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Wild

Tales from Early Medieval Britain

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Wild

By: Amy Jeffs
Narrated by: Amy Jeffs, Lucy Paterson
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Summary

From the bestselling author of Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain comes a book that will reconnect, engross and indulge listeners in wild landscapes and pause to reflect on our current position and relationship with nature. This unique audiobook features 7 original songs—musical illustrations composed and performed by the author and her collaborators.

Sheer cliffs, salt spray, explosive sea spume, thunderous clouds, icy waves, whales with mountains on their backs, sleet, bitter winds, bleak, impenetrable marshes, howling wolves, forests, the unceasing cries of birds and the death grip of subterranean vaults that have never seen the sun: these are wild landscapes of a world almost familiar.

In Wild, Amy Jeffs journeys—on foot and through medieval texts—from landscapes of desolation to hope, offering the listener an insight into a world at once distant and profoundly close to home. The seven chapters, entitled Earth, Ocean, Forest, Beast, Fen, Catastrophe, Paradise, open with fiction and close with reflection. They blend reflections of travels through fen, forest and cave, with retelling of medieval texts that offer rich depictions of the natural world. From the Old English elegies to the englynion and immrama of the Celtic world—stories that largely represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of medieval literature: women, outcasts, animals.

All songs written by Amy Jeffs except for Colours, written by Robbie Haylett.

1. All Alone (Hos)

2. The Seafarer

3. Sweeney

4. The Whale

5. Wulf

6. Colours

7. Island of Birds

Arrangements by Robbie Haylett. Performances by Amy Jeffs, Robbie Haylett, Stephen Wilkinson, Christina Riedl, Will Rumney, Chris Keelty, Natalie Brice and Julien Harman-Evans.

©2022 Amy Jeffs (P)2022 Quercus Editions Limited
Customs & Traditions Environment Great Britain Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Social Sciences Conservation England Tradition
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I loved the mix of history and story telling. I really enjoyed learning about the background behind the stories.

Brilliant!

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This is one of those occasions where the audio book surpasses the experience of reading an e or paper copy. You do not get the visual feast of the illustrations but you do get to hear sublime songs, sung beautifully that serve to bring these ancient tales to life. The superb narration conveys the rhythm and compelling structures of these poems in a way that I just could not reproduce in my mind from reading the text on a page. Unlike many audio books, Wild reveals more and more with repeated listening. Ideally, you should buy both a physical copy and an audio book but if your budget doesn't stretch to that, buy this and listen to the wonderful language, these haunting tales and bittersweet songs.

A Sublime Listening Experience

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Gurt lush book gets the Briton in me excited would recommend to a friend for sure

Tis good

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Liked the contrast of Lucy reading ‘the story’ and the author reading the commentary. Weaving the songs through the book was inspired. Liked the way Jeffs described the landscapes and her linking the experiences of the people in the medieval texts with her experiences of the Wild today.

A great blend of words and music

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The words and music in this book are enough to make you sit in silence for a time and absorb what you just heard. Never have you heard history read to you in such a passionate way that shows the true love and interest of the author. The narrators and musicians deserve maximum praise for this masterpiece.

Intense, Romantic history.

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