Article Reprint

This article was first published in "The Guildford Magazine" in February 2004, written by Helene Parry.  It is reproduced here with the kind permission of Sheengate Publishing Limited.  Only the format of the article has been modified for presentation on the internet.

Chances are, the last time you heard a fairytale at your place of work was when you were promised a bonus at the end of the corporate year. But one lady regularly holds office workers enthralled by tales of greedy ogres, hidden treasure and unscrupulous overlords. And no, she's not the auditor.

Janet Dowling, from Ewell, is a professional storyteller, often called upon to address people in business. But she doesn't just ask if they're sitting comfortably on their swivel chairs, or assure them that they'll live happily ever after if they sign up to the company's pension plan.

"I use stories to get points over," she explains. "Folk tales like the Sufi tales from the Middle East. For example, the story of a farm that had no rain for months. The senior priest asked God for rain, so God sent a flood. When the priest complained that all they'd wanted was a little rain, God replied: "Why didn't you say so?"

Janet has used her craft in consultancy work at schools, hospitals and museums, as well as for community projects. As she points out, storytelling was one of the ways primitive man and woman passed on knowledge.

"If you tell a story, people are more likely to remember it than if you state the facts."

This month, in Guildford, Janet will be speaking about two of the most celebrated storytellers of all: the Brothers Grimm. Her talk is designed to complement the current exhibition at Guildford House Gallery, which features David Hockney illustrations of six fairy tales from the Brothers' collection. But the title - Sex, Lies and Videotape: The Brothers Grimm Experience - is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

"The Grimms' tales were traditional stories," explains Janet. "But when they came to notate them, they changed them to reflect the social values of the time. In one old version of Rapunzel, the princess refers to her clothes feeling tight. The next thing you know, the Grimms are calling Rapunzel "the prince's wife", even though there's no marriage. That was to fit in with the Christian morality of the time."

"Similarly, they toned down all the violence. A lot of mothers were changed into stepmothers - wicked ones like in Hansel and Gretel. People would have been horrified to think that a mother could be so wicked as to want to get rid of her own children - or kill her own grandchildren, as in the story of Briar Rose."

On the whole, people think of the Grimms' tales as German in origin. However, Janet has found similar stories as far away as Italy and Chile, adapted to the local surroundings.

Talking of gnawing, there is a question nagging away at me right now: how on earth does one apply for the job of storyteller?

"People get into it in different ways," explains Janet. "We all have an innate ability to recount a tale, but it's a question of confidence. The best training is simply listening to other people who tell stories."

Janet herself originally trained as a psychiatric social worker, and first used the concept of storytelling in therapeutic counselling work.

And her ideas are by no means obscure. A growing storytelling movement in the UK has led to the formation of a national support body for practitioners of the art, the Society for Storytelling, of which Janet is one of the directors.

'The Haunted Castle' by David Hockney,

part of the  touring exhibition from the

Hayward Gallery, and displayed at the

Guildford House Gallery between

10th January and 13th March 2004.

As for her repertoire, it isn't just the tales we all remember from childhood and Disney. She has around 150 stories in her head, drawing on narratives, myths and legends from around the world. She also writes her own.

Janet has worked part-time as a professional storyteller for the past three years, while completing an MA in children's literature. In her studies, she has focused on the impact on the genre of traditional folk tales.

For her dissertation, Janet is looking at how children's literature reflects mental illness. Some characters in folk tales clearly suffer from severe psychological problems, she believes.

And Janet has also discovered that storytelling can help to breakdown barriers.

Even children, who have acquired brain injury, notably after road accidents, can benefit from these tricks of the tale.

So there you have it: the job of storyteller explained. And just before you start filling in the form, there is one more thing you should know: no one need feel that their language skills aren't up to scratch.

"The best thing about storytelling," concludes Janet, "is that everyone can do it." You don't need to refer to the written word."

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