A pipe-smoking storyteller, dressed in dungarees and a red-checked shirt, sat on a rocking chair on a stage and mesmerise 800 kids on a sweltering South African afternoon. I knew I was seeing magic in action. That’s the power of storytelling.

My passion for a great tale took root long before that – the beginning was probably the first time I remember my dad being pulled over by the police.The story he told on that trip from Jo’burg to Durban was so intense that the car had to speed up! When the police pulled us over, my dad walked them a mile up the road, showing them at what point he had no choice but to put his foot down (there was a witch, a broomstick, a gorilla…)! He told the police the whole story…We still got a ticket.

Here’s a truth you already know: Few things settle our hearts and souls more than firesides, rocking chairs, and a good story. When we need a break, we turn to stories. When families need some time out, they pick up a book, turn on the TV, or go to the movies. When we need to understand each other, we tell stories. The story worlds we wrap ourselves in keep us sane, fulfilled, engaged, and connected.

It's the best thing about being human.

After working in London theatre, travelling a bit, and getting an MA in English Lit at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, things got busy! 

In 2000, I published my first two books on speed-reading written in response to overwhelming information overload. Having studied all the speed-reading systems on the market, I found none that met my needs, so developed a system that I taught to students at The University of Aberdeen for two years. After ironing out the creases, I published Teach Yourself Speed-Reading and Successful Speed-Reading in a Week with Hodder Education (both still in print today) and kept teaching. Those first books were followed by a number of spin-offs on the topics of speed-reading and managing information overload, books on change management, a very weird book on copywriting (if you dig around, you might still find a copy on Amazon), articles for various magazines, a decade in oil and gas, writing copy for various clients and… drumroll please… a few works of fiction.

Books became my thing.

In December 2019, before Covid became real in most people's minds, I was looking for a storytelling podcast that got to the point. Finding nothing I liked, I thought, well... maybe... ahh.. Oooookay, why not?!

The deep reason behind the show wasn't even storytelling. I was recovering from a strange kind of writer's block (I was writing, but I wasn't publishing). A podcast, my early morning brain decided, would mean I would have to commit to writing and publishing EVERY WEEK!

And so the adventure began. When Covid took over the world, Waffle-Free Storytelling kept on going. There was a kids' show for a while, and bit of a chat show, but it was the Waffle-Free that just wouldn't-couldn't end. So it didn't. There have been a few breaks here and there, but for the most part, a new story goes out every week.

After running Waffle-Free for a while, I began to think more deeply about the art of story. "The story is wiser than the teller" is something my writing coach, Dorian Haarhoff often says. And I knew it to be true when I looked at the Waffle-Free stories and realised that most of the stories were a reflection of my day, my views of the world, lessons learned, life... There was meaning behind the stories. Meaning I often hadn't even unpacked for myself yet.

And that's when StoryWrangle came to be. More than just story. But the art, craft, application, and critical importance of story in our lives. Not just the true telling of our lives, but the use of symbolic storytelling to deeply understand ourselves, our world, our loves, our fears, and everything about being human.

The Waffle-Free podcast, the Waffle-Free Storybooks, the newsletter, the how-to books... all part of an exploration into how stories, symbols and metaphors impact our lives, change our world view, and evolve us into the humans we're meant to be.

So... here we are. What comes to mind is a Nasreddin story:

One night, Nasreddin walked home from his local inn. As he entered a dark and winding lane, he heard a horse coming up behind him.

“Someone is trying to rob me,” he thought, and in fear and trembling for his life, he ran.

He ran through the streets, across a field, and into a graveyard. But no matter how fast he ran, the horse and rider drew closer. With terror in his veins, Nasreddin leapt into an open grave. He lay still and quiet, listening as the horse entered the graveyard, and the rider dismount. Hardly bearing to look, Nasreddin peered through the dark at the face of the person who had been chasing him.

“Nasreddin,” a good friend called out. “Why are you here, lying in that grave?”

Nasreddin smiled and said, “I am here because of you, and you are here because of me.”

Welcome to my world.