On the 5th August 2025, I delivered a storytelling and story-making session with the Scallywags Holiday Group in Downderry, Cornwall. My sincere thanks to the Scallywags team for inviting me come along.
The theme was “All at Sea” and I told the stories of ‘The Mermaid of Seaton’ and my own created performance of ‘Blue the Bottle’.
The Mermaid of Seaton
illustrated by Rosabella
The final story ‘The Adventures of Pearl and Bob’ was created by the group that was there, with help from me.
The story was so much fun to create and I wanted to ensure that others could enjoy it too. So I have transcribed it and recorded an audio of me reading it.
In the age of automatic content creation with AI tools, I am committed to showcasing how important it is for us to continue to imagine, create and share our stories, in whatever way that is.
So here is the story.
The Adventures of Pearl and Bob (with audio recording)
Created by: Rosabella, Florence and Rosie (with help from Andy Copps)
Date created: 5 August 2025
Transcribed by: Andy Copps
Illustrations: Rosie, Florence and Rosabella (click on the images below to scroll through all of the pics)
Once upon a time, there lived a mermaid in the sea by the name of Pearl. Pearl had long green hair which was the same colour as all the beautiful seaweed that grew under the water.
When the sun’s rays touched Pearl’s silvery fish scales and tail you would also be able to see colours of purple and pink from the reflections.
Pearl had a friend called Bobina, or Bob for short. Bob was a crab but a very special crab as she was a multi-coloured crab. And if the sun’s rays managed to reach down to the ocean floor, all the colours of the rainbow would reflect off Bob’s body and 10 legs.
Pearl loved to swim and dance amongst the seaweed.
She would swim to the left,
and swim to the right.
She would swim up,
and would swim down,
and swim and dance all around.
And while Pearl was swimming and dancing, Bob too would be running, and dancing along the ocean floor, keeping up with the playful fun.
It all sounded like a wonderful life but unfortunately, they always had to keep a look out for a big hairy sea monster called Sunny. Sunny had thick brown matted hair that grew from his brown scaley fish-like body. He had a large tail and 2 large blue pincer claws.
There was one thing that Sunny loved to eat and that was multi-coloured crabs, and he would swallow them whole with one big “Gulp!”
The best time to catch a multi-coloured crab is when the sun is shining, and this probably explains how Sunny got his name.
One day Pearl and Bob were playing amongst the seaweed when all of a sudden Sunny, the big hairy sea monster came out from behind a rock, right behind Bob.
Pearl saw Sunny and shouted at Bob, “Run, Bob! Run!”.
Bob quickly turned around and saw the 2 large blue pincers coming towards her.
“Follow me!” shouted Pearl.
Bob ran as fast as she could following Pearl as they both tried to get away from the sea monster.
They went to the left,
and went to the right.
They went up,
and went down,
and swam and ran all around.
Sunny, the sea monster was too quick for Bob and was quick to catch up and picked up Bob with his blue pincer claws.
Pearl looked back to see Bob going into the big mouth of Sunny.
“GULP!”
“Nooooooooooo!” shouted Pearl.
The sea monster turned around and started swimming away.
“Give me back my friend!” shouted Pearl, as she started swimming after Sunny, the big hairy sea monster.
And so, the chase began.
Pearl knew Sunny was a stronger swimmer, but Sunny was big and would just swim through the seaweed instead of going around it. It went through a thick seaweed forest, and this slowed Sunny down.
Pearl knew this was her chance and because she practiced swimming and dancing through the seaweed, she tried her hardest to catch up with Sunny.
She swam to the left,
and swam to the right.
She sawm up,
and swam down,
and swam and chased all around.
Pearl managed to catch up behind Sunny and she grabbed hold of Sunny’s tail.
This made Sunny very angry, and he flicked his tail.
He flicked his tail to the left,
And flicked it to the right.
He flicked his tail up,
And flicked his tail down.
And flicked his tail around and around.
This made Pearl very dizzy and soon was no longer able to hold on and went spinning away.
Sunny, the big hairy sea monster, grabbed Pearl with his big blue pincer claws and swallowed Pearl with one big “GULP!”
Pearl was now inside the tummy of Sunny, the big hairy sea monster.
As she was swimming around, she heard a voice she recognised.
“Pearl, over here!”.
Pearl looked and saw Bob, but Bob was not alone. There were plenty of crabs of all different sizes and colours.
“How are we going to get out here Pearl?” asked Bob.
Pearl had a think and spread her fingers through her long green hair. She did this when she was trying to solve a problem.
She looked at all the crabs and then looked at all their pincer claws.
“I’ve got it!” she shouted.
She told Bob and all the crabs what she wanted them to do.
“On the count of three!”
Everyone counted out together.
“ONE!”
“TWO!”
“THREE!”
All the crabs opened their pincers and clamped them closed on the soft ground. This was actually the inside of the Sunny, the sea monster’s tummy.
“OW! OW! OW!” screamed Sunny.
The pain in his tummy was terrible and he wanted the pain to go away.
He rolled all around trying to get the pain to stop.
He rolled to the left,
And he rolled to the right.
He rolled up,
And he rolled down.
And he rolled and he rolled all around.
This made Sunny the sea monster feel quite sick, and he knew that everything in his tummy was about to leave him.
Suddenly there was a loud underwater burpy sound as everything and everyone that was in Sunny, the hairy sea monster’s tummy came flying out his mouth.
Pearl and Bob and all the crabs were now free from the sea monster.
They looked around and saw that Sunny, the big hairy sea monster was swimming away.
“I’m never eating crab or a mermaid, ever again!” he shouted.
“Hooray for Pearl!” shouted Bob.
“Hooray for Pearl!” shouted all the crabs.
From that day on, Pearl and Bob and all the crabs never saw Sunny, the big hairy sea monster ever again.
And now when the sun was shining creating wonderful rainbow colour reflections, Pearl and the crabs knew they could swim, run, dance, and play without any worry in the world.
Pearl got back to what she loved doing most of all, amongst her playground of seaweed.
She would swim to the left,
and swim to the right.
She would swim up,
and would swim down,
and swim and dance all around.
And so it was that Pearl would swim and dance and Bob and her friends, would run along the ocean floor, having the best time of their lives.