The Legend of Vortigern is now available from the History Press here.

For details of book-signings and other promotional events, click here.

Praise for The Legend of Vortigern:

“One of the English storytelling scene’s top hands. He knows his onions … You can tell straight away that you’re listening to a ­storyteller here … that flavour of orality is never far away. The economy of language and ­characterisation, the masterly pacing: by these devices the author steers us through a complex narrative and several decades of time at a brisk pace without ever feeling rushed along. … It works! And you close the book with a firm sense that, legend or not, this is how it might well have been.”

Stirrings

Contact me via this website, or call me on 07772 947753.

Follow me on Twitter @SimonHeywood.

I’m a writer and independent scholar, specialising in oral and traditional narrative. I’ve worked in a number of capacities as a storyteller, musician, composer and workshop leader. I’ve researched and told stories live around the world, and written, co-written and published poetry, fiction, non-fiction, translations, and scripts. I obtained a PhD on contemporary storytelling at Sheffield University’s National Centre for English Cultural Tradition in 2001 (here it is in a nutshell). I teach storytelling and creative writing at Derby University. My work with Tim Ralphs on the epic of Gilgamesh was awarded Best Collaboration at the 2012 BASE Awards. I co-wrote the script for the award-winning documentary Contempt of Conscience (2008). I’m starting to get more and more involved in editing publications for the Society for Storytelling.

I blog on stories and storytelling here.