Reviews
Reviews
On this page you will find reviews of our classical tales recordings and teaching materials from learners, teachers, the press and others.
"Storytelling is one of the most important, most humane, most liberating and most democratic things that human beings can do, and it should have a central place in every classroom." Philip Pullman
What learners say
'It was exciting because each week we would listen to it and they would finish it with something exciting going to happen.'
'Every Friday I used to walk home telling my mum all about it, it was so fun.'
'The story is action filled to the very rim.'
'It was great because you could picture it in your head as the CD was going on.'
'I think the Iliad is educational by giving you a time to see what some wars are like.'
'It makes you feel like you're in the story and you're one of the characters who is at that part of the story.'
Teacher feedback
'Before using it my first impression was that it was too long. However I changed my mind almost from the start because of the class reaction to the story. It demonstrates the difference between reading a story and listening to one. Their recall of detail surprised me, and not just from the academically more able pupils...I would definitely use this as part of the History 'Ancient Greece' topic.'
'[My learners loved]...the action and the excellent way in which the story was told.'
'They loved it! Lots of opportunities for discussion and role play. Good for inference and deduction as well as listening skills. I'm amazed at their ability to recall events, details, characters...everything!'
'They enjoyed predicting what would happen to the characters and who would win the war...They talked about the events that had taken place in the story for the rest of the day. They asked lots of questions and found the story easy to understand with teacher intervention and summarising of key points... Listening skills really improved as did comprehension skills. Through listening to the recordings, they were freed from the written word which inhibits some of those who are lower-achieving and those which are turned off by reading...one of my school refusers came to school every day whilst we were listening to the CDs...we have really enjoyed this project.'
'The descriptive vocabulary has been evident in their own writing. Less able learners have discussed complex issues confidently. In discussion they all expressed empathy with characters and when predicting outcomes the most able have adopted the style of the storytellers.'
Press reviews
'After extensive trialling in Primary schools, the finished CD has a strong oral feel to it, steeped in the rhythms of spoken English. The sentences are short and shot through with an Anglo-Saxon punchiness... the combination of the storyteller's voice and the physical directness of the language gives the story a compelling visceral quality...' Times Educational Supplement January 16 2004
'A spellbinding performance which ebbs and flows between the two voices of the storytellers, capturing with equal success the enormous emotional highs and the tiny domestic details which, combined, make the original so gripping.' Education Guardian 16 December 2003
'Nearly 3000 years old, the Iliad is a work of almost 16000 lines divided into 24 books; distant in culture massive in scale... Now two remarkable storytellers, Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden, working in conjunction with the Cambridge School Classics Project, have lifted the blind bard's work off the page and given him new life... This package takes the Iliad back to its oral roots and allows a new generation access to its power and beauty.' The Times Weekend Review 6 December 2003
'Homer's art is well captured by two British storytellers who, after winning great applause in performances of the Greek epics around the country, have now committed some of their work to compact disc. Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden offer a narrative reconstructed for those who know none of the original poem. The two voices, old and young, sonorous and melodic, slow and mobile, take the tale of Troy from the Golden Apple to the triumph of the Wooden Horse, setting the true Iliad, from the wrath of Achilles to the death of Trojan Hector, in between.
These storytellers luxuriate in all the domestic episodes of peace, adding romance where Homer left love aside and giving the combat a panoramic sheen... this is narration of compelling quality.' The Times, March 2003