Lisa Schneidau

This is an excellent collection of forest- and tree-themed folktales. Schneidau's retellings are fresh, lively, and accessible, often seasoned with a dash of light humour. Some of these tales were ones I had read before, but most were new to me. The short introductions to each tale and group of tales are also well worth reading, as they connect the traditional stories to modern ecological and environmental concerns. I think that this book and Schneidau's Botanical Folk Tales are among my show more favourite collections of fairy and folk tales. Highly recommended. show less

Lisa Schneidau is an ecologist, conservationist and storyteller, knowledge and passion that she combines in these faithful retellings of British and Irish folktales.

Each story has a short introduction in which Lisa gives some ecological, historical and/or folkloric details, and she chooses a reasonable geographic spread of stories from across the Isles. I liked her inclusion of a couple of Romany stories, Appy and the Eel being one of the humorous highlights of the book.

She plays a bit loose show more with the definition of "river", including a she does some tales of lakes and marshes, but that's the pendant in me being picky! show less

Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland is a charming collection of plant-related folk tales organized according to the eight-fold wheel of the year. Some of the stories seem to be only tangentially connected to plants, and many of the stories I have read before in some form in other collections. However, as a whole the stories are very well-written and well put together. I love the idea of a plant-centered collection of tales and I also appreciate the theme of maintaining a good show more relationship with the land, a theme that keeps reappearing throughout this collection. I think this book would be best read slowly or by dipping into it on occasion, rather than straight through. I would recommend it if you're interested in this sort of thing. show less

The title says it all. This book contains several short stories of folk tales with links to plants. Some of these tales I knew, most of them I did not. A few of the stories had the author's interpretation from the traditional versions I am familiar with. Many of these tales reminded me of Grimm's fairy tales; a stark reminder that fairy tales aren't always happy endings.