Episode 7:  Myths, the Mabinogi and magical stories with the Tir na n-Og 2023 Winners 

This time, authors Emily Lloyd-Jones, winner of the Tir na n’Og 2023 English language category with her novel The Drowned Woods, and Matt Brown, winner of the Readers’ Choice award with The Mab, join Francesca Sciarrillo to discuss myths, the Mabinogi and the magic of creating stories for young readers.   

Reading List: 

·        The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones  

·        The Mab edited by Matt Brown and Eloise Williams  

·        The Blackthorn Branch by Elen Caldecott  

·        The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones  

·        The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies 

Joining Ilid Haf in this episode of Crank Up the Volumes are Ruth Glynn, founder of the Cogan Picture Book Award and illustrator Max Low, to discuss the importance of picture books. 

Mentioned in the episode:

• Ceri & Deri Series by Max Low (Graffeg)

Joining Ilid Haf in this episode of Crank Up the Volumes are authors Claire Fayers and Beatrice Wallbank, to discuss re-imagining Welsh myths and legends.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Sleeping Stones – Beatrice Wallbank (Firefly)
• Storm Hound - Claire Fayers (Macmillan Children's Books)
• Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends - Claire Fayers (Scholastic Classics)

Joining Ilid Haf in this episode of Crank Up the Volumes are Connor Allen, Children’s Laureate Wales and Hanan Issa, National Poet of Wales to talk about poetry and its power … and there’s not a rhyme in sigh.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Rose that Grew from Concrete – Tupac Shakur (Packet Books

Joining Ilid Haf in this episode of Crank Up the Volumes are the award-winning authors Eloise Williams and Lesley Parr. With quite a bit of mutual fan-girling, they talk about writing books set in Wales, how readers and publishers respond to that and much more.

• The Valley of Lost Secrets – Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury)
• Honesty and Lies – Eloise Williams (Firefly Press)
• The Blue Book of Nebo – Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly Press0
• More books by Lesley Parr:
• When the War Came Home (Bloomsbury)
• Where the River Takes Us (Bloomsbury, published 2023)
• More books by Eloise Williams:
• Editor: The Mab (Unbound)
• The Tide Singer - illustrated by August Ro (Barrington Stoke)
• Wilde (Firefly Press)
• Seaglass (Firefly Press)
• Gaslight (Firefly Press)
• Elen’s Island (Firefly Press)

In this episode of Crank Up the Volumes, Ilid is joined by Elen Caldecott, Gwen Millward, and Huw Aaron – authors, illustrators and a publisher – who share their opinions and some of their favourite book covers with us as we discuss one of life’s big questions, should you judge a book by its cover?

Reading list:

• The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkein, illustrated by Pauline Baynes
• The Big Adventure of a Little Line – Serge Bloch (Original French title: La Grande Histoire d’un Petit Trait)
• Circe – Madeline Miller
• Sorrow and Bliss – Meg Mason
• Welsh Wonders: The Colourful Life of Gwen John - Casia Wiliam, illustrated by Gwen Millward
• Operation Eifel Tower – Elen Caldecott
• Bunny vs Monkey – Jamie Smart
• The Bus Stop at the End of the World – Dan Anthony, illustrated by Huw Aaron
• Find the Dragon – Huw Aaron
• Sw Sara Mai; Sara Mai a Lleidr y Neidr – Casia Wiliam, illustrated by Gwen Millward
• The Blackthorn Branch – Elen Caldecott, cover illustration by Rachel Dean
• October October – Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding
• The Wall in the Middle of the Book - Jon Agee
• The Book with No Pictures – B.J. Novak
• Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good – Louie Stowell
• One Tiny Dot – Lucy Rowland, illustrated by Gwen Millward

In this episode Ilid Haf talks to Jannat Ahmed and Simon Fisher, two of the Tir na n-Og Award judges, about the joys and challenges of the judging process.

Shortlisted Tir na n-Og books

• 10 Stories form Welsh History (That Everyone Should Know) - Ifan Morgan Jones, illustr. Telor Gwyn (Rily)
• The Valley of Lost Secrets - Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury)
• Swan Song - Gill Lewis (Barrington Stoke)
• Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends – Claire Fayers (Scholastic)