I always loved fairy-stories, folk-tales
and mythology...
At the age of ten, I came across Greek and then Norse Mythology.
Well, it wasn't so much a coming across as a collision. I was never the same again.
After that, I read every book I could find that had the words 'folk-lore,' 'myth' or 'legend' in the title. I read around the world in myth and folktale, though the Norse Myths probably remain my favourite.
Right is Arthur Rackham's illustration of 'Odin and the wolf, Fenrir.'
I soon began to notice connections between the stories, connections over time and distance. A folk-tale 'collected' in the 19th century would have an image in it from a Norse Myth of a thousand years before.
Images and events in stories would turn up thousands of miles from home too. Soon I was reading books, not of folk-tales but about folk-tales.
It was inevitable that I would try my hand at retelling them myself. These stories, and folk ballad, taught me an awful lot about how to construct a story.
In this section, you'll find some of my books of retold folk-tales.