The Guardian of Stories

Welcome to our fan site. We are a collective of story lovers and storytellers who have each had an incredible encounter with a magical little man in places across the world over many years. We call him ‘The Guardian of Stories’. These are our stories about him.

Sightings

Manish Thakar, 1945
Storybook Illustrator, Mumbai, India

‘The Guardian of Stories reading my book’ by M. Thakar

On my 12th birthday my mum gave me a new story book ‘The Creature From The Deep’.

When I fetched a glass of milk, I returned to see a tiny man reading the book. Startled, he fled in a flurry of green sparkles and dropped a tiny picture he had drawn of the monster in the story; it was exactly as I had imagined it.

I began drawing pictures and now I am an illustrator for children’s storybooks. Life is good!

Elijah Badu, 2021
Spoken Word Poet, London, UK

The original copy of my spoken word poem

I was 14. It was my first spoken word poetry performance. On a seat in a dark corner, someone had sat an action figure dressed as a gardener… but strangely, he was writing!

After the performance, I saw that it wasn’t a toy but an actual little man. Seeing me approach, he threw a rope ladder off the chair and shot down it at speed!

Tiny pieces of paper had fallen from his bag – he had written out my poems… with notes: “brilliant language, very imaginative”. I was inspired to write this poem and have been performing it ever since.

Cordelia Crystaline, 1969
Author, Surrey, UK

Portrait of Cordelia

I was 7 or 8, I can’t be sure. I loved writing stories but thought that no-one would like to read them. How wrong was I.

One day, after lunch, I returned to my desk to discover a little man, so small I could have picked him up in my hand, reading one of my stories!

He disappeared before I could ask him if he liked it, but I knew from his smile that he did. From that day on, I shared my stories freely. Today I am a published writer!

Mei Cheung, 1975
Songwriter, Beijing, China

I wrote my first song when I was nine years old, but I was really struggling to think of the last line.

I took a nap on the sofa to rest my tired imagination. When I awoke, I heard a tiny voice singing. Perched on a piano key sat a tiny man in Wellington boots. I sat up, amazed.

All of a sudden, woosh, he’d gone leaving only a swirl of green dust floating in the air. Just then, it came to me, the last line of the song. It’s still my biggest hit!

Bianca Campanella, 1991
Librarian, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Reading Room at The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading. Photo by Donatas Dabravolskas

At aged 5 my Dad took me to one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading. There, I followed a trail of little footprints which led from one book to another.

The last footsteps led to a little man in the distance, reading… but alas, it was time to go.

For years, I returned to the library to read the books he had shown me… and many more. The little man inspired my lifelong passion for reading and led me to my future job – I am now a librarian.