The Story Collector

"I'll see you home," said the dog.Old Mr. Grimsby collects stories as a hobby. He writes down stories told him by his maid and by her grandmother, Mrs Naylor. He listens to stories at the bedside of the dying Mrs. Riley.A hero of Waterloo, Sergeant Lamb, will tell him stories if paid with pairs of old trousers.Because everybody has a story.Walking home late one night, Mr. Grimsby finds the Churchyard Grim pacing at his side- the Grim, the ghostly dog that guards the graveyard and its dead.The Grim tells him a story as it leads him to Heaven's Gate. There he finds Sergeant Lamb also waiting for the gate to open, and the Sergeant tells another story to pass the time.Once inside the gate, there's Mother Mary and She has a story to tell too. She even coaxes a story from Mr. Grimsby.Everybody has a story.If you like the old stories, the wise, haunting, poetic and funny old stories passed down for hundreds of years, then you'll love Susan Price's tales within tales, of the stories and the people who told them.