Old Songs

Old Songs fuses short stories histories lyrics and illustrations in an enthralling reimagining of traditional folk ballads Sunday Times Bestselling historian Amy Jeffs and Illustrator Gwen Burns combine forces to create a rich compendium singing of travel mystery magic and the essential urges of humanity Featuring iterations of fairy tales and sinister descendants of Greek myths and bible stories as well as a cast of lesser known characters with names like Tam Lim Child Wynd and Maisery Old Songs threads a tapestry of Britain s landscape history and cultures At the base of hills we can visit to this day elf queens kidnap hapless poets and carry them through rivers of blood and at the foot of a tree whose offspring still stand in the forests of Northumberland a girl mimes combing the hairless head of a dragon who was once her brother In spellbinding tales of brown skinned girls who danced on their lovers graves of golden masted ships captained by the Devil of fiddles that cried Murder of men kidnapped by fairies and boys married at fourteen we find narrative motifs as ancient as humanity itself In the histories interconnecting the stories we find the fantastical rooted in the everyday bringing to light the real experiences of great swathes o