Bloomsbury Circus
Herne the hunter,
mischief-maker, spirit of the forest, leader of the wild hunt, hurtles
through the centuries pursued by his creator.
A shapeshifter,
Herne dons many guises as he slips and ripples through time – at
candlelit Twelfth Night revels, at the spectacular burning of the
Crystal Palace, at an acid-laced Sixties party. Wherever he goes,
transgression, debauch and enchantment always follow in his wake.
But
as the forest is increasingly encroached upon by urban sprawl and
gentrification, and the world slides into crisis, Herne must find a way
to survive – or exact his revenge.
Zoe Gilbert is the author of 'Folk' a book I've had in my hands a bunch of times but never actually got around to buying and reading. This, her second novel, however was waving at me from the new release pile in the shop and insisted on being taken home and read.
The book takes the form of a series of vignettes all relating to the ever shrinking wood that's home to Herne the Hunter and various associated spirits. Her stories tell of Herne's genesis, his capricious nature and his waning influence through the ages on those who interact with the wood. Some tales work better than others, some are more developed, some feel more instinctive and some a little clumsy.
In the end though what we have is a love letter to the woods and to the myths, the legends and the histories that reside within them in much the same way as Robert Holdstock's sublime 'Mythago Wood' cycle did. It tells the story of our relationship with our history and with the natural world and finds us very much wanting before injecting just a hint of optimism into it's green and growing wooden heart.
..........................................................................................
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
No comments:
Post a Comment