Bradford has one of the country's most beautiful Waterstones.

Stone arches. Stone masonry. An old wool market transformed into a temple for stories.

40 years ago, would sit on my Bradfordian, grandfather's lap and he would orate stories to us my brother and I.

Again and again and again.

I can still hear his broad Yorkshire accent:

Reciting Kipling's If.
Reciting Albert and the Lion.
Reciting Albert Returns.
Reciting The Green Eye of the God ("Don't mess with him").

The power of storytelling, whether through written word, illustration, or oration, impacted me as a child because I can still remember, over 40 years later, his words, his wisdom in those stories.

Storytelling is a massive part of what Bradford means to me.

And in 2025, I brought it home.

The Journey Nobody Expected

Twelve months ago, I wouldn't have believed this was possible.

Six months ago, I still wasn't sure.

But this year, Bradford became the birthplace of something extraordinary: hundreds of children discovering their voices through the same oral storytelling tradition my granddad practiced in this city generations ago.

Here's what happened in 2025:

During Bradford Literature Festival Week: Children Become Authors

The tents were going up. The festival was getting set up. 

I was in BCB radio box live with children who have created their stories and expressed their imagination through StoryQuest™ workshops.

BCB Community Radio committed to something remarkable:

Broadcasting children's stories spoken by the authors themselves, every single day during the literature festival week!

Not adults reading children's books. Children reading their own creations.

During Bradford Literature Festival, you could tune in and hear children being the authors of their own narratives.

In their own voices.

Telling stories they chose to tell, the way they chose to tell them.

Tom Hirst, Head of English at Dixon's Manningham Primary, told BBC News:

"Even the kids who don't like writing didn't want to leave. They wanted more. They came in wanting to write. We've never seen that kind of engagement before."

Tom didn't just run StoryQuest™ workshops for one term. He built it permanently into his curriculum.

That doesn't happen with programs that don't work. That happens when methodology honors how children naturally learn when they feel heard.

The National Science and Media Museum: Disbelief to Pride

It was also with great delight and a deep sense of pride, and also disbelief, that we guested at Bradford's National Science and Media Museum.

We brought to life my son's story. His own film. His own little video that he's made that's inspiring children across the city and across the country to orate, to scribe their own stories with their own imagination.

The wonderful children who came left with their minds open to be free to express the depths of their imagination.

Where they would like to go when they can go anywhere, do anything, and have anybody join them.

As one child said:

"Gabriel's imagination feels like mine."

That connection, one child seeing himself in another child's story, is what this year was about.

Not an author from London telling Bradford children what stories matter. A Bradford boy showing them their own stories already do.

The Oral Storytelling Tradition Returns

Bradford has a rich history in oral storytelling.

The music halls were about oral storytelling and performing of oral stories. Places like the Alhambra and St. George's Hall.

Oration as performance. Stories as shared experience.

This is what we're bringing to life with StoryQuest™ workshops:

Children orate their stories. Their friend scribes it.

They then when they take their notes, they draft it into a complete story and illustrate it.

Ready to stand and perform and deliver to their audience, to their contemporaries.

The same tradition my granddad practiced. Now accessible to every Bradford child.

Not just the confident ones. Not just the "gifted" ones. Every child.

Because when you remove the blank page barrier, when oral expression comes first and writing comes second, every voice emerges.

What We Accomplished in 2024

The numbers tell part of the story:

✅ 9 schools across Bradford and Gloucestershire
✅ 465 children documented
✅ 100% engagement maintained
✅ Zero behavioural incidents
✅ Tom Hirst built it permanently into curriculum
✅ BBC News coverage
✅ BCB Community Radio daily broadcasts
✅ Bradford Literature Festival showcase
✅ National Science and Media Museum event
✅ International bestseller (The Adventures of Gabriel)

and more.......

But the real story is in what children said:

"I didn't know I had so many stories inside me until I was allowed to let them out."

"I believed in myself so I could create things I didn't even know I could do."

"Gabriel's imagination feels like mine."

"Normally you have to follow the teacher, but this time you're more free."

