Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland, Lisa Schneidau
I was curious about this book because I used to collect pamphlets and stuff about local tourist attractions wherever I went, and ended up with a fair few that discussed folk traditions like fairy rings and vengeful trees. This kind of felt nostalgic for thumbing through those and trying to imagine the magic back into Britain… and it’s kind of cool to learn more about plants long-established in Britain and what people thought of them.
Not all the retellings really worked for me, nor the faux-dialect introduced to make them sound folksy. They might be better performed aloud, perhaps, but you’d have to have the right accent or you’d sound a little mocking, and that’s the way it comes off in print… though that’s probably a personal preference. The retellings are fairly straightforward, and there are few surprises in the tales, which are mostly traditional or based off traditional stories, and act in the expected way.
A fun curiosity, and perhaps one to dip in and out of if it’s something you’re interested in, but not a whole-hearted recommendation, I think. If you’re interested, you probably already know it’s your thing; if you’re just curious, the stories and their morals become a little repetitive.
