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Visit the Snail Tales Blog

Welcome to Snail Tales — the place to visit for stories that stay with you! We are a team of oral storytellers who share the power of story that has entranced audiences since the dawn of speech. Our tellers are the face of the Oxford Reading Tree. To find out more, click the links below...

Story of the Month — Alternative Fairy Tales

Are you looking for a great way to encourage your children to play creatively with folklore from around the world? Try our programme of traditional tales with a twist, featuring the original versions of well-known fairy tales — often quite different to how they are now — alongside modern versions with amusing changes. Your children will love this eye-opening insight to how stories change naturally with time... and all the fun that can mean.

New tour dates announced

3rd January 2013

We're pleased to announce that A Bird In Your Ear, shortlisted for the British Awards for Storytelling Excellence, will continue touring into 2013...!

"Bazaar" Stories near Norwich...!

16th November 2012
Children who made up stories in Little Birds workshops at Rackheath Primary School performed to their eager grown-ups at several "market stalls" erected around their school, in an idea inspired by the magical market city of Marrakesh...

Nearly hacked at Hackthorn!

5th October 2012
Chip hung for dear life to a tree on a quest for a magic book, while man-eating squirrels prepared to attack... but pupils at Hackthorn were there to save him! Hear about this, and some of the other stories created by this week's Little Birds at Hackthorn and Welton...!

Little Birds nominated for an award!

10th September 2012
Our storytellers have been shortlisted at the British Awards for Storytelling Excellence in the category for Outstanding Collaboration 2012. Help us to win by voting for us, and see some of the other awesome storytelling talent in 10 categories from across the UK...!

Tales for Future Olympians

19th August 2012
Our storyteller Chip spent a whole week at the RAF Museum in London sharing stories from Ancient Greece, in celebration of the London Olympics 2012. Click here for some of the stories and the games we played!

1,440 miles!

3rd August 2012
Our Crazy Bird Tour of 9 performances in 2 weeks from Cumbria to Somerset is finally over. But it's not the end for the show — or the stories...

Bird Bowels & Dog Noses

2nd August 2012
The penultimate day of our Crazy Bird Tour is frantic but hugely enjoyable, mostly thanks to the volunteers and audiences who joined us at two village halls in Dorset!

How the M5 got its name...!

1st August 2012
As part of our Crazy Bird Tour, BBC Somerset challenge us to make up a story live on air including such diverse elements as cheese, the M5, and Glastonbury Festival!