all the world’s a stage
For over 25 years, Christine has entertained, intrigued and inspired people of all ages and abilities with her large repertoire of traditional and contemporary stories. Whether in schools, performance spaces, libraries or museums, in stately homes in Britain or at festivals worldwide, Christine shares her inexhaustible enthusiasm for the world of tales, legends, myths and riddles.
Some of these come from her family’s roots in Ireland and Eastern Europe; some from Wales where she lives, and others she gathers on her world travels.
As well as performing for children and adults (including special-needs students), she works with other specialists such as musicians and film animators, and delivers workshops in storytelling and performance skills.
Potted History Christine trained originally, in the sixties, as a visual artist at Hornsey College of Art. She travelled to the US and Canada between 1968 and 1970. She spent the remainder of the seventies as a full-time Mother.
In the eighties, responding to a perceived need for children in rural areas , to have access to a bookshop, she created The Bookbug a children’s travelling bookshop, which toured the (then) six counties of East Anglia.
She then created The Clock Bookshop in Lowesoft, which incorporated a small gallery and cafe.
In the nineties she was General Manager of Norwich Puppet Theatre, then Artistic Director of Community Arts northwest in Manchester. She then moved to Wales to take up the post of Arts Development Officer for Torfaen CBC.
From 2004 – 2011 she was County Arts Officer for Pembrokeshire. phew!
In April 2013 Her book Pembrokeshire Folk Tales, illustrated by the author, is published by History Press
In 2012 Christine worked with family learning units in Bridgend Schools, telling stories and teaching the art of oral storytelling to parents, grandparents and siblings together with the children in their charge
Festival appearances include Austin International Poetry Festival (Texas), Bath Literature Festival and Glastonbury Festival, where she has been a regular for twenty years.
In 2005 she toured around Brisbane (Australia) for the Arts Council of Queensland, in 2006 she was resident storyteller at Zurich International School. She performs every year in schools, particularly in Steiner schools throughout Victoria (Australia).
She regularly visits schools to perform as a storyteller and to provide storytelling workshops, with an emphasis on informing pupils creative writing, visualisation, listening and speaking skills.
Schools in Wales can apply to Literature Wales for a subsidy towards her fees.