We were very pleased and excited to welcome an Old Turian, Mara Menzies, to St Andrew’s School, Turi, last week. Mara Menzies is a storyteller based in Edinburgh, with a powerful, dynamic and physical style that captures the imagination of any audience. She has performed and led workshops at schools and festivals all around the world.

 
Returning to Turi was an incredible experience for Mara. She commented that so much had changed over the years and yet so much was still familiar. In her many stories, she took the students on wonderful journeys across Scotland where they discovered the changeling (a fairy child left in the place of a stolen human child), she revealed to them about how the Gikuyu women were finally allowed to eat meat and told them of the story of Mzee Chomba (the woman who threw a bone out of the window).

 
Mara shares stories from her dual Kenyan and Scottish heritage. She creates narratives, tours shows and leads workshops to demonstrate how stories can change the world. She is passionate about how storytelling improves creativity, develops listening skills, encourages reading for pleasure, challenges misconceptions, provokes thought, and promotes positive self awareness and confidence. You can find out more about her work at maramenzies.co.uk