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Mischief Acts
Herne the hunter, mischief-maker, spirit of the forest, leader of the wild hunt, hurtles through the centuries pursued by his creator.
A shapeshifter, Herne dons many guises as he slips and ripples through time – at candlelit Twelfth Night revels, at the spectacular burning of the Crystal Palace, at an acid-laced Sixties party. Wherever he goes, transgression, debauch and enchantment always follow in his wake.
But as the forest is increasingly encroached upon by urban sprawl and gentrification, and the world slides into crisis, Herne must find a way to survive – or exact his revenge.
With its intoxicating, chameleonic voice and boundless imagination, Mischief Acts is British folklore as you've never read it before: dangerous, sexy, troubling, daring, savage, an exhilarating race through time and space, weaving together the ancient and the contemporary.
A shapeshifter, Herne dons many guises as he slips and ripples through time – at candlelit Twelfth Night revels, at the spectacular burning of the Crystal Palace, at an acid-laced Sixties party. Wherever he goes, transgression, debauch and enchantment always follow in his wake.
But as the forest is increasingly encroached upon by urban sprawl and gentrification, and the world slides into crisis, Herne must find a way to survive – or exact his revenge.
With its intoxicating, chameleonic voice and boundless imagination, Mischief Acts is British folklore as you've never read it before: dangerous, sexy, troubling, daring, savage, an exhilarating race through time and space, weaving together the ancient and the contemporary.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published March 17, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
August 13, 2023
4.25 stars
This novel weaves together prose, myth, folklore, poetry, history as well as past present and future. Gilbert has focussed on a particular aspect of English folklore Herne the Hunter. The mythology around Herne has lots of strands. It usually focuses on the Great North Wood which was counter-intuitively just South of London. Herne is mentioned in Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor. He is variously a ghost of a poacher, the ghost of a keeper, a part resurrected favourite huntsman of Richard II now with fully attached antlers like a stag. Generally Herne is a mischief maker, Lord of Misrule, spirit of the forest and leader of the Great Hunt (going back to Norse mythology). He (not always a he in this novel) is a trickster. The stories here start in 1392 and move through the ages by year ending in 2073. In each Herne plays a role, usually subversive, using humans as foils and playthings. Herne is male, female and sometimes animal. Herne shape shifts throughout the ages as does Gilbert’s prose and the snatches of poetry, to fit the era.
The novel is in three sections. The first is Enchantment and runs until the 1700s when Herne is powerful, the second is Disenchantment as the woods diminish and Herne’s role changes. The last section is Re-enchantment with three tales set later this century. There are recurring characters to be spotted, including some of the river spirits of the tributaries of the Thames.
Gilbert acknowledges that she had great fun researching this:
“the chapters are interspersed with chants, or songs. Some of these are extant verses, from traditional wassails (‘Anon’ crops up more than once) to a poem by Blake or a lyric by Henry VIII. Mixed in with those recognisable old verses are chants I wrote myself and attributed to fictional authors. To me, reading a list of common names for fungi or mosses that runs into the thousands of terms is an exquisite pleasure: the density, the repetition, the sheer delight of names such as ‘sweet poisonpie’ just floors me. The same happened when I dredged up all the street names in post codes that were once covered by the wood, and isolated those that mentioned forests, trees, or geological features. Such beauty, in simple lists, I wanted to share, but I spent a great deal of time organising them into rhythms and forms, following those of medieval lullabies or carols. I attributed these to authors other than myself as a form of mischief – I wanted the reader to wonder where this odd little thing had come from.”
The novel provides an intersection between myth, folklore, history and humanity and ecology.
All in all this was great fun with some pertinent points being made about progress and our treatment of the planet.
This novel weaves together prose, myth, folklore, poetry, history as well as past present and future. Gilbert has focussed on a particular aspect of English folklore Herne the Hunter. The mythology around Herne has lots of strands. It usually focuses on the Great North Wood which was counter-intuitively just South of London. Herne is mentioned in Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor. He is variously a ghost of a poacher, the ghost of a keeper, a part resurrected favourite huntsman of Richard II now with fully attached antlers like a stag. Generally Herne is a mischief maker, Lord of Misrule, spirit of the forest and leader of the Great Hunt (going back to Norse mythology). He (not always a he in this novel) is a trickster. The stories here start in 1392 and move through the ages by year ending in 2073. In each Herne plays a role, usually subversive, using humans as foils and playthings. Herne is male, female and sometimes animal. Herne shape shifts throughout the ages as does Gilbert’s prose and the snatches of poetry, to fit the era.
The novel is in three sections. The first is Enchantment and runs until the 1700s when Herne is powerful, the second is Disenchantment as the woods diminish and Herne’s role changes. The last section is Re-enchantment with three tales set later this century. There are recurring characters to be spotted, including some of the river spirits of the tributaries of the Thames.
