Unbound requires JavaScript, and may not work correctly without it. Find out how to enable it.

Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones

By Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott

An exquisite collection of shape-shifting tales from two magical artist-storytellers.

Illustrated | Nature

192% funded

869 supporters

Writing in progress

Publication date: TBC

Support this project

REWARDS
ABOUT THE BOOK

The crowd has spoken – Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones is happening. Pre-order your reward now.

FEATURED REWARD

$45 + shipping

Live from Exmoor!

A ticket to join Jackie, Tamsin and Unbound publisher John Mitchinson for their first online live event as they discuss progress, reveal illustrations and read extracts from the tales on the first anniversary of having had the original idea.

Join the live stream from the wonderful Seven Fables in Dulverton,

5.30 – 6.30pm TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2023.

NB: Pledge before midnight on Sunday 8th October to book a ticket. You will be sent joining information on Monday 9th October.

PLUS:

First Edition Hardback
Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$35 + shipping

224 pledges

First Edition Hardback

A first edition of the hardback of 120 pages with c. 30 illustrations. Printed in full colour on 140 gsm uncoated paper, head/tail bands, silk ribbon marker and designed endpapers.

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$45 + shipping

397 pledges

Signed First Edition Hardback

A first edition of the hardback of 120 pages with c. 30 illustrations. Printed in full colour on 140 gsm uncoated paper, head/tail bands, silk ribbon marker and designed endpapers. Signed by Jackie and Tamsin.

PLUS:

Your name in the back

Choose this reward

$50 + shipping

55 pledges

Seven Postcards

A first edition hardback plus seven postcards featuring prints from the book designed by Tamsin and available exlusively from Unbound.

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$60 + shipping

46 pledges

Wild Folk Club Badge

Join the Wild Folk Club! Not only do you get hardback signed by Jackie and Tamsin, you'll also receive a hard enamel WILD FOLK pin badge with lettering designed by the calligrapher Stephen Raw.

PLUS:

Your name in the back

Choose this reward

$75 + shipping

33 pledges

Read With a Friend

Two copies of the book signed by Jackie and Tamsin and sent to a single address.

PLUS:

Two names in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$85 + shipping

49 pledges

Wild Tales Bundle

A first edition hardback signed by Tamsin and Jackie plus a copy of The Wild Swans and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, each signed by Jackie.

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$125 + shipping

26 pledges

Wild Folk Club Badge Set

Join the Wild Folk Club! Not only do you get a hardback signed by Jackie and Tamsin, you'll also receive seven hard enamel WILD FOLK pin badges, each featuring a character taken from one of the seven Tales, etced by Tamsin with lettering designed by the calligrapher Stephen Raw.

PLUS:

Your name in the back

Choose this reward

$220 + shipping

1 pledge

Wild Folk Book Group

Five copies of the first edition hardback signed by Jackie and Tamsin ands shipped to a single address.

PLUS:

Five names in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$500 + shipping

1 pledge

Book & Print Bundle

First edition signed hardback plus three limited edition signed giclée prints on museum quality fine-art 280gsm paper derived from Tamsin's original stained glass paintings for the book. Each print is taken from an edition that is strictly limited to 100. ONLY 7 BUNDLES AVAILABLE

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

Sold out!

FEATURED REWARD

$90 + shipping

28 pledges

Wild Folk Preview

A copy of the first edition hardback signed by Jackie and Tamsin and a invitation for a super-exclusive pre-preview of the exhibition of the stained glass artworks featured in the book and a chance to meet both artists. Expect wine.
(Time, date and location TBC) LIMITED TO 28

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

FEATURED REWARD

$165 + shipping

14 pledges

White Raven Print

First edition signed hardback plus a limited edition signed giclée print on museum quality fine-art 280gsm paper derived from 'White Raven' one of Tamsin's original stained glass paintings for the book. Prints strictly limited to 100. ONLY 14 AVAILABLE

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

FEATURED REWARD

$750 + shipping

2 pledges

Wild Folk Reading

Buy 20 copies of the first edition hardback and Jackie and Tamsin will join your book group for the evening and read from, sign and discuss the book. Date and time TBC by email. Limited to UK locations only. ONLY TWO AVAILABLE
Photo: Seven Fables

PLUS:

The name of your book group in the back of the book

$165 + shipping

14 pledges

Wayland Print

First edition signed hardback plus a limited edition signed giclée print on museum quality fine-art 280gsm paper derived from 'Wayland' one of Tamsin's original stained glass paintings for the book. Prints strictly limited to 100. ONLY 14 AVAILABLE

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

$165 + shipping

14 pledges

Tir-na-nog Print

First edition signed hardback plus a limited edition signed giclée print on museum quality fine-art 280gsm paper derived from 'Tir-na-nog' one of Tamsin's original stained glass paintings for the book. Prints strictly limited to 100. ONLY 14 AVAILABLE

