Three years ago, Séan Lang argued that narrative, which had gone rather out of fashion, needed to be brought back into our teaching. Alf Wilkinson goes further. It is not just narrative which is needed: it is story. The move away from story is not a problem confined uniquely to history, but if we as history teachers do not engage our students in story then we risk losing their attention as well as their sense of the past. Wilkinson argues that story is a vital tool both for engaging students and for giving them a sense of period, and a sense of what the major issues of the period might be. Story, on one level, is what history is about. Wilkinson advocates involving pupils in stories longer than the standard textbooks often allow; he suggests that story-telling should be an important part of the teacher’s art; and he shows how even the most minor details can be an effective way into a genuinely rigorous and interesting historical enquiry. He also provides practical guidance on how to achieve this – as well as a rationale for frequent use of nursery rhyme in the secondary classroom.