Hello everyone! Welcome to Fire Springs Folk Tales!

What, say you, I thought this was Suffolk Folk Tales?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged about Suffolk. Why? Well, it so happens that I’ve been working on another book for The History Press, so I’ve had to turn my attention from Suffolk to another county. In light of that, I’ve decided to rebrand the blog so that it takes into account not only the new book but also the other books my Fire Springs partners Anthony Nanson, Kevan Manwaring and I, Kirsty Hartsiotis, have done. Fire Springs is our storytelling company, formed in 2000 with storyteller and musician David Metcalfe and, in 2003 storyteller Richard Selby joined too. Hence Fire Springs Folk Tales!  Find out about Fire Springs here.

So what’s this new book then? Anthony and I have collaborated on this one – and it’s about the county in which we live.

Gloucestershire Ghost Tales comes out on the 2 November 2015 – All Souls Day, rather fitting don’t you think?

Whether it’s white ladies, old ladies, monks, miners, blacksmiths, beggars, or bears, horses, hounds, priests or poltergeists, unwilling brides or all too willing femmes fatales, Dark Age warriors, Roundhead troopers, or phantom narrowboats, Gloucestershire’s hidden places are seething with spooks. Anthony Nanson and Kirsty Hartsiotis imaginatively bring to life twenty of the creepiest and most engaging ghost stories from all over Gloucestershire – from the Forest, Severn Vale, and Cotswolds, the Upper Thames and Bristol. Enjoy them on the page on a dark and stormy night, or tell them yourself to freak out your friends.

I am the author of Suffolk Folk Tales (of course) and Wiltshire Folk Tales, Anthony is the author of Gloucestershire Folk Tales (among many other books – find out more about them here), and Kevan is the author of Oxfordshire Folk Tales and Northamptonshire Folk Tales (again a prolific author – find out more here).

Watch out here and on our new facebook page for events for the launch of Gloucestershire Ghost Tales!