THE tradition of storytelling began long before the first word was ever written, an art form that exists in every culture and requires at least two people, a listener and a teller.

As the first ever storytelling laureate, Taffy Thomas has been collecting and telling stories for more than 25 years.

His manner is easy, he’s calm, appears wise and is absolutely unique.

Part man, part library, with a spooky resemblance to Father Christmas, Taffy holds more than 350 stories in his head, all collected using the ancient oral tradition of listening and remembering.

As part of National Storytelling Week, Taffy visited Kirklands Day Nursery, in Barnard Castle, where the children had made him a special storytelling chair and were soon gathered crosslegged on the floor eagerly awaiting to hear his tall tales.

The first story he told was one you can eat.

His particular Gingerbread Man centres around the baker who lives next door to him in Grasmere, in the Lake District.

Taffy’s version includes his own children, Rosie and Amy as well as Mrs Rickman, the nosey lady from the Tourist Information shop, the verger, the curator of The Wordsworth Museum, all chasing the escaped biscuit through the village singing: “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.”

Kirklands was soon alive with children singing along and doing all the actions to the next story, one he’d collected on a recent trip to India, about a monkey who wore a hat.

One more story rounded up a delightful experience.

A magical storyteller who makes storytelling very special.

Helen Brown