Rob Parkinson

Human Givens Journal, On Rob's Transforming Tales (How stories can change people) 2009.

About Rob Parkinson
Rob Parkinson's School Visits
Examples of Rob Parkinson's Stories and Songs
Recommendations & Reviews
To make a Booking

About Rob Parkinson

Rob is a storyteller, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and author, with a huge experience of working in all sorts of performance and workshop contexts. He has visited many hundreds of schools and has also performed at arts centres, theatres, festivals and libraries large and small, as well as less likely locations such as pubs, castles, restaurants, supermarkets, gardens, shopping centres, bandstands, zoos and even shacks in the Australian outback and logs beside Canadian rivers. He has made various appearances on national TV and radio, chaired the Society for Storytelling in the mid ‘nineties, ran a story club and edited a storytelling magazine.

He draws on a repertoire of over 500 stories from around the world, his own original tales, poems and fantasy songs, plus jokes, riddles and tricks. Performances feature an astonishing array of unusual ancient and ethnic instruments: from medieval harp, cittern, psaltery and lute to Turkish saz, Moroccan gumbri, a wide range of percussion instruments, all played to a high standard, not to mention his considerable versatility and virtuosity on guitar (his first published work in the 'eighties was a collection of his own eclectic blues/jazz/classical influenced guitar music and he has performed extensively purely as a musician).

He is well known for his skill in building creative rapport with audiences of any age, often improvising and adapting content to match the time, place and circumstance. Rob's fun fantasy and narrative songs remain hugely popular with children, whilst his poetry often stresses the story side, ranging from pure humour to acute observation and insight into children's ways of thinking, managing to touch on some more serious themes with a light touch. He has recorded numerous popular CDs for both adults and children and is publishing a book of poems and lyrics for children with Caboodle Press in the spring of 2011.

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Rob Parkinson's School Visits

Rob works with all primary and secondary age ranges.

Performances for larger audiences are popular for book weeks, arts events, multi-cultural special events etc. to fire children's imaginations and enthusiasm. Rob can also shape programmes to follow suitable themes or focus on specific genres like myths & legends, fables, fairy tales, animal stories etc. Material is always chosen spontaneously from a much longer list of options and adapted on the day to suit; no two performances are ever the same and completely different programmes can be presented on return visits. Audience size is flexible from large to small groups.

Workshops at primary schools: Rob offers a series of entertaining and valuable shorter workshop themed around storytelling, story making, stretching stories, using plots and using music with stories. These are usually for larger class-size groups and can be combined with big audience performances during a day. Longer full and half day workshop sessions (often given for gifted and talented writers groups) explore ways in which storytelling links into writing and include developed themes such as Fantasy Quests, Wishes Three, Fabulous Fables, The Voyage of Mael Dun and other Strange Journeys of Exploration and Tall Tale Telling.

Workshops at secondary schools: Approaches for younger secondary pupils are broadly similar to those described above for primary schools. Performance material includes different choices and is developed differently to suit the ages involved. Workshops may also cover some more advanced ways of exploring or creating stories through telling. Sessions with older secondary pupils through to 6th form address creative possibilities of traditional plots and motifs which are explored in talk-into-writing workshops. For literature students, Rob may perform parts of his Tales on Tales on Canterbury Tales show, based on Chaucer's famous work, telling versions of the tales in modern English with some passages of Middle English plus medieval instruments, irreverent songs and modern guitar as originally featured on Carlton TV and at various arts centres and theatres in the ‘nineties. He also runs workshops on this theme, giving students a practical insight into how stories can be re-written and ‘re-visioned'.

Special schools: Rob has extensive experience of working with pupils in various kinds of special schools. The musical dimension of his work as well as the flexibility of storytelling itself as he practises it allows him to adapt across a broad range of learning abilities.

INSET sessions for education professionals: Rob gives expertly focused training sessions for teachers and assistants etc. on a series of themes. Shorter sessions (twilight or as part of mixed training days) can follow themes such as:-

• Storytelling: the skill of telling stories and how to develop it in children and staff
• Storytelling into writing: practical techniques for literacy and beyond
• Traditional stories, storytelling and story writing: how to draw inspiration from tradition
• Storytelling and music
• Using stories with difficult children and children's difficulties
• Stories as guided imagery: understanding how and why stories engage the imaginative mind and the very practical implications of this.

Parents and family audiences: Rob's special, very adaptable family show ‘My Fantastic Family' presents stories and verse for all the family, with something to engage all ages. He also regularly does sessions for parents, sometimes as pure stimulating entertainment, reminding the adults of what children enjoy about using their ‘imaginative muscles', sometimes with slightly more obvious didactic functions, explaining the value of stories, storytelling and imaginative education.

