That's all extremely fascinating Thompson. My mother and all her sisters could recite absolute screeds of poetry, in very expressive voices, and also tell wonderful stories. I used to listen wide-eyed as they recounted tales of witches and the Devil, magic places and people being bewitched. One of my Irish aunties was a drama tutor in a college. Another emigrated to Canada and was a book-buyer for a big store. My mother adored the theatre. I think 'words' was the common denominator.
I have qualifications in literature, languages, linguistics and phonetics, so I really think I have inherited their flair to some extent!