PLUS:

Your name in the back of the book

$1,565 + shipping

1 pledge

Tamsin's Studio Visit

A chance to see Jackie and Tamsin at work at Tamsin's outdoor studio in rural Herefordshire. The ticket is for 2 people (both over 18 years of age) and includes a half day spent in the studio, two signed copies of the hardback, a delicious lunch and a signed print.
Date and time TBC by email. ONLY ONE AVAILABLE
Photo: Seven Fables

PLUS:

Two names in the back of the book

$1,565 + shipping

1 pledge

Jackie's Studio Visit 2

A chance to see Jackie and Tamsin at work at Jackie's cottage in coastal Pembrokeshire. The ticket is for 2 people (both over 18 years of age) and includes a half day spent in the studio, a delicious lunch and a walk to a nearby standing stone plus signed copies of the first edition hardback and Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone and a gilded stone.
Date and time TBC by email. ONLY ONE AVAILABLE
Photo: Seven Fables

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I get my book delivered to?

We deliver to most countries worldwide. Enter your delivery address during checkout and we'll display the shipping cost when we know where to send your book.

How do supporter names work?

Every person who pledges to help to make a book gets their name included in a supporter section as a thank you as long as they pledge before the list closing deadline. If you want to add a different name, this can be changed in your account after you have completed your pledge.

Will the book and rewards that I receive look the same as the images shown on the Unbound website?

Book designs, cover and other images are for illustrative purposes and may differ from final design.

Still have a question? Visit our Help Centre to find out more.

WILD FOLK is a beautifully illustrated sequence of seven tales, marking the first book length collaboration between the storyteller artists, Tamsin Abbott and Jackie Morris.

Each of the seven tales are fables of transformation and power, summoned from the ancient stones beneath our feet and transformed by word and image into portals between past and future. The tales are neither new nor old. They are full of ‘wild folk’, shape-shifting spirits that carry the energy that connects all things.

In its pages you will meet selkies and salmon and the Black Fox, as big as a wolf and so fast and cunning she drives the Lord of the Manor to madness and oblivion; the woman of flowers who is happier living as an owl; the boy who learns to feel the songs and stories of trees through his skin; Wayland, the crippled smith who can hammer metal to such airy thinness he makes his own wings; and the great white raven, a bird so rare it awakens the king who sleeps beneath the stones of the wild west cliffs of Wales.

This a book made to be looked at and held (it might be the first time stained glass images have been created specifically to illustrate a book). Tamsin paints on glass, the most mysterious stone of all, used for centuries to tell stories to people who couldn’t read or write. A story painted on glass is something you can look at and look through, sometimes both at once.

It brings together Jackie’s words and Tamsin’s images, but the stories come from both. It is a true collaboration born out of friendship and hope. These are tales to make you see, listen and most of all feel the wild magic that links stone, tree, fox and star.

Image credits: Illustrations by Tamsin Abbott. Video by Seven Fables. Book designs, cover and other images are for illustrative purposes and may differ from final design.

Support this project

Quick select rewards

FEATURED REWARD

$45 + shipping

Live from Exmoor!

Join the live stream from the wonderful Seven Fables in Dulverton,

5.30 – 6.30pm TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2023.

NB: Pledge before midnight on Sunday 8th October to book a ticket. You will be sent joining information on Monday 9th October.

PLUS:

First Edition Hardback
Your name in the back of the book

Choose this reward

$45 + shipping

397 pledges

Signed First Edition Hardback

PLUS:

Your name in the back

Choose this reward

View all 17 rewards

Jackie Morris

Tamsin Abbott

Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She lives in a small house beside the sea in Wales, with cats and dogs for company. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy and has illustrated many books, and written some. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019. In the same year she published The Unwinding with Unbound, and they have committed to re-issuing and re-designing her backlist in including East of the Sun, West of the Moon and The Wild Swans. In 2022 they released Jackie's first book of poetry Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone and will publish Fox and Otter, the start of an exciting new series of fold-out Accordion Books in April 2023.

Tamsin Abbott has been creating painted stained glass panels from her Herefordshire home for over 20 years. Her work is inspired by the British landscape, folklore and fairytale. Her pursuit of rural life began at Stirling university where she studied Medieval Literature, lived on a hill farm and learned how to chop firewood and lay a fire. Her work is collected globally and she has twice featured on BBC’s Countryfile as well as in many national magazines and journals. She is a member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and has exhibited with them as well the Museum of British Folklore, the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, and many other UK galleries. Wild Folk is her first book as a stained glass illustrator.
Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott have written 6 private updates. You can pledge to get access to them all.

17th September 2023 Riversong, an extract, and I, still shapeshifting.

