Curiosity is indeed an apt subtitle for this particular folklore collection, as it stimulates your curiosity as well as your interest.
So just how good is The Magpie & The Wardrobe: A Curiosity of Folklore, Magic and Spells?
You can watch this as a video review over on Youtube below, or keep reading if you prefer text!
A Curiosity of Charm
Published by Pavilion Books, The Magpie & The Wardrobe: A Curiosity of Folklore, Magic and Spells is an absolutely gorgeous collection. It combines folklore snippets, sweet spells and other charming bits and bobs.
It’s not an in depth survey of folklore by any stretch of the imagination. But it does provide a useful ‘jumping off’ point. It’s a perfect book for dipping into. Plus you can use any of the short entries to lead you on to further research.
For example, I let the book fall open at random. I came across the delightful scrapbook pages on wedding superstitions! That could prompt research into more wedding superstitions. Maybe even tales of weddings within folklore.
Or it could even prompt a design project for wedding invitations or wedding themes! After all, wearing white became more popular as a symbol of purity in 1840 when Queen Victoria wore the colour. A Victorian themed wedding, perhaps?
The design of the book is also first rate.
The inclusion of a ribbon bookmark is a particularly nice touch. It’s weighted with a four-leaf clover! But each layout is absolutely gorgeous. The book has the feel of an olde worlde witch’s grimoire. It’s like a scrapbook of spells and lore.
The Pavilion website describes it as “a unique treasury of marvels and oddities – a lovingly curated compendium of time-honoured traditions and curious customs that have bewitched us for generations.” It is indeed that!
The Magpie & The Wardrobe would make a wonderful Christmas gift for anyone who loves folklore. Or treat yourself to this beautiful book as an inspiration for your own folkloric travels!
I should note that I’ll be dipping into it to find inspiration for future posts. I think it’ll also provide a wonderful set of writing prompts for fiction. Any writer could let the book fall open and gain inspiration from the snippets they find.
If you’re interested in folklore, or you’re looking for a beautiful Christmas present, then this book will be the ideal way to spark your imagination.
You can buy the book from Amazon here (affiliate link).
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I LOVE coffee table books – especially the weird and wonderful ones, this is DEFINITELY going on my list – I can just imagine how many story ideas I’ll get from it.
It’s so pretty!