Mischief Acts

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'A work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised’ OBSERVER'A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore' MAIL ON SUNDAY'Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining’ THE TIMESHerne 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.

Weaving together prose and poetry, myth and history, the past, present and future, it’s a work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised, A dark-dazzling archive of enchantments, pursuit, and desire, Inventive and subversive ... A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore, Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining, This is the most adventurous, stylistically magnificent thing I’ve read for years. Nobody does fantasy like Zoe Gilbert

Zoe Gilbert's debut novel Folk was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and named an Observer Book of the Year. She is the winner of the Costa Short Story Award 2014. Her work has appeared on BBC Radio 4, and in anthology and journals in the UK and internationally. She has taken part in writing projects in China and South Korea for the British Council, and she is completing a PhD on folk tales in contemporary fiction. She is the co-founder of London Lit Lab, which provides writing courses and mentoring for writers. Zoe Gilbert lives on the coast in Kent.