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The Girl Green as Elderflower
He thought of his dream, of how he had looked up out of his hole, his pit, his wolf-pit, and seen the foreign leaves, which had formed themselves into a face…
Laid low by a tropical disease and an accompanying malaise, Crispin Clare returns to his ancestral home in East Anglia. Local folklore seeps into his fever dreams and into his writing, and the lines between reality and myth soon start to blur. In this finely woven tale of illness and recovery, family and fable, Randolph Stow creates a unique imaginative landscape, populated by figures from old English myths and legends, and from Clare’s present.
Laid low by a tropical disease and an accompanying malaise, Crispin Clare returns to his ancestral home in East Anglia. Local folklore seeps into his fever dreams and into his writing, and the lines between reality and myth soon start to blur. In this finely woven tale of illness and recovery, family and fable, Randolph Stow creates a unique imaginative landscape, populated by figures from old English myths and legends, and from Clare’s present.
184 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 1980
147 people want to read
About the author
Randolph Stow
22 books37 followersBorn in Geraldton, Western Australia, Randolph Stow attended Geraldton Primary and High schools, Guildford Grammar School, the University of Western Australia, and the University of Sydney. During his undergraduate years in Western Australia he wrote two novels and a collection of poetry, which were published in London by Macdonald & Co. He taught English Literature at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and the University of Leeds.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical breakdown that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel Visitants.
Stow's first visit to England took place in 1960, after which he returned several times to Australia. Tourmaline, his fourth novel, was completed in Leeds in 1962. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a Harkness Fellowship, including a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, during which he wrote one of his best known novels, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book Midnite.
From 1969 to 1981 he lived at East Bergholt in Suffolk in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform his novel The Girl Green as Elderflower. The last decades of his life he spent in nearby Harwich, the setting for his final novel The Suburbs of Hell. He last visited Australia in 1974.
His novel To the Islands won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958.[1] He was awarded the Patrick White Award in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue[2] with indications where they have been anthologised.
He also worked on an Aboriginal mission in the Kimberley, which he used as background for his third novel To the Islands. Stow further worked as an assistant to an anthropologist, Charles Julius, and cadet patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical breakdown that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel Visitants.
Stow's first visit to England took place in 1960, after which he returned several times to Australia. Tourmaline, his fourth novel, was completed in Leeds in 1962. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a Harkness Fellowship, including a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, during which he wrote one of his best known novels, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book Midnite.
From 1969 to 1981 he lived at East Bergholt in Suffolk in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform his novel The Girl Green as Elderflower. The last decades of his life he spent in nearby Harwich, the setting for his final novel The Suburbs of Hell. He last visited Australia in 1974.
His novel To the Islands won the Miles Franklin Award for 1958.[1] He was awarded the Patrick White Award in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for The Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue[2] with indications where they have been anthologised.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 23, 2025
Much in the story echoes Randolph Stow’s own young years.
The Girl Green as Elderflower begins and proceeds mysteriously and everything is immersed in an atmosphere of mystique…
Fever-dreams… The Ouija board… Tarot cards…
The Hanged Man – surrender, patience, and gaining new perspectives in life… The state of awaiting… Passive existence…
This arcanum surely symbolizes the main hero – a twenty-five-year old man recovering from illness and nervous breakdown staying in a cottage in the country… Convalescing he tries his hand at writing… Mythological lore stuff in which those who surround him take active part carrying into the stories along with them all their modern habits and manners…
And those folk legends in his rendering acquire some satirical whiff… The disturbing memories of the past are slowly retreating…
Writers live half in reality, half in their tales.
The Girl Green as Elderflower begins and proceeds mysteriously and everything is immersed in an atmosphere of mystique…
Fever-dreams… The Ouija board… Tarot cards…
Amabel was seated at the table, her back towards them, her fair head bent. Clare wondered what absorbed her, and peeped over her shoulder. In front of her, arranged in a cross, were five Tarot cards.
‘Good lord,’ he said. ‘Where do you get such things?’
Amabel, roused, looked round at him and smiled. Amabel was seven…
A wicked pack of cards came floating into Clare’s mind as he stared down. On the left was the Hanged Man, looking quite happy.
The Hanged Man – surrender, patience, and gaining new perspectives in life… The state of awaiting… Passive existence…
This arcanum surely symbolizes the main hero – a twenty-five-year old man recovering from illness and nervous breakdown staying in a cottage in the country… Convalescing he tries his hand at writing… Mythological lore stuff in which those who surround him take active part carrying into the stories along with them all their modern habits and manners…
‘Malkin,’ said Mark, ‘do demons and ghosts – and sprites – necessarily tell the truth?’
‘No, mate, we don’t,’ said the sprite. ‘But I’m telling you history, if you’d wash out your brains and listen.’
