In this podcast we look at the art and techniques of storytelling.  We speak to novelist Zoe Gilbert about the ways in which she uses folklore and folk tales as inspiration and backdrop for her storytelling and actress Tiffany Clare about telling stories through characters and narration. Our first guest in this edition is Zoe Gilbert.  Zoe won the Costa Short Story prize in 2014.  He debut novel Folk was published to considerable acclaim and featured on BBC Radio.  Zoe's second novel Mischief Acts will be published in 2022.  She co-founded London Lit Lab with novelist and memoirist Lily Dunn who we'll be featuring in part two of this short series. Find out more about Zoe and her work by visiting her website here http://zoegilbert.com/ You can follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/mindandlanguage  Find out more about London Lit Lab and sign up for their courses and workshops here https://www.londonlitlab.co.uk/  You can buy Folk as paperback, e-book or audiobook through all the usual outlets.  Tiffany Clare is an actress working on stage, screen and in audio drama.  She has appeared in many Alternative Stories dramas being nominated for two audio verse awards for her appearances in our dramas The Adults in The Room and No Words.  The latter represented the UK at the International Radio Drama Festival in 2020.  Tiffany works as a voice artist in commercials, presents podcasts and has worked as a voice actor for video games.   If you would like to work with Tiffany you can contact her via her website https://www.voicebytiffany.com/  In this podcast you can hear extracts from the following   Two extracts from Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert read by Sally Walker-TaylorAn extract from Folk by Zoe Gilbert read by Tiffany ClareAn extract from The Seeing Trees by Kaitlin Felix featuring Tiffany Clare and Charlie Richards An Extract from The Adults in the Room featuring Tiffany Clare and Catherine D’Addario We would like to thank Bloomsbury, Zoe Gilbert’s publisher for permission to recreate extracts from her books for this podcast.  You can visit Bloomsbury here  https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ And follow them on twitter here https://twitter.com/BloomsburyBooks   In our next podcasts you’ll be able to hear  ·      Storytelling Part Two featuring Lily Dunn ·      Real Boy, a new audio drama by Cailean Steed  ·      A folklore special edition about creatures, beasts and familiars in folklore guest-edited by Signe Maene ·      Midwinter Monologues – our Christmas 2021 edition featuring short seasonal monologues from a variety of writers.