Story-based English

Myths and Legends for Adult English Learners

Graded stories with audio, vocabulary support and unhurried interactive practice. Real stories, written for adults.

Painted cover scene from St George and the Dragon: dawn over the lake

The idea

A lot of English material for learners is technically useful and emotionally flat.

Story gives language somewhere to live. A character wants something. A situation changes. A line stays in the mind. Vocabulary becomes attached to a scene rather than a list.

This strand of the work is about adult English through myth and legend: not childish stories, and not decorative reading practice, but carefully graded narrative material with real atmosphere and the right support to read it.

First reader

St George and the Dragon

A lower-level interactive myth reader for adult English learners, with story, audio, vocabulary cards and workbook practice.

  • Lower level
  • 9 chapters
  • Interactive reader
  • Workbook included

This is the first paid Myths and Legends pack, available now, with my narration across all nine chapters. The £12 founding price is open while the series grows.

Illustration from St George and the Dragon showing the dragon rising from the lake

Second reader

Tam Lin

A middle-level retelling of the Scottish ballad for adult English learners. Janet enters Carterhaugh, learns what the Fairy Queen has planned, and must hold on while Tam Lin changes in her arms.

  • Middle level
  • 10 chapters
  • Claire narration
  • Interactive workbook

The complete illustrated reader is available now at the £12 founding price. You can read the first two chapters and hear Claire's Scottish narration before you buy.

Janet holds Tam Lin through the transformations at Miles Cross

What comes next

St George now gives the series a lower-level starting point, while Tam Lin offers a longer middle-level read. Later stories can extend the same approach into other tones and levels, with British Isles myths first and world mythology later.

Lower

Finn McCool

A warmer, comic myth, where the giant wins by wit instead of fighting.

Middle · available now

Tam Lin

Janet holds on while Tam Lin changes in her arms: a snake, a lion and a bar of red-hot iron. Read the complete ten-chapter edition now.

Higher

King Lear or Beowulf

Richer language for learners ready for a more literary register.

Choose your reader

Start where the language feels right

Choose St George for a shorter lower-level story. Choose Tam Lin for a longer middle-level story with more complex relationships, richer sentences and adult themes.