Join me this week as I grapple with the summer weather in the city, casting my mind to rainier plains. Listen as I discuss the art of storytelling, adventure with an immortal being, and contemplate political succession played out upon blood soaked moorland.
This week I'll be considering The Quiet Music of Gently Falling Snow by Jackie Morris, a collection of beautiful illustrations tied together through stories about music and storytelling. Discovering a new author as I delve into the world of V. E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. And learning about a new period in history with the help of Scotland's most infamous queen with Joanna Courtney's Blood Queen.
References made
Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling) - Book series about a boy wizard.
A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness) - Academic and witch Diana Bishop accidentally starts a war over a Bodleian Library manuscript. Twilight meets Oxford.
The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) - The story of Kvothe, innkeeper, travelling player, magician... Cornerstone of fantasy corpus, meaning the books are book enough to act as bricks.
The Mercies (Kirran Millwood Hargrave) - Novel about storms and witch trials in 17th century Norway.
Robin Hobb - Fantasy author whose tomes on dragons and magical worlds could help to build the keep that Rothfuss began.
J. R. R. Tolkien - The father of fantasy, author of The Lord of the Rings, professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford...
The Keys to Avalon (Steve Blake & Scott Lloyd) - Two Welsh writers take on and try to reframe the entire Arthurian corpus in Wales.
Beowulf - Anglo-Saxon poem about a hero who takes on near impossible feats to save a Hall from marauding beasts.
My mum - Because she gets a shout out she deserves to be in the reference list... @ofmoorandmountain
The Age of Adaline - Film staring Blake Lively about a women who is caught in a freak storm and no longer ages.
T. S. Elliot - Anglo-American interwar poet most famous for The Wasteland and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J. Maas) - Series about a human girl who gets spirited into the fae world. Fairy smut.
Stephen Fry - British actor, author, inspirational extraordinaire and no doubt one of the smartest people alive.
Philip Pullman - Oxford based author know for controversial fantasy series His Dark Materials. Other works include the Sally Lockhart mysteries.
Macbeth (Shakespeare) - Scottish lord is visited by three witches who tell him he'll be king and instead of leaving this up to fate he ensures that it happens in one of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedies.
Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin) - In a fantasy land warring families vie for control, some with the help of dragons. Anyone who lives north of Hadrian's Wall is an icy supernatural beast... just saying.
Bridgerton (Shondaland) - Open door Regency style romance series about alphabetically named siblings finding love.
Riverdale (Netflix) - Series about a group of teens attempting to solve a murder which gets progressively more unhinged season by season.
Downton - Sweeping 20th century drama about the upstairs and downstairs lives of the inhabitants of Downton Abbey.
Poirot - Agatha Christie detective.
Joan (ITV) - Mother turned diamond thief teams up with a questionable partner in order to fund the return of her daughter.
The History Boys (Alan Bennett) - Play about a group of state school boys attempting to get into Oxbridge in an unconventional manner.
American Gods (Neil Gaiman) - What if the old gods and the new were battling right now? Would Odin or the TV win?
Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman) - Retelling of the Norse myths.
Alice in Wonderland - Book by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or Lewis Carroll about a girl who falls down a rabbit hole.
Sherlock (BBC) - Adaptation of Conan Doyle's serialised tales of the eccentric detective and his doctor sidekick in which we are in modern day London.
The Winter King - Series based on Bernard Cornwell's books about King Arthur.