Yssobel is dreaming increasingly of her Uncle Christian, Steven’s brother, who disappeared into Lavondyss, and Jack wants to see ‘the outer world’ more than anything. The hunters who protected Guiwenneth as a child have come to warn her she is in danger. Jack is like his father, an active boy keen to know all about `the outer world’ Yssobel takes after her mother, even to her long auburn hair.īut this idyll cannot last. They also have two children, a combination of human and mythago. She is comfortable here, almost tied to the place, and Steven has long since abandoned all thought of returning to his own world. Īvilion: At the heart of Ryhope Wood, Steven and the mythago Guiwenneth live in the ruins of a Roman villa close to a haunted fortress from the Iron Age, from which Guiwenneth’s myth arose. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity. Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable. Mythago Wood: Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Stand alone or series: The original and its sequel after 25 years Publishing Date: 1984 (first edition) 09 July 2009 (new edition) – 15 July 2009 We welcome Gav to the Book Smugglers – here is what he has to say: Gav, not only said yes but went beyond the call of duty by reading the first book as well! Gav runs a really good Speculative Fiction blog called NextRead (which recently went through a makeover by the way, and looks FAB) and we thought he would be a perfect fit – for the book and for our blog. As it is against our credo to leave books gathering dust in our shelves if it can be avoided, we conferred and decided to invite our buddy Gav to read the book and review it for us. We both wanted to read it but given our YA Month schedule, we realised we wouldn’t be able to, at least not so soon. Today we have something different: a while back we received a review copy of a Fantasy novel called Avilion by Robert Holdstock – we fell in love with the cover and with the blurb and after doing a bit of research we found out that the novel was a sequel to what many consider a classic in the genre, Mythago Wood, published 25 years ago.

Mythago wood series in order