MAGPIE AND THE WARDROBE: A Curiosity of Folklore

Folklore, fairy tales and magic. This charming compendium celebrates the customs and stories that have captured our imagination for centuries. Like a curiosity museum, the book celebrates everything from weather lore, wood magic and palmistry, to wishes before bedtime, lucky horseshoes and sugared fruit - and you can bookmark your favourite page with a stunning metal four-leaf clover on a ribbon attached to the book's spine. We conjure every day; make a candle wish, mix a moon oil elixir, and hang your romantic hopes on the predictions of an apple peel. Learn about Arthurian myths and how Arthur was believed to have been the Celtic leader of a cavalry army but was described in many stories as a young man who was raised by the wizard Merlin and served King Uther Pendragon of Camelot fighting against evil before becoming king himself. Discover the magic in leaves, whether that is scatting a few bay leaves in your pantry to ward off pests or inscribing a wish on fig leaves and sage before burning them. Be amazed by the 'Deerhurst Dragon' which was a legend about a small Saxon village near Tewkesbury where a farmer defeated a dragon to stop it from feasting on the locals' livestock and cattle. The book explores 'hag stones' which wash up on the coastline and have naturally formed holes running all the way through them, a sign that they have great protective and powerful qualities which sometimes meant they were tied to the bow of boats as pendants. The book is split into sections dedicated to each month, offering insight into customs for each month such as lantern carving in October, which describes the 500-year-old tradition of carving root vegetables such as turnips, swedes, gourds, mangelwurzels and jack o' lanterns with grotesque faces to ward off evil spirits. As the title of the compendium suggests, there is a story included called 'The Magpie and The Wardrobe' about a magpie flying to an ancient wardrobe in which there is a precious collection of silk-wrapped acorns, cobwebs of silver amulets entwined in lichen and missed branches. The story is told through pull-out pages which are decorated as wrought gold gates with vines and roses and the text is accompanied by whimsical images of a swallow diamond broach, a rosebud, a candlestick, a ruby and a feather. Another interactive feature is the paper fortune teller that the reader can take from the back cover and use to project the future. As if it were a collector's book, the compendium is designed like a collage, with pages appearing to have shells, flowers, heirlooms and different fabrics stuck within the book. On a page called 'Gold', the page shows gold items such as a golden lipstick case and gold jewellery such as a seahorse or bird broach. Colour images, 192pp.