Lari is telling tales to keep tradition alive

WHEN children’s author Lari Don visits schools, she asks the pupils if they know any traditional tales.

Usually they do and will happily tell her about stories from Greek or Norse myth.

What they seem less familiar with are stories from Scotland’s own rich heritage of folklore.

Now the award-winning writer is doing something about it with her latest book, Breaking The Spell, containing 10 traditional tales from Scotland — some of them drawn from Don’s own family.

The book is published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, who commissioned Don to write a collection of traditional tales.

"They asked me to write it because, as well as being a children’s writer, I’m also a storyteller," she explained.

"They asked me to choose just 10, and my goodness, what a difficult thing to do! In the end, though, there’s quite a heavy bias to tales from the Highlands and Skye because that is where my family is from."

Some of the stories are well known, such as the Borders tale of Tam Lin or Whuppity Stoorie — "The Scottish version of Rumpelstiltskin — or maybe Rumpelstiltskin is the German version of Whuppity Stoorie," Don said.

Others are less well known.

"There are two well known legendary creatures in the book, the kelpie and the selkie, but I wanted to tell stories that people don’t know," Don said.

"The kelpie story comes out of my own family history in Skye and I’m pretty certain that no-one has told that one before."

Just because she tells stories for a living does not excuse her from doing any research.

"Even with a story I’ve known for 30 years, I still have to go up to the library and check where it came from," the former Speyside High School pupil admitted.

She could also consult her own extensive library of traditional tales — a good half of which she reckons came from Charles Leakey’s Church Street bookshop in Inverness.

Now based in Edinburgh, she returns to Inverness tomorrow, Saturday 2nd November, to visit Waterstones Inverness in the Eastgate Shopping Centre to read from her latest picture book, The Magic Word, and tell some traditional tales.

"These stories are for sitting and reading and enjoying, but they are also for telling to someone else," she said.

"I really want this kids to know their own stories and it would be really nice if people elsewhere could get to know some Scottish stories as well."

• Lari Don will read from her new picture book and tell stories for younger children aged four to six at 11.30am at Waterstones’ Inverness branch on Saturday 2nd November, then at 1.30pm she will tell some of her favourite Scottish folk tales for older children, aged from seven to 12 years, and all the family.