Adam Bushnell | Local Legends #4: County Durham
The Three Ravens PodcastPlay episode
Show notes
On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin gathers round the campfire to chat about County Durham, a writer's life, and so much more, with storyteller and author of over 40 books, including County Durham Folk Tales, Adam Bushnell.
Born and raised in County Durham, Adam knows and loves the county where he now resides - and he has perspective on it. His work regularly sees him travelling all over the world, delivering workshops in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as all over the UK. As you’ll hear, he knows so many of the stories of the place, and is always acquiring more. A story magpie, drawn to shiny things, he is a compulsive tale-teller and so friendly – the North East could hardly have a better ambassador!
As we discuss, Adam’s career has been exciting – his degree was in philosophy, and he was a primary school teacher for many years, including in several boroughs of inner city London, where a chance meeting with beloved author Michael Murpurgo steered him towards life as a writer.
His first book was published in 2007, and since then ink has flowed from his pen like an ocean surging to get free. His new series, Kid Detectives, launched this month, and his academic books are beloved by teachers all across the world.
With our chat ranging from Medusa to the Lambton Worm to friendly ghosts, horrible murders, and vampires staked under childrens' playgrounds, it's a good one. So settle in for an hour of talk with a master storyteller, and if your workmates ask you to go through a haunted field to get extra beer, there's advice within about exactly what to do...
Learn more about Adam and his work here: https://www.adambushnell.co.uk
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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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