Elizabeth Clark author page

Elizabeth Clark biography

Elizabeth Clark (14 May 1875 – 21 April 1972) was an English storyteller, lecturer and author of children’s fiction. Trained through practice rather than formal art schools, she developed her craft by telling fairy and folk tales to children and went on to teach storytelling to educators and youth workers.

From 1915 she gave regular “story-hours” in London play centres and soon began lecturing on technique for teachers and librarians. Clark published collections that adapted legends, folklore and historical anecdotes for young listeners and early readers. Notable titles include Stories to Tell and How to Tell Them (University of London Press; multiple editions), The Farmer and the Fairy, The Talkative Sparrow, Dobbin and the Silver Shoes and The Cat that Climbed the Christmas Tree. Many volumes were illustrated and designed for reading aloud in schools, libraries and clubs.

Her work reached a national audience through regular broadcasts on BBC children’s programmes, and she toured widely to demonstrate storytelling methods. In 1931 she travelled to the United States as a guest of the National Girl Scouts of America, giving talks and story sessions reported in the contemporary press. Interest in her writing revived in the 2010s with new hardcover reissues of the Elizabeth Clark Story Books for modern classrooms and families.

Clark’s stories were broadcast on the BBC’s Children’s Hour in the 1920s.