Joanne Harris, author of bestselling novel, Chocolat, has captivated readers worldwide by storytelling.  With her latest book Maiden, Mother, Crone released 2 November Joanne's desire to share stories with audiences is as strong as ever. 

This week she will be at the Landmark Arts Centre for a conversation about her new book- an omnibus edition of her three novellas; A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road and Orfeia, plus new stories.  Joanne is also performing at the Landmark with her Storytime Band, which she has been a member of since her teens.  

Ahead of the weekend's excitement, Nub News editor spoke to Joanne Harris about the history and art of storytelling.  

Speaking on the phone, from her home in South Yorkshire, Joanne has a slightly whispery voice. Gentle but with notes of sternness that should not be crossed.  

"I have always been inspired where stories come from," Joanne says. "And folklore even if [the story] is not about the folklore." 

Speaking on the history of storytelling and folklore, Joanne explains stories have traditionally been the way of spreading the word about something that has happened and how fairytales have acted as coded messages for behaviour. 

"We tend to explore our world through stories, we always have," she says.  

Whether it be through learning societal norms, remembering historical events, of providing hope that you can be a hero and monsters be defeated- stories can entertain as well as bring meaning.  

"These things have power, these narratives," Joanne says. "We are coded, all of us. All round the world, all cultures."  

"There is a lot of feeling in the stories and you tend to connect with people through feelings rather than just facts." 

Joanne Harris has had a varied writing career spanning 30 years. (Photo: Joanne Harris.)

Whilst there are numerous threads to her work, they all have fundamental elements in common, driven by her desire to challenge the status quo, particularly in how women are perceived in society. Joanne says women are not treated the same or taken seriously in the world of literature.  

"In folklore, women are nearly always either -if they're young and pretty- prizes for the hero to win...or they are murder victims, or wicked witches or jealous queens. They're not generally seen positively- unless they are young and pretty and then their only role is to be saved." 

Does Joanne still think women are on the margins now? "I don't think things have changed as much as they could have done," she says. "We still have an awful lot of violence towards women in this society." 

She cites historical cases, referring to the Sarah Everard's murder and the criminal behaviour of David Carrick. "Looking at recent cases there is a lot of victim-blaming and assumption, perhaps women are [said to be] even deserving of violence," she explains.  

Classic crime fiction traditionally starts with a woman, perhaps a prostitute, being murdered. "It's a [grotesque] interest of the death of attractive young women," Joanne says. "This is directly different from the folktales and ballads that I've restructured to tell different stories." 

Writing the collection, Joanne said she did some gender flipping and changing roles, "reshuffling the stories and making them more relevant".

She describes the novellas as: "women in the margins, stepping out into the spotlight and telling their stories."  

Book cover. (Photo: Joanne Harris)

The following evening, 25 November, Joanne will be joined by her #Storytime band. The group go back to Joanne and drummer husband Kevin's teenage band. 

A musical storytelling show, it combines original music, songs, images and stories as part of an exploration of different forms of narrative. It is described by Joanne as "basically, Jackanory, with drums". 

Some of the pieces are based on old folklore, some are completely original, some of them about where stories come from and why they are still important. 

Speaking on the effect of the performance, Joanne says: "When I do Storytime, I often get people coming up to me afterwards saying: 'I don't think anyone has told me a story since I was a little kid and I've forgotten how much I loved it'." 

Although most people who visit Joanne's appearance are readers, maybe they have read her book, and yet it is the spoken word they receive as much joy from. 

"I think people forget how different it is when the story leaves the page," Joanne explains. "Whether you read a story aloud, or you perform a story, or you set the story to music or dance or theatre, it goes into a different medium and you experience it a different way." 

Storytime consists of two segments; the first is 'story songs' where Joanne will tell a story to a background of music with visual projections. As the audience understand what the song is about, the band will perform the piece to the song. 

Joanna said she will perform one of her longer pieces, based on the novellas. It acts as a segment of story dispersed with segments of music. 

Joanne and the Storytime band with spoken word. (Photo: Joanne Harris)

The Storytime band has only been performing for six years, and like everyone, had a long break over Covid so it is just building its bookings up again. Originally, the band used to play songs just for themselves, rather than performing to audiences.  

Previously a 'straight music show' Joanna found her musical storytelling voice from, where all good things come from (!), Twitter.  

Joanne says: "I used to tell stories in segments, then I realised social media is much more conversational than it is a written medium. It felt like telling stories." 

Then she started asking: "What if we really did that and took it onto stage, and told stories in this way to music?"  

Gradually, the band built spoken word around the music. Taking the stories and folktales Joanna had written and re-interpreted, the band experimented with them to see what they can do and how people relate to them. 

"Music is an emotional hardener," Joanna explains. "It can make a story more powerful, and it can make it more intimate.  

"You're not just reading words that somebody has written; you're listening to them telling you a story in a different way. I think it connects on a different level." 

Catch Joanne Harris at the Landmark Arts Centre, In Conversation on Friday 24 November; performing with her Storytime Band on Saturday 25 November; Chocolat – A Delicious Workshop runs on 25 November. For full details and booking: www.landmarkartscentre.org