Fairytales are one of our earliest and most vital cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient and primal landscapes. Both evoke a similar sensation in us – we find them beautiful and magical, but also spooky, sometimes horrifying. Sara Maitland argues that the two forms are intimately connected: the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils of the forests were the background and the source of fairytales. Yet both forests and fairy stories are at risk and their loss deprives us of our cultural lifeblood. In her new book, Gossip from the Forest, Maitland visits forests through the seasons, from the exquisite green of a beechwood in spring, to the muffled stillness of a snowy pine wood in winter. She takes a barefoot walk through Epping Forest with Robert Macfarlane; she walks with a mushroom expert through an oak wood, and with a miner through the Forest of Dean. Maitland ends each chapter with a unique, imaginative re-telling of a fairy story. Gossip from the Forest is a magical and unique blend of nature writing, history and imaginative fiction.

Read reviews of Maitland’s book HERE on our blog.