WINTER WOOD by STEVE AUGARDE
David Fickling Books hardback, 512pp, £12.99 RRP

Reviewed by Iain Emsley

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Winter Wood, the final part of Steve Augarde’s trilogy about the Various, is a bitter-sweet read. In the previous two books, The Various and Celandine, he has created a wonderfully deep and very English mythological landscape.

The Various have the Stone and are using it as a source of guidance. Maglin, the Ickri’s leader, is trying to persuade the tribes to begin leaving the wood and to find a new home in the face of the changing world, whilst Tadgemole argues for remaining there.

Both seek the Orbis, once given to Midge’s great Aunt Celandine, which is prophesied to hold the key to the future. Midge tracks down her aunt, now in a retirement home, and begins to talk to her to find out what she did with the Ickri gift. In the midst of memories and ghosts, Celandine somehow gives her the clues that she needs to find the gift which reveals some surprising secrets.

Augarde’s fairy tribes are well defined and lovingly created from the varying parts of nature. He ignores the Victorian fey traditions of the child fairy and delivers something attached to nature; at times one would almost not see them for being natural objects, coming from the land itself.

There’s a hint of Watership Down or Swallows and Amazons to the trilogy with the threat of industrial change to the natural landscape. At some points, one feels that the very matter of the land is being wiped away; at some points the very rural landscape is under threat with the decline of dialect and belief.

The revival of the land also leads to the potential for the magic to create a change in the world. As the strands of past and present begin to come together in Midge’s quest, change occurs - and nobody can avoid it. Maglin is aware that the Various must change their way of life, while Midge herself has to face up to the change having moved to the country. Gradually she connects with her aunt and learns enough of the past to let it go and move on in confidence. The Various find their own faith in the idea of Elysse, a land which is reminiscent of the Land to the West.

Although I was reminded of Ransome or Richard Adams, Winter Wood also reminded me of the odd rural world of Steve Cockayne’s The Good People in its very Englishness and love of a dying rural landscape.

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Iain Emsley is a former Reviews Editor for Interzone. He has a blog called Yatterings, where he posts interviews and genre fiction news. He is currently researching a history of fantasy in children’s literature.

Tags: book • Fantasy • review • Steve Augarde • Winter Wood • YA • young adult