Books of the month with Kemps

There’s a Ghost in This House by Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers’ picture books are a real favourite in the shop. Full of gentle humour, they feature young children faced with the little challenges in life that appear gigantic to those of us under three or four feet tall. Whales stuck in trees, lost penguins and elusive ghosts are just some of the everyday hassles encountered by Oliver Jeffers’ practical and adventurous young characters.

There’s A Ghost In This House follows this format in a perfect Halloween picture book for the under sevens (and their parents!). On opening the book, we are introduced to a young girl who just knows there is a ghost in her house, it’s just that she hasn’t seen it yet. However, that’s not to say that her readers can’t. Each page has a transparent overlay that reveals a cheeky ghost in traditional ‘sheet over-the-head’ costume. The fun part is to spot these playful ghosties as you listen to the girl explaining and questioning why she can’t quite see them. It’s a classic ‘he’s behind you!’ format that most small children love.

Jeffers has a talent for illuminating the humour found in very young children and this, combined with his quirky illustrations, make his books modern playroom classics. There’s A Ghost in This House is no exception and will provide plenty of just the right spooky fun for youngsters in the autumn and winter months ahead.

Published by Harper Collins ISBN 9780008298357 Hardback £12.00

Hag: Forgotten Folk Tales Retold

In the introduction to this weird and wonderful collection of English Folk Tales, Professor Caroline Larrington remarks that the ‘hundreds of traditional tales that make up the rich story-hoard of the British Isles are strangely forgotten’. This book goes a little way to redressing this fact as it gives traditional tales from across our counties a new lease of life as they are given a feminist reimagining by some of the best of our British writers including Daisy Johnson, Natasha Carthew and Naomi Booth.

These short stories take the mermaids, fairies, demons, boggarts and pixies of the British Isles and, in a nod to Angela Carter, they bring out some of the issues these tales may symbolise. Novelist and short story writer from York, Naomi Booth, takes on the traditional tale of the Yorkshire boggart who constantly haunts the owners of a farm in ‘Aye We’re Flittin’. Booth’s retelling, entitled ‘Sour Hall’ gives this already unsettling tale a modern, psychological twist.

Reimagined tales are a popular genre nowadays and Hag offers something different to the many Greek and Roman retellings that have proved successful over the past few years. The stories within this collection bring together our rich storytelling heritage with some of our best contemporary writers to produce thought-provoking, uncanny and gripping tales to read infront of the fire this autumn.

ISBN: 9780349013596, Hardback, Published by Virago, RRP £14.99

Waking the Witch – Rachel Burge

Rachel Burge had a successful career in magazine publishing and running her own editorial agency before turning her attention to writing full time. She now writes Young Adult novels and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults. Waking the Witch is her third book, following the critically acclaimed The Twisted Tree.

Waking the Witch is described as 'a darkly spellbinding tale of female empowerment, steeped in Welsh mythology and Arthurian legend', and this description does not disappoint. I was hooked from the very beginning. It is a gripping Bildungsroman; its plot is centred on Ivy, who has spent most of her seventeen years in foster care. Ivy has been desperately seeking her birth mother and is convinced that she has located her living on the remote Welsh island of Bardsey. She finally plucks up the courage to contact her estranged mother, yet when she does, she is warned vociferously to stay way. What follows is Ivy's refusal to listen to her mother's strange command and her determination to find out the truth about her mother and why she left her, no matter what.

Ivy travels to Bardsey with her work colleague Tom and things turn creepy and unsettling very quickly. The pair witness several cormorants flying over the remote isle and are informed by Ivy's mother that according to folklore they are terrifying witches from Arthurian legend who have been searching for Ivy; the reason she warned her to stay away.

Waking the Witch is beautifully written and is a compelling story containing atmospheric descriptions, fascinating and flawed characters, and a twisting plot. Its heady mix of Arthurian legend, witchcraft, Welsh myth, love, and empowered femininity really appealed to me and captured me from beginning to end. This is an excellent book for both teens and adults alike.

Published by Hot Key Books ISBN 9781471411083 Paperback £7.99

The History of Magic – Chris Gosden

Chris Gosden is Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He has previously curated and lectured at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, where he encountered many magical objects, displayed in a scientific manner, and is a fellow of the British Academy and the Society of Antiquaries, as well as a trustee of the Art Fund, the British Museum, and chair of trustees for Oxford Archaeology. He has written or edited eighteen academic books, but this is his first trade book.

In The History of Magic Gosden draws on his decades of research, with incredible breadth and authority, to provide a timely history of human thought and the role it has played in shaping civilization, and how we might use magic to rethink our understanding of the world. It is an erudite and compelling read that is eminently accessible to the lay reader and covers the alchemy and witchcraft of all human history from the Ice Age to the present. This is quite an undertaking, and its scope necessitates a brief overview of the centuries and cultures considered, allowing the reader to pursue ideas of especial interest elsewhere.

Gosden's concept of the 'triple helix' of magic, religion, and science and how all three strands are necessary in helping us reach out to the universe and connect with it is particularly interesting. Between religion and science Gosden discerns a vital space, a third and largely ignored strand in our understanding which is where he believes that magic fits in, seeing it as a way of humanising the outside world and connecting with it more profoundly, and of re-enchanting our relationship with our environment. Furthermore, he believes that these strands can be tracked from the earliest human traditions to the present. An interesting hypothesis that makes for a truly fascinating read.

Published by Penguin Random House UK ISBN 9780241979662 Paperback £12.99