AGROUP of writers is hoping to make Bristol's streets more imaginative places, with the launch of a series of audio stories – designed to be listened to on an MP3 player while walking around the city.

The innovative project allows you to freely download the stories from the Head and Tales group's website on to an iPod, mobile phone or other such digital gadget, and gives details of the walk route to tie in with the story.

Ursula Wills-Jones, who set up the Heads and Tales writers' group in 2006, says: "The original notion was that we would meet up at different venues occasionally as a group and read short stories to each other.

"But recently we had the idea of recording stories, which could be downloaded on to an iPod, so you can encourage the listener to walk around the city, seeing the places as they appear in the story.

"We all got together and came up with nine locations that we thought would be good places for walks to be based, and then asked the individual writers to wrap a story around each location.

"We didn't want all the walks to be too obviously tourist locations. For example, we decided in the end to not include the suspension bridge.

"For us it was a way to tell a story, but also to introduce people to places in Bristol that we find interesting.

"We hope the stories will give people a chance to listen to some of the best new writers from the city and also to explore some interesting places in Bristol and South Gloucestershire that they might not have thought of exploring before.

"We wanted to make the stories accessible – they're free, easy to download, and you can listen to them anywhere."

Ursula, 39, penned a tale herself, called The 4-D Glasses, which is based around the Bristol docks.

"The walk starts outside Bristol Central Library and ends at the Nova Scotia, taking in some of the most scenic parts of the docks on the way," she explains.

"In the story the main character, Lizzie, finds herself in possession of a pair of magical 4D glasses, which allow her to see snippets from the past in each place she goes.

"She sees Bristol's docks in the glory days, and ultimately she witnesses her grandfather climbing on a ship as he heads off to fight in the war."

Other stories include a tale by Clare Reddaway that resurrects the Temple Church's mysterious past; a visit to pirate Captain Black on Christmas Steps in a story by Jason Beech; and a spooky tour around Arnos Vale cemetery in which writer Steve Lambert brings one of the Victorian grave angels to life.

Writer Katherine Nightingale took the bohemian atmosphere of Stokes Croft as the inspiration for her walking-story, which is called Wet Paint, Please Touch.

"The idea is that the graffiti comes to life," the 34-year-old, from Easton, explains.

"It starts off when Carl the Camel overhears a pair of property developers talking about cleaning the area up and getting rid of all the graffiti.

"I used to live at 109 Ashley Road, which is the house that has Carl the Camel on the outside, and I loved it, so it seemed like the perfect place for the story to start.

"Carl then walks down the road and talks to other graffiti creatures en route, including the gingerbread man from the outside of Herbert's Bakery – whom it turns out is something of an expert on council protocol, and explains that the developers won't be able to do anything without a public consultation. But that doesn't stop the developers trying to paint Carl off the wall, and in the end it takes Banksy's teddy bear and policemen from the Mild, Mild West mural and the Easter Island figures from Turbo Island to join forces to fight them off.

"It's only at the very end when they're able to summon the help of the giant skull from the side of Westmorland House that they're finally able to defeat the evil property developers."

Katherine says she allowed her imagination to flow freely.

"But I also wanted to make a serious point about the nature of street art.

"There is one moment in the story when the creatures are all terribly hurt to discover that some people think of them as being the same as the graffiti tags and random bits of "paint litter" as they call it.

"The fact is that a lot of the graffiti in and around Stokes Croft is world-class street art – and not just the Banksys.

"It's something that I'd like more people to become familiar with.

"If I see people walking around the area, looking at the street art and listening to my story on their iPod, I'll feel very satisfied indeed."

For more information, visit www.headsandtales.org.uk