In recovery mode I have found it hard to sit at my desk and paint, and all of my attention has been turned to Wild Folk. The Selkie Song is done. The Riversong too, and in this film I read a little from it. A different form, this piece became a communication with the ghost of a poet, Yeats. I need to learn more about him; poet, mystic, shaman.

I first knew Song of Wandering Aengus as a song by…

12th August 2023 The beginnings of a story of the sea

I really wanted to make an update for Wild Folk to let you all know about progress I have been making, so, I made a short film, wrote a blogpost, then realised when almost finished that I had put it onto the wrong site. Now, I am almost 2 weeks out of having a knee operation, am walking on crutches, coming off painkillers, and obviously addle brained. It takes a maximum of effort to get anything done…

17th July 2023 Owl, human or flowers?

Tamsin and I just did our first event together, at the Byline Festival in Dartington. I'd been headachey and scatty for a few days, not quite myself. I had meant to take the words for teh owl story for Wild Folk on stage, but somehow left them somewhere. I'd been talking to Tamsin about them. They are slight, and unless you know the story of Blodeuwedd I worried they might not be enough, so wanted…

10th July 2023 Shapeshifting

I guess it is always hard to know where to begin, how to organise thoughts. Perhaps best to say first, welcome, to Wild Folk, a work is progress.

Recently, in between events, I paid a visit to Tamsin's studio. We spoke more about the book. I'm chasing a story at the moment, finding the words in between knitting, and Tamsin has been working on double page spreads for the book. She has almost…

10th July 2023 Shapeshifting

I guess it is always hard to know where to begin, how to organise thoughts. Perhaps best to say first, welcome, to Wild Folk, a work is progress. Recently, in between events, I paid a visit to Tamsin's studio. We spoke more about the book. I'm chasing a story at the moment, finding the words in between knitting, and Tamsin has been working on double page spreads for the book. She has almost caught…

11th June 2023 Listening to the Stones

Both Jackie and I have been on our travels of late. Either for work or family or holiday or a combination of all these.

Given the nature and title of our book it has seemed only natural that stones should play a part in these trips, beginning a few weeks ago when we had our first work meeting (ourselves and John Mithcinson) at the Rollright stones in Oxfordshire.

I always feel that the period…

17th May 2023 Asides are the stuff of life

I thought it might be interesting to let you have a peek into what is going on in my life and how it may have temporarily stalled progress on Wild Folk but how it is also a critical life force in my creative pantheon.

I am presently invloved in trying to gather together, and find a home for, an archive of the artists, Ann and Graham Arnold. I am also ekeing out the joy and the sadness of last…

23rd March 2023 New Pledge Levels: Badges!!!!!!!

When I was a kid we didn't have many books at home, nor much money to buy books. At the time, as a child, I knew little about publishers, or publishing. When I had money to buy books I would go to W H Smiths, who sold magazines, stationary, and books. And I always knew the books with the little bird on the spine were good. Alan Garner, Watership Down, Tarka the Otter, these are the few I remember…

5th February 2023 February: slow progress, burial chambers, peace and a wren.

Snowdrops are colouring the verges and edges, blooming under hedges, small snowdrifts of blossoms. I am home after a few days away, looking after my mum, taking her shopping, spending time in her company, then signing 1500 books in a warehouse for Otter Barry Books, and on to Tamsin's for a couple of days that included quiet time in her garden listening to the language of birds and a book launch in…

24th January 2023 Hello from Herefordshire

So today was one of those days where I was blessed with the vision of a hare whilst out on my walk. An actual hare not just a vision in my mind! On days like this where the Wild Folk cross paths with us we walk a little lighter and the things that trouble us may recede whilst dreams come to the fore. When I arrived back at my workshop I made this little film of introduction and thanks. Thank you all…

12th January 2023 Welcome

When you begin to work on an idea you are never sure where the spring of creativity will take you, if the force of the thing you wish to make will grow, or if it will sink back into the earth to resurface somewhere else. It can be a lonely process, but it can also become something that is a collaborative process, meetings of minds and joining of ideas and craftsmanship.

Wild Folk began in…
These people are helping to fund Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones.

Laura Lindahl

LORRAINE ALLISTER

Lindsay Steel

Anne Young

sara leudar

Laura Burrows

Susan Farley

Siu Ying Wat

Sue Hudson-Craufurd

Jayne Power

Shawn Brown

Nadine Phoenix

Grace Line

Anne Louise Avery

James Wade

Murray Lynes

Michael Jordan

Carla Brown

CHRISTINE GARRETSON-PERSANS

Suzanne Parsons

Philippa Dodds

Louise Goose

View more
Julie Moss asked:

I am not usually a badge person but I am passionate about nature and animals so YES I would love to wear badges that support this wonderful book.

Tamsin Abbott replied:

That’s wonderful Julie. I am really excited about the badges but I do understand that they’re not everyone’s cup of tea so it’s even more special to have you on board. Thank you!

Please sign in to ask a question.