Ballad Tales ─ An Anthology of British Ballads Retold

A ballad is a song that tells a story and many traditional British ballads contain fascinating stories—tales of love and jealousy, murder and mystery, the supernatural and the historical. This anthology brings together 19 original retellings in short story form, written by some of the country’s most accomplished storytellers, singers, and wordsmiths. Here you will find tales of cross-dressing heroines, lusty pirates, vengeful fairy queens, mobsters and monsters, mermaids and starmen—stories that dance with the form and flavor of these narrative folksongs in daring and delightful ways. Richly illustrated, these enchanting tales will appeal to lovers of folk music, storytelling, and rattling yarns.

Kevan Manwaring is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. He teaches creative writing for the Open University and the Skyros Writers’ Lab. He also runs freelance courses in storytelling and has appeared in numerous shows both solo and with Fire Springs in Britain and abroad. His work includes two collections of folk tales. Candia McKormack is the deputy editor at Cotswold Life.