Solstice Stories

"You know where you are with evil in those stories. It's simple. A witchy cackle, a strange appearance, a stooping walk. It makes it really easy. The baddies act like baddies, and they look like baddies. Except.. Nana has a stooping walk and laughs like a toilet unblocking... Whose warnings do we carry from the old stories, and whose do we let slip through our bones and away?" The seventh and fina...

The Imagined story of Anne Webber, the last woman on the island of Samson, part of the Isles of Scilly archipelago. " In my opinion, Samson got all the beauty. She's got a tucked in waist right in the middle, as if she breathed in to wear her corset of granite. We don't hold with corsets 'ere of course, but we've had a few washed up on East Porth and we weren't sure what they were at first? Some s...

"I will come for you, every one of you. I will tip toe into your homes in the dead of night and suck your life force from your mouths ...  I will make sick your wives  and steal your children,  and with my master I will rip out your hearts and feast upon them, and as I am saved from these flames you will all burn in hell for eternity.  Are you frightened? Well you should be." The fifth of our Sols...

"And so my precious child, as you prepare to spread your wings and fly, Who am I? When I split open and shed my Selkie skin of Motherhood, What lies beneath? This pelt so soft and now threadbare, warm, and full of comfort. Now peppered with silver threads, worn thin through hugs and healing kisses. What lies beneath?" The fourth of our Solstice Stories is Mayven Song by Bec Applebee, read by Jo Ti...

" We lovers of folktales know that many a story begins by declaring 'there once was a woman.' And we know that the woman will be either a maiden in search of love, a mother protecting her clan, or a crone bent on revenge. And you will also expect her tale to be set in time immemorial, in a magical era rife with spirit mischief. The tale you are about to hear is different." The third of our Solstic...

"Precocious. I remember the feeling when they said it ... shame, deep in my bones. They used to say I just needed someone to put me back in my box, back in my pram. Do we ever call boys precocious?" The second of our Solstice Stories is Mayven Cherry (of Zennor) by Anna Mansell, read by Bobbie O'Callaghan, edited by Michael Hall and the music is by Kai Swarvett. Solstice Stories is presented by Re...

Solstice Stories is a podcast showcasing specially commissioned stories about Cornish heroines of witchery and myth. These stories were performed from the stage, balcony and backstage hidey-holes of Cornwall's most magical venue, the Minack Theatre on the Winter Solstice 2022 and they have now been recorded so you can enjoy them from the comfort of your cosy home. " We don't win. It's important fo...