Four lovely reviews for Steel Thistles!

A quick post to highlight four lovely reviews of 'Seven Miles of Steel Thistles' (the book) which as many of you will know, is a collection of some of my essays on folk-lore and fairy tales. Do please excuse me as I jump up and down!


The most recent comes from Kevin Crossley-Holland, poet, author, and translator of Anglo-Saxon texts such as 'Beowulf' and the 'Exeter Riddle Book'.  He writes:

Katherine Langrish is a wonderful companion for an excursion into the otherworld of traditional tales.  Highly readable, sharply perceptive about individual tales as well as engaging with wider motifs, this book is always down-to-earth, no matter how high flown the subject matter.  We know we're in safe hands when we're invited  to consider why folk-tale fools and saints can be rather frightening, or to take account of who is telling a story and why, to reflect on how some reports of ghostly happenings (as opposed to structured stories) are almost impossible to discount, and to recognise the role of princesses in fairy tales ('They tell us to be active, to use our wits, to be undaunted, to see what we want and to go for it.')  The book is so generously furnished with apt quotations as to seem at times almost like an anthology, and it will appeal to absolutely everyone fascinated by the staying power of folk tales, fairy tales and ballads. 'Seven Miles of Steel Thistles' is a fine book with a long life ahead of it.

Writer, editor and artist Terri Windling, reviewing the book on her blog Myth and Moor, wrote:

One of the very best books I've read this year is Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: Reflections on Fairy Tales by Katherine Langrish, the author of West of the Moon and other excellent works of myth-based fantasy for children.

Now while I might seem biased because Katherine is a family friend (her daughter and ours have been best friends for many years), in truth I am sharply opinionated when it comes to books about folklore and fairy tales; I was mentored in the field by Jane Yolen, after all, which sets the bar pretty damn high. Thus it is no small praise to say that Seven Miles of Steel Thistles is an essential book for practioners of mythic arts: insightful, reliable, packed with information...and thoroughly enchanting.

The whole review can be found here.

A third is from award-winning YA and children's author Linda Newbery.  Here's part of what she has to say:

Katherine Langrish draws on her life-long enjoyment and appreciation of traditional tales, and her book combines wide reading and scholarship with personal insights and interpretations... Her book ranges widely, from Canadian Mi’kmaq stories to Japanese kitsune, Shakespeare’s fools and Alan Garner’s owl plates, with, of course, the Celtic and Norse mythology which is woven through Langrish’s own fiction. She is a most engaging companion – informed, curious and perceptive - and I highly recommend her book to students of the genre as well as to anyone who enjoys good stories and good writing.

You can read the whole review here:  http://www.lindanewbery.co.uk/2016/07/15/seven-miles-of-steel-thistles-by-katherine-langrish/

Last but certainly not least, here's praise from the critic Nicholas Lezard in his weekly column for the Guardian:

What [Langrish] has done so brilliantly, either making general points or addressing specific stories or themes, is tell us stories about the stories: where they might have come from, what they might mean, or whether they are meant to mean anything. (Of faeryland, that “other place” which is neither the world, heaven, purgatory or hell, from where those we thought dead might, very rarely, be rescued, she says: “This is the fantasy of grief,” and I have never heard a better explanation.) It is all spun out so seemingly artlessly, or naturally, that you feel as if you are sitting cross-legged, gripped, like a child hearing one of these stories for the first time.

Read the whole review here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/04/seven-miles-of-steel-thistles-review-katherine-langrish-fairytales-written-down-as-told

You couldn't wish for lovelier comments or more perceptive readers, and I'm very happy and thrilled. Seven Miles of Steel Thistles was published by the Greystones Press at the end of April, and is available from Amazon in paperback (here) and as an e-book (here).  It's also available in paperback from Hive.co.uk (here).  (As indeed are all my other books.)  Finally, those living outside the UK can order copies from the Book Depository, which offers free delivery worldwide, here!

Right, that's the commercial over. Thankyou for your patience and thankyou even more to all the lovely people who've bought copies already.  Where would I be without readers?





Picture credits

Illustrations of some of the fairy tales mentioned in the book: 

The Juniper Tree by Kay Nielsen
Undine by Arthur Rackham
Mr Fox by John D Batten

 

Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: the book

"There are seven miles of hill on fire for you to cross, and there are seven miles of steel thistles and seven miles of sea."

The quotation is from an Irish fairy tale, 'The King Who Had Twelve Sons': the hero has to ride his pony over three-times-seven miles of punishing obstacles to reach the islanded castle where lives 'the daughter of a king of the eastern world, with a pearl of gold on every rib of her hair'.  When I first read it, years ago, it seemed to me a metaphor not only for the creative effort and difficulty of writing a book, which was what I was currently engaged on, but of life and its struggles in general. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. And so this is what I named my blog, and now here is a book.

‘Seven Miles of Steel Thistles’ is a collection of my essays on fairy tales and folklore, published by the Greystones Press.  Many of the essays began life as blog posts, but since blog posts tend to be ephemeral things, often written in haste, I went back to each and every one to revise and rewrite them. So at least half of the material here is new.  You'll find me talking about fairy brides, Japanese fox-spirits, selkies and White Ladies - taking a new look at Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty and other fairy-tale heroines - following the fortunes of the Lost Kings of Fairyland - finding what happened when William Butler Yeats successfully summoned the Queen of the Fairies, and wondering why and in what circumstances people actually believe in fairies.  

On a personal note, the last year has been a difficult one. Much of my time has been taken up with caring for my increasingly-frail and much-loved mother; those of you who are dealing with similar situations will know what this means.  Time has been scarce either to write or to update this blog, yet here it is, coming back to life, like the thin blades of green thrusting up through the sooty dust on the scorched hills. 

Seven miles of hill on fire and seven miles of steel thistles and seven miles of sea to cross, and yet:

'He gave his face to the way, and he would overtake the wind of March that was before him, and the wind of March that was after would not overtake him.'

‘Seven Miles of Steel Thistles’ is available from Amazon in both print
and e-book formats