Gilbert acknowledges that she had great fun researching this:
“the chapters are interspersed with chants, or songs. Some of these are extant verses, from traditional wassails (‘Anon’ crops up more than once) to a poem by Blake or a lyric by Henry VIII. Mixed in with those recognisable old verses are chants I wrote myself and attributed to fictional authors. To me, reading a list of common names for fungi or mosses that runs into the thousands of terms is an exquisite pleasure: the density, the repetition, the sheer delight of names such as ‘sweet poisonpie’ just floors me. The same happened when I dredged up all the street names in post codes that were once covered by the wood, and isolated those that mentioned forests, trees, or geological features. Such beauty, in simple lists, I wanted to share, but I spent a great deal of time organising them into rhythms and forms, following those of medieval lullabies or carols. I attributed these to authors other than myself as a form of mischief – I wanted the reader to wonder where this odd little thing had come from.”
The novel provides an intersection between myth, folklore, history and humanity and ecology.
All in all this was great fun with some pertinent points being made about progress and our treatment of the planet.
June 20, 2022
Herne the Hunter is a figure from English folklore who is first mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. It's claimed he has antlers growing from his head, rides through forests on a horse and causes mischief. Zoe Gilbert reimagines his origin story in the first lengthy section of this wildly imaginative novel which playfully weaves this fantastical figure into local history. Throughout time he “permeates both reality and the imagination”. In the late 1300s Herne is a favoured huntsman of Richard II, but violent events lead to his downfall and resurrection as a spirit pursued by the vengeful magician Bearman. Their drama plays out over the course of many centuries and into the future. Along the way, Herne takes many different forms and enters into the individual stories of an array of distinct figures throughout many years. It's utterly bewitching how this novel reshapes myths and history into a riveting series of tales.
In a sense this book is like a collection of short stories which vary from accounts of nymphs in the woods to the fire which destroyed The Crystal Palace (a famous historic exhibition hall) to an ecological breakdown which fractures our society. Alongside reading the testimonies of a fascinating range of individuals throughout history there's a great pleasure in discovering what form Herne will take when entering this new era and the wicked ways he will interfere with the characters' lives. Gilbert playfully describes the way he shape shifts from one time period to the next alternately appearing as a man, woman or a flock of birds. The many sections of this novel take different forms as well including prose narratives, journals, poetry and song. It's clever how the styles of writing switch to suit particular eras and characters where the form of writing itself expresses something about the dominant ideologies concerning religion or science. I also alternated reading a physical copy of “Mischief Acts” with listening to the audiobook in which the lyrics and poetry are performed. This richly added to the experience of reading this novel.
Read my full review of Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert at LonesomeReader
In a sense this book is like a collection of short stories which vary from accounts of nymphs in the woods to the fire which destroyed The Crystal Palace (a famous historic exhibition hall) to an ecological breakdown which fractures our society. Alongside reading the testimonies of a fascinating range of individuals throughout history there's a great pleasure in discovering what form Herne will take when entering this new era and the wicked ways he will interfere with the characters' lives. Gilbert playfully describes the way he shape shifts from one time period to the next alternately appearing as a man, woman or a flock of birds. The many sections of this novel take different forms as well including prose narratives, journals, poetry and song. It's clever how the styles of writing switch to suit particular eras and characters where the form of writing itself expresses something about the dominant ideologies concerning religion or science. I also alternated reading a physical copy of “Mischief Acts” with listening to the audiobook in which the lyrics and poetry are performed. This richly added to the experience of reading this novel.
Read my full review of Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert at LonesomeReader
February 15, 2023
I'm not sure when I picked up the habit of skipping verse in novels - but much of the blame must be laid on Tolkien and his many impersonators. Get me some raucous characters with a song cycle telling of a mythic dead and that's back story I am going to miss. I mention it here because Mischief Acts starts with a long bit of verse - Gilbert's own origin story for her central character (though he appears in many forms if he appears at all): Herne The Hunter. I wonder if she originally did an Olde English version which was too difficult to parse - it is presented as a contemporaneous piece of literature from 1392, as is the conceit (this book is full of conceits) is that this is a scholarly collection of tales about Herne and the Great North Wood -published about sixty years hence. In form, it is a set of short stories, some pastiche in style, set in the wood, and then in the parts of London which usurped the wood (Norwood / Crystal Palace) linked by folk-tales and supernatural sightings. Intertwined are some short folk songs, and the occasional narrative "charm" a theme perhaps for each story.
I've read books which do this kind of thing before, the central theme threaded through independent stories, and have often found them a little disappointing as - like with straight short story collections - there are usually some weak stories. Lack of a continuing narrative can also harm the pacing and drive of a novel, but neither of these are problems here because the quality stays remarkably consistent, and the story of the wood is compelling enough. Part of this is the decision to end with a couple of future tales, and a suggestion of rewilding the Great North Wood. It manages to maintain its folklore and myth content to a decent compliment to real-world developments. But set over this kind of timescale you can see a London creep: the 1877 Victorian "scientific inquiry" story mentions a Crystal Palace which will be transported and latterly destroyed in the 1936 story. The book has the playfulness of its illusive lead (and his many European counterparts in the Union of Mythical Forest Beings).
