Another Life by Owen W Knight

Another Life: Overview

Imagine: if we could combine dreams with reality in a world where we live forever.

Set in a secretive, hidden corner of Middle England, the novel combines folklore, legends and ancient beliefs with the contemporary issue of what it means to be human in an increasingly technological world.

Thirty years ago, Oliver Merryweather is intrigued by a woman who waves to him from the window of a house in a village he discovers by accident.

In the present day, Oliver believes his life to be a series of failures and regrets. When the same woman appears to him in a dream, Oliver embarks on an obsessive quest to find her. With the village inexplicably absent from all maps, all he has to go on is the unusual mark on her wrist.

Journeying back into his past, Oliver finds himself inextricably drawn into a decades-old mystery involving missing children, pagan beliefs and the Green Man of folklore, while coming face to face with the disappointments and tragedies of his own life. As the story draws towards its unexpected and uplifting conclusion, the line between reality, dreams and memory begins to blur and Oliver gains an insight into the true purpose of his existence.

About the Author: Owen W Knight

Owen W Knight’s books include The Invisible College Trilogy, an apocalyptic dystopian conspiracy tale for young adults and adults alike, described as ‘1984 Meets the Book of Revelation’.

Owen was born in Southend-on-Sea at a time when children spent their days outdoors, creating imaginary worlds that formed the basis of their adventures and social interaction. He has used this experience to create worlds based on documented myths, with elements of dystopia, mystery and science fiction, highlighting the use and abuse of power and the conflicts associated with maintaining ethical values.

You can purchase a copy of Owen’s book via his Amazon page: http://bit.ly/OwenWKnight

Apr 29, 2020 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment

Company of the Green Man – Book Shop

With Yuletide just around the corner don’t forget that the The Company of the Green Man’s very own Amazon Bookshop is a quick and easy click away for all your Christmas Present requirements. I’ve decked the shelves in virtual tinsel and Holly and if I could figure a way of offering visitors virtual egg nog and mulled cider I would.

Just click on THIS LINK or on the bookshop page above and you will be instantly transported to our bespoke bookshop packed with books related to the Green Man, the Traditional Jack-in-the-Green and other related titles.

If you buy your green man books via our Amazon Book Shop  you pay nothing extra but a small referral fee may go towards the Company of the Green Man. This helps us to keep our website and membership free for all our members. In fact anything you purchase from Amazon after going through one of the links may be eligible to earn us a small referral fee so please consider doing so whenever you are planning to shop at Amazon.

And if you know of a title you would like added to our bookshelves please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the “contact us” link above.

Nov 29, 2014 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment

Book of the Month – September

Our book of the month for September is  “The Green Man” by Richard Hayman

It is available via  The Company of the Green Man’s shiny new Amazon bookshop using  THIS LINK

If you buy your green man books via our Amazon links you pay nothing extra but a small referral fee may go towards the Company of the Green Man. This helps us to keep our website and membership free for all our members. In fact anything you purchase from Amazon after going through one of the links may be eligible to earn us a small referral fee so please consider doing so whenever you are planning to shop at Amazon.

Sep 20, 2014 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment

Green Man Book Shop Open

I’m very pleased to announce the opening of The Company of the Green Man’s very own Amazon Bookshop.

Just click on THIS LINK or on the bookshop page above and you will be instantly transported to our bespoke bookshop packed with books related to the Green Man, the Traditional Jack-in-the-Green and other related titles.

Whilst I’ve published links to many green man and Jack-in-the-Green related books on our websites bookshop page over the years it was always a bit clunky and difficult to navigate (and update). Our shiny new bookshop makes browsing the shelves and purchasing your books pure joy. For the full experience I recommend that  you brew yourself a fresh cup of coffee, sit in a comfy chair and pull up your laptop/Ipad/IPhone/Android Phone/ (delete as appropriate)  and browse the virtual bookshelves at your leisure

If you buy your green man books via our Amazon Book Shop  you pay nothing extra but a small referral fee may go towards the Company of the Green Man. This helps us to keep our website and membership free for all our members. In fact anything you purchase from Amazon after going through one of the links may be eligible to earn us a small referral fee so please consider doing so whenever you are planning to shop at Amazon.

And if you know of a title you would like added to our bookshelves please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the “contact us” link above.

Sep 6, 2014 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment

Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids by Sara Hannant

My thanks to Sara Hannant and Merrell books for sending a copy of her wonderful book: Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids for our archive. I began to write a review, but then realised that someone had done a much better job before me and so I cheekily asked folklorist Paul Cowdell if I could reproduce the review that he wrote for his excellent blog Humphrey With His Flail. Many thanks Paul and welcome to The Company of the Green Man

All I would add to Paul’s review is that Sara’s book and her incredibly atmospheric photography has completely reinforced my view that although we should of mourn the loss of many of our traditions, we should ensure that we celebrate wholeheartedly and support those who are creating now the traditions of the future. So make sure that you take a look at our annual events page for all the Jack-in-the-Green events that are taking place very shortly and go and support them.

Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids by Sara Hannant

Reviewed by Paul Cowdell

We’ve lately seen something of an enthusiasm amongst artists for vernacular culture and tradition. The results have been exciting, with the creation of new works going alongside a very broad championing of the folk arts. From his background as Art Director in the fashion world Simon Costin has sought to build a Museum of British Folklore. Grayson Perry is exploring the world of vernacular artefacts. Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane curated the Folk Archive. Whatever their artistic impulses and interpretations, all of these projects have addressed actual folk practice and its artefacts.

