Round the Herne

I wanted to write a glowing review of a book on Goodreads, but it's not even on their system, and Amazon won't let me write a review until I have purchased a book via them (which I do not wish to do). So I have decided to post it here instead, and hope that it circulates to a decent-sized audience who will rush forth to buy the book and keep the author's in the public consciousness! 'The Ipswich Witch' by David Jones (someone I also happen to know via his involvement with the interfaith movement) is a fascinating and smoothly written account not only of the trial of Mother Lackland, but of witchcraft trials in general within Suffolk in the 16th and 17th centuries. The historical research is excellent and goes into far greater depth than any other book I have looked at on the subject. The author draws reasoned conclusions based on the evidence, and challenges some of the conventional thoughts surrounding both Lackland herself and also Matthew Hopkins, the infamous...

Having spent an absolutely lovely day down at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust (https://ukwct.org.uk/) in Reading, walking with the wolves in the company of two friends (and various strangers), I thought I would round the day off with a wolf story. This is the shortest wolf myth that I know, and comes from the Skidi-Pawnee nation of North America. It tells of how the Wolf Star (called Sirius by Europeans) took an unexpected role in the creation of the world. It's an interesting tale which has echoes to other stories from other parts of the world.

Happy Beltane everyone. My hawthorn tree is yet to blossom, so I haven't lit my two fires as yet - but many other people around the world are celebrating the start of summer in their own locales, so here is a story set at Beltane for you to (hopefully) enjoy. It's the story of the youthful Fionn Mac Cumhail and how he comes to eat the Salmon of Wisdom and so gain both vast knowledge and magical powers. It's a tale of blossoming adulthood, self-discovery, burgeoning passion, and the personal sacrifice of both a mother who gives up her baby to keep him safe, or two druid women who likewise give up the boy they have raised and loved to keep him safe, and an old druid sage who gives up the wisdom he has spent a lifetime searching for in order for a callow youth to have it. There is much more that could be said about this simple tale, but maybe I'll save it for some other time.

The Londonist magazine ran a storytelling competition in February for original short fairy stories set in London. I entered, but didn't win (c'est la vie) but here is my entry below.... By the Forest Gate All that summer I waited for him, patient outside the Forest Gate watching the unseeing come and go. One warm day stretched into the next and the next, the squirrels’ antics at first distracting from the growing sense of concern. Yet those flashing red tails conjured thoughts of his burnished copper hair spilling down his back. Humans are so fragile – a simple accident, an ague, or an imaginary dread will render them bed-bound for weeks. Or leave them broken so beyond repair that they must shuck the warmth of flesh and assume another, fresher guise. They call us shape-changers, yet they alter their form far more often than we. Yet I confess myself drawn so strongly to that strange fusion of softness and angular strength that I found in his body that I yearned to...

An Easter tale (well, sort of) about a piper from Galway who encounters a pooka - a shapeshifting nature spirit, and the inspiration for our pagan arts event held in Ipswich every August. This story is adapted from the Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta, a collection made by Douglas Hyde. If you need a moral with your stories, it's a tale about the nature of true wealth as contrasted against the short-lived glamour of outward fortune.

On Saturday 28th March I will be joining the rest of my fellow druids in storytelling (the Irish saga of Bricriu's Feast) at Highwoods Community Centre in Colchester. The Leaping Hare convention also includes a full programme of speakers, workshops, stalls, music and general jollity all in exchange for a few quid - profits divided between assorted good causes. I shall also be selling copies of my assorted books. Details of the programme can be found here . Tickets can be purchased on the door, or reserved at a cheaper rate by calling 01206 331183.

I wanted to write something clever and insightful for World Book Day, but it's been a trying day at work and I'm feeling too tired to string coherent thoughts together. So instead, I thought I'd detail the pile of books currently besides my bed - which await reading in the near future. Top of the pile (and the one I'm currently reading) is "Wildthyme Beyond" by Paul Magrs, sequel to a book I read before Yule. It details the adventures of the eccentric and irascible Iris Wildthyme, a sort of female version of Doctor Who who traverses the cosmos in a magical London bus, accompanied by a variety of companions - most entertaining of whom is a talking stuffed panda. The second book is partly an adventure in time and pace, partly a meta-analysis of the writing process and the semi-independent life of fictional characters. I'm enjoying it! Second on the pile is "The Moving Toyshop" by Edmund Crispin, a rather campy sounding murder mystery set in Oxf...