Mischief Acts is a very accessible bit of literary trickery. Amongst its impressive attributes is an ability to discuss, enjoy and revel in the folklore and "old ways" without lionising them. There is a sense of melancholia that sets in with the Enclosure Act but mourning the old does not come from demonising the new (the Crystal Palace notwithstanding - or not standing at all anymore). In allowing herself the future "Re-Enchantment" section, Gilbert provides the book with a kind of folklorish hope -even in a world of spiraling global temperatures. Like many folk tales, there are stories here with strange and even grotesque outcomes, as befits a character here made by hanging himself. But they are also stories of communities in and around the woods - the dryads and small gods are given meaning by their interactions with humans. A wonderful piece of work (and the verse is good too)..
...........................
I've read books which do this kind of thing before, the central theme threaded through independent stories, and have often found them a little disappointing as - like with straight short story collections - there are usually some weak stories. Lack of a continuing narrative can also harm the pacing and drive of a novel, but neither of these are problems here because the quality stays remarkably consistent, and the story of the wood is compelling enough. Part of this is the decision to end with a couple of future tales, and a suggestion of rewilding the Great North Wood. It manages to maintain its folklore and myth content to a decent compliment to real-world developments. But set over this kind of timescale you can see a London creep: the 1877 Victorian "scientific inquiry" story mentions a Crystal Palace which will be transported and latterly destroyed in the 1936 story. The book has the playfulness of its illusive lead (and his many European counterparts in the Union of Mythical Forest Beings).
Mischief Acts is a very accessible bit of literary trickery. Amongst its impressive attributes is an ability to discuss, enjoy and revel in the folklore and "old ways" without lionising them. There is a sense of melancholia that sets in with the Enclosure Act but mourning the old does not come from demonising the new (the Crystal Palace notwithstanding - or not standing at all anymore). In allowing herself the future "Re-Enchantment" section, Gilbert provides the book with a kind of folklorish hope -even in a world of spiraling global temperatures. Like many folk tales, there are stories here with strange and even grotesque outcomes, as befits a character here made by hanging himself. But they are also stories of communities in and around the woods - the dryads and small gods are given meaning by their interactions with humans. A wonderful piece of work (and the verse is good too)..
...........................
Read
January 22, 2022I'd initially scrolled right past this on Netgalley without its registering, until a friend posted a review making clear that it was a) about Herne the Hunter and b) set in the Great North Wood, where I live. Which I wouldn't say was terribly obvious from the cover, or the title Mischief Acts, but then I suppose marketing departments' influence on modern publishing probably militates against putting out a book called Oi, Sarll, You Div, This Is About Herne The Hunter Down The End Of Your Garden, Isn't It?. Initially, though, the book wasn't clicking with me, to the extent that at times I wondered whether I wouldn't have been better off not knowing. Perhaps part of it is down to that core combination of elements; despite a Hill and Tavern named for him nearby, Herne is not a presence I've ever really associated with these woods; to me he's more a Windsor figure, with secondary Sherwood resonances thanks to ITV. More than that, though, I just wasn't getting enough of a hit of particular times and places. Mischief Acts is told as a cycle of what could almost pass for short stories, united by location but separate in time. This is a format I love, and one used by some of my favourite books, including Simak's City and Alan Moore's Voice Of The Fire. But that equally means that I have (too?) high standards for them, and that I really need a particularity of the where and when to make one sing. Whereas in the early chapters here, I just wasn't feeling that. I'm not going to complain about the Great North Wood and Effra having those names used for them before there's evidence, that makes sense just for clarity's sake. But doing it during one of the chapters purported to be an account written by a character at the time is pushing it, and when a nymph in 1500 starts thinking in terms of "microclimate, invertebrates present", the register is so far out as to jar. I couldn't quite put my finger on it until 1606, when reference is made to "the unseemly performance of Mould-My-Cockle-Bread, & the lewde Mirth resulting therefrom", words I could only hear uttered in Mark Heap's Upstart Crow voice. Which was when I realised: this didn't feel like the Great North Wood, this felt like the deliberately vague and general wood when Upstart Crow ventures outside, which in turn derives from that handwaving suggestion of woodiness on the Shakespearean stage.
And yet, that idea that the wood has nymphs, but only at times when people would have expected them, as when "England flickers in the dawning light of the Renaissance"? That I liked. And little things like this kept me going until, as it neared the present day, the book started to feel much better anchored. That translucent stage woodland, the stylistic decisions which didn't sell me, the unreliable narrators who were telling on themselves a little too blatantly*, all fall away, going up in smoke along with the Palace itself by 1936. The sixties moment of magic and free love reawakens those dormant nymphs; Hell, even the story of a faltering suburban marriage ten years ago, exactly the sort of thing with which I'm normally reluctant to engage, was compelling. Partly it helped that, unlike much writing in that vein, it is at least ready to admit mobiles and email exist; more than that, though, it's tied to a particular place in the wood, one I can see and feel as I read in a way I couldn't for the earlier eras. And the human details are caught as well as the sylvan ones, as when the mother awaiting a daughter's return from university resolves to "check Laura's room has not silted up with drifting furniture again". And then on past the present, into a future of reforestation, wolves, and the plausibly infuriating slogan 'Beat the Heat' even as the water and the power fail. Which I find well on the optimistic side but hey, it's a start. Not to mention the way traces of the lives which used to happen in the Wood will resurface after decades – "Things move around, rise up, poke through" – which is something I've seen myself. Finally, a resolution of sorts is attained, before – in a move which some might see as a failure of nerve, but I found pleasingly audacious – the book pretty much explains its own working with an appendix presented as a late 21st century lecture. Which is also the first time over all those centuries that anyone riffs on the historically inevitable joke about Herne's antlers**.
