STORYLAND: A New Mythology of Britain by Frome art historian and artist Dr Amy Jeffs has been announced as one of the shortlist for Waterstones book of the year.
Amy moved to Frome from Cambridge in 2018 in order to write her thesis, and gives credit to the town in helping breathe life into her book.
Amy said, “Storyland now exists, but I doubt it would without Frome: without its culture of self-employment and energetic spirit. Launching the book in the Silk Mill with Hunting Raven Books was one of the most wonderful evenings of my life. Now that Storyland has been named, with 13 other titles, a Waterstones Book of the Year (winner announced 2nd Dec), I feel so grateful that life brought me to this green cleft in the Somerset landscape, with its motley population of people, shops, otters and pigeons.
“My PhD focused on a medieval illuminated manuscript containing the story of Brutus. In 2018, I moved to Frome from Cambridge to write up my thesis and began learning linocut with Chris Pig at the Black Pig Printmaking Studio. The thesis and the linocut inspired me to write a history of Britain through medieval eyes and bring it to life with pictures.”
Amy gave a brief insight into what her book offers, “Long, long ago, some decades after the fall of Troy, the goddess Diana sent an exiled Trojan called Brutus to make his home on an empty island in the western ocean: empty but for a few giants. He arrives at the island – called Albion – with his followers, defeats the giants and renames it Britain, after himself. This is the medieval origin myth of Britain. It is one of the stories retold in my book, Storyland: a New Mythology of Britain.”
Amy is an art historian specialising in the Middle Ages as well as an artist. In 2019, she gained a PhD in Art History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having studied for earlier degrees at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Cambridge. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. She has researched medieval badges and pilgrim souvenirs at the British Museum and worked in the British Library’s department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts. Her writing is often accompanied by her own linocut and wood-engraved prints. Amy is a regular contributor to Country Life Magazine. This is her first book.
www.amyjeffshistoria.com Find Amy on Twitter as @amy_historia and on Instagram as @historia_prints.
