Wild

Tales from Early Medieval Britain

By: Amy Jeffs

Narrated by: Amy Jeffs, Lucy Paterson

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's 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