They have also, refreshingly, looked at folk practice in a broad way, encompassing existing traditions, revivals and adaptations, and newly developed customs. (In this respect they are building on the work of Doc Rowe, as they acknowledge). More needs to be said about the nuances and differences between these registers of vernacular practice, of course, but they all need documenting and considering as folklore.

Sara Hannant’s beautiful new book Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey through the English Ritual Year (Merrell Publishing) belongs with this same trend. She documents a selection of events across the year, from the Allendale Tar Barrel Parade (1 January) to The (Insert Name Here) Mummers (28 December). For each event a short explanatory text introduces some of Hannant’s vibrant and evocative photographs.

It is primarily a photographic book – a snapshot of some parts of the ritual year that have caught Hannant’s eye and lens – and it is gorgeous. There are particularly striking shots of processions at night and/or involving fire. You can see some of the pictures in a portfolio on her website (and an exhibition has just opened at the Horniman Museum if you’re around south London over the next year), but the Hinton St George Punkie Night procession gives some idea of her best. (For me the outstanding shot is of a burning Lewes bonfire effigy of David Cameron and Nick Clegg). She also captures well the informal solemnity of such seasonal events: members of the Druid Order processing down Primrose Hill at the Autumn Equinox, or a break for a bag of chips at the kerbside during the Sowerby Bridge Rush-Bearing Festival. The qualities are combined in a great shot of the Britannia Coconut Dancers dancing round Bacup in falling snow. It’s serious, ridiculous and intense, and Hannant has a sympathetic eye for the people who participate in or watch these customs.

She has focused her attention on England in order to ‘explore notions of national identity’ (p.10). It is unclear whether this actually gets beyond documenting what seasonal customs are currently practised in England (although that in itself would be valuable), but it certainly throws up some interesting questions for future researchers.

What is interesting about the book is its combination of the old, the new, and the thought-to-be-old. Here, certainly, are the older ‘star attractions’ of the English seasonal year (Padstow, Lewes, Bacup, Abbots Bromley), but Hannant also does a very good job with more recently established and civic events. She notes the involvement of local folklore enthusiasts in the revival or invention of some traditions, many of which have existed in their current form for only 30-40 years. Here, alongside May Day customs and morris dancing, are civic carnivals and trade association events like the Pearly Kings Harvest Festival. There are also some striking sequences on recently established events like the Hastings and Deptford Jacks-in-the-Green.

These pictures point to one of the book’s more intriguing features. Hannant is interested in questions of the beliefs embodied in seasonal customs. Some of these are fairly recent developments within Anglican tradition: Painswick’s ‘Clypping’, for example, for all its claims of age, owes much to the Victorian antiquarianism of enthusiastic Church of England pastors. Hannant has documented further many of the emergent traditions around what we might loosely call neo-pagan beliefs. She is particularly good at covering the range of events around specific dates like 31 October (Ottery St Mary’s tar barrels, the Antrobus Soulcakers’ Play and Glastonbury Samhain events).

To some extent she has thus documented a new ritual year, one which has arisen only in the last two decades, although an ancient heritage is claimed for it. Her text does not deal with this in any great depth, although she is largely sympathetic to its practitioners (and has made much use of Ronald Hutton in her background reading, so her sympathy is well-informed). It may be up to others to tease out the relationship between these events (and between them and their supposed forebears), but that is not really the point of Hannant’s glorious book. It would, of course, be nice to hear more about the background to events like the London Beltane revival (and there may be an error in the location here), but the novelty of documenting it so well still justifies its presentation in this way here.

It is a mark of the book’s quality that it does point directions for such future consideration, but that should be taken as a bonus to its other, rather more evident, qualities. The book is an attractive celebration of a wide range of seasonal observation. It deserves to be seen widely and enjoyed. It should trigger further interest in seasonal events, drawing attention both to their existence and – hopefully – to their implications and meanings.

Sara Hannant is a freelance photographer whose work is exhibited widely, including at the Royal Society of Arts and the Horniman Museum, London. Since 1988 shye has worked on editorial, commercial  and cultural commissions, including  international assignments for UNICEF, VSO and Womankind Worldwide. Her documentary photographs have appeared in the Sunday Times and The Guardian Amongst others. Sara’s website can be found at: www.sarahannant.com

Paul Cowdell took an MA in Folklore and Cultural Tradition at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) at the University of Sheffield, graduating with a Distinction. He won the Folklore Society’s President’s Prize in 2006 and has undertaken fieldwork for the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival. He is a serving committee member of the Folklore Society and is currently undertaking a PhD looking at contemporary belief in ghosts. Paul is the creator of the blog: Humphrey With His Flail.

Apr 28, 2012 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment

The Wildwood Tarot

Green Man copyright © Will Worthington

Many of our members will have come across Will Worthington’s fabulous art over the years. Will is the creator of a number of beautifully illustrated Oracles and Tarots including the Druid Animal Oracle and the Green Man Tree Oracle. In collaboration with Mark Ryan and John Mathews he has created The Wildwood Tarot a re-working of the Greenwood Tarot originally created by Mark Ryan and Chesca Potter. The Green Man has been a powerful symbol throughout Wills career and The Green Man, Green Women (both pictured on this page) and other associated archetypes come to life in this wonderfully crafted set of seventy eight cards.

I have added a link to The Wildwood Tarot on amazon.co.uk in our bookshop on the main website: www.thecompanyofthegreenman.co.uk.

You can find out more about Will, his artwork and his music at http://www.willworthingtonart.co.uk and keep an eye out for some of the originals coming up for sale soon.

A full review of The Wildwood Tarot will appear in our next e-newsletter

Green Woman copyright © Will Worthington

The pictures on this posting are copyright © Will Worthington and are reproduced with his kind permission

Jun 18, 2011 | Categories: Books | Leave a comment