Bradford has one of the country's most beautiful Waterstones. Stone arches, stone masonry, an old wool market transformed into a place for stories. Forty years ago, I would sit on my Bradfordian grandfather's lap as he orated to my brother and me. Kipling's If. Albert and the Lion. I can still hear his broad Yorkshire accent. The power of storytelling impacted me as a child because I can still remember, over forty years later, his words and the wisdom in them.

Storytelling is a massive part of what Bradford means to me. And in 2025, I brought it home.

During Bradford Literature Festival, BCB Community Radio committed to broadcasting children's stories spoken by the authors themselves, every single day of festival week. Not adults reading children's books. Children reading their own creations. Their own voices. Telling stories they chose to tell, the way they chose to tell them. Tom Hirst at Dixon's Manningham told BBC News: "Even the kids who don't like writing didn't want to leave. They wanted more." He has since built StoryQuest permanently into his curriculum.

At Bradford's National Science and Media Museum, we brought Gabriel's story to life through his own film, inspiring children across the city to orate and scribe their own imaginative work. 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.

Bradford has a rich history in oral storytelling. The music halls of the Alhambra and St George's Hall. Oration as performance. Stories as shared experience. StoryQuest brings that tradition into classrooms: children orate, their partner scribes, then they draft and illustrate, ready to perform to their contemporaries. The same tradition my grandfather practised, now accessible to every Bradford child. Not just the confident ones. Every child. Because when oral expression comes first and the blank page barrier is removed, every voice emerges.

This year: 9 schools, 465 children documented, 100% engagement maintained, Tom Hirst's permanent curriculum adoption, BBC News coverage, BCB Radio daily broadcasts, Bradford Literature Festival showcase, and the National Science and Media Museum event. And a vision for what comes next: Bradford children performing their own stories at the Alhambra, renewing this city's passion for oral storytelling. Standing where performers stood generations ago. Authors aged nine, ten, eleven. Their stories. Their voices. Their city's tradition renewed.

Over forty years ago, my grandfather stood in Bradford and gave me the gift of storytelling. In 2025, Gabriel and I gave that gift back. From one granddaughter remembering stories four decades later, to hundreds of Bradford children creating stories that will last generations.