Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones

by Jackie Morris, Tamsin Abbott (illustrator)

From the co-author of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells comes seven richly illustrated fables of transformation and power, summoned from the ancient stones beneath our feet and transformed by word and image into portals between past and future.

These tales from the stones are neither new nor old. They are full of ‘wild folk’, shape-shifting spirits that carry the energy that connects all things. You will meet selkies and silver trout and the black fox, as big as a wolf and so fast and cunning she drives the lord of the manor to madness and oblivion; the woman of flowers who is happier living as an owl; the boy who learns to feel the songs and stories of trees through his skin; Wayland, the smith who can hammer metal to such airy thinness he makes his own wings; and the great white raven, a bird so rare it awakens the king who sleeps beneath the stones of the wild west cliffs of Wales.

This book brings together the words of Jackie Morris and the stained-glass paintings of Tamsin Abbott, but the stories come from both, a true collaboration born out of friendship and hope. These are tales to make you see, listen and most of all feel the wild magic that links stone, tree, fox and star.

Genres: Short Stories

240 pages, Hardcover

Published August 26, 2025

About the author

Jackie Morris lives in a small house on the Welsh coast. She wanted to be an artist from the earliest she could remember. After studying art at Hereford and Bath Academy she went on to illustrate for magazines and newspapers. She began her first book for children the week after her first child, Thomas was born and has gone on to illustrate and write many books.

Reviews

[hawk · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was a disappointment. a friend and me both perhaps made a rash/spontaneous choice based on something/hype my friend had heard, and/or on slight misunderstanding/misdescription.


what didn't work for me:

😕 it's a big hardback book that feels abit empty overall.
the way that the stories are laid out creates alot of unused space, and takes up lots of space. the whole book very much felt like it was comparatively little filling alot of space 😕🥱

😕👀 the typeset/font didn't make for easy reading. there was a short piece at the end of the book about the fonts used. the font for the stories and bulk of the text had a small embellishment to some of the letters, that made it abit hard to recognise words (at least to this dyslexic reader) 🙃

😕🥱 i found the language and/or writing underwhelming. just breaking up the lines of a sentence doesn't make it poetry 🙄 and instead frequently made it stilted/jarring. i think the language aims to be poetic, but for me it didn't really sing, and often had a disjointed rhythm. and I found myself distracted by what felt like poor punctuation! this was mildly shocking/very surprising - grammar doesn't usually bother me, and I'm not usually one to spot grammatical errors (often struggling with correct grammar myself), especially if language flows and/or a story is good. but in many of the stories in found myself frequently wanting to change punctuation, sometimes a word. and there was repetition, which i usually like, but it was not within a rhythm... which made it just repetition 😕🥱
I also felt that quite alot of the stories lacked any *real* grounding in place, landscape etc... that they didn't feel *very* rooted in the British traditions they're from. i don't know if they were deliberately supposed to be more accessible/relateable for readers without deep ties to the British landscape, or if it was abit of a failing on the authors part to give them stronger foundations. and 'Tales from the Stones'? i found the subtitle pretty misleading.

😕🥱 the stories were sometimes lacking. especially eg the retelling of the story of Wayland the Smith ('The Smith's Tale') - it added nothing to, and possibly detracted from, the story compared to previous versions I've read, and i found this version quite bland, and kinda dumbed down even 🙄😕🥱


what did i like? 🤔

🙂👀 there were occasions where the language worked, usually for a short stretch, but i liked what i glimpsed within those moments.

🖤🦊 i quite liked the cunning of the fox in 'The Black Fox's Tale', and that it centred a cunning woman, and towards the end read as a story to empower women.

