The Book of Fables

Eight uncanny journeys into the borderlands between myth and reality.In The Book Of Fables poet C S Hughes presents a collection of reveries, myths, and wanderings, sometimes wry, sometimes dark, always compelling us to take the next inevitable step. Eight strange tales where the edge between what we imagine, and what is real, is often blurred.In The Girl, The Cat, The Bird, The Stone & The Sea a young woman listens to the advice of cats, but ignores the remonstrance of birds.In Mothergrumble the children of the Dog Clan, in service to their clanking fire god and guided by their ancient Mother, both defy and surrender to the burgeoning winter.In Last Innings on a lost Antarctic shore the Gods and penguins watch on and approve as an expedition halts for a final game of cricket. In Carpe Diem at a funeral, by a carnival, two old soldiers, now grave diggers, defy their fears, and their strings.In A Tower Rose from a spun glass prison a captive’s song unleashes fate’s dire arrow, sending a young prince on a quest to break a mountain’s stony heart. In Fish-child by an intemperate sea a fisher-wife tends a foundling the waves should never have given, and in return love learns the tide’s true cost.In No Agenda a not quite human emissary to a not quite human world finds it is in our wounds and in our myths that we are all too human.And finally in Mirrors & Slivers amongst towers of shining glass we learn washing windows carries its own interminable weight, and is perhaps the loneliest job of all.For readers who wander between worlds – open the cover and step inside. Here myth, dream, strangeness and charm thread themselves through ordinary and extraordinary lives, this and much more you will find, if you surrender reason to The Book Of Fables.Recent Praise for The Book Of Fables * * * * * I had the same feeling of excitement reading these stories as I did reading Golding’s The Scorpion God, or any of China Mieville’s work for the first time. C S Hughes’ delight in language and storytelling was a joy –one which I wallowed in with revelrous abandon. This is a glorious collection of stories. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. * * * * *Arcane and otherworldly, this collection is written with a clear love of language. The prose is dense and richly poetic, imbuing each tale with a great deal of atmosphere. My current favourites are: Mothergrumble, which is somehow both mythical and apocalyptic; and the muted, unsettling Carpe Diem. Highly recommended. * * * * *An elegant, whimsical book…I will be revisiting this collection of tales when I need a reminder magic lies in the knitting of words into artistic masterpieces.