Book description
Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which
few return, and none remain unchanged.
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 . . . and stronger
than time itself.
Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope
Wood. 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 . . .
Winner of the World Fantasy Award for best novel, 1985
Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1985 Robert Holdstock
(1948 - 2009)
Robert Paul Holdstock was born in a remote corner of Kent, sharing his
childhood years between the bleak Romney Marsh and the dense woodlands
of the Kentish heartlands. He received an MSc in medical zoology and
spent several years in the early 1970s in medical research before
becoming a full-time writer in 1976. His first published story appeared
in the New Worlds
magazine in 1968 and for the early part of his career he wrote science
fiction. However, it is with fantasy that he is most closely associated.
1984 saw the publication of Mythago Wood
, winner of the BSFA and World Fantasy Awards for Best Novel, and widely
regarded as one of the key texts of modern fantasy. It and the
subsequent 'mythago' novels (including Lavondyss
, which won the BSFA Award for Best Novel in 1988) cemented his
reputation as the definitive portrayer of the wild wood. His interest in
Celtic and Nordic mythology was a consistent theme throughout his
fantasy and is most prominently reflected in the acclaimed Merlin Codex
trilogy, consisting of Celtika
, The Iron Grail
and The Broken Kings
, published between 2001 and 2007.
Among many other works, Holdstock co-wrote Tour of the Universe
with Malcolm Edwards, for which rights were sold for a space shuttle
simulation ride at the CN Tower in Toronto, and The Emerald Forest
, based on John Boorman's film of the same name. His story, 'The
Ragthorn', written with friend and fellow author Garry Kilworth, won the
World Fantasy Award for Best Novella and the BSFA Award for Short
Fiction.
Robert Holdstock died in November 2009, just four months after the
publication of Avilion
, the long-awaited, and sadly final, return to Ryhope Wood.
www. robertholdstock. com
