AFTER a lifetime's fascination with birds, storyteller Taffy Thomas MBE has published an enchanting new collection of folk tales about wrens, robins, roosters and more.

The Magpie's Nest is Taffy's 13th book and harks back to his childhood in Somerset. His father Ivor would teach him the names of birds visiting their garden, and the young Taffy would thread peanuts for them on wool, suspending them between the washing-line post and the sweet pea canes.

"I've always been interested in wildlife and birds; they feature a lot in folk tales and songs," said the storyteller, who lives in Ambleside with his wife and "muse" Chrissy.

Over time he realised he had "a book's worth" of bird stories, but he told the Gazette it wasn't as simple as writing down the spoken tales word for word, as they did not read well.

He explained: "I have to make myself at home with the story by telling it. Then I sit down with a pile of exercise books and a pen - I'm very old fashioned , I'm not computer literate - and write the story in as rich a way as I can."

Gems in the new collection include why the robin has a red breast; the wren, king of the birds; why the swallow has a forked tail; the mute swans of Grasmere; the Borrowdale cuckoo; and the owl was a baker's daughter.

Alongside riddles and rhymes, there are beautiful, colour and black-and-white hand-drawn illustrations by Becca Hall, who as a young girl at Staveley Primary School would listen to Taffy's tales.

Folk musician Eliza Carthy MBE has written a foreword, saying: "I've been lucky enough to grow up listening to Taffy's stories, and then to have the honour and pleasure of playing for him as I've grown older. Those who know him know he is an endless mine of magic, treasure and wonder."

Taffy marked the arrival of The Magpie's Nest by sharing its tales in his garden with his nine-year-old granddaughter Ona, visiting from Australia.

He will be signing copies at the Furness Tradition festival in Ulverston on July 13, and at the Lake District Folk Weekend in Staveley, in early August.

The grandfather has two more causes for celebration coming up. On July 10 it will be his 70th birthday, and on July 2 he will be toasting the 25th anniversary of the country's longest running storytelling club, at the Watermill Inn, Ings. To find out more, see www.watermillinn.co.uk