In the context of UKLA’s 50th anniversary and in recognition of Harold Rosen’s rich contribution within the period, this memorial lecture will revisit the ‘irrepressible genre’ of narrative (Rosen, 1984), re-examining its potency as a fundamental mode of thought (Bruner, 1986) an organisational device that enables us to order experience, real and imagined and a space to play and co-create.