Soaked in mist and old magic, Storyland tells a history of Britain and the politics of its people through medieval eyes. Grounded in research, related as fiction, it begins before the Great Flood, with a troop of African giants quarrying stones. Later, the first migrants enter the Atlantic, calling themselves the Scoti and Britons, followed by the English and the Normans, crossing the North Sea. Storyland is ancient Britain as you have never seen it before, mediated by the modern aesthetic of its linocut illustrations. It is filled with places we know today and characters half-remembered: Lear in Leicester, Merlin in Stonehenge, Grim in Grimsby, St Columba on the River Ness. Storyland is a tale of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong.
(P)2021 Quercus Editions Limited
(P)2021 Quercus Editions Limited
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Reviews
Storyland is a joyous read celebrating the power of collective myths and the landscapes which inspired them
Jeffs writes beautifully, erring just on the right side of florid, and her linocut prints make for attractive illustrations. The stories come with explanations of sources and legacies, and she has a lovely knack of rooting each one in the landscape that birthed it. This gorgeous book should live on the bookshelves in every house that cares about "the idea of Britain, what is was and where it came from."
An elegant book
[A] spellbinding illustrated mythology of Britain.
Rich in myth and legend . . . Beautifully illustrated . . . this is an engaging book, meticulously researched and filled with drama, emotion, action and experience.
I have fallen so completely in love with this book; Storyland, by Amy Jeffs, just one of the finest, most covetable things around. It's a mythology of Britain; Brutus, Arthur, Scotus, Bladud, a mix of new telling and ancient, with original woodcuts by the author which are so beautiful you want to eat them. The stories are about strangeness and wonder and brutality, a story of Britain from the top of Orkney to the bottom of Cornwall. It's hugely original, and starkly lovely: I've never come across anything quite like it.
A beautiful retelling of British myths and exquisitely illustrated too.
Storyland is a spellbinding illustrated mythology of Britain . . . With Jeffs at the helm we travel through a powerful medieval mythscape and in doing so, the entirety of Britain.
Art historian and printmaker Amy Jeffs brings a fresh perspective to the mythology that flows through Britain for an enlightening, transporting survey of the stories that suffuse our landscape and have shaped its people.
[R]avishingly lovely
[A] lively retelling of British myths
Steeped in magic and mystery and grounded in meticulous research in manuscripts and our ancient landscape, Amy's mythical world is movingly articulated.
Elegant retellings of Britain's origin legends sit alongside Jeffs' captivating artworks, which I like so much that I have two hanging in my office.