Magus of Stonewylde :)

Over the last couple of weeks I have been off work with a shoulder injury. I had an operation on it about a year and a half ago and the problem has recently recurred leaving me having difficulty driving. The painkillers I have been prescribed also make me very drowsy so I am currently stuck at home as we live approximately 3 miles from the nearest bus route and my OH is at work. With all this free time on my hands I have recently been doing a lot of reading and I am now in the process of re-reading the Stonewylde books :)



I think I might have blogged about these books when I first read them but at the time I was so caught up in the story that I devoured the books one after the other. Upon re-reading these books I have been pleasantly surprised to realise that they are even better than I remember and there are allsorts of details and plot twists that I had forgotten about :) I read Magus of Stonewylde and Moondance at Stonewylde this week and have just started re-reading Solstice at Stonewylde today :) If you haven't already heard of these books and love a cracking story that you can get completely caught up in, then there is a treat in store for you :)

The books are about a young girl who is ill with an undiagnosed illness and unable to cope with living in inner-city London. After making friends with a doctor who is treating her, she moves with her mother to a secret community hidden away in Dorset and once there the adventures begin. Arriving at Stonewylde is like stepping back into another place in time for Sylvie and she soon starts to recover. She meets the Magus of Stonewylde, who is the charismatic leader of the community and she also meets Yul, one of the Villagers, who has never left the community and challenges Magus's authority. The community follow the "old ways" and celebrate all the different festivals, such as the Equinoxes and Beltane, the mythology of which is woven into the story.

Personally, I loved the evocative descriptions of the countryside around Stonewylde and the village itself. Kit Berry described it all so perfectly that I could "see" it all in my head as I was reading the story. I also can't think of many books that have made me care so much about the characters, you really want everything to work out for Sylvie and Yul and the inhabitants of Stonewylde (well, most of them!) At one point I was so angry at one of the characters that Mr P was laughing at me getting so wound up! Seemlessly blended as part of the story, there are descriptions of the various festivals that the community celebrates and the significance behind each one.

I think I've probably babbled on enough now, but I would definitely recommend these books to you (pagan or non-pagan) as these are such fantastic stories. If you'd like to know more about these books, there is a Stonewylde website, which can be found here: http://www.stonewylde.com

I'm off now to get back to Solstice at Stonewylde, I'm at one of my favourite parts of the story :)