Enjoy your special day, my love...
I'll imagine you chopping wood!
Love always,
Marie
xxx
Enjoy your special day, my love...
I'll imagine you chopping wood!
Love always,
Marie
xxx
I'm not usually someone who suffers from the fear of missing out, but as University season rolls around once more, I find myself feeling quite nostalgic for the scholarly life, having completed my own studies at the end of last year - for the time being at least. So it was with a sense of reminiscence that I picked up this novel which is set at Oxford University.
My Oxford Year starts off well, as the main protagonist, an American named Ella, arrives at Oxford University ready for her studies. She has a political job all lined up to return to in America, and meanwhile she is full of excitement about having the chance to spend a year studying the great authors and poets of English Literature at her dream university. Then she meets Jamie Davenport, handsome eligible bachelor and her new poetry professor.
To begin with this book has all the usual vibes of the sexy professor trope, which is one of my favourite tropes in both dark and light academia novels, although sadly it's less of a thing in real life universities - believe me, I looked for a sexy professor, but alas, in almost a decade of studying, there were no sexy professors to be seen - not a sausage! I was deeply disappointed. Fortunately there will always be a sexy professor to be found in the pages of a book and this one is no exception.
After a rather shaky start, Ella and Jamie find that they have much in common. They enjoy word-sparring on various aspects of history, poetry and literature. They both have a deep love of words, exploring the meaning that we give to them, how we use and abuse them for our own purposes and how words once written centuries ago can still speak to people in the modern world.
He reads poetry to her, they exchange ideas and opinions and their mutual high regard for romantic literature soon spills out from the page and into their lives. In the course of this student/professor word-play sparks begin to fly between them and they fall into a relationship that neither of them planned and which is inconvenient to both of them. Ella goes along with it against her better judgement, and who can blame her? A man who writes and reads poetry to me would capture my heart forever!
The book takes a darker turn when Ella realises that Jamie is keeping something from her. She suspects that he is cheating, but the truth is far worse. What do you do when you've finally found the love of your life only to learn that they will be snatched away from you again? How do you even begin to start letting them go, when all you want to do is pull them in closer and hold onto them forever? Can you ever really get over someone you have had the meeting of the minds with? I don't think that you can, because everything else seems dull and performative by comparison, and personally, I would never want to.
My Oxford Year starts off light and lovely, but it soon becomes a much more sombre read. It is a beautiful love story and well worth reading. It teaches that love is always unexpected and it may not look as you hoped it would, but that its worth the heartache just to be with your one true love, for however long you have together. It reminds us that love is a beautiful thing, no matter what the circumstances. It is quite a sad book, yet at the same time it is very hopeful too.
This story has also been made into a film available on Netflix, so if reading isn't your thing, you might prefer to watch that instead.
Enjoy, but have the tissues at the ready!
Marie x
AD: This book is published by Harper Collins and is available now in all formats.
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I rise."
She would have these marks all her life, and they would serve to remind her of what some people were willing to do for what they told themselves was love."
But understand this - no-one, including you, will ever have what it takes to sabotage me, pull me down or hold me back, because I refuse to allow them to!"
from the meditation Facing The Troll.
At the beginning of this month the new edition of my book of Norse Magic was published. This is the hardcover Extended Collector's Edition, with gold gilded page edges, gold foiling on the cover and stunning wolf artwork on the back of the book. It is fully illustrated throughout and it is just slightly smaller than A4 in size, so it is quite impressive. The design team have done a marvellous job and this book, along with my upcoming Celtic Magic Extended Edition, is part of a new collector's series called Gilded Magic. They are very beautiful tomes and the kind of books I used to pipe-dream about writing way back when I was still unpublished, many moons ago, so the publication of this edition is a writer's dream come true for me. It's just so pretty!
I was asked to write this extended edition last spring, shortly after I had a riding accident and it proved to be a fantastic escape for me. As I recovered from two broken wrists, which were still strapped up in post-operative splints at the time, I curled up with my laptop and took a mental journey to Norway, falling deep into the enchanted realms of Norse Mythology.
It was an incredibly healing writing experience. I was listening to several albums by a-ha as I worked on this project, thinking back to the time when I met the band at one of their concerts in 2010, and so my three favourite Norwegian boys have subtly found their way into certain parts of the book. I can only hope that I have done the mythology of their country justice, but it was wonderful to revisit this topic once again and draw upon those precious memories. I remember Morten telling me of the Norse fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which I hadn't heard of before, thinking it was simply the title of one of their albums, and so, in honour of this memory, I decided to write a meditation based on that story. You can read more about this meeting in the Acknowledgements of the book.
There are lots of meditations in this collector's edition and they were tremendous fun to write. From glade-skiing and wild-skating, to dog-sledding, enchanted castles and dragon ships - I have been free to develop my own fantasy pagan fairytales into tools of insight and relaxation. Writing the book was a great escape for me, taking my mind off the pain of my injuries and transporting me to a world of ice, snow and magic. I wanted my readers to be able to enjoy that same form of escapism, so I hope that the meditations help to facilitate that.
