Daniel Morden

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.