🖤🦅 i liked 'The Raven's Tale' abit more than others. i didn't know it was the final story (i could see there were lots of pages to come still), and it wasn't the strongest ending (to the story or the collection). but i liked the ravens and other birds, and their flight to freedom, and their route across the landscape and it's history 🙂🦅

💚 i always appreciate tales set very much within the natural landscape, and older folktale traditions, of the British Isles 🙂

🌈 the illustrations were quite nice, some especially so 🙂 and i liked that they were by a stained glass artist/an artist working in stained glass 🙂
tho i think the book focussed on looking nice as much/more than being a good read. it reminded me of 'The Lost Words' and 'The Lost Spells', by Robert Macfarlane (illustrated by Jackie Morris), which i also found underwhelming (tho Jackie Morris's pictures were good 🙂).


🌟 🌟 .5 ?


accessed as a physical hardcover book, published by Unbound in 2025.

[Erik B.K.K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit torn between 5 and 4 stars. The stories are OK, but Tamsin's stained glass art is so gorgeous and incredibly beautiful. I bought it just for the pictures in it, but I wish some photographs would have been a bit sharper, and you can't always tell it's stained glass. Still very happy to have it in my collection.

[Katrina Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales modernised yet rooted in ancient legend. What feels like a timeless, round-the-campfire storyteller voice. Some poetry, some prose. These tales take inspiration and recognisable images from old tales, and yet feel unique and new.
The seven stories are interspersed with beautiful stained glass art by Tamsin. The vibrant colours are something incredible.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are stunning, and produced through fascinating techniques, as described at the end of the book. The tales, though, are a little lacklustre, more concerned with lush but empty descriptions of nature than they are with depth of storytelling.

[Ceitag · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most beautiful books in possession. Th art work is amazing. The words themselves pulsate with nature, raw and ethereal. The book contains a mixture of poem and lyrical prose inspired by Folk tales and animals.

[Ciel_Ortie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of short stories steeped in myth and folklore, from swan maidens to selkies, old gods rising to mythical swords. Gorgeously illustrated by a rare and sacred medium - stained glass / glass painting. I loved each and every single one of them. Deep poetry, soul-nourishing, and an ode to our lands, seas, skies in the face of environmental crisis. « Speak for us ».

[Rose Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seven original fairy tales by Jackie Morris, built on the bones of older stories, and illustrated throughout with prints of stained glass art by Tamsin Abbott. The lyrical words and rich, mesmerising illustrations are perfectly paired, and scattered throughout are fragments of poetry like spells, briging the whole thing together as a perfect piece of magic.

[Matt Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing that I noticed about the book when it arrived is that physically it is gorgeous. This is one of the most well made hardcover books I've seen in quite some time. There are LOTS of color illustrations by Tamsin Abbott and a ribbon bookmark bound into the spine.

The artwork by Abbott is really impressive. She is a stained glass artist who paints glass panels. And the book contains lot of her illustrations. Even when I wasn't sure exactly how the illustration related to the story it was placed in, just in a visual sense the work was very striking and memorable. There is something about Abbott's style that goes well with the stories written by Jackie Morris.

Morris's stories share the common theme of transformation and shapeshifting. I found some of them breathtakingly beautiful (particularly the ones involving Wayland the Smith and a selkie). Others, while interesting, didn't move me as much.

This is the sort of work that a large publisher would be VERY unlikely to produce. Morris and Abbott originally worked with the crowdsourced publisher Unbound, which recently folded. I recommend that anyone interested in folklore and fairy tales of England and Wales get a copy to support what these artists are trying to create.

[Julie Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apart from this being an incredibly beautifully illustrated and designed book, the words are beautiful, taking you to different places, liminal spaces, where the human and more than human intertwine. I enjoyed some of the tales more than others, in particular The Black Fox. Was worth waiting for.

[Julie Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of magic, shapeshifting and words of untold wisdom. Illustrations are transformed from glass to paper with an enchantress’s hand. From sea to shore, tree to sky, mystical stones.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

💙

[John Girardeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a visual and literary treat. I savored this a tale a day, staying equal time with the pictures as with the words.

[Suzanne Ashworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful words and images - a very special book - pictures are from stained glass

[jennifer]

Gorgeous

[Alex Boon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful it is actually painful. Read this to feel.

[Wendy Nulty · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful and wonderful stories one to read again and again