Norse mythology is a vast, multi-dimensional subject with many layers to explore. In my book, I have attempted to give readers a small taste of that complex and multi-faceted folklore, cherry picking the ideas, legends and characters that I found the most interesting and compelling, from Lagertha the Shield Maiden and Brynhild the Valkyrie, to the sad tale of Tyr and Fenrir. I hope that the book serves to whet the reader's appetite and that they will want to discover more, going on to do their own explorations of Norse mythology.
By far the most challenging aspect of writing a book like this one is the language difference and the spellings, which were the bane of my life! I had to check and double check spellings of names, places, battles and so on, every single time I wrote them down because I did not trust myself to simply remember the correct spelling and I didn't want to give the copy editor a hard time or offend the Norse people with my bad spelling! It was a bit of a headache - I do not speak Norwegian and the language barrier was difficult to work around, but it was worth it in the end.
This book had to be more than double the length of the original edition, so there was lots of space for me to explore the mythology more deeply and come up with lots of new material, from magic and meditations to legends and superstitions. I was even able to incorporate a touch of psychology too, which is always fun to do.
Norse Magic Collector's Edition was such a wonderful writing experience for me during a very difficult time as I recovered from the riding accident. Yes it was painful to write thousands of words each day while my wrists were still mending and my wounds healing, but the subject matter was so inspiring, the memories so deeply embedded in my heart, that I will forever look back on this project with fondness. It was impossible to feel sorry for myself when I was writing about the bravery of the Shield Maidens. It was impossible to feel defeated when I was invoking the strength of the Valkyries with my words. It is impossible to feel too isolated with a-ha's music and Morten's voice soaring in between writing sessions, with the memories keeping me company and dreaming my heart alive.
In a way, this book is a love letter to the boys of a-ha and I was thinking of them as I wrote it, so it is my own small way of saying thank you to them for the music that has been the soundtrack of my life and that has brought me such joy over the years.
For all those reasons, this book will always hold a very special place in my heart and I trust that it will find its way into your heart too. Here in the UK, we do not fear the longships - we've seen longships before. Men sailed here from the Northlands and hauled their boats ashore...and I for one, am very glad that they did, for they have left us with a tremendous legacy of myth and magic, courage and romance. Enjoy this new foray into the realms of Nordic magic and bewitchery! Forever yours x
Serene Blessings
Marie x
AD: Norse Magic Extended Edition is out now in hardcover. Celtic Magic Extended Edition is up for Pre-Order now.
I have just finished reading The Cornish Witch by Elena Collins, which was kindly gifted to me for review by the publisher Boldwood Books prior to its release. I enjoyed it immensely and it is one of those witchy historical novels that I love to read. Set in Cornwall in a small fishing village it tells the duel narratives of Susanna and Katel, a mother and daughter from the 1600s, and Megan, a modern day surfer and herbalist.
When Megan discovers that she has a half sister, she travels to Cornwall to find out more about her. There she spends her time surfing and diving, and learning about the history of the haunted pub where she is staying, The Ship Inn. After a close encounter with the not so friendly ghosts, she is determined to find out who they are and why the are so tormented.
Back in 1625 The Ship Inn was the bustling hub of the village. It was also the base for a group of smugglers and wreckers, who would stash their stolen booty in the cellar. Susanna lives in one of the cottages attached to the Inn and she makes her living as a healer, wise woman and midwife. In this quiet, sheltered life she has brought up her only daughter, Katel, who is a flighty young woman eager for male attention. In her hurry to find love and ward away rivals, she turns to a less wise women than her mother, a woman called Tedda who has a reputation for witchcraft. The subsequent spell casts a dark shadow over the whole village, leaving both Katel and her mother in danger, as the workings of the spell play out with disastrous consequences. I felt great empathy for Susanna who was the calm voice of reason trying to break through the noise of irrational fear and a web of superstition.
This is a novel in the style of a traditional Cornish sea yarn, filled with smugglers, sea shanties, witchcraft, romance and of course, ghosts. In lots of ways it reminded me of the works of Daphne du Maurier, so if you like books such as Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek, The Cornish Witch will probably be one you will enjoy too. I especially liked the descriptions of surfing, which really gave a feeling of being swept up by the power of the ocean and carried on crests of waves. As a non-swimmer I really appreciated this insight into what it must be like to be a surfer and to feel completely at home and safe in the sea.
It is a coastal novel and I could almost smell the surf and the tang of the ocean as I read this book. It was eerily atmospheric when it needed to be and at the same time, it had all the freshness of a coastal mystery and romance. It is the first time I have ever read any of this author's work and I was hooked from the very first page, which is always a good sign. I believe she has also written another novel about a highway-woman, so I'm certainly going to be picking that one up next.
The Cornish Witch is the perfect read for anyone who loves the work of Daphne du Maurier or Barbara Erskine. It will sweep you away on a tide of intrigue and leave you feeling as if you have spent time on the beautiful Cornish coast, wherever you happen to be. It's the perfect book for taking on holiday. Happy reading!
Marie x
AD: This book was sent to be by the publisher, Boldwood Books, prior to its release for the purposes of review. It is available in all formats from the 20th April 2025.