"A sad Tale's best for Winter: I haue one of Sprights, and Goblins."

 

From my preface to this gorgeous, dark collection of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s short fantasy fiction, a companion volume for her Kingdoms of Elfin. out next month from Handheld Press:

"Of Cats and Elfins brings together Warner’s uncollected short fantasy, from the lovely, Ovidian 'Stay, Corydon, Thou Swain' (1929) to her magnificent last Elfin story, 'The Duke of Orkney’s Leonardo' (1976). At its centre is The Cat’s Cradle-Book (1940), a collection of feline folktales, nimble and merciless. You will note the long intervals. Fantasy ran underground with Warner, flashing out like a hidden river, each time in a new landscape: witchlore; myth; folktale; invisible kingdoms. What they share is Warner’s worldview, her inimitable voice."

And here's the Cumean sibyl reading from "The Duke of Orkney’s Leonardo."



Nine