In this blog, we meet three more of the writers involved in the Local Winter Story Trail.  

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Michelle Collier is a writer, printmaker and designer who has recently been an artist in residence at George Street Community Bookshop. Mark P Henderson is a fiction and folklore writer, who has been published many times and currently heads up Glossop Bookfest. Kathryn Starnes also writes and researches folklore, and funs folklore evenings in Glossop‚ 

Find out more about the inspiration behind their stories here.  

‍Michelle Collier - Pogo's Christmas Wish for George Street Bookshop  

Season's greetings, Glossop! It sure is nice to be back in some form at George Street Community Bookshop just in time for Christmas. Some of you may already know this, but in Autumn I spent six weeks as an artist in residence at the bookshop, exploring the stranger side of the local landscape (read more about this on my website). So it's a real pleasure to be invited back to spin a Yuletide yarn as part of A Local Winter Story Trail. What a lovely way to draw in those winter nights together.

 Anyone who knows me will be expecting a traditional Christmas ghost story right about now, complete with snow-sprinkled spectres and a cautionary tale to take you into the new year. But instead I'm throwing a Christmas curveball. I give you: Pogo's Christmas Wish.

You'll find no phantoms here, but you will find a good slug o' rum to temper the cold, and a dash of the absurd for good measure. Bonus points if you know why I chose the name Pogo.  

Given the season, I wanted to mix something 'Christmassy' (think local panto, Christmas wishes, that sort of thing) with the idea that the bookshop is a place to encounter strange literary characters. I also wanted to play on the idea of books being a kind of escape; somewhere you go to live vicariously through someone else, or be transported to another place. What if you could quite literally escape into a book? Who might want to do that, and how would they go about fulfilling their Christmas wish?  It's always a time for stories, but there's something extra special about sharing stories at Christmas, even if we no longer huddle around the fire to tell them. There's magic in the air, imaginary worlds feel closer, somehow, their characters more real- if only for a Christmas moment. I do hope you enjoy my story and the 23 other tales along the trail. I, for one, can't wait to discover them and step inside their worlds.

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Mark Henderson - Exploring the history of Mettrick's Butchers.

An opportunity to write a short piece of prose extolling one of our High Street shops! It was an honour to receive the invitation from Glossop Creates, and a pleasure to work with the manager of the chosen shop to produce something he'll be happy to display in his window. He told me about the history of his business, which threw fresh light on my knowledge of the history of Glossopdale as a whole. This was also an opportunity to recruit fellow-writers to engage in the High Street Story Trail project: my friends in our local creative writing group, Write from the Heart; members of the group I tutor in Chapel-en-le-Frith; and of course my colleagues in the Glossop BookFest, which stages monthly open mic evenings and is planning a one-day event early in 2023 to promote the work of local authors and illustrators. I'm delighted that several of these authors responded to the invitation and have contributed their own stories to the Trail.

‍Kathryn Starnes - A Hob is Where the Hearth Is for Decor8.

Although I study folklore, I've never written fiction before. Well, not since school. I'm usually too busy writing about how stories can help us to think about the world differently, to re-imagine what is possible, or analysing other people's stories. I've always wanted to write fiction, though, and I'm trying to find ways to be more involved in the community so that I can fit around work and still have time to eat, sleep and keep up with the garden. This seemed like a fun way to do both, even if the thought of sticking to only 300 words was daunting. I started out by going to meet Diane and Leigh at Decor8 and see what their shop was like. Although I bought a house in need of renovation and decoration a couple of years ago, we're still at the (boring) renovation stage, so I'd never been in Decor8. Not only were Leigh and Diane warm, welcoming, and incredibly generous about their neighbours and community, but they had a lovely shop. The first thing I noticed were the paint samples on two walls, like little square rainbows, and then all the gorgeous wallpaper. I could just imagine some sort of woodland creature industriously painting all those flowers, trees and birds for us to hang up in our homes. A few days later I was mulling over the story on my commute and remembered a storytelling evening I did with Mark Henderson.

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Back in the early Spring, we did an evening at Glossop Labour Club on well-dressing, and I was introduced to a creature I hadn't encountered before: the Hob. The research I did for that evening made me think Hobs are great story characters. They're easily offended (never offer them a suit of new clothes!) and they hate to be seen by humans, but if they deem you worthy, they'll come in, make themselves at home, and every night while you sleep, they'll make your home lovely. All this in exchange for a bowl of porridge left by the hearth. Hobs are region specific, appearing in stories from the North and Northeast, including Derbyshire folktales. They're similar to other mythical creatures and Deities that symbolise the hearth and home, so I thought a Hob would make a great character for Decor8, a shop that is local and all about making your home lovely.  

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The other thing Leigh and Diane talked about was how long their shop has been in Glossop (they're the second generation, still assisted by the first generation, Pat!) and how supportive their neighbouring shops and deli were when they recently experienced a bereavement. I wanted to capture this sense of community in my story, with neighbours helping each other out, each giving what they have to offer. Decor8 has a long-standing presence in our community, and you can see further evidence of their community involvement as the train approaches Glossop station, passing the Cricket Club. I can well imagine a Hob deeming the community spirit and friendship at Decor8 worthy.  

Because I can't resist being a little bit nerdy, the two other characters are also‚ Easter Eggs, Sulis is based on a Deity from the thermal springs in Bath. We don't know that much about her, except that she was specific to Bath. You can see her head at the Roman Baths in Bath and her name features in places like hospitals to this day. I like to imagine she saw Bath's thermal waters were doing just fine so perhaps she popped up in Glossop to help out with a revival of our local well on Church Street. In the meantime, where else would she live but a bath shop! Pep is a Griffin, probably familiar to many, although they don't usually wear beanies and drink oat milk lattes! However, if Griffin was going to live in a deli, I can see him developing a taste for them. I loved the idea of all three of these ancient personalities taking on a more contemporary persona and embodying the lovely, neighbourly spirit of our town. One day maybe I'll write a story where they all meet the ghost at Partington!  

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