Fairytales are one of our earliest & most vital cultural forms, & forests one of our most ancient & primal landscapes. Both evoke a similar sensation in us
- we find them beautiful & magical, but also spooky, sometimes horrifying. In this fascinating book, Maitland argues that the two forms are intimately connected: the mysterious secrets & silences, gifts & perils of the forests were both the background & the source of fairytales. Yet both forests & fairy stories are at risk & their loss deprives us of our cultural lifeblood. 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 camps with her son Adam, whose beautiful photographs are included in the book; she takes a barefoot walk through Epping Forest with Robert Macfarlane; she walks with a mushroom expert through an oak wood, & with a miner through the Forest of Dean. Maitland ends each chapter with a unique, imaginitive re-telling of a fairystory. Written with Matiland`s wonderful clarity & conversational grace, Gossip from the Forest is a magical & unique blend of nature writing, history & imaginative fiction.