Illustrated by Samantha Dolan
Published by Wide Eyed Editions
For ages 7+
I was super excited to find out that there was to be a follow up to last year's amazing 'Lore of the Wild: Folklore and Wisdom from Nature' !! The whole family very much enjoyed reading it and I even used to keep it by the kitchen table for mealtimes, because I loved sharing some of the fascinating lore I'd learned about. I had great fun trying to get the children to guess some of the uses for things and what their magical powers are. I have loved this second book in the series and I really hope you will too. Plus, if you are a teacher or writer, you’ve got a melting pot of inspiration within these pages for some wonderful adventures!!
In a world without police forces, medical and transportation technology, security services, spy satellites and telecoms - warnings from nature and stories provided the deterrents to children in order to keep them safe in a wilder world where perhaps visualisation of characters and acting out stories within communities made all the difference to a tribe’s future survival. Once I'd done a bit of preliminary research into this wonderful series's author, Claire Cock-Starkey, I knew I wanted to find out more about her fascination with folklore, and her research/writing process, and finding her place in the children's publishing industry. I hope you enjoy the interview. I really loved reading Claire's responses and feel quite enlightened as a result, which is always a glorious feeling.
Q&A
Nicci: We absolutely loved your first book in this series, ‘Lore of the Wild: Folklore and Wisdom from Nature’, and even took it on holiday with us camping in Suffolk! I’m so delighted you have written another in this series! Congratulations.
Claire: Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it, I absolutely loved writing it!
Nicci: As a child, I grew up believing that forests in Norway had trolls and if I was naughty they’d come for me, that fairies lived amongst the woodland flowers and I should watch where I trod, and if I was lucky I’d see a mermaid’s tail amongst the waves at sea. Have you always been quite curious about spirits, sprites, fairies, monsters, magic?
Claire: Yes, I have always been slightly away with the fairies! As a child I was always fascinated by imagined lands where fairies, elves and magical creatures lived alongside humans, like in Narnia or Lord of the Rings – both book series which I really loved. I think children especially enjoy feeling like there is a world bigger than the one we can see and that spirits and fairies might lend some luck or help them find their way if they become lost. As an adult I am much more drawn to the darker side of folklore and the more mischievous spirits who guard our natural places, for example the old English character of Churn Milk Peg who sits inside hazelnut bushes smoking her pipe and chides naughty children who try and pick the nuts before they are ripe with a pinch on the arm. I am fascinated by exploring all these characters from around the world and looking at how people have envisaged nature spirits and what roles they have been given – so many of them have been created as a way to keep children safe – if children are told of the story of the creepy Yama-uba, a Japanese mountain spirit with snakes for hair, then they are less likely to stray from the path and become lost in the mountains!
Nicci: I’m so thrilled that you have teamed up with illustrator, Samantha Dolan. Her artwork is brilliantly matched to this subject. As if a reflection of the age and origin of these folklore stories when illustrations were vital to visualise how people saw the world and communicated, here we have a children’s book filled with vibrant and engaging pictures accompanying your descriptions and stories in abundance. What was your experience working with an illustrator of Dolan’s calibre, and sharing the creative control over the finished product?
Claire: Working with Samantha has been so wonderful as her illustrations have perfectly captured the ‘folksy’ aesthetic I wanted to use for the book. What I especially love is that the pictures really compliment the words and depict some quite scary characters such as Baba Yaga, the kappa, nix and bunyips, and yet make them appealing to children. My own children have already spent hours poring over the pictures and delighting in a new detail each time they look again. The illustrations are so crucial to the book that it is a real collaboration. When I am writing I am constantly thinking about how I can add details to my words which will invite a wonderful picture and I think Samantha has responded to that amazingly!
Nicci: Having very much enjoyed 'Lore of the Land: Folklore & Wisdom from the Wild Earth’ from cover to cover, I've come to realise how fascinating it is to compare folklore from around the world and to discover so much similarity. In your opinion, is this more due to the nature of the human psyche and reasoning? Or perhaps our under-estimation of how much migration took place thousands of years ago, enabling the sharing of stories and culture on a more global scale? What’s your take on it?
Claire: This is such an interesting question and one that I think could have many possible answers. I think on one level storytelling is such an innate part of human nature that it makes sense that stories have been spread from place to place, and generation to generation. Interest in myths, folktales and folklore actually peaked in the nineteenth century which is especially notable because this coincided with the Victorian trend for rational thought which is at odds with magical thinking. But I think this reflects the fact that myths and stories provide far more appealing explanations of natural events than science. I for one would much rather imagine that a hurricane had been caused by an eagle flapping its wings over the mountains, or that rivers were formed by giant snakes slithering through the lands, and that standing stones are actually giants turned to stone by the rising of the sun.
Nicci: Many of the stories have been passed down through time to explain natural phenomena like creation of the planet Earth, volcanoes erupting, tsunamis, disappearing ships at sea… in which period of history did you find the richest amount of folklore stories? Did much or most of it predate religion?
Claire: Due to the oral nature of myths and folklore it is really hard to pinpoint how ancient they actually are. It is only in fairly recent history that traditional oral myths have become committed to paper as previously they would have been shared verbally, each generation adding their own spin on the tales. While many of the myths and legend are likely very old, I think we have to be careful about classifying folklore as of the past. These stories are still told, adapted and shared. In my definition of folklore it can cover everything from the oldest creation myths to the most recent urban legends circulating on TikTok. Folklore continues to evolve and change alongside society and it can help us to relate more closely to the natural world and find magic in the everyday.
