Story Teller

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Story Teller (sold as Story Time in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) was a magazine partwork published by Marshall Cavendish between 1982 and 1985.

Contents

[edit] Publishing History

The original Story Teller was released in 1982 as a fortnightly (bi-weekly) partwork. Each magazine contained a selection of children's stories, some of which were traditional folk tales like Anansi the Spiderman, some classic children's tales such as Gobbolino, the Witch's Cat and some contemporary works written especially for the series like Timbertwig. Most issues contained a poem or two as well. The stories were accompanied by lavish colour artwork, and inside each issue was an offer to purchase custom made binders for the magazine as well as cases to hold the tapes. Each issue of Story Teller came with a cover mounted cassette tape containing a reading of the stories, complete with music and sound effects. What set Story Teller apart from other partworks was that the stories were read by professional actors and celebrities of the time, including Derek Jacobi, Nigel Lambert, Sheila Hancock and Richard Briers.

Perhaps the two things collectors remember most fondly about the collection are the lively Story Teller jingle that introduced and ended each tape and the characteristic "ping" that sounded when the time came to turn the pages to encourage children to read along.

Longer stories were split over multiple issues to encourage parents to buy the next issue. These were referred to as Story Teller Serials. As one serial came to end, another would start. Many of these would be simple two-part stories but a selection of stories (usually classics such as Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz) were spread over several issues. Pinnochio was the longest serial, with seven installments.

The original collection was 26 issues long with each tape lasting up to 45 minutes, except for issue 26 which was 90 minutes long because it also contained the the special preview issue for Story Teller 2 which immediately followed the original series. Story Teller 2 continued the tradition of the original by combining traditional, classic and contemporary children's stories.

(The New Zealand and Australian Story Time only ran for 1 series, so the final Issue 26 was the standard 45 minutes long and did not feature the special preview for the next series. This was the sole difference between its UK counterpart, the cassettes and artwork were otherwise identical. Similarly the cassette carry case was available in Australia, however in New Zealand a smaller box was provided, made out of cardboard wrapped in a red plastic with small domes at the corners joining it all together and a piece of velcro for the flap on the top).

When Story Teller 2 ended, Marshall Cavendish followed it up with another 26-part series, Little Story Teller, which, as its title suggests, was aimed at a younger audience than the original series. Many of the stories in Little Story Teller featured the adventures of the inhabitants of the Magic Mountain, which included Leroy the Lion and Dotty the Dragon.

Three Christmas specials were also published. Released annually along with each series, the Christmas Story Tellers featured festive stories and even songs. The third Christmas Story Teller included stories suited to both the original series and Little Story Teller as well. (None of the Christmas specials were made available in New Zealand or Australia).

Christmas Story 3 was widely assumed to be the last title from the Story Teller series but in 1986, Marshall Cavendish released the Story Teller Song Book. The 52-page publication contained 20 all-time sing-along favourites rather than stories but it still retained the Story Teller tradition of featuring colouring and activity pages as well as an accompanying cassette tape.

The following year, Marshall Cavendish revisited the world of Story Teller by publishing a big hardback book called My Big Book of Fairy Tales. Even though the publication did not have the Story Teller branding, it was essentially a compilation of the best stories from Story Teller. It contained 73 stories from the two series and three Christmas issues. The original text and illustrations were used, except for the story The Frog Prince which featured new artwork (for no apparent reason). The book was rereleased in 1989 with a different cover and again in 1994.

Unlike the partwork, My Big Book of Fairy tales was not accompanied by a cassette but it was nevertheless a superb and enchanting publication, serving as a fitting farewell and tribute to a magical concept in children's publishing. Marshall Cavendish has not produced anything related to Story Teller ever since and a copy of the book should be present in every serious collector's catalogue.

For those who were children at the time of its release, Story Teller is one of the great childhood memories. The partwork is now regarded as highly collectible, and issues can still be found today in second hand and charity shops but finding a complete set can be very difficult. Digital copies can also be found on auction sites such as eBay, but these are of dubious legality.

