Meet the storytellers of the wild folk
From the unique collaboration of the co-author Lost words AND Lost Spells and the renowned visual artist presents seven richly illustrated fables of transformation and power, summoned from the historic stones beneath our feet and transformed in words and images into portals between the past and the future.
Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy, and has illustrated many books and written some. Lost wordsco-authored by Robert Macfarlane, won the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal.
Tamsin Abbott he has been creating painted stained glass windows at his home in Herefordshire for over twenty years. Her works are inspired by the British landscape, folklore and fairy tales. Her pursuit of country life began at the University of Stirling, where she studied medieval literature. Wild Folk this is her first book as a stained glass illustrator.
What is the view from your writing and creating space?
JM:
LINING:
Do you have a favorite place to read?
JM: On the hill above my house, by the fireplace in winter, for a walk with a book, by the seaside, by the river, in bed in the morning before the worries of the day begin, one last thing in the evening before bed, but always between the pages of a book.
LINING: In the winter, we cuddled up with our spaniel, Seren, in our house by the fire.
In the garden in summer.
Describe Wild Folk in three words.
LINING: Resistant, stunning, persistent.
What are you currently reading?
JM: Over the winter I re-read the trilogy titled Bear and nightingale, The Girl from the Tower AND Witch in winter by Catherine Arden. But also Ragwortthe second book in the Sam K. Horton trilogy.
LINING: End of drum time Hanna Pylvainen
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
JM: Flight
LINING: Wave your magic wand for all of humanity to unite to bring about global harmony and climate renewal.
What was the last book you recommended to a friend and why?
JM: Katherine Arden’s trilogy, for its quietly brilliant writing.
LINING: Black Forest, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey. It is the perfect combination of mystical realism, tension, wildness and love.
Tell us a little about growing up. What instilled in you a passion for nature?
LINING: I grew up in the cities of Liverpool and Derby in a parsonage. I missed the countryside and those longings were temporarily fulfilled by a wonderful camping holiday in the stunning, wild places of Scotland, Wales and England. I grew up surrounded by books, music and reading, and spent most of my free time drawing and creating my own nature quizzes! The worlds of nature and imagination have been perfectly combined.
How have your life experiences shaped your craft?
LINING: I have always drawn and painted from an early age, and my subjects have always been animals, trees and plants. I also read incredibly and loved looking at the stunning art by illustrators like BB, Charles Keeping, Victor G. Ambrus, Kathleen Hale, and Edward Ardizzone, to name a few.
I studied and practiced art at school until I was 18, and then continued to draw and paint for fun, later also taking part in a ten-month Art Foundation course and many evening classes in printmaking and stained glass. As soon as I left the house I grew up in, I made the choice to live in a rural area so I could immerse myself in the British countryside. Since then I have lived in Wales, Scotland, the North of England and now Herefordshire in the West Midlands. I am attracted to featherlight: featherlight coming through trees, leaves, at the end of a path or path and all these things have shaped my work with stained glass, which is a way of working with featherlight itself, of illuminating an image.
What inspired you to create Wild Folk?
JM: Wild Folk was born from cooperation and friendship. Both Tamsin and I love the wild world and the world of folk stories, and we really wanted “people” to be seen not just as people, but as the wild connectivity of our ecosystem.
LINING: I had always wanted to create a book illustrated with stained glass windows, but somehow everything came together in the autumn of 2022 in a house on Exmoor to make it happen. I was ready for novel experiences, a novel way of directing my work, and I wanted to bring color and charm to the world of reading for adult children like me who wanted/needed more joy and magic in their lives. I wanted to create a world I could escape to. This all coincided with the fact that my wonderful friend Jackie Morris was willing to collaborate and bring some of her stories to life with me.
What do you hope readers take away from this book? Wild Folk?
JM: There is magic in it Wild Folk. It survived the hard publishing period and somehow prospered. I have the impression that the book has a life of its own and everyone who reads it brings something novel to it. I want to learn about it from readers, not impose specific possibilities on it. However, I hope that it will become a haven where people can rest in these troubled times and emerge stronger.
LINING: A sanctuary and a spell that will make the world a more bearable place.