Nicci: I was fascinated to read how close the ancient Egyptian creation story is to what we believe today as to how our planet was created and developed within our galaxy and solar system. Little did they know how close they were! What were your ‘wow’ moments when researching?
Claire: I was completely fascinated by the huge variety of mermaid-like creatures I uncovered from around the world (I didn’t even have space to include them all!). Before I started researching the book I only knew the standard idea of a mermaid, as a half-woman, half-fish with long wavy hair, sitting on a rock. But the more I delved into the concept of mermaids the more I found them reflected in many different cultures and many different ways from the Japanese ningyo with the body of a fish and the face of a monkey to the Maori marakihau who act as guardians of the sea. I ended up devoting a whole double page in Lore of the Land to mermaids as there was so much to share.
Nicci: As you are an author of many books for adults prior to this series, did you find any of the publishing process a challenge or a surprise at all in the switch to the children’s sector of the industry?
Claire: I have to admit that my biggest struggle was being concise! I have pages and pages of research which I have had to condense into a comparatively short book. This has meant that I have had to be so selective with what I can include but I have really enjoyed that challenge. It has been great to distil a myth or legend into just a few lines, really thinking about the key elements and which parts of the story are going to catch the imagination of children. As Lore of the Land is an illustrated book I also get to think way more visually than with my adult books which is an utter joy. I love picking out the mythical characters which I know will make incredible illustrations and seeing what Samantha creates.
Nicci: I have read that you are a PhD in folklore. How would you quantify the prevalence of folklore in everyday life in the 21st century; how much do we lead our lives within folklore without realising it? I’m fascinated to know your thoughts on this as the expert!
Claire: I am indeed undertaking a part-time PhD at the moment alongside my writing. I am looking specifically at the folklore of death and dying but my research involves looking through lots of nineteenth-century folklore collections and it is from these books which I also collect much of my research for my children’s books on nature folklore. The more I read about nature folklore the more I realise we have absorbed so many of the traditional beliefs into our daily lives, for example so many of us salute magpies for luck, use dock leaves to treat nettle stings, make a wish on the first star we see each night or leave our children’s teeth under their pillows for the tooth fairy. Many of these traditions have become so innate we don’t even see them as magical anymore, just as normal parts of daily life.
One of the reasons I was inspired to write the first book in the Lore of… series, Lore of the Wild, was because the more nature folklore I encountered the more I enjoyed sharing snippets with my children. I noticed that when I shared folklore with my kids they were suddenly so much more engaged in looking at the natural world around them. Who can resist the magical idea that you might have good luck if you place a flailing beetle back on its feet or that you might come into money if you circle a money spider hanging from its web across your palm five times?
Nicci: I know you are a big fan of museums, but where’s your book-ish happy place?
Claire: I am a total library nerd and am lucky enough to have access to Cambridge University Library (near where I live), the British Library and Senate House Library in London and for me spending times in those incredible book palaces is absolute heaven! One of my favourite parts of any book project is my library research days, where I get to sit in glorious silence, looking through a huge pile of books and becoming immersed in research.
I was also lucky enough to have a tour of the tower at Cambridge University where they store all the legal deposit books and isn’t usually open to the public. It was so fascinating and absolutely bursting with amazing books. I have to admit I ended up using a picture of some of the beautiful book covers as the wallpaper on my phone, usurping my children!
Nicci: What are you working on at the moment? It’d be lovely to know if you’ll be writing for children again.
Claire: I am actually currently writing the next book in the Lore of… series! It is going to be called Lore of the Stars and it focuses on myths, legends and lore about the sky, stars and celestial bodies. It has been so fun to research and has turned up tons of wonderful stories. I have especially enjoyed finding out about the different myths relating to northern and southern lights, such as the belief in Estonia that the beautiful lights of the aurora are caused by a magical carriage which travels through the air to take guests to a heavenly wedding.
Nicci: Finally, If anyone reading this is interested in booking you for an author event how should they go about it?
Claire: All my contact details are available on my website http://www.nonfictioness.com or you can find me on Twitter @NonFictioness and @Loreofbooks
Thanks for the super interview, Claire! Thank you for enlightening me about so many things! e.g. why Ireland is called the ‘Emerald Isle', what foxglove flowers have to do with foxes, a missed opportunity to search for gold whilst visiting the Gullfloss waterfall in Iceland and so much more! I’ll be watching out for Jenny Greenteeth next time I’m taking a walk along the river!!
About the creators
Claire Cock-Starkey (author)
Claire Cock-Starkey is an author who worked with Ben Schott on his hugely successful Miscellanies and Almanacs. She has worked for BBC Radio 4 and written many other miscellanies and fact-filled books on history, libraries, words, books and museums, including: Penguins, Pineapples and Pangolins (British Library, 2016), The Book Lovers’ Miscellany (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2017). She is happiest perched in the British Library reading rooms surrounded by a pile of obscure and fascinating books, researching her next book.
Website: https://nonfictioness.com
Samantha Dolan (illustrator)
Samantha Dolan is an artist and illustrator from Scotland. She uses her favourite mediums, pencil, ink and gouache paint, to create art inspired by the natural world around her. She is inspired by nature and plants along with a love of myth and folklore.
Website: https://www.samanthadolan.co.uk
Key themes
nature
folklore
history
myths
legends
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Publication date: 13 September 2022
Format: Hardback
Also in this series:
'Lore of the Wild: Folklore and Wisdom from Nature' (Wide Eyed, 2021)
*My review copy was provided by the publisher.
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