On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin is joined by storyteller, author and psychotherapist David England, whose book of Berkshire Folk Tales uncovered a wealth of lost and brilliant stories.
As we discuss, David made a wild change in his career during the 90's, jettisoning his job in IT and selling his house to retrain as a storyteller, then hit the road.
This opened up a wealth of possibilities, including collaborating with Tina Bilbe, the Secretary of the Society for Storytelling on Berkshire Folk Tales, and working with poet Jennie Ruth Bailey on his second book, Lancashire Folk Tales.
Unfortunately, Tina is no longer with us, but is warmly remembered in this chat, not least for her work, scouring archives for the stories which made up the collection David put to paper.
As he recounts, these include a wild range of stories, from epic Viking battles to the near-burning of a Saxon queen to legends of milk-hungry dragons, cannibalistic landlords, and wizards getting spanked out of town.
With David also being an acclaimed psychotherapist, whose book Soulfulness blends contemporary therapies with ancient shamanic practices, as you might expect, this is a rich interview, filled with warmth, anecdotes, and David's reflections on his own retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight, which available on YouTube.
To learn more David and his work, do visit his website – https://www.davidengland.co.uk/ – which links to his books, storytelling videos, and more.
About Three Ravens 🔮
Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.
Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’
We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.
Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.
Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…
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