Dez Quarréll, author, storyteller, artist, illustrator, ceramicist and musician, moved to Shropshire in 1986 and was captivated by the countryside of the borderlands and its legends. In 1999 Dez moved across the border into Wales where he is busily researching the stories around his new home.
Stories have been the starting point for much of Dez's work which includes a series of paintings illustrating the Ramayana, a mural and opera scenery based on world flood legends, and a "Diancecht" herb mosaic.
The nine "Shropshire Myths" paintings were displayed in a tour around the county's tourist sites in 1997. They were also used in an educational project with Shropshire schools completed in September 1998 with an exhibition at Shrewsbury Abbey called "Telling Tales". Now they form the centre of the Shropshire Galleries at Mythstories museum of myth and fable.
In 1998 Dez set up this web site and the following year, together with his wife, Ali Quarréll, founded Mythstories museum of myth and fable in Shrewsbury on the English side of the Welsh border.
In October 2000 they handed over Mythstories to trustees and Mythstories became a charity, which became registered by the Charity Commission in April 2001. In September 2001 the museum relocated to its new home, The Morgan Library, in the nearby Shropshire market town of Wem. Dez and Ali continue to work as curators and storytellers at the museum.
