Tales Told in Tents Stories from Central Asia

by Herxheimer, Sophie; Clayton, Sally

• ISBN13: 9781845070663
• ISBN10: 1845070666
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-18
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

With very little about Central Asia on the market for children, these 12 stories answer exotic questions such as "Why are some carpets magic?" and "What is a wish tree?" These authentic folk tales were told to the author in storytelling tents across Asia. Brilliant artwork along with a glossary and brief notes reveal the richness of little-known lands like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Author Biography

Acclaimed storyteller Sally Pomme Clayton cofounded The Company of Storytellers with Ben Haggarty and Hugh Lupton, spearheading the revival of storytelling in the U.K. She tours throughout Britain, often performing at the British Museum, the Barbican, and the National Gallery. She was a Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Westminster and City and Guilds of London Art School. The author of Tales Told in Tents, Amazons!, Persephone, and Rama and Sita, she currently teaches at Rose Bruford College in London, where she lives.

Excerpts

When I was little, my sister and I used to throw a blanket over the washing line to make a tent. In the warm half-light we would set up camp, arranging beds and making a pretend fire. Then we would borrow one of Mum’s saucepans, and sneak a handful of rice and raisins from the kitchen. We’d fill the saucepan with water from the hot tap and cook the rice and raisins over our fire, stirring the rice and stirring the rice until the water had turned white and starchy. It seemed as if we stirred for hours, and still the rice didn’t cook. We’d eat it anyway, even though we knew we shouldn’t, biting into the hard grains and chewing them for a long time. Then we’d curl up round the fire and tell stories. Days and nights passed in an afternoon. Finally, it really was bedtime. Dad would call us, the tent was pulled down and the blanket folded up.

We moved to a new house every two years or so. And each time we moved I wished we could take our house with us, just as people who live in tents carry their houses from place to place. Even though we couldn’t carry our house, we could carry stories. Stories are light. You can carry them anywhere, pick more up

along the way, and your load never gets heavier. So stories were a way of carrying the threads of our lives from place to place.