docks…and it’s own foot-tunnel! The area around Bloomsbury is right in the heart of London but often underestimated.
There are countless small and fascinating shops, many of them very old like Jas Smith and Sons–umbrella and swordstick manufacturers–and London’s oldest occult bookshop (Atlantis.) It also has London’s weirdest church (St George Bloomsbury, designed by Hawksmoor which has a lion and a unicorn sprawled over the steeple instead of the usual crucifix). It also has Coram’s Fields, an old and beautiful park for children only (no adults allowed without a child!) Plus an outdoor swimming pool…and so much more. I could go on all day!
C: Could you tell us more about your forthcoming events and projects?
VW: I am working on a series of free audio storywalks for children in Bermondsey. This project is a collaboration with five of my favourite ever storytellers, Alim Kamara, Rachel Rose Reid, Usifu Jalloh, Richard O’Neill and Griot Chinyere. It will be finished for World Book Day 2021. Like all the audio projects I do it can be listened in situ or at home. You can listen to the first two here.
For Valentines Day, I released an MP3 “Audio Wander” in the East End called the Beautiful Tale of Katy Eddowes. It’s a magical reclamation and celebration of the life of someone who is usually just known as a murder victim (of Jack the Ripper).
On 27 February I’m doing a Zoom and YouTube story performance called The Fireworker, retelling Europe’s oldest folktale- the Smith and the Devil- in Smithfields, London. You can find out more and book tickets here.
Want more stories? Check out our spin-off project, Godfrey’s Almanack.