I became interested in storytelling after hearing the Stewarts of Blair tell stories at the Singers Club. All of them were good storytellers, but Alec was magnificent. He could tell a story of any length and hold the audience spellbound. His style was somewhat laconic and understated, no histrionics, no funny voices, just a straight tellng of the tale.
Since then, we have recorded stories from the handful of traditional storytellers left, mainly in Ireland; none of them ever attempted to act out their stories or (as Bernard said) treated us as if we were five-year-olds.
As far as I am concerned there is no rule of how long a story should be-this depends entirely on the audience, the club and the situation.
If a long story would be an imposition on the way the club is run - keep them short, but audience and organisers willing, I don't believe there is any need to limit them particularly. The ballad, 'Tam Lin' lasts around fifteen minutes - the song 'The True Lover's Discussion' is around the same. If these are well sung an audience will lap them up - if they are badly sung, they are interminable - the same is true of stories.
The last big storyteller we recorded (now dead) had stories that lasted two-and-a-half hours, and around here in West Clare, a local man 50 years ago would start his story on Monday night and tell part of it (to an attentive audience) every night until he finished it on Friday.
Storytelling in the British Isles lasted best in Scotland and Ireland, particularly among the Travellers.
There are a few commercially available albums of storytelling. The School of Scottish Studies issued a good double CD of Travellers stories a couple of years ago. Mike Yates compiled a couple which are available through Musical Traditions web magazine. Pavee Point in Dublin released one last year of the Cassidy family of Travellers - well worth a listen. Two American albums, of Ray Hicks and Richard Chase telling 'Jack Tales' are worth searching out.
In the eighties we compiled a cassette for the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library entitled '....And That's My Story' consisting of Traditional stories from field recordings from England Ireland Scotland and Wales. The English ones tended to be short local yarns and the Welsh were trade tales from the miners, but all the British tales are transferable, wherever you are from (Northerener - I assume that's the North of England?). There's a great tale on the cassette from a Lancashire man, Jack Oakes, about a kicking match.
I suggest that you get hold of as many recordings of traditional storytellers as you can and listen to how they did it - they spent a lifetime at it. Don't be committed to their - or anybody's style but your own, but at least give them all a listen.
Please try to avoid the twee, 'are you sitting comfortably' technique of talking down to an audience that was adopted by the storytelling revival in Britain - storytelling was very much an adult pastime.
Good luck,
Jim Carroll