Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain

This is beautifully written and illustrated .Some well known myths and some lesser known , well for me anyway, I can't recommend highly enough if you have even a fleeting interest in our forebears.I love it ..

I just loved this book. It is written well, it reads well and how Amy brings a bit of her own experience visiting many of places she talks about in Storyland. It has made me want to find out more, so Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain and Alfred the Great’s Anglo-Saxon Chronicles here I come. How Britain came about should be taught in school and I think our children are missing out on so much that makes us who we are.

I have a long-standing fascination with folk tales and myths and particularly, old British tales. I've come across many of these stories before, thanks to Bede, the Edda, Geoffrey of Monmouth and various Old English poems and stories.Amy Jeffs knows all this in much greater depth, and she's done a fine job of gathering all these stories together, from the giants to Edward the Martyr, to give us a mythical history of Britain. There are stories in here that I didn't know, and I always found her discussion of the sources of the tales interesting.The art was hit-and-miss for me. Despite the style, some of it felt oddly contemporary and out of place.A good place to start if you want a taster of all the weird and wonderful tales Britain lays claim to.

If you are looking for dry and dusty, then you will be sorely disappointed!!Amy Jeffs brings these ancient myths and legends to life with her beautifully descriptive writing style. This is a book I shall go back to time and time again.Not only, in my opinion, is she a wonderful writer and illustrator (the striking linocuts in the book are her own), but it transpires that she has also written and performed a number of songs inspired by these stories.Having heard her speak and sing at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and being completely blown away by her, I have found her songs on YouTube and Spotify (search Amy Jeffs). You will be stunned.

A nicely bound book, but for me it left me a bit bored. Unless you are really into mythology, you might want to give it a miss.I was hoping that this would be a readable and accessible guide through some old British mythology. However, I found it hard to read and a bit boring to be honest.

This book is being passed round our family. We started with our mother ( late 80s ) who read it all holiday and now the adult children are eager to get their hands on it. The simplicity of the Lino cut drawings is such a stark and beautiful match to the content which is so carefully treasured and researched by the author . How can this be a debut book !!

I received the book on time and am pleased with the quality.

Not as good as the reviews harp on about, some quality within but a lot of filler also. There is no reimagined wonderpiece here, quite basic. I feel like reviewers just say everything is amazing these days in fear of upset!

The book delivers on its promises. Rather than write a review, I will direct you to the promotional description. When reading tales and myths from ancient times, it's easy to get lost in the thicket of names and places. The author writes in a clear, crisp style without sacrificing content, and the artwork she incorporates is a bonus.

The description and other reviews said that this was a "mythological history of Britain," so I was expecting a history of British myths, like Joseph Jacobs collecting his "English Fairy Tales" in the 1880s. Actually it consists of the author retelling stories from British history, as originally recorded in medieval chronicles: giants building Stonehenge, three refugee princesses settling in Britain, King Arthur, Merlin, and so on. I've never heard of most of them, although they are probably familiar to British schoolkids.Each story is 2-3 pages long, beautifully written, with a page or so of background information on the source, and sometimes a small line drawing. I would have liked more illustrations, and the title "Storyland" makes it too embarrassing to read in public, but overall a very positive "mistaken" purchase.