The Validation That Followed

What started in Bradford classrooms caught international attention:

Media coverage:

• BBC News (UK national broadcaster)
• TEACH Magazine (Canada)
• Canadian Teacher Magazine (peer-reviewed)
• PhysioTimes (India)
• Times Radio, Yorkshire Post, MSN

Academic:

• British Psychological Society presentation
• Journal of Novel Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation publication
• European Conference on Education (2025)
• Barcelona Conference on Education (2025)

School implementation:

• Tom Hirst: "We've never seen that kind of engagement before"
• Claire Light: "Pupils cannot wait to see their published stories"
• Thieb Khan: "Genuinely transformative effect on pupils' engagement"

From Bradford classrooms to international recognition.

But it all started here. In this city. With my granddad's oral storytelling tradition. With Bradford children discovering their voices matter.

Why Bradford Specifically

People ask why Bradford became the testing ground for StoryQuest™.

The answer is simple: Bradford is a home for me.

This is my mum's city. My granddad's city. The place where I learned, over 40 years ago, that stories have power.

Where I sat as a child, wide-eyed, listening to monologues delivered in broad Yorkshire accent.

Where oral storytelling wasn't novelty, it was tradition. Legacy. A gift passed across generations.

When a family friend, a retired educationist in Bradford, saw what Gabriel and I had created during our constrained weekly FaceTime sessions, she opened doors to Bradford classrooms.

And Bradford embraced it.

Not as outsider project. As one of their own coming home with methodology rooted in their own heritage.

The oral storytelling tradition that shaped me as a child? I brought it back for Bradford's children.

And they seized it. Created with it. Thrived through it.

The Vision for 2025

Standing here thinking about music halls and oral storytelling tradition, I have a vision:

Bradford children performing their own stories at the Alhambra or St. George's Hall.

Bringing back this city's passion for oral storytelling. Standing where performers stood generations ago. But these performers? They're 9, 10, 11 years old.

Authors of their own narratives.

Orating stories they created with complete creative autonomy.

Dragons. Sea monsters. Phoenixes. Whale sharks. Otters who stand up in front of the whole class and get a round of applause.

Their stories. Their voices. Their city's tradition renewed.

It would be absolutely wonderful if by the end of the year we can have children at one of these music halls, bringing back my childhood memories of oral storytelling throughout Bradford.

Not nostalgia. Evolution.

The same tradition my granddad practiced, now accessible to every child through methodology that removes barriers between imagination and expression.

From One Granddaughter to Hundreds of Children

Over 40 years ago, my granddad stood in Bradford and gave me the gift of storytelling.

He showed me that words have power. That stories shape who we become. That voices matter.

He gave me Kipling's If—the poem that kept me going during the most difficult circumstances, reminding me to "keep going" when my back was against the wall.

And in 2025, I gave that gift back to Bradford.

My son Gabriel, though his story started it all.

And he inspire hundreds of Bradford children who discovered:

"I didn't know I had so many stories inside me until I was allowed to let them out."

This is what coming home means:

Taking what you received as a child, the gift of being heard, the power of storytelling, the oral tradition of a city, and ensuring the next generation receives it too.

Not just the privileged few. Not just the confident ones. Every child.

From one granddaughter remembering stories 40 years later, to hundreds of Bradford children creating stories that will last generations.

That's what 2025 was about.

The Invitation

Bradford has given StoryQuest™ its foundation: 465 children proving the methodology works, teachers building it permanently into curriculum, media coverage validating the approach, international recognition spreading the model.

Now we expand.

More schools. More children discovering their voices. More stories broadcast. More showcases. More festival participation.

And that vision: children performing at the Alhambra, renewing Bradford's oral storytelling tradition.

But we can't do it alone.

If you're a Bradford school leader who recognises that oral storytelling tradition deserves renewal, that every child's voice matters, not just those who already feel confident writing, let's talk.  

Bring Bradford's oral storytelling tradition to your classroom.

Download the Bradford Proof.  

👉 Download Bradford Proof (Free) 

If you're a Bradford business that understands investing in children's creativity and confidence builds the city's future, that cultural heritage matters, sponsor a school's implementation.

Join the Bradford Vision: 📞 Book a Call with Kate 

If you're a Bradford parent who wants your child to experience what my granddad gave me, the power of storytelling, the gift of being heard, download Gabriel's story and start your own family tradition.

Start your own oral storytelling tradition tonight.

Download the Golden Question Guide.  

👉 Download Family Guide (Free) 

If you're anyone, anywhere who believes children's voices matter and oral storytelling tradition deserves protection, share this story. Tell Bradford what we're building.

Because 2025 was the year Bradford children discovered their voices.

2026 is the year those voices fill music halls again.