Neil Philip is a writer, folklorist and poet. Among his many books areThe Cinderella Story, Mythology(with Philip Wilkinson),The New Oxford Book of Children's Verse, The Tale of Sir GawainandThe Adventures of Odysseus. Neil has contributed to numerous journals, includingThe TimesandSignal: Approaches to Childrens Books, and has also written for stage, screen and radio. His work has won the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society and the Literary Criticism Book Award of the Childrens Literature Association.
"A treasure-trove of living stories, and enormously fun to read.
Enjoy!"
"Shivery, creepy, melancholy, funny, fantastic and very real ...
Neil Philip’s classic collection offers us an overflowing cauldron
of marvellous stories.’
"Collections of folktales as good as this should be bound in gold
and brought out on ceremonial occasions as national treasures."
"A profound influence on me and Hookland."
"This is the best collection of English folktales since
Katharine Briggs's assemblage in four volumes, and perhaps the best
ever in a single volume."
"A superb anthology of more than one hundred extraordinary tales
that reveal the exquisite nature of the English storytelling
tradition. This is a dazzling book."
"Never was a better time for such a knowing, appreciative volume of
our shared tales."
"An expertly chosen selection of English folktales that is highly
readable, endlessly entertaining, and intellectually
enlivened. If by some mysterious goblin’s spell I was
condemned to give away all the books in my library but one, this is
undoubtedly the book I would keep."
"Buckle up and prepare for close encounters with ghouls and
boggarts, witches and merry-maids, talking cats and roaring
bulls."
"The generally admitted and admired glories of English literature
rest on a much more neglected popular tradition of story-telling.
This collection brings that tradition back to life, in a
wonderfully accessible form."
"A truly beautiful collection of over one hundred English stories .
. . collated with true wonder and love for the magic of
storytelling."
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