@ Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh on Fri 26 Jun 2015

Since the dawn of humankind, sitting around the Neanderthal campfire, there have always been tales to tell and willing audiences to listen. Tales of derring-do communicated the bravery of warriors and leaders, revealed the power of magical healers and served as warnings to children.  The Scottish Storytelling Centre is the self-explanatory place dedicated to upholding the great traditions of oral tale-telling and this Liar’s Tour seeks to offer an alternative explanation of it and the area’s history.

The teller of tales and author (Scottish Border Folk Tales will be published in September) James Spence, grew up in Jedburgh, near the castle once home to Mary, Queen of Scots. He learnt his skills at his father’s side; his father was in the habit of spinning yarns to the castle’s visitors, telling them any convoluted explanation that came into his head but with such conviction he was believed. Some say never let the truth get in the way of a good story, and Spence starts the tour with a reassuring, ‘If you don’t end up confused, I’ve not really done my job.’

He leads the group up the tower, to the ancient Netherbow Bell and unfurls a lengthy yarn about a king whose son who goes missing for years before returning to take his rightful place, evoking traditional tales like Donkey Skin (Charles Perrault’s precursor to Cinderella), Kipling’s Just So Stories or even the biblical Joseph and his multi-coloured coat. Disaster, of course, becomes something good. Each person gets to ring the Netherbow Bell with a satisfying and very loud clang before the tour moves through the building, stopping in different places for each chapter. The garden, accessible from the street, is a cool green haven.

Spence’s delivery is measured and at times has a soporific effect when combined with a stuffy room. His easy and natural use of the vernacular loses his Singaporean listeners at times, but they say later that the tour ‘…adds clarity to history…’ and they feel they ‘…got the gist of it…’ They leave to seek out the real cannonball embedded in a nearby building mentioned in one tale. Spence’s visual method of storytelling, using real props is a delightful way to engage with local history, however untrue.