Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones

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.