Thank you all. I guess I'll just have to mix my types of stories and find out by trial and error which types get the best responses. The stories that I actually like the best tend to be very imaginative ones with a lot of magic in them. But I'll have to mix those with ones that are based more round the human condition.

The incentive is the 6 storyaround sessions in Whitby next month at the Folk Week. Some of my older material is suitable but I could do with some newer ones. I would prefer to have tested them at a folk club first before Whitby.

It's a very slow process of learning. I can't tell stories on guest nights because there is never enough times for stories then, so it has always to be singaround nights, and some of those I like to use for my songs. It doesn't help my confidence that that there are people in the audience who would probably prefer it if I sang instead. But I want to do both. Any skill requires a stretch of time while you learn it.