Britain's first storytelling laureate named as Cumbrian Taffy Thomas

Britain is set to enjoy its first storytelling laureate in the form of eccentrically-clad Cumbrian Taffy Thomas. Mr Thomas, 60, a literature and drama teacher who was awarded an MBE for services to storytelling and charity in 2001, has a repertoire of 300 stories, tales and elaborate lies collected mainly from traditional oral sources. During his two-year tenure starting in January next year, the self-declared "grand old man of stories" will travel the length and breadth of the UK entertaining children and adults