And those folk legends in his rendering acquire some satirical whiff… The disturbing memories of the past are slowly retreating…
A chirruping, a lilting, a celebration. The English countryside, he reflected, was so insistently literary. As if following his thought, Perry murmured: ‘Hark, hark, the lark.’ He twisted about on the stile, and looking at the far bold flag, added: ‘Yes, indeed; happy birthday, Shakespeare.’
Writers live half in reality, half in their tales.
September 14, 2023
Upon reading the blurb, my mind conjured a fantastical vision of what this book could be.
I couldn’t wait. I eagerly devoured the first few pages. But a niggling feeling quickly settled and lingered with every subsequent turn.
Disappointment. Confusion.
The times, places, and characters felt like faded memories l struggled to fully grasp. The over-written, elaborate language had my brain rewiring itself with every reading session.
And yet, for reasons still unknown to me, I found myself constantly drawn back to it, so much so I read it feverishly in five days.
There’s an oddly mesmerising quality to this book. Stow’s voice and vision left me in a state of bewildered bewitchment.
But, ultimately, at the end of the day, I feel I didn’t gain much from the experience.
Besides the occasional beautiful, almost poetic, sentence that demanded my notice, the mythical musings of The Girl Green as Elderflower lead nowhere fulfilling.
I couldn’t wait. I eagerly devoured the first few pages. But a niggling feeling quickly settled and lingered with every subsequent turn.
Disappointment. Confusion.
The times, places, and characters felt like faded memories l struggled to fully grasp. The over-written, elaborate language had my brain rewiring itself with every reading session.
And yet, for reasons still unknown to me, I found myself constantly drawn back to it, so much so I read it feverishly in five days.
There’s an oddly mesmerising quality to this book. Stow’s voice and vision left me in a state of bewildered bewitchment.
But, ultimately, at the end of the day, I feel I didn’t gain much from the experience.
Besides the occasional beautiful, almost poetic, sentence that demanded my notice, the mythical musings of The Girl Green as Elderflower lead nowhere fulfilling.
February 23, 2016
3.5 stars
This is a frame story around three separate retellings of Suffolk legends. I had read the legends prior to discovering this book, so I enjoyed their re-imaginings, particularly the first. The frame story held less interest for me.
I was very pleased to see the Author quote all the sources for the original tales and even include his own translations of these sources in the appendix. I have read other recent collections such as this where the author makes no mention of the fact that their tales are not wholly original.
This is a frame story around three separate retellings of Suffolk legends. I had read the legends prior to discovering this book, so I enjoyed their re-imaginings, particularly the first. The frame story held less interest for me.
I was very pleased to see the Author quote all the sources for the original tales and even include his own translations of these sources in the appendix. I have read other recent collections such as this where the author makes no mention of the fact that their tales are not wholly original.
June 23, 2014
A young man returns to the region of his birth and childhood after suffering an illness in tropical climes and re-imagines classic folk tales with the friends and family who surround him ... this is story of the imagination, of small moments, of past and present intertwining, of healing.
A book to savour, to amble through, and think on.
A book to savour, to amble through, and think on.
December 30, 2017
Even by Stow's standards, this is a weird little book. The whole has the feeling of a fever dream - it becomes genuinely difficult to tell where the 'real' narrative begins and ends, and where the tales are. Obviously, it is 'optimistic' alternate Visitants, but for me it carried none of that work's power, insight or fury. And while it is a road back to copeability, the book was so infused with melancholy, with unhappy and unable-to-be-helped ghosts that Crispin's success in living didn't feel like a clean victory. The most evocative bit of the book is easily the tale of the merman, and the haunting tragedy of his final acts, and yet the liberation through death it represents, spoke more to the theme of the book to me than anything else.
Be interesting to see if I feel the same way with more distance from it.
Be interesting to see if I feel the same way with more distance from it.
October 20, 2014
This is an odd little book fusing Suffolk legends with the present day (or - at least - the present day of when the book was written), where myth and reality intertwine. There's not a plot as such - the main character 'writes' out the myths which are a mixture of the life he leads and people he meets together with those legends from the past. It's quite a disconcerting process, is quirky, sometimes confusing, but mostly interesting. The merman chapter works best for me. Worth picking up.
August 14, 2023
A novel of three tales, rewrittened and embellished by the author, sourced from tales reported by Ralph of Coggeshall (A.D. 1187 - 1218). The three tales are, ‘The sprite of Dagworth’, ‘The wild man of Oxford and ‘The green children of Woolpit’.
Readers new to Randolph Stow should firstly read the very good ‘To the Islands’ and ‘The Merry-go-round in the Sea’.
This book was first published in 1980.
Readers new to Randolph Stow should firstly read the very good ‘To the Islands’ and ‘The Merry-go-round in the Sea’.
This book was first published in 1980.
August 7, 2019
I really struggled with this, the writing was hard to follow, the story hardly engaging except for the folklore elements.
I also own "The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea" which I'll give a whirl but this one wasn't for me. I don't think sadly I'm attuned to Randolph's style.
I also own "The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea" which I'll give a whirl but this one wasn't for me. I don't think sadly I'm attuned to Randolph's style.
