Tatterdemalion
'It is like a folk tale, but seen in its tattered shreds, glimpsed, then utterly realised in language. It makes me glow; it makes my fur rise'Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental JourneyIn a ruined world, what will survive are the stories we tell
Poppy, who speaks the languages of wild things, travels east to the mountains with the wheeled and elephantine beast Lyoobov. He’s seeking answers to the mysteries of his birth, and the origins of the fallen world in which he lives.
Up in the glacial peaks, among a strange, mountainous people, a Juniper Tree takes Poppy deep into her roots and shows him the true stories of the people who made his world, people he thought were only myths. Their tales span centuries, from three hundred years in the future all the way back to our present day. It is through this feral but redemptive folklore that Poppy begins to understand the story of his own past and his place in the present.
Tatterdemalion is a stunning collaboration between writer Sylvia V. Linsteadt and artist Rima Staines, featuring colour reproductions of the fourteen original paintings that inspired the narrative.
Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a writer and artist based in California. Her collection of stories, The Gray Fox Epistles, won the James D. Phelan Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation in 2014. Her other books include The Wild Folk – which was nominated for the 2019 CILIP Carnegie Medal – The Wild Folk Risingand Our Lady of the Dark Country. @WildTalewort
Rima Staines is an artist living in Devon, UK. She is the co-founder of Hedgespoken, a travelling storytelling theatre and small press. Rima has exhibited paintings internationally, and her artwork has appeared on books, magazines and record covers on both sides of the Atlantic. @tilsamka