But aside from being closer to the now, there's something else about those chapters which I noticed: they seldom feature much Herne. Who, when you think about it, he's always been a shadowy figure, hasn't he, more than a protagonist? And maybe he just works better there. He's described here as a "rascally psychopomp", but often that's a character who intervenes in the story, rather than taking centre stage. The recurring idea of him as connected to Harlequin made me think of Jerry Cornelius, and how he also tended to find himself edged out of his own stories as he went along, and that even before the culture at large started to wonder whether bad boys who don't play by the rules were really such a desirable thing to encourage. Not that you should necessarily trust me on any of this, mind; perhaps part of what got my back up was simply that the antagonist who recurs in so many forms begins as Bearman, and that even after bringing wolves back, the rewilding stops a little too soon: "And they weren't going to bother with bears, not after that commotion in Bristol." Hell, maybe it's just injured hyperlocal pride because the story spends more time at the other end of the ridge than in the areas of the Wood I know best, though I still can't help thinking Herne would have been a natural match for the very mildly scandalous delights of Beulah Spa. If nothing else, though, this is a solid attempt to answer a question asked through time, and still raised far too often now by those who should know better: "What use is a wood?"
*I say that; the near-future guard is still a little too free with the malapropisms. I can absolutely believe "escape-goat" and "sneer campaign", but "bat-shit gravy"?
**Seriously, the moment you know you've gone native while studying English literature is the first time you genuinely laugh at a cuckold's horns gag.
And yet, that idea that the wood has nymphs, but only at times when people would have expected them, as when "England flickers in the dawning light of the Renaissance"? That I liked. And little things like this kept me going until, as it neared the present day, the book started to feel much better anchored. That translucent stage woodland, the stylistic decisions which didn't sell me, the unreliable narrators who were telling on themselves a little too blatantly*, all fall away, going up in smoke along with the Palace itself by 1936. The sixties moment of magic and free love reawakens those dormant nymphs; Hell, even the story of a faltering suburban marriage ten years ago, exactly the sort of thing with which I'm normally reluctant to engage, was compelling. Partly it helped that, unlike much writing in that vein, it is at least ready to admit mobiles and email exist; more than that, though, it's tied to a particular place in the wood, one I can see and feel as I read in a way I couldn't for the earlier eras. And the human details are caught as well as the sylvan ones, as when the mother awaiting a daughter's return from university resolves to "check Laura's room has not silted up with drifting furniture again". And then on past the present, into a future of reforestation, wolves, and the plausibly infuriating slogan 'Beat the Heat' even as the water and the power fail. Which I find well on the optimistic side but hey, it's a start. Not to mention the way traces of the lives which used to happen in the Wood will resurface after decades – "Things move around, rise up, poke through" – which is something I've seen myself. Finally, a resolution of sorts is attained, before – in a move which some might see as a failure of nerve, but I found pleasingly audacious – the book pretty much explains its own working with an appendix presented as a late 21st century lecture. Which is also the first time over all those centuries that anyone riffs on the historically inevitable joke about Herne's antlers**.
But aside from being closer to the now, there's something else about those chapters which I noticed: they seldom feature much Herne. Who, when you think about it, he's always been a shadowy figure, hasn't he, more than a protagonist? And maybe he just works better there. He's described here as a "rascally psychopomp", but often that's a character who intervenes in the story, rather than taking centre stage. The recurring idea of him as connected to Harlequin made me think of Jerry Cornelius, and how he also tended to find himself edged out of his own stories as he went along, and that even before the culture at large started to wonder whether bad boys who don't play by the rules were really such a desirable thing to encourage. Not that you should necessarily trust me on any of this, mind; perhaps part of what got my back up was simply that the antagonist who recurs in so many forms begins as Bearman, and that even after bringing wolves back, the rewilding stops a little too soon: "And they weren't going to bother with bears, not after that commotion in Bristol." Hell, maybe it's just injured hyperlocal pride because the story spends more time at the other end of the ridge than in the areas of the Wood I know best, though I still can't help thinking Herne would have been a natural match for the very mildly scandalous delights of Beulah Spa. If nothing else, though, this is a solid attempt to answer a question asked through time, and still raised far too often now by those who should know better: "What use is a wood?"
*I say that; the near-future guard is still a little too free with the malapropisms. I can absolutely believe "escape-goat" and "sneer campaign", but "bat-shit gravy"?
**Seriously, the moment you know you've gone native while studying English literature is the first time you genuinely laugh at a cuckold's horns gag.
