Dr Anthony Nanson | Local Legends #31: Gloucestershire
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Show notes
On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin is joined by author, academic, and storyteller Dr Anthony Nanson, who has written three books just about Gloucestershire's folklore!
Born in Lancashire, Anthony is a storyteller who has had a pretty amazing career. He has toured internationally as well as all over the UK, and, with his wonderful wife Kirsty Hartsiotis, is also a founder member of performance company Fire Springs.
Aside from Gloucestershire Ghost Tales and Gloucestershire Folk Tales for Children, as co-written with Kirsty, he has authored over a half dozen books including Gloucestershire Folk Tales, Words of Re-enchantment, Exotic Excursions, and Deep Time.
He has a PhD in Ecological Storytelling and Storywriting from the University of Gloucestershire, a Master’s degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and a Diploma in Publishing. On top of which, he also teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, and his academic and creative work have appeared in numerous magazines, journals and periodicals across the last 30+ years.
All of this helps to make him an incredibly interesting person. And, as if that weren't enough, he's extremely warm, friendly, and funny, too!
As such, we hope you enjoy this ranging conversation, which includes topics as diverse as mysteriously disappearing hilltop caravans, the Greek hero Theseus, those things that distinguish storytelling from theatre, and, of course, Gloucestershire's folklore.
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Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.
Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’
We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.
Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.
Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…
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