About the Author

Only a few people can say that they earn their living telling stories, but since 1989 Daniel Morden has travelled the world as a professional storyteller visiting arts centres, theatres, libraries, museums and festivals worldwide. He has told Welsh tales in St Donat's and at St David's, from the Arctic to the Pacific to the Caribbean. Daniel says "When I was young, children could walk to school by themselves. Every day as I walked I would make up a story, about myself, or Spiderman, or the Viking God Thor, or some strange character I had invented. When I reached school, if I hadn't finished the story I would walk around the playground, muttering it under my breath. I had to know how the story ended, even though I was making it up." His first book, Weird Tales from the Storyteller, was published by Pont Books in November 2003 and was subsequently nominated for the Tir na N-Og Children's Book Prize. Delighted with his first publication, he said "I wanted to write the kind of book I would have loved to read when I was young. I loved books where I was laughing and shuddering by turns." He is one of the UK's most popular tellers of traditional stories, with a repertoire that ranges from The Iliad and The Odyssey performed with Hugh Lupton to his work for families fusing music and story with Oliver Wilson-Dickson. Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton were awarded the 2006 Classical Association prize for 'the most significant contribution to the public understanding of the classics'. Daniel has conceived and presented numerous documentaries on storytelling for BBC Radio Wales. In 2007 he won the Tir na n-Og Award for Dark Tales from the Woods. His latest publication is Tree of Leaf and Flame, published by Pont Books in 2012.

Reviews

Daniel opens his collection of stories with an introduction entitled ‘Welsh Whispers’. In doing so he lays down a challenge for us all to be storytellers, to be part of the whispering tradition, individual links in that chain of magic words which stretches far back into our culture, and into our understanding of ourselves . . .

It’s a great collection of this talented storyteller’s favourite tales. Many will have already been heard in schools, theatres and across Wales, in crypts and cathedrals, on salt-swept beaches and manor house lawns, and yet here they are, newly told, newly captured in print, to be read and enjoyed, over and over again.

If you’re interested in cunning, then read of Robin Ddu and his irreligious trickery of not only his greedy brothers, but a Minister, his pretty daughter, a landlord and a shepherd as well.

If it’s gold you want, then following the six fools may be your answer. In their improbable gingerbread-man type of tale the aptly named Frosty, Ssh!, See Far, Gusty, Long Shanks and Small Tall manage to outwit a King, seize his gold and build a grand castle. And how do we know all this? Well Daniel Morden has been there – and played the fiddle!

Whatever the tale, whoever the character, the Bwca, or King Herla, or wherever the place, Maen Dylan or the Magic Well, with its three bobbing heads, the reader will find something to remember with a smile. Whether it be a phrase, a rhyme or an illustration by the ever-creative Jac Jones, there will be an image to recall the next time he or she plays the whispering game, forging the weird links in the story-making chain. We have Daniel’s own retellings to thank for that:

He lives happy
So may we.
Put on the kettle,
We’ll have a cup of tea!
*Chris S. Stephens @ www.gwales.com*