October 17, 2024
Auch wenn ich in Teilen länger gebraucht habe: was Zoe Gilbert mit diesem Buch erreicht ist eine brillante Verknüpfung von Folklore und Climate Fiction, komplex und verwoben und sprachlich wie formal herausragend. 4,5*
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August 21, 2023The sort of litfic I like in theory. Less so in practice. A series of short stories vaguely themed around the Herne myth and with a recurring family name. I didn't find them sufficiently connected or sufficiently different to keep my attention going, and by half way I had failed to grasp the overriding point, so DNF at 47%.
December 12, 2023
Well researched and some sections were great but overall I did not find this that entertaining. There was no main character despite the focus being on Herne the Hunter. What you actually get is a series of short stories, set in the same location over different times throughout history, with third party glimpses of a mischievous forest dwelling entity that can take any form. I struggled with the lack of narrative consistency. I’m also not keen on alternative formatting or poetry, both of which feature here and there. But I did like the first section which contained elements of both. It’s different and quite admirable in its scope, but just not as fun as I was hoping it would be.
April 6, 2023
This was a book I purchased at an indie bookstore and was one I was incredibly excited to dig into. Unfortunately the cover and the description were probably the best things about it. I liked the initial start where it told a compelling tale of Herne the Hunter but entirely in verse. I like it when books take the unconventional route and, as an avid poetry enjoyer, I thoroughly appreciate when things are conveyed in that format. I was fooled into thinking the rest of the book would continue in a similar vein as it reverts back to normal prose that is occasionally interspersed with a smattering of poetry at the end of every segment. The prose in my opinion was probably one of the boandest things I’ve read in a long while. The concept was that it would write from the perspective of different characters across different time periods and somehow link it to nature but all I got was pages and pages of droning nonsense that didn’t even remotely make any sense. It was so difficult to follow a clear storyline and most of everything didn’t even make sense conceptually. Not to mention this book was so weird. And not even weird in a good sense like ‘Mexican Gothic’, ‘The Last Tale of The Flower Bride’ and ‘Juniper and Thorn’, it was just weird in a dull, pretentious way. I kept losing interest and the only reason I reached the end was my determination to plough through because I’d spent more than I would pay for a paperback for it since it was from an indie store, and also the fact that my biggest pet peeve is myself not finishing a book. Overall, the main reason this even gets 2 stars is because I mainly appreciated the poetry.
August 1, 2023
Split neatly into three sections (enchantment, dis-enchament and re-enchament), this book is a collection of short stories spanning 700 years, following the story of the Great North Wood ( just outside of London) and the humans who reside there. Each protagonist’s stories details their interactions with nature and the mischievous God of the Hunt, the (‘a bit sexy’ as the author describes) Herne, along with a host of other folklore characters, usually with tragic or disastrous results. I was dubious about this book because I hate books about nature (I’m not sure why I guess I just prefer human drama to long descriptions of landscapes) but love books about mythology, and mythological characters' bad behaviour. Certainly, though at time I could feel the narrative losing my attention its short stories and intermediate poems were snappy and vivid enough to keep me going, even during the weaker points. Perhaps because of my historical background I found it’s earlier stories a lot more enjoyable to read, due to there longer, more descriptive and coherent storytelling. Though, this is likely the author's intent, as the stories lose their charm and mystery as the forest itself is destroyed by modern advances. Whilst the stories may at times seem disjointed, the ending tale and faux/real Appendix, detailing the real historical events which have been lovingly incorporated/footnoted into the narrative, serve as a neat conclusion summarising the journey the book takes us on. ‘Progress. Is it the enemy of myth?… We’ve declared ourselves enlightened, by which we really meant that our new religion was science…It’s easy to believe the either one of these systems has all the answers, which means there are none to be found elsewhere'. The book serves as an intimate look at how our surroundings and myths will ultimately outlive our own stories, our place in the collective and a warning against our modern arrogance and disregard towards magic, nature and our role in its destruction.
March 26, 2022
I'm such a sucker for interconnected short stories and these were super imaginative and well-executed (that opening chapter!) Though I don't love it quite as much as Gilbert's first book Folk, I was still very much entertained and in awe. I hope it won't take her another four years to write something new, but if that's the time I must wait to read something as great as this, I'll happily wait.
May 4, 2023
Lyrical, genuinely enchanting, drawing on so many characters and aspects of mythology.
Spanning from 1300s to an unnervingly imaginable future, the woodland begins wild, home and origin of Herne. The reader is taken through the phase of "disenchantment" and then to a future where the wild of nature breaks through the human need to conquer and manage.
Each chapter is a new voice, beginning with some rhyme and song. It made it in parts hard for me to get into the flow of the story, even though I was admiring the writing throughout.
Spanning from 1300s to an unnervingly imaginable future, the woodland begins wild, home and origin of Herne. The reader is taken through the phase of "disenchantment" and then to a future where the wild of nature breaks through the human need to conquer and manage.
