Story Teller was a magazine partwork published by Marshall Cavendish between 1982 and 1985. It was sold as Story Time in Australia and New Zealand; in Italy Story Teller 1 was sold as I Raccontastorie while Story Teller 2 as C'era una volta)
The original Story Teller was released from December 1982 and throughout 1983 as a fortnightlypartwork. Each magazine contained a selection of children's stories, some traditional folk tales like "Anansi the Spiderman", some children's tales such as Gobbolino, the Witch's Cat, and some contemporary works written especially for the series, like "Timbertwig". Most issues contained a poem or two, as well. The stories were accompanied by lavish colour artwork, and inside each issue was an offer to purchase custom made binders for the magazine as well as cases to hold the tapes. Each issue of Story Teller came with a cover-mounted cassette tape containing a reading of the stories, complete with music and sound effects. What set Story Teller apart from other partworks was the stories were read by professional actors and celebrities of the time, including Richard Briers, Tim Curry, Sheila Hancock, Derek Jacobi, and Nigel Lambert.
Two distinguishing features of the audio cassettes were the "Story Teller" jingle that introduced and ended each tape and the characteristic "ping" that sounded when the time came to turn the pages to encourage children to read along. The "Story Teller" jingle is an existing track called "Children's Carnival" by Ted Atking and Alain Feanch.[1][2]
Longer stories were split over multiple issues to encourage parents to buy the next issue. These were referred to as Story Teller Serials. As one serial came to end, another would start. Many of these would be simple two-part stories, but a selection of stories (usually well-known ones such as Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz) were spread over several issues. Pinocchio was the longest serial, with seven installments.
The original collection was 26 issues long with each tape lasting up to 45 minutes. An exception was issue 26, which was 90 minutes long because it also contained the special preview issue for Story Teller 2, which immediately followed the original series.
(The New Zealand and Australian Story Time only ran for 1 series, so the final Issue 26 was the standard 45 minutes long and did not feature the special preview for the next series. This was the sole difference between its UK counterpart; the cassettes and artwork were otherwise identical. Similarly, the cassette carry case was available in Australia. However, in New Zealand, a smaller box was provided, made out of cardboard wrapped in a red plastic with small domes at the corners joining it all together and a piece of Velcro for the flap on the top).
Storyteller 2
Story Teller 2, which was previewed in issue 26 of the original Story Teller series in the UK, continued the tradition of the original by combining traditional and contemporary children's stories. (In New Zealand and Australia, Story Time only ran for 1 series.)
Little Story Teller
When Story Teller 2 ended, Marshall Cavendish followed it up with another 26-part series, Little Story Teller, which, as its title suggests, was aimed at a younger audience than the original series. Many of the stories in Little Story Teller featured the adventures of the inhabitants of the Magic Mountain, which included Leroy the Lion, Dotty the Dragon, and Morris and Doris the hamsters.
Christmas specials
Three Christmas specials were also published. Released annually along with each series, the Christmas Story Tellers featured festive stories and even songs. The third Christmas Story Teller included stories suited to both the original series and Little Story Teller. Of the Christmas specials only Christmas Story 2 was made available in New Zealand or Australia, under the title of Christmas Story Time.
Story Teller Song Book
Christmas Story 3 was widely assumed to be the last title from the Story Teller series but in 1986, Marshall Cavendish released the Story Teller Song Book. The 52-page publication contained 20 all-time sing-along favourites rather than stories but it still retained the Story Teller tradition of featuring colouring and activity pages as well as an accompanying cassette tape.
My Big Book of Fairy Tales
In 1987, Marshall Cavendish revisited the world of Story Teller by publishing a big hardback book called My Big Book of Fairy Tales. Although the publication lacked the Story Teller branding, it was essentially a compilation of the best stories from Story Teller; it contained 73 stories from the two series and three Christmas issues. The original text and illustrations were used, except for the story "The Frog Prince", which featured new artwork (for no apparent reason). The book was rereleased in 1989 with a different cover and again in 1994. Unlike the partwork, My Big Book of Fairy Tales was not accompanied by a cassette.
Story Teller: Members' Edition
Published online in December 2020, this was a special edition of Story Teller, created by members of the Story Teller Facebook Group and some of the original writers and artists of the original Story Teller. It is available online at stme.uk.
Availability
The partwork is now regarded as highly collectible, and issues can still be found today in secondhand and charity shops, but finding a complete set can be very difficult. Digital copies can also be found on auction sites such as eBay, but these are of dubious legality.[citation needed]
Italian "I Racconta Storie" and "C'era una volta" (re-edited with CDs instead of cassette tapes)
Greek "Άμπρα Κατάμπρα" (Abracadabra) (re-edited 2007 with CDs instead of cassette tapes)
Spanish "Cuenta Cuentos"
Afrikaans "Storieman"
Trivia
Many issues of Storyteller have connections with films and TV shows.
Pieces of art were often drawn based on stills taken from movies.
Others make reference to other works the narrators appeared in.
A few examples of artwork;
The film The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) was used for several illustrations, including in Abdulla and the Genie and Gulliver's Travels.
The Tinderbox read by Sian Phillips features a drawing of a witch wearing the same shaped headpiece worn by Francesca Annis as The Widow of the Web in Krull (1983). Both women appeared together the followimg year in Dune (1984).
Beauty and the Beast shows the beast loping across a moonlit lawn at night hunting for food. This was based on a scene from the movie The Night Digger (1971). The beast dying in a pile of autumn leaves was used for the death of the Vervoids in Doctor Who Terror of the Vervoids (1986).
Seadna and the Devil has references to the Doctor Who story The Sea Devils (1972). The same cassette features companion actress Maureen O'Brien who also makes Doctor Who related jokes in the stories she reads.
George and the Dragon read by Steven Pacey draws on Dragonslayer (1981) in the text descriptions and illustrations.
Waldorf's Fantastic Trip Part 2 features a metal bird. Its head and beak design match the blades of the glaive weapon in Krull (1983).
Krull also gave birth to The Forest Troll as the cyclops Rell first appears in the film standing in a forest. He dies at the end crushed between two stones. This is why the character in the story is afraid of being crushed like a stone by the boy with a ball of cheese.
The Old Man of Torbay is based on a character from a film.
A few examples of music based on film scores from other works;
The Twilight Zone (Nathan Scott) A Stop at Willoughby includes several pieces of music that were reworked into the library pieces used in Storyteller.
The Egyptian (Alfred Newman, 1954) - Valley of the Kings (Sinuhe). The first 60 seconds of this track were used in library music in Storyteller.
Submarine X-1 (Ron Goodwin) Quentin's Rescue has a piece used when Kai is freed from thr Snowqueens power.
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1979) - Arrival of Spring/Chase 4 - Referenced in Jester Minute.
The Misfits (Alex North, 1961) - Compassion for Guido - Referenced in Sinbad.
The Twilight Zone (Bernard Herrmann - Walking Distance is reworked in Little Spook of Spook Hall.
Excalibur (1981) - Quest for the Holy Grail is referenced in George and the Dragon.
Jesus of Nazarwth (Maurice Jarre, 1977) - Annunciation referenced in Little Spook of Spook Hall.
It's Alive II (Bernard Herrmann) - Birth Traumas is referenced in Theseus and the Minotaur.
Battlestar Galactica (John Williams, 1978) - Dash to the Elevator is reworked in Bobby and the Magic Go-Kart.
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) includes sound effects and musical motifs that were reused in Storyteller.
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