Brother Bernard's jolly pilgrimages through thousands of years of folklore and frankly daft storytelling…

Who fancies a STORY?

_{The twenty-year journey of Tales of Britain, from the first time that I attempted to buy ‘an anthology of British folktales’ for my first nephew, expecting to choose between several, and finding only bare shelves, is perhaps told most succinctly in this Folklore Thursday article.}

<sub>Inspired to start retelling the most unique, thrilling and daft folktales from John’s End to Land O’Green – and for today’s story lovers of all ages, creeds and kinds, true to the original legends, but scrupulously selecting the right elements to make these stories ring afresh to a 21st century audience.

As told by Brother Bernard, an ancient secular monk born sometime just after Britain first became an island, each of these freshly told myths and legends has been honed in live performances all over Britain, taking in visits to the real locations where every folktale is set – or perhaps, really happened. Most are very daft, but some are tragic, many are chilling, and famous names like Robin Hood, King Arthur, Merlin Emrys, Dick Whittington, Lady Godiva, Babes In The Wood, Three Bears and Three Pigs, co-mingle with British heroes and stories that should be more celebrated, like the brave antics of Molly Whuppie in the Outer Hebrides, or the mind-bending gossip of the Welsh Mabinogion.

All this was wrapped in the inspiration of the very best storytellers of all time: John Hurt’s Storyteller (i.e. Anthony Horowitz), Sir Tony Robinson, Rik Mayall’s Grim Tales, and our friend, the great Terry Jones.</sub>

_{Presented in tribute to Terry, the original first edition of 77 stories, each with their own potted tourist guides to every site, was published by Unbound in 2019 – which meant years of strenuous crowdfunding beforehand. In these years, many glorious supporters gave us a push – see right! – and author Jem Roberts performed folktales on BBC Radio Bristol, and with Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 music, to mark the launch. Volumes taken from the book – with many bonus stories – began to appear on Audible, told by Brother Bernard, in 2020.}

_{Since the book hit shops, many more so-far unpublished tales have been retold, shows continue to pop up where required (email jem@jemroberts.com if interested in an hour or so of silly folktales), and in 2024 author Jem Roberts appeared on Susan Calman’s Great British Cities on Channel 5, relating the legend of Bladud. Lots of this stuff is available to gorge yourself on in our video section.}

_{Further exciting Tales of Britain audio and book releases are in every sense in the works, so please do keep an eye on our Folklore Thursday updates for developments, as the folktale-telling journey around the weirdness of Wales, Scotland, England and The Isles continues…}

THE BLOG:

When the first edition of Tales of Britain launched on Unbound during Glastonbury 2017, Brother Bernard began a WEEKLY blog for Folklore Thursday – that's a blinking flip of a lot of bloggage, charting the funding, and then creation, of the first British anthology of folktales in over THIRTY YEARS! Generally, each week took the theme proposed by Folklore Thursday, and fitted it to one of the book's initial 77 tales – though sometimes to a different tale not yet in the book, or something else entirely.

©Brother Bernard