Higher & further education/ training courses: Rob has very extensive experience of training adult professionals in the use of stories and metaphor for communication and for their powerful effects. Talks, seminars and workshops are available on this theme, whilst he also explores the relevance of traditional patterns and ways of telling in creative writing workshops.

Abroad: For performance work overseas, Rob travels with a range of smaller instruments that allow him to still integrate his musical skills. Stories are an international language and adapt well to listeners with differing cultural experience.

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Examples of Rob's Stories and Songs

Climbing Trees

I like climbing trees
So high, you can’t see me
So high I just be me
Climbing trees.
That’s what I like.

Down is a long way
So you can’t afford wrong ways,
You know it’s not kid’s play
Climbing trees
That’s what I like

You have to stay with it
You have to just live it
Your mind just rivets
On climbing trees
That’s what I like

Mum says its frightening
Dad’s knuckles are whitening
But my grip is tightening
On branches and bark
That’s what I like.

You know you just learn lots
In reaching the high spots
It’s trusting yourself lots
Just getting there.
That’s what I like.

Up there there’s no strife
You feel keen as a clean knife
I’ll spend my whole life
Climbing trees
That’s what I like.

Fred the Dragon (song lyrics)

Just last year I had a dragon to stay.
He came to the door one sunny day.
He was big as a bear with bright green scales,
He’d a crest on his back and a long long tail.
He said: “Hello, my name is Fred.”
Then he lay down by the garden shed.
I tucked him up and sang a bedtime song
And he snoozed out there the whole night long.

Dragons are good and dragons are great
Fred the Dragon was my best mate.

When you have a dragon to stay, it’s fun.
You don’t need a fire or an oven or sun
Because a dragon’s got fire in his great big nose,
He could warm your house with a couple of blows.
Fred breathed on bread to make my toast,
He’d warm my porridge or my Sunday roast
And when he went for his morning fly
I’d hang my washing on his wings to dry.

Dragons are good and dragons are great
Fred the Dragon was my best mate.

Sometimes Fred was soppy and dumb,
He’d lie on his back and I’d tickle his tum.
He’s kick his legs out, laugh and roar
Till the neighbours banged on the wall next door.
“Can’t you keep that creature quiet!” they’d go.
“What is it? A rhino or a buffalo!”
“No, a dragon!” I’d shout.
“Oh, very funny. I suppose he sleeps on jewels and money?”

Dragons are good and dragons are great
Fred the Dragon was my best mate.

But then one day, the news got out -
Fred was spotted on a walkabout.
They came and took some film for the telly
With me astride his soft white belly.
But when they asked about his hoard,
Fred snorted smoke, he roared and roared.
“I won’t tell you!” I heard him say
As he smashed their cameras and flew away.

Dragons are good and dragons are great
Fred the Dragon was my best mate.

I must not say where Fred has gone -
You might talk and pass it on.
He could be floating on a cloud
Or snoring on his hoard deep underground.
But if you meet him, treat him right -
He likes a dragon story every night
And he’ll do exactly what he’s told
Unless you ask about his gold

Dragons are good and dragons are great
Fred the Dragon was my best mate.

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Recommendations & Reviews

‘Rob has made many visits to our school... He's alwaysis very flexible and open to suggestions and his workshops and performances are wonderfully entertaining, not only for the children but also the adults. Even after all his many visits, it never fails to amaze me how he is able to perform, fresh, new, dynamic material. His superb telling of stories from many cultures, together with his immense musical repertoire and talent, make for a magical day.'
Jason Sims, St Michael's School's East Wickham CE VA Primary, Bexleyheath.

‘It was an amazing performance and it had brilliant expressions. There were really cool instruments and brilliant stories.'
Ollie, Hildenborough Primary School, Kent

‘An excellent collection of vibrant, imaginative songs.'
John Rice, poet re. ‘Wild Imaginings'

‘It's just the best. Really really funny and cool...'
Jason (8) re. The Wonderful Store - strange, fantastical & ridiculous songs.

'PURE gold both for adept storytellers and those for whom story making seems a mysterious art, this enormously rich book brings together the wealth of knowledge about stories ... that is currently mostly dispersed across different fields, such as education, psychology, psychotherapy, anthropology, folklore and entertainment. Much more than a manual for creating and telling stories, the book itself, with its 90 or more stories, has the capacity to transform, sowing subtle seeds of possibility in the mind of the reader. From the outset, there is an immediacy and warmth to Parkinson's prose, which engages the reader in a very practical way... This is, in my opinion, the crown jewel of storybooks, carefully constructed and a perfect joy to read. I shall return to it again and again.'
Human Givens Journal on ‘Transforming Tales', by Rob Parkinson

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To Make a Booking

To make an enquiry about Rob Parkinson, or any of the other authors, poets & illustrators listed on this website, please phone Trevor Wilson on +44 (0) 1535 656015, or email him at info@authorsabroad.com