Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland ~ Kevin Crossley-Holland

I don’t know what it is about folktales, but they have always fascinated me. Despite my fascination with them, I haven’t read too many; I have read many works based on folktales and every time I want to read about the tale that inspired them. I don’t often get around to it. Earlier in the year, not long before lockdown, I bought myself Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland. I’ve almost read it multiple times before now, but it has not been the priority read, finally, I read far enough into my TBR pile to be able to pick this up.

Between Worlds is a collection of folktales from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. There are six categories of folktale in Kevin Crossley-Holland’s book; Magic and Wonder; Adventures and Legends; Fairies and Little People; Love; Wits, Tricks and Laughter and Ghosts. Each category has a minimum of six folktales of various lengths. 

Like all compilations, there were some tales that I adored, some that I didn’t really care for and others that irked me. I was hoping for a few more tales involving folktale creatures, but I did enjoy the variety Crossley-Holland provided. 

It took me a while to read the entirety of this book. Short stories always take me longer than a full-length novel due to the constantly changing plots and characters that you have to digest. What made this book take even longer was the lack of labelling of which culture each story came from as you started the tale. The front of the book provided a handy pronunciation guide, but not knowing whether I was reading an Irish or a Welsh folktale tripped me up. At the back of the book, there was a list of sources and a little description of what Crossley-Holland had changed, but having to keep flicking back and forth was a little annoying. 

The illustrations in this book are amazing. Frances Castle illustrated something for each folktale and double-paged landscapes for the beginning of each category. The black and white, vintage-inspired, illustrations looked very striking and I found my eyes being drawn to them a lot.

Even though it took me several weeks to get through it, I quite enjoyed reading Between Worlds. I recognised some of the folktales, mostly by other names or different retellings and it was fun to see a different side of things. Overall, I give Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland four stars.

C🌙