How Heartstone Began

On the night of 26th March 1985, a train pulled out of Central Station in Bombay and headed towards the foothills of the Western Ghats mountains of Maharashtra State, India. Three days later, it arrived in Madras, far to the south. On board were hundreds of people and one of them entertained his fellow passengers by telling a story - "The Heartstone Odyssey", an epic tale spanning two hundred years of adventure. One of the passengers, Sitakumari, became the leading figure in seeing that the book was published and is now the Director of Heartstone. Another passenger gave the storyteller a new name, Arvan Kumar, which means 'Horse Messenger of the Moon'.

Once published, 'The Heartstone Odyssey' was taken up by thousands of young children, often in groups in schools. It was what they did and how they interpreted the story and its age old battles of good versus evil and the overcoming of prejudice and hatred that gave birth to Heartstone.

 About Heartstone

Heartstone is a not-for-profit voluntary organisation which has received support from the European Union, the Home Office, the Department for Education & Skills, Learning & Skills Councils, Children's Fund, Regional Government offices, Regional Arts Boards, local authorities and a number of corporate sponsors including Jaguar and Ford. It has no political or religious affiliations.

Allied Mouse Ltd., the publishing division of Heartstone, was established to publish 'The Heartstone Odyssey' and since then has gone on to become a multi-media business, producing further adventures in the Heartstone saga and story resources for use by Heartstone Projects. Allied Mouse also develops and markets a range of products which help raise money to support Heartstone's work.

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