by Jennifer Saint I always enjoy new angles on the Greek Myths and Jennifer Saint's three novels to date are no exception. Elektra, published in 2022, is actually her second, following Ariadne (see here) and preceding Atalanta (see here). Three novels in three years is pretty good going in my view! Elektra is a story …
Category: myth and legend
ITHACA
by Claire North 'Penelope, sixteen years old, left her father's court behind to marry a man she had known for three weeks. And, as she stood at the prow of the ship that carried her to Ithaca, she closed her eyes and repeated, I will love, I will love.' I used to read lots of …
The Fickleness of Gods
(and Goddesses) Atalanta by Jennifer Saint 'When Atalanta posted herself on the extreme right flank at some distance from her fellow-hunters,' wrote Robert Graves in The Greek Myths, 'two Centaurs ..... decided to ravish her, each in turn assisting the other. But as soon as they ran towards her, she shot them both down and …
Sisters at the Edge of the World
by Ailish Sinclair A Review 'Atunement. Living flesh, pulsing with the beat of life, touching stone that is also living and beating in another way. There is life within. And there is wisdom. And there is a throb of energy, gathered over time. And love. Yes, love.' The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of a great …
Book Review
Dracula by Bram Stoker 'There lay Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her funeral. She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever, and I could not believe she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than before, and on her cheeks was a delicate bloom.' What is there …
STORYLAND
A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs 'Arthur had a sister called Anna. She married the pagan King Loth of Lothian. Their sons' names were Gawain and Mordred. They had a daughter too, whose name was Teneu. As soon as they were old enough, the boys had migrated south to fight for Arthur. Teneu …
ARIADNE
by Jennifer Saint 'What do you imagine the wedding of an Olympian god to be like? The bridal pair descending in a chariot of clouds, pulled by silver horses?' Ariadne - library edition The author's debut novel, Ariadne is a retelling of an old Greek myth or, more correctly, two, maybe three, intertwined myths. First, …
The Dark Side of the Fylfot
(A Short Extract #2) by Andrew G. Lockhart Gretl July, August and September were always busy months and that year they were more hectic than ever. All summer, my father and Roland were preoccupied with affairs on the farm. The crops had come under threat from unusually large numbers of rats that descended on us …
The Dark Side of the Fylfot
(A Short Extract #1) by Andrew G. Lockhart Gretl I awoke on a bed of straw. It was just past daybreak, and there was enough light for me to see I was in a peasant cottage. The woman who had befriended me the evening before was bending over me. She handed me a cup. Thinking …
Sistersong
by Lucy Holland ‘I am as light and am as dark, I am as birth and am as breath, I am as flesh and bone and brain, Look inside and know my name.’ Just as I was beginning to think no one writes stories like that any more, along comes Lucy Holland’s tale of war, …
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