Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain

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The novel is an attempt to think about how those things that shaped us in the past, might relate to the present and the future. I was thinking about writing a family saga, but then decided to begin by looking at when the Europeans and Aboriginal people first met. I write best from place, and I live in the Illawarra, so I looked for stories from my own area.''

Firstly, it is largely a collection of myths from other sources. She draws heavily from authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth to the point where I wondered why I was reading this book at all when the original(ish) source for the stories is readily available. However, she does offer good analysis in her stories and her writing style is far more approachable than her sources, making her work infinitely more approachable to casual readers. This is a book I will return to multiple times, both for its beauty and subtlety and for the sheer pleasure of experiencing the world it reflects.' Otago Daily Times Storyland begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants, covers the founding of Britain, England, Wales, and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the Normans. However, I was a bit disappointed really, the myths were not retold quite with the ‘new’ twist I was expecting and it reminded me that I don’t enjoy myths and short stories that much, there is no character development and often the men are violent and the women submissive. An ambitious, remarkable and moving novel about who we are: our past, present and future, and our connection to this land.

How They Broke Britain by James O'Brien is full of anger - and not much else

The first tale follows the account written by Matthew Flinders from the perspective of Will Martin, servant to Bass. The second is narrated by Hawker, an embittered convict ''lifer''; tilling corn fields on a run of 1300 acres who lusts after an Aboriginal girl. I discovered this book at the end of the incredible ‘Stonehenge’ exhibition at the British Museum. The contrasting dream-like woodcut cover illustration drew me in like a moth to a flame and when I discovered it was a book about myth, history and the British landscape I thought it would combine all my interests and spark some inspiration in my art practice. Meet dragons and giants, goddesses and kings in these tales, which bring to life the ancient myths and legends of the British landscape. Sail with Trojans, ride Scottish stags and watch Stonehenge rise. At one point in the journey, Flinders writes that they had to make a hasty retreat from shore because they feared there were cannibals in the area. Later, at Canoe Rivulet, he says they were escaping threatening Aboriginals.

Studies of ancient DNA have linked northern Spain and Portugal to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall – old Celtic lands. Our myths contain hints of something deep that we’ll never understand – stories about migration from east to west, of a staging post in Spain, of settlement in these islands, thought to be the very end of the world in ancient times. It makes the mind wander. What brought these people all the way here? Might perhaps the survivors of a shattered civilisation – even Troy, which we know today did exist as a city and was destroyed in the Bronze Age – have made their way here more than 3,000 years ago to build a new life? Is that what these myths – layered by millennia of retelling – whisper? Secondly, this book also hits one of my biggest pet peeves: despite claiming to be a “new mythology of Britain”, it is almost entirely focused on England. Though Wales is represented, the stories chosen from Wales are mostly those that were later incorporated into English myth and therefore little exclusively Welsh material is present. Scotland is even more poorly represented, as it only gets a small handful of stories - this is likely due to Jeffs odd choice to exclude Ireland, which thereby excludes Scotland given how much the latter’s medieval culture was informed by the former. It's interesting that in Popular Western Culture, the Greek and Norse mythologies tend to dominate our literature, with the occasional smattering of Egyptian pantheon, if people want a more exciting flare.These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now half-remembered: Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among them. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning artworks and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary. We visit beautiful, sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge and Wayland’s Smithy, spanning the length of Britain from the archipelago of Orkney to as far south as Cornwall; mountains and lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive and rivers including the Ness, the Soar and the story-silted Thames in a vivid, beautiful tale of our land steeped in myth. It Illuminates a collective memory that still informs the identity and political ambition of these places. The stories themselves are fittingly strange and compelling as all mythology often is. I confess at times I found myself lost in names of ancient kings and strange interrelationships between early peoples (wait what was the difference between Picts and Scots, Saxons and Britons again?) this is a common feature of myth, although I often find myself questioning what is more important - a memorable relevant and compelling narrative - or "Accuracy." There are refugees from Troy, giants from Africa, travellers from Greece, Britons fighting Saxons, inevitably Arthur, Merlin (in lots of stories), Joseph of Arimathea, lots of Vikings, Scots, Picts, Stonehenge, curse, treasure hunts, even Nessie. As ever the stories can be brutal and are often magical. Christianity intrudes in the later stories. In 1796, a young cabin boy, Will Martin, goes on a voyage of discovery in the Tom Thumb with Matthew Flinders and Mr Bass: two men and a boy in a tiny boat on an exploratory journey south from Sydney Cove to the Illawarra, full of hope and dreams, daring and fearfulness.

The third voice is Lola, a young woman who runs an isolated dairy with her two siblings and comes under suspicion for harbouring a runaway. It's the year before Federation, at the turn of the 20th century, and illegitimacy and Aboriginal blood ties are a social curse to be endured. These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now half-remembered: Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among them. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning artworks and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary. We visit beautiful, sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge and Wayland's Smithy, spanning the length of Britain from the archipelago of Orkney to as far south as Cornwall; mountains and lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive and rivers including the Ness, the Soar and the story-silted Thames in a vivid, beautiful tale of our land steeped in myth. It Illuminates a collective memory that still informs the identity and political ambition of these places. What do people around the world eat for Christmas dinner? How do cranberries grow? One of our foremost science educators, Moate fills this book with genuinely interesting facts and a host of festive activities to brighten up dark afternoons – who knew that with just a bit of folding and some glue, an old magazine could turn into a Christmas tree? It begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants from an age when the children of Cain and the progeny of fallen angels walked the earth, to the founding of Britain, England, Wales and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the Normans. Storyland has been shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin Award, the Barbara Jefferis Award and the Voss Award.These 55 stories were originally published in 1962 and 1987 which were either adapted from Walt Disney's movies or made up. These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among them. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning artworks and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary. We visit beautiful, sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge and Wayland's Smithy, spanning the length of Britain from the archipelago of Orkney to as far south as Cornwall; mountains and lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive and rivers including the Ness, the Soar and the story-silted Thames in a vivid, beautiful tale of our land steeped in myth. It Illuminates a collective memory that still informs the identity and political ambition of these places. Soaked in mist and old magic, Storyland is a new illustrated mythology of Britain, set in its wildest landscapes. You'd think that British/English/UK mythology would be much more prominent among states originally settled by the empire (there is probably a history thesis in there somewhere about how perhaps its a form of rejection of the British Empire, or possible even that sometimes one's own culture can be invisible while others' stands out and is 'interesting').