Saints cover art

Saints

A new legendary of heroes, humans and magic

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Saints

By: Amy Jeffs
Narrated by: Amy Jeffs
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About this listen

 From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Storyland and Wild, comes a sweeping new legendary of miracles, magic, human frailty and heroic strength. Illustrated with over thirty original paper cutouts by the author.

'Jeffs writes beautifully, erring just on the right side of florid, and her linocut prints make for attractive illustrations . . . This gorgeous book should live on the bookshelves in every house that cares about the idea of Britain, what is was and where it came from' The Times on Storyland

'I have fallen so completely in love with this book; Storyland, by Amy Jeffs, just one of the finest, most covetable things around' Katherine Rundell

Saints' legends suffused medieval European culture. Their heroes' suffering and wonder-working shaped landscapes, rituals and folk beliefs. Their tales spoke of men raised by wolves, women communing with flocks of birds and severed heads calling from between bristling paws.

In Saints, Amy Jeffs retells legends born of the medieval cult of saints. She draws on 'official' lives, vernacular romances, artworks and obscene poetry, all spanning from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries. The legends' heroes originate from as far east as Turkey and North Africa and as far west as Britain and Ireland. Saints includes such enduring super saints as Brigid, George, Patrick and Michael, as well as some whose legends are less well known (Scoithín, Euphrosyne and Ia) or else couched in prejudice (William of Norwich).

The commentaries following the stories offer a history of each saint and, together, trace the rise and fall of the medieval cult of saints from the first martyrs to the Protestant Reformation. And all this maps onto the passing year: from St Mungo in January to St Thomas Becket in December.

Jeffs guides her readers from images high on the walls of medieval churches, through surviving treasures of the elite and into the shifting silt of the Thames, where lie the lowly image-bearing badges once treasured by pilgrims. She opens manuscripts that hold wondrous stories of the lives and deaths of wayfaring monks, oak-felling missionaries and mighty martyrs. With tales of demons and dragons, with the stubborn skull of a giant, with stories of sleepers in a concealed Greek cave, Saints will enchant and transport readers to other worlds.©2024 Amy Jeffs Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Christianity Collections Europe Medieval Middle Ages

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Critic reviews

Wonderful . . . Each lifestory is a gem . . . It's beautifully written, evocative, informative, compulsive reading.
A rewarding and beguiling collection of legends that are little known, a wide-