A successful writing partnership will come full circle at next month’s Culture Bazaar in Carlisle.

Authors Richard O’Neill and Michelle Russell met at Culture Bazaar in 2020, just before the first Covid lockdown.

They united over their similar travelling heritages and embarked on creating a series of books celebrating diverse cultures and underrepresented voices.

Richard said: “We’d known about each other because Michelle comes from a showman family, and I come from a traditional Romani family, so we have that travelling in common.

“I’d been offered a contract for a book about the showman community for a reading scheme in schools. And I said, well, I’m not from a showman family, I’m from a different travelling group, but I could find you somebody who is. 

“And at Culture Bazaar I mentioned it to Michelle, and she said, I’d love to write one, but I haven’t written a book like that before. Would you write it with me, and we can share our expertise and knowledge?”

Michelle added: “It’s just amazing how it came about. And we enjoyed writing so much that other publishers approached us to write some more books.”

Their first book together, The Show Must Go On, led to them writing their own, The Journey of one Thought, and forming a publishing company, Trails of Tales that Travel, dedicated to empowering storytellers from all backgrounds.

Their work extends to schools, charities, and businesses, ensuring that stories from all walks of life are heard and celebrated.

“It’s been a very successful partnership, which was kind of formed at Culture Bazaar, and the partnership is continuing,” said Richard.

The pair will be reunited at this year’s Culture Bazaar, organised by Multicultural Cumbria, at the start of May. 

They will be highlighting their One Thought book which has been translated into Ukrainian, and giving people the chance to translate it into other languages.

Richard is the creative lead at Seven Stories in Newcastle, the National Centre for Children’s Books, and also a professor in practice at Durham University, while Michelle, “a Carlisle lass, Denton Holme born and bred”, is an author, illustrator and publisher. 

She said: “Our partnership has grown. The books we produce with Trails of Tales of Travel are usually child-led. So the children from the schools or from the organisations are involved every step of the way. 

“Richard will go into the school and support the children to write their story. And then I zoom in and we’ll do an illustration session so the children explore their illustrations and techniques and find out how I draw things.”

Richard sees their partnership as summing up the appeal and importance of Culture Bazaar.

He said: “It gives the opportunity for people to share their story and for everybody to find some commonality. 

“We’re often talking about differences, but I think what stories do is they show us the beautiful similarities.

“Our message is really about trying to get adults to write their story. It might not get published, but it might. We can show them how they can do that.

“People say, well, there’s no book that represents me. And I say, can you write one? The technology is out there. Even if you just write it and put it on the internet.

“That for me is what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to show people that you can be empowered to write your stories.”

Michelle added: “I love the theme Culture Bazaar has got this year, which is unity, connecting people. And that was one of the reasons why I thought our One Thought story would be absolutely fantastic because we are connected through stories, we’re connected through language.”

Michelle has launched a Just Giving appeal, here, to provide free copies of One Thought for children in Carlisle.

Culture Bazaar is a free community event which brings the whole community together to experience the culture and heritage of people from around the world.

Living in Cumbria can be isolating, however Culture Bazaar is about the positivity of Cumbrian residents sharing music, dance, foot, art, games and more.

It takes place at Richard Rose Central Academy, Carlisle, on Saturday and Sunday, 3 and 4 May.  More info here