Wild -Amy Jeffs

 

I’d always thought of myself as a Plantagenety, Tudory sorta gal. But Amy Jeffs changed all that with Storyland and now I find myself fascinated by the mediaeval history of England, brought to life initially by Storyland and now by Wild.

I always see history as continuous, it never ends. All that we are now derives from all we were then -  in perpetuity. People, places, events shape cultures and societies so that it’s folly to isolate one period from another.

The richness of mediaeval Britain is astounding. Not just the people and events but the landscape - Wild seems to encapsulate it all in an accessible book that brings a time in history closer than one would think possible.

The inspiration for the book comes from the Old English poems of the Exeter Book a surviving manuscript from Anglo Saxon times, the Welsh Englynion, a traditional form of poetry, short stanzas regarding the resting places of legendary heroes, and Immrama of the Irish tradition of travel to the otherworld. 

Amy Jeffs offers us fact and fiction beautifully fused together and accompanied by illustrations from wood engravings. Each chapter takes an aspect, for example -  Earth, Beast - and begins with an imagined retelling and interpretation of a poem or legend from mediaeval literature backed up by some historical background and physical research. Everything is put into a comprehensible context that allows the reader to make sense of a past that seems so long ago but Jeff’s treatment propels its relevance into new focus with a contemporary style. 

Wild will take its place alongside Storyland on my ‘books I must read again’ shelf. I have to thank my friend Kirsty for buying me this book as a Christmas present.