Each chapter is a new voice, beginning with some rhyme and song. It made it in parts hard for me to get into the flow of the story, even though I was admiring the writing throughout.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2022
I want to be prancing around in nature in the middle of a dappled glade with the peace and quite and chirping birdsong. Get me away from this world and into Gilbert's world of the early Great North Wood. Although, I don't want to be attacked by Herne.
This book is honestly the most perfect book to have read after the hectic bustle and scream of exams. I could indulge myself into a beautifully created world and no longer think about what the Latin for I ate a sheep's head yesterday or something. It is a book all about enchantment and folklore and boy was I enchanted, it is so so hauntingly pretty and the short stories cleverly melded into one great story whilst still be the separate. Pure artistry.
I did prefer the writing style of the earlier stories, so up until 1936 but this was probably because it was more natural and calming in comparison the the decline of the woods. Also I can't lie I had no clue what was going on with the heron thing, it did get a little confusing when there was a drastic change in character. My small, tired brain could not but this did not in anyway detract from the beauty of the writing.
Also bonus points for the book smelling beautiful ahah, and thank you Elinor for letting me borrow! Will be encouraging everyone and anyone to read it now.
This book is honestly the most perfect book to have read after the hectic bustle and scream of exams. I could indulge myself into a beautifully created world and no longer think about what the Latin for I ate a sheep's head yesterday or something. It is a book all about enchantment and folklore and boy was I enchanted, it is so so hauntingly pretty and the short stories cleverly melded into one great story whilst still be the separate. Pure artistry.
I did prefer the writing style of the earlier stories, so up until 1936 but this was probably because it was more natural and calming in comparison the the decline of the woods. Also I can't lie I had no clue what was going on with the heron thing, it did get a little confusing when there was a drastic change in character. My small, tired brain could not but this did not in anyway detract from the beauty of the writing.
Also bonus points for the book smelling beautiful ahah, and thank you Elinor for letting me borrow! Will be encouraging everyone and anyone to read it now.
May 9, 2022
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Basically, I like it. It's more a collection of short stories around a theme than a single narrative. There are some I like more than others, of course, but they all add to the world, so it's more than the sum of its parts.
I came into this with high expectations after reading Folk, and I want to like it more than I do. But maybe I need to let it sink in some more.
I came into this with high expectations after reading Folk, and I want to like it more than I do. But maybe I need to let it sink in some more.
June 26, 2022
Strange, haunting, gorgeous. A unique and at times viscerally upsetting read, in the best possible way. Highly recommended.
April 19, 2022
An amazing book. Even more amazing than the authors previous work ‘Folk’. My single word summary is ‘Evocative’. You don’t just read this book, you feel it. It won’t be for everyone, but I was one of those people for whom this was not an obvious choice yet I am a convert.
My innate resistance to folk art - for this is presented as a series of connected folk stories and myths that take us through history to the current day and beyond - is that it is hidebound by innumerable rules (written and unwritten). Woe betide any folk musician who does not sing down their nose, play acoustic instruments, and (if male) wear thick jumpers. But Zoe Gilbert trumps the downsides of folk art with her incredible imagination and outstanding writing skills. Present any of us with the challenge of producing folk stories that are mythic in style, and you will receive an endless series of “like (this)…” and “like that…”. Yet, Zoe Gilbert not only makes you feel (eg) the rain in her stories, she allows you to taste it; and, all without using the dreaded ‘like’ word. Her imagination is incredible but it is her ability to evoke feelings, memories etc that made this book a winner for me. And, it is a great story when taken as a whole.
My innate resistance to folk art - for this is presented as a series of connected folk stories and myths that take us through history to the current day and beyond - is that it is hidebound by innumerable rules (written and unwritten). Woe betide any folk musician who does not sing down their nose, play acoustic instruments, and (if male) wear thick jumpers. But Zoe Gilbert trumps the downsides of folk art with her incredible imagination and outstanding writing skills. Present any of us with the challenge of producing folk stories that are mythic in style, and you will receive an endless series of “like (this)…” and “like that…”. Yet, Zoe Gilbert not only makes you feel (eg) the rain in her stories, she allows you to taste it; and, all without using the dreaded ‘like’ word. Her imagination is incredible but it is her ability to evoke feelings, memories etc that made this book a winner for me. And, it is a great story when taken as a whole.
April 18, 2022
Words fail me...
Enchanting and moving and funny and tragic and, in a word, wonderful.
Also, the best use of "exit, pursued by a bear" I've seen in a long time!
Enchanting and moving and funny and tragic and, in a word, wonderful.
Also, the best use of "exit, pursued by a bear" I've seen in a long time!
October 25, 2023
I loved this. It’s a series of chronological and interlinked stories about Herne the Hunter and set in the Great North Woods to the south of London (so many place names started to make sense as I made my way through). Many of the chapters are based on real people or events, each are interspersed with relevant poems and at its heart it shows the environmental degradation that has occurred over the centuries and how this affects the influence of Herne as well as other mythical creatures that are to be found in woodland. Too much of the fiction that I have read and that focuses on the environment, although understandably, can be a bit too didactic for me but I found this incredibly powerful as well as moving and ultimately uplifting. It’s hugely atmospheric and if anyone is looking for a read that suits the season but is a bit gentler than the usual Halloween fare then this is perfect.
