What Women most Desire
A new recording of the full tale will be uploaded here and added to the video gallery on 9th Dec. 2025.
Meanwhile, a short clip from a performance in 2009.
Mine is a telling based on the 15th century Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, itself a version of earlier tales known as The Loathly Lady. (The Wife of Bath’s Tale is Chaucer’s version in The Canterbury Tales.)
I have not told the story for a long time. But a few days ago (October 2025) I was asked after a performance in Erlangen, Bavaria, to include it in my 2026 programme. So I first made a complete recording to decide whether I am still happy with the rather ribald version which evolved over many years when I regularly told it to adult and teenage audiences.
Researching the origins of the tale, and discovering that some scholars view the 15th century version itself to be a parody of chivalric codes, confirms my decision to develop that side of the story.
Moreover, I know that in performance it works!
The new recording will be uploaded to my video gallery in the coming months. Until then, above is the half-minute clip filmed by a member of the audience at the 2009 ZauberWort storytelling festival in Nuremberg,
Disclaimer
The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres.
Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.
Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.
The videos are © Richard Martin.
Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.
Go here for tales to watch
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
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Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling