Apple Stories

Released over twenty-eight months, a series of more than forty short stories explore different aspects of the apple’s significance to people across the world. They tell of global connectedness and individual endeavour; of dedication and happenchance; of people and nature working closely together.

These stories also show how the apple has inspired diverse cultures and has become an icon as well as the archetypal symbolic fruit of art. The apple we eat today embodies hope and contains humanity’s customs, folk tales and legends inspiring painting and sculpture, proverbs, poetry, and music.

In their different ways, the chosen stories highlight just how important this fruit is to people, and how vital people have been in selecting the rich variety of apples that are enjoyed around the world today.

Each story is an illustrated slice of the apple world, with imagery selected from around the globe to visually capture the beauty and breadth of the iconic apple and how it has interacted with humanity. The stories were released on relevant dates in the year to build a new apple calendar which is both seasonal as well as global in its reach.

All these stories are recorded and interpreted on a commissioned map of the apple world, designed and painted by Helen Cann, that traces the journey of the apple from the ancient world to the present day.

46 ‘Apple Stories’ have been published on key dates between January 2021 and June 2023.