I can often bemoan the fact that I missed out on a classical education but so much of our literature and culture is caught up in Greek myth that anyone who reads a lot has at least a basic understanding of the main stories. This book made me embarrassed at how little I know about British mythology and worse, how I hadn’t even realised the lack until now. There seems to have been a bit of a renaissance in writing about this ancient mythology and history recently, much linked towards a time when we were more in tune with nature and the land around us, and I am really looking forward to reading more.
I can often bemoan the fact that I missed out on a classical education but so much of our literature and culture is caught up in Greek myth that anyone who reads a lot has at least a basic understanding of the main stories. This book made me embarrassed at how little I know about British mythology and worse, how I hadn’t even realised the lack until now. There seems to have been a bit of a renaissance in writing about this ancient mythology and history recently, much linked towards a time when we were more in tune with nature and the land around us, and I am really looking forward to reading more.
July 19, 2023
I’ve never read a book quite like this. It’s a delight, at times poetic, at times kind of dangerous. I felt radicalised by it at points, as it uses ancient fables to question the notion of rewilding and the constant jostling between science and nature, progress and tradition. At times (often) these notions are at odds, but it’s an elusive balance.
The central construct is the fable of Herne the Hunter (with which I was unfamiliar, but who I belatedly realise is where we get ‘Herne Hill’ from, among many many other etymological linkages) and the Great Northern Wood in current Windsor/west and south London. Herne’s myth is told time and again in a series of short stories, and often quite beautiful poems. There are constant repetitions of themes and ideas, twisted into new appearances; spotlights on elements of British nature (apples, mushrooms, hedgerows) that is both bucolic and powerful at the same time. Nature is rendered comforting and dangerous. Herne is a menace and a sympathetic antihero.
It’s beautifully written. As ever with short story collections there are dips in momentum for me as I transition into a new writing style, and new characters, but as it progressed the clever connecting themes grew stronger. It ends with a very brave idea to take the myth into the future, and it’s so interesting to see the writing style evolve (or devolve) as the woods return to London and Herne is reborn. The final chapter is a ‘lecture’ given to us that at first I thought was unnecessary handholding from the author until I read several big ideas so subtly buried I’d missed them on my first read through! So I’ll have to start again soon, which will be no hardship at all. It feels contemporary and timeless and I loved it.
The central construct is the fable of Herne the Hunter (with which I was unfamiliar, but who I belatedly realise is where we get ‘Herne Hill’ from, among many many other etymological linkages) and the Great Northern Wood in current Windsor/west and south London. Herne’s myth is told time and again in a series of short stories, and often quite beautiful poems. There are constant repetitions of themes and ideas, twisted into new appearances; spotlights on elements of British nature (apples, mushrooms, hedgerows) that is both bucolic and powerful at the same time. Nature is rendered comforting and dangerous. Herne is a menace and a sympathetic antihero.
It’s beautifully written. As ever with short story collections there are dips in momentum for me as I transition into a new writing style, and new characters, but as it progressed the clever connecting themes grew stronger. It ends with a very brave idea to take the myth into the future, and it’s so interesting to see the writing style evolve (or devolve) as the woods return to London and Herne is reborn. The final chapter is a ‘lecture’ given to us that at first I thought was unnecessary handholding from the author until I read several big ideas so subtly buried I’d missed them on my first read through! So I’ll have to start again soon, which will be no hardship at all. It feels contemporary and timeless and I loved it.
August 7, 2022
Enchanting really is the best word for this. There's a magic that runs through it, connecting the stories, the communities, the mythology, that really brings it all to life. It's rare that in a collection of short stories so many of them would stay with me, but there's a power to the consistency of the writing across the variety of eras that really holds it all together. Rather than being skippable/insufferable, the rhymes and songs between each story supplement everything so well, and having listened to this on audiobook they really shone. I extended walks and specifically went out to listen to this in meadows and fields, along the river and amongst the trees to get the full effect, which I'm not sure any book has made me do before. It's beautiful, clever, and both earthy and ethereal at the same time, with humour and tragedy laced throughout. Highly recommended.
October 9, 2023
Mischief Acts is a fantastical, enigmatic weaving of folklore, poetry, past, present and future. Herne the Hunter is a forgotten piece of English folklore: ghost of the Great North Wood, God of the wild hunt, mischief-maker.
This is a book to span centuries, with Herne reinventing themself, shape shifting, time travelling, always bringing a wild spirit and a reminder of the woods we have lost. Mischief Acts almost reads as a series of short stories (entwined with folk songs and poetry) each story a different moment in time - from ancient history, to present day, to a future of devastating climate change and rewilding. I listened via audiobook and it was magnificently delivered - each story and song narrated by a different actor, an immersive experience. Loved this magical book. 4.5/5 ⭐️
This is a book to span centuries, with Herne reinventing themself, shape shifting, time travelling, always bringing a wild spirit and a reminder of the woods we have lost. Mischief Acts almost reads as a series of short stories (entwined with folk songs and poetry) each story a different moment in time - from ancient history, to present day, to a future of devastating climate change and rewilding. I listened via audiobook and it was magnificently delivered - each story and song narrated by a different actor, an immersive experience. Loved this magical book. 4.5/5 ⭐️
September 11, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the short stories and poetry about Herne the Hunter. Venery in particular captured me - there was a certain magic and enchantment to the writing, I didn’t want the story to end. A wonderful book steeped in British folklore, reminding me to connect with the forest, the wild and a bit of mischief.