January 5, 2021
Beautiful and strange. I’m a massive fan of Stow’s writing but from a narrative perspective, this novel didn’t grab me as his other works did.
November 18, 2022
The hanged man returns
comfort in a hairy chest
soothed by vivid dreams.
comfort in a hairy chest
soothed by vivid dreams.
September 18, 2025
i enjoy magical realism with a touch of gayness
August 19, 2014
Strange book.
A series of fables intermingled.
There is a sense of foreboding throughout the book.
A feeling of impending doom.
The main character has a tombstone in the cemetery with his name on it - apparently from his name sake.
With stories featuring the occult, Ouija board, spirits, tarot cards and seances.
The setting and time seems to blur.
Not sure what Randolph Stow was on when he wrote it!
Also devoured 'The merry-go-round in the sea' which is just superbly written.
His writing in Australia really set such a high mark.
Not sure if he reached the same peak again?
A series of fables intermingled.
There is a sense of foreboding throughout the book.
A feeling of impending doom.
The main character has a tombstone in the cemetery with his name on it - apparently from his name sake.
With stories featuring the occult, Ouija board, spirits, tarot cards and seances.
The setting and time seems to blur.
Not sure what Randolph Stow was on when he wrote it!
Also devoured 'The merry-go-round in the sea' which is just superbly written.
His writing in Australia really set such a high mark.
Not sure if he reached the same peak again?
July 9, 2015
Hypnotic, eerie, and re workings of old east Anglian tales. I was utterly entranced by the prose and the story(ies). Very unique and very strange. I've always wished I could find something/anything more in this line.
May 29, 2012
The healing opposite side of the coin, with Visitants the disintegration side. From an absolutely arresting (and very cold) opening, a wonderful, magical read.
July 7, 2025
3.5 it was going really well but I felt like the ending didn't quite land :/
December 17, 2023
Having enjoyed everything I have so far read of Randolph Stow’s work I was really l forward to this book where Stow represents old English myths. The framework story is intriguing and references the author’s own experiences in recuperation. The characters are well rounded and accessible.
I was keen to read how Stow explored and melded olde English myths in a contemporary way. Like several other Goodreads reviewers I struggled to get the Author’s thread. The historical retellings were great but the linkages with the framework were tenuous. The writing is excellent and the understanding of the characters is superb.
It was interesting to experience this story through the eyes and words of an Australian, who clearly identified with East Anglia from his family line, which is alluded to in the book. In that sense I understand the reasoning for the inclusion of traditional stories within this writing. It is an ambitious and complex concept that Stow embarked upon, but it is worth reading.
I was keen to read how Stow explored and melded olde English myths in a contemporary way. Like several other Goodreads reviewers I struggled to get the Author’s thread. The historical retellings were great but the linkages with the framework were tenuous. The writing is excellent and the understanding of the characters is superb.
It was interesting to experience this story through the eyes and words of an Australian, who clearly identified with East Anglia from his family line, which is alluded to in the book. In that sense I understand the reasoning for the inclusion of traditional stories within this writing. It is an ambitious and complex concept that Stow embarked upon, but it is worth reading.
January 24, 2017
‘As eccentric as it is magnificently achieved.’
Geordie Williamson
‘His novels and poetry embody a uniquely rich and strange account of the land and people of Australia that we can ill afford to lose.’
Australian Book Review
‘It is a rare pleasure for those of us who are already fans to have these works at our disposal…[Stow was] the most talented and celebrated Australian author of the post-White generation.’
Monthly
‘It should be taken as no commentary on contemporary Oz Lit that I choose Text’s fistful of Randolph Stow reissues for my local favourite(s) during 2015. Their appearance reminds us that a gentle, wise, wounded, and immensely talented poet in prose once lived among us.’
Geordie Williamson, Australian Book Review, Books of the Year 2015
Geordie Williamson
‘His novels and poetry embody a uniquely rich and strange account of the land and people of Australia that we can ill afford to lose.’
Australian Book Review
‘It is a rare pleasure for those of us who are already fans to have these works at our disposal…[Stow was] the most talented and celebrated Australian author of the post-White generation.’
Monthly
‘It should be taken as no commentary on contemporary Oz Lit that I choose Text’s fistful of Randolph Stow reissues for my local favourite(s) during 2015. Their appearance reminds us that a gentle, wise, wounded, and immensely talented poet in prose once lived among us.’
Geordie Williamson, Australian Book Review, Books of the Year 2015
July 27, 2024
This interesting story of self-healing accompanied my whole trip to the English countryside. A kind man offered me a glass of elderberry juice as I arrived in Gloucestershire.
September 20, 2013
I give this two stars because although it started well, I loved the writing style, and it all seemed so promising it seemed to meander into nothing by the end.
December 1, 2015
This is a confusing book, but I liked it enough that I think I'll read it again to find the meaning in it. The folklore at the heart of it delights me.
September 9, 2016
This book was very unique and beautifully written.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews