A STORYTELLER brought history to life yesterday when she dressed up as a centurion's wife to entertain children.

At Middlesbrough's Dorman Museum,Tanya Bentham told the tale of a silly goose and helped youngsters to learn about the Romans and their gods.

She wore an authentic-style dress, or palla, held together with a brooch, and hand-made Roman jewellery.

"Storytelling is a very important part of our culture and everyone likes stories no matter what age they are," said Ms Bentham, 32, of Redcar.

"I let the children know how important story-telling was in those days, because they didn't have things like television, cinema and the Internet.

"A good story is a mixture of local newspapers, soap opera and the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

"The children take it very well because it makes it more humorous for the audience when there a few modern references."

Ms Bentham has been visiting schools and museums on Teesside for about five years, telling stories about the Romans, Greeks and Vikings.

Her latest visit was part of the activities there over the Easter holidays.