October 25, 2023
Hmmm. I am not sure what to think about this book. Started well. Then got lost in trying to advance through space and time. Lost me along the way, just before re-enchantment. Peculiar. I'd probably give 4 stars for the first part of the book and only 2 for the rest.
March 23, 2024
Not really my genre, but brilliantly and insightfully written. Though decision between 3/5 and 4/5 (purely because this is not really my thing) but I decided to be kind since the writing deserves it! Pretty cool!
April 9, 2024
Ermmmm so I didn’t realise this was going to be a bunch of short stories
I didn’t really get it but think it just wasn’t my sort of thing
I liked a few of the stories and didn’t get half of them
Kinda sweet kinda weird
Overall odd
I didn’t really get it but think it just wasn’t my sort of thing
I liked a few of the stories and didn’t get half of them
Kinda sweet kinda weird
Overall odd
July 27, 2022
3.5 stars
January 25, 2023
I really wanted to like this but I got bored. I made it through the first half but then I just skimmed through the rest.
April 13, 2022
“I am Herne, King of the Wood, the fineste hunter that ever did live. I am Lord of Misrule, I am God of Chaos, I am the Soul of all Earthlie Mischief. Followe, & I will lead!”
This book is a conceit - an anthology of myths about Herne from 1392 - 2073. It is a collection of prose, poetry, songs and lecture notes detailing Herne’s origin and how his myth metamorphoses and survives through the ages. We see Herne causing chaos in the midst of 17th century Twelfth Night celebrations, present at the fire which destroyed the Crystal Palace in 1936, lacing a punch with acid at a party in the 1960s and becoming restored to full power in 2073, by becoming Herndon, a wild child of the re-wilded forest raised by wolves.
In using the conceit of an anthology and taking on the character of Professor Liz Gore, Zoe Gilbert is able to show how Herne’s myth has survived and developed through the years, and how, despite the enlightenment, industrialisation and urban sprawl, Herne has managed to survive and thrive over the centuries causing mischief, mayhem, chaos and debauchary. The anthology conceit is also the perfect vehicle for Zoe Gilbert to demonstrate her playfulness and mastery of language. The novel has magical, musical prose and is superbly and masterfully varied in tone, style, rhythm and language.
Particularly musical is the “Venery” chapter which is linguistically captivating and hypnotic and the performance of “The Ballad of Screeching Alice” on the audio book is beautifully haunting.
Literary references, particularly the works of Thomas Hardy abound, as does spectacular creative literary writing and an intelligent examination and celebration of folklore and myth.
This will be a favourite book of the year for me and I also highly recommended Zoe Gilbert’s first novel “Folk”.
This book is a conceit - an anthology of myths about Herne from 1392 - 2073. It is a collection of prose, poetry, songs and lecture notes detailing Herne’s origin and how his myth metamorphoses and survives through the ages. We see Herne causing chaos in the midst of 17th century Twelfth Night celebrations, present at the fire which destroyed the Crystal Palace in 1936, lacing a punch with acid at a party in the 1960s and becoming restored to full power in 2073, by becoming Herndon, a wild child of the re-wilded forest raised by wolves.
In using the conceit of an anthology and taking on the character of Professor Liz Gore, Zoe Gilbert is able to show how Herne’s myth has survived and developed through the years, and how, despite the enlightenment, industrialisation and urban sprawl, Herne has managed to survive and thrive over the centuries causing mischief, mayhem, chaos and debauchary. The anthology conceit is also the perfect vehicle for Zoe Gilbert to demonstrate her playfulness and mastery of language. The novel has magical, musical prose and is superbly and masterfully varied in tone, style, rhythm and language.
Particularly musical is the “Venery” chapter which is linguistically captivating and hypnotic and the performance of “The Ballad of Screeching Alice” on the audio book is beautifully haunting.
Literary references, particularly the works of Thomas Hardy abound, as does spectacular creative literary writing and an intelligent examination and celebration of folklore and myth.
This will be a favourite book of the year for me and I also highly recommended Zoe Gilbert’s first novel “Folk”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2022
By far the strangest book I've read in a while, and I mean strange in the best possible way. I don't believe in anything and yet I am completely enchanted.
January 1, 2023
Herne the Hunter is a mythological figure I've always been drawn to, and this atmospheric novel hurtles after the Wild Hunt through hundreds of years of history. The chameleonic form of this lends itself to the wild, enchanting and mischievous figure of Herne as we move between poetry and prose, weaving together eras from Herne's medieval origins to an acid-laced Sixties party and beyond. I loved this!
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