Join us during Independent Bookshop Week for an evening ‘walk-and-talk’ with writer and storyteller Kim Willis to celebrate the publication of her debut book No Fair Maidens.
No Fair Maidens is a blend of memoir, mythology, and landscape writing, recentring the forgotten goddesses and matriarchs of Britain and asking what their stories might offer women today. The book is deeply shaped by place, particularly Wales and the borderlands, and is rooted in rivers, walking, listening and paying attention to the land as a living archive of story.
In her late thirties, Kim Willis was told by a doctor that she’d never be able to conceive children, a conversation that made her question the very course of her life. Living in a warehouse in East London, her life a whirlwind of BBQs and baby showers, Kim felt herself drifting from the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, and yearning for a new set of stories to light her way.
Returning to her native Wales, she immersed herself in stories of ancient goddesses and matriarchs: shape-shifting enchantresses, scaly nymphs and goddesses who once commanded our lands. These are no fair maidens, but powerful warrioresses and animalistic beasts, snaking along the edges of watery places where we meet the otherworld in the shadows.
From Arianrhod and Melusine to Cerridwen and Gwendoline, these are not necessarily heroines the reader will be familiar with, but their stories are powerful, timeless and universal and speak to what it is to be a woman today.
Journeying from the Severn to Skye, Eryri to Northumberland, Kim discovered new magic in the tales of old, unveiling forgotten truths about grief and healing, while charting a new course through sisterhood and sexuality, fertility and freedom.
Through the threads of folklore, history and landscape, Kim identifies a better way of being for modern women, and crafts a new vision for Britain where women are – and always were – a force of nature.
This gentle walk-and-talk,will begin and end at the bookshop, weaving together landscape, myth and story. (very much weather dependent). Refreshments will be served and will be followed by a book signing and opportunity to chat with Kim. Should the weather prevail, the event will be held in the bookshop.
Please meet at Booka at 6.45pm, ready to begin the walk-and-talk at 7.00pm
Tickets: £10 (Admits One, ticket redeemable against a signed copy of No Fair Maidens) or £20 (Admits One & includes a signed copy of No Fair Maidens)