Thursday 23 April 2020

Enchanting Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Sharon Jacksties and Bea Baranowska (Fiction, Folktales, 9/10E)


February 2020, The History Press, 192 pages, Hardback, Review copy 

Book summary
 Stories and animals have long travelled the same routes. Through our heritage of charming, quirky and profound tales, you will find yourself re-acquainted with Britain’s wondrous fauna. Find out how hedgehog ended up with spines and what makes him scuttle so fast, discover how pigs saved a prince from leprosy and why the wealthy lord was so intent on capturing the black fox. Sharon Jacksties’ wonderful book combines traditional stories, little-known zoological facts and true anecdotes to create a treasure trove of stories for animal lovers of every kind.

Nayu's thoughts 
This took a bit of time to read because for some peculiar reason it takes me longer to read folk tales, memoires, and other stories which may be fictional, they may not. Even though it is written in English I seem to need to concentrate more on the words than what I call regular fiction. Regardless, what you can't easily see from the cover photo is how beautiful it is to look at. The colours and texture of the hardback is ever so inviting. 

Folk tales are not known for having happily ever after endings, or being wholesome tales. There are some rather dark ones that I confess to skipping once I realised where the tale was heading - some folk tales, as is known from the Brothers Grimm versions, may as well be called horror fiction, so scary is the tale within despite animals being involved. Not all animals are cute and cuddly! 

Sometimes justice is served - I loved those tales a lot, as well as what classes as an ok ending. It was fascinating learning so many tales about deer, seals and foxes. The prince saving pigs reminded me of the Aesop's Fables book I had when I was a child, these tales are meant to be read more than once to understand the full meaning of them. It makes a fascinating read, and one that will be on my reread shelf, with a long time period between each read because of the horror factor. I learnt so much which yes I have promptly forgotten due to a rubbish memory, but while I read the tales it made me more appreciated of nature, and this wonderful world which God created (the book is not religious in any form, that is me)

Find out more about Sharon's website and Bea's website.

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