Tales of Wonder and Magic

A magic story casts a spell on the reader, so they can’t get it out of their dreams.

The Girl from Llyn Y Fan Fach (Wales, told by T Llew Jones, translated by Gillian Clarke) • Chura and Marwe (Africa, told by Humphrey Harman) • The Bogles and the Moon (England, told by Kenneth McLeish) • Tamlane (Scotland, told by Winifred Finlay) • The Boy of the Red Twilight Sky (Canada, told by Cyrus MacMillan) • The People Could Fly (American Black story told by Virginia Hamilton) • The Black Bull of Norroway (Ireland, told by Kenneth McLeish) • Mirragen the Cat-Man (Australian Aboriginal told by AW Reed) • The Girl Who Couldn’t Walk (Original story by Berlie Doherty) • The Woman of the Sea (Shetland Islands, told by Helen Waddell)

I read hundreds of stories before making the selections for this anthology. Often I read several versions of the same story before I chose the one that I liked best. I was looking for stories that were powerfully told and beautifully written. It was a surprise to me that Walker Books wanted me to include a story of my own, not a retelling, but an original story. I wrote one that I thought had some of the elements of folk and fairy stories. The artist Juan Wijngaard has produced stunning illustrations for the book.