A selection of 15 audio stories from Gianni Rodari's Telephone Tales, originally published in Italian in 1962.

Every night, at nine o’clock, wherever he is, Mr. Bianchi, an accountant who often travels for work, calls his daughter and tells her a bedtime story. Set in the 20th century era of pay phones, each story has to be told in the time that a single coin will buy. One night, it’s the story of a carousel so beloved by children that an old man, curious to find out why, sneaks in, and as he sails above the world, he understands. The next night, it’s a land filled with butter men, roads paved with chocolate, or a young shrimp who has the courage to defy expectations and do things differently.

The podcast of Gianni Rodari's Telephone Tales is a project by the Italian Cultural Institute in London, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gianni Rodari’s birth.

Telephone Tales is published by Enchanted Lion Books, translated by Antony Shugaar. For the English texts: Used with kind permission of Enchanted Lion Books, with thanks to Antony Shugaar for his wonderful English translations

Original edition in the Italian language: Favole al telefono by Gianni Rodari, published by Einaudi Ragazzi. © The Estate of Gianni Rodari. Published in agreement with Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency (PNLA)

For the illustration by Bruno Munari: © 1962 Bruno Munari. All rights reserved to Maurizio Corraini s.r.l.

This series is produced by Novel. www.thisisnovel.co.ukSeries Producer: Caroline Thornham