MIDWINTER FOLK TALES by Taffy Thomas, £9.99
CELEBRATED story teller Taffy Thomas of Grasmere has assembled a pot-pourri of stories, poems, songs and riddles for this hugely entertaining book.
Anticipating that it is likely to be read out loud in front of a blazing fire, Taffy delves into a myriad of seasonal tales, from the story of St Nicholas - said to be the eastern European inspiration for Santa Claus - to ghostly goings-on like the tale of The Poacher's Curse or a Cumbrian version of the legend of The Vanishing Hitchhiker.
Taffy also reveals where some of his fascinating stories come from.
The Poacher's Curse, for example, was originally told to him by a 10-year-old Italian girl at a school in Nantwich in the 1980s; while he first heard The Apple Tree Man in the 1970s from Somerset storyteller and folklorist Ruth Tongue, who in turn learned it as a child many years before that.
The front cover of Midwinter Folk Tales was created by Katherine Soutar and the book is entertainingly illustrated throughout by the young Cumbrian artist Steven Gregg.
ISBN 978-0-7509-5588-1
ALLAN TUNNINGLEY
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