[edit] Stories and Readers

[edit] Story Teller 1

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

  • Beauty and the Beast: Hywel Bennett
  • Dodo & the Pot of Gold: Patricia Broke
  • Timbertwig & the Caravan of Surprises: George Layton
  • The Flying Piggy-Bank: Patricia Broke
  • The Land of the Bumbley Boo: Patricia Broke
  • The Moon and the Millpond: Dick Vosburgh
  • The Friendly Bear: Hywel Bennett

Part 7

  • The Billy Goats Gruff: Nigel Pegram
  • The Snow Queen: Liza Goddard
  • A Pocketful of Trouble: Nigel Pegram
  • Little Spook of Spook Hall: Liza Goddard
  • The Silly Tortoise: Nigel Pegram
  • Timbertwig Gets a New Hat: George Layton
  • Faster than Fairies: Liza Goddard

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

  • Rumplestiltskin: Hayley Mills
  • Heidi (Part 3): Denise Bryer
  • The Green Maiden of the Lake: Hayley Mills
  • The Book of Beasts (Part 2): John Baddeley
  • It Makes a Change: Denise Bryer
  • Lutra the Otter: Michael Tudor Barnes

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23

Part 24

Part 25

Part 26

Part 26 Story Teller 2 Special Preview Issue

[edit] Story Teller 2

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

  • Arthur Gives Back His Sword : Mick Ford
  • Butterflies On the Moon : Geoffrey Matthews
  • Ginger's Secret Weapons : Cass Allen
  • Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (2) : Patricia Hodge
  • A Great Escape : Cass Allen
  • The Miller And His Donkey : Geoffrey Matthews
  • Sleep-Dog : Geoffrey Matthews

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23

  • Cyril Snorkel - The Performing Beast : Denise Bryer
  • Dorrie And The Witch's Visit : Denise Bryer
  • What the Smoke Said : George Layton
  • Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (5) : Patricia Hodge
  • The City Of Lost Submarines (2) : David Tate
  • Simon Rhymon : George Layton
  • The Sunlight Falls Upon The Grass : Denise Bryer

Part 24

Part 25

Part 26

[edit] Christmas Story Teller

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Readers: Derek Griffiths, Carole Boyd, Denise Bryer, Nigel Lambert, Steven Pacey, Claire Hamill, Tom Newman.

  • Jingle Bells
  • A Carol for Gobbolino
  • Leroy Learns to Skate
  • Snow White
  • Snow Song
  • Mother Goose
  • Christmas Fun
  • Rudolph to the Rescue
  • Away in a Manger
  • I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing By
  • Dotty and the Teddy Bears
  • Clara and the Nutcracker Doll
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem
  • The Surprise Christmas
  • The Forgotten Toys
  • Minnie's Dinner Spell
  • Morris's Christmas Stocking
  • Hurray for Christmas!

[edit] In other languages

  • Dutch "Luister Sprookjes en Vertellingen"
  • French "Raconte-moi des histoires"
  • Italian "C'era una volta" (reedited recently with CDs instead of cassette tapes)
  • Greek "Άμπρα Κατάμπρα" (Abracadabra) (reedited recently with CDs instead of cassette tapes)
  • Spanish "Cuenta Cuentos"

[edit] Similar Partworks

Story Teller became such a huge success in the 80s that other publishers released similar partworks including Fabri's Once Upon a Time collection and Disney's Storytime series.

[edit] Disney's Storytime

The main thing that differentiated Storytime from Story Teller was the fact that the former featured only Disney characters. Storytime hit newsagents' shelves soon after Story Teller proved to be a bestseller. It was published in 24 parts and customised binders and cassette boxes were produced to house the collection (just like Story Teller). Classic Disney movies such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were serialised but it has to be said that none ever managed to match the charm of Gobbolino the Witch's Cat ... (Note: the Australian and New Zealand versions of Story Teller were published as Story Time - not to be confused with this Disney series.)

[edit] Once Upon a Time collection

Fabbri's Once Upon a Time series was another Story Teller clone. Like Story Teller, Once Upon a Time was a collection of storybooks that came with cassette tapes. Story Teller regulars like Carole Boyd and Nigel Lambert even lent their vocal talents to this Fabbri collection. But unlike Story Teller, each issue of Once Upon a Time was devoted to one story only. It must have been a success for 60 issues were eventually published. Five special binders were produced to archive the magazines. Disappointingly, the cassettes came without boxes but a total of four red plastic cases were given away free with certain issues throughout the series' run. A generous gesture on Fabbri's part, though the cases were of a poor quality and easily damaged.

[edit] External links

There are three dedicated websites: