Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold

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Overall an enjoyable collection that offers a much needed blend of modernity and feminist critique to some classic folktales.

A collection of re-interpreted ancient folk tales, from the British isles— Cornwall, Wales, Fens, Yorkshire etc—written by contemporary authors.In her preface, Larrington states that many of the stories “are in dialogue with ‘folk-horror’ or the ‘new weird’”. A fellow and Vice Chair of The Royal Society of Literature, she is the co-presenter of the BBC's Novels That Shaped Our World podcast, Turn Up For The Books. The book has a very informative foreword, which is almost a story in itself, and explains how the book came to be and some info on what the retellings are based on. The cover art is wonderful and I loved the fact that they went with the name HAG to try and reclaim the insult to women. The twist in her version is a compulsively self-referential narrator, whose voice examines another problem with retelling folktales, that their details change and are often lost over time.

Particular favourites were Sour Hall by Naomi Booth, Rosheen by Irenosen Okojie, The Panther's Tale by Mahsuda Snaith and The Holloway by Imogen Hermes Gowar.Some general thoughts: these stories are totally accessible even if you have no idea what they are based on (like I did), which I think is no mean feat. So, the copy I have did not have any of those issues, the grammar was spot on so maybe that's why I enjoyed it more. Even someone not interested in Folklore would enjoy this but I imagine it would boil the piss of a purist.