Carmel Page

Carmel Page is a Southerner by birth, but she has lived in Sheffield so long that she now uses her back-door as her front-door and has started eating her dinner at lunchtime.

Carmel and her family have a terraced house on the edge of Sheffield, but she tends to live in a world of her own. When she wakes up in the morning her head is so full of stories that she likes to lie in bed for a long time and think about them.

Some days, Carmel gets up early to go to Weston Park Museum where she teaches school children about Ancient Egyptian embalming and mummification. She is very good at demonstrating the bit where the brains are pulled out through the nose, (not her nose) (not the children’s noses either) (she uses a big doll for this.)

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is another place Carmel often visits, she teaches children how to make placards and hold demos. She also gets them to spot toilets in trees and paint with mud.

Sheffield has a storytelling club called The Story Forge which Carmel co-runs. When she is not at her club she is normally telling people stories, drawing pictures or performing with Flying Teddy Bears.

The bridge in the Loxley Valley where the Robin Hood Story begins - i.e. not in Nottinghamshire!

Carmel was delighted when the History Press asked her to write Yorkshire Folk Tales for Children. She discovered that Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans have all visited Yorkshire. Many of them loved it so much they stayed and their stories stayed with them. Over time their tales have mingled with local legends and have been influenced by the Yorkshire landscape and Yorkshire’s brave, adventurous and fun-loving people. From this rich supply of folklore Carmel has chosen the very best to share. She has also brought the characters to life with her beautiful illustrations.

This book contains a picture of Yorkshire, a taste of Yorkshire food and some of Yorkshire’s oldest stories. Find out how Robin Hood’s adventures began on the packhorse bridge in the Loxley Valley. Read about giants, wild boars, a dragon and a very drunk nun. Discover how Filey Brigg was created and, most useful of all, find out who to ask for advice about loading your dishwasher.

Carmel’s latest book is Little More and the Wantley Dragon.

Just North of Sheffield a dragon is eating everything in Wantley. Little More’s family try to slay it, even a knight comes to fight it but nothing works. Little More runs away, so who will slay the Dragon?

Little More and the Wantley Dragon is a picture book for 3 -6 year olds. This ancient legend has been almost forgotten but Carmel has rewritten it so that another generation can enjoy the story and appreciate the beautiful woodlands in North Sheffield.

Carmel performing Flight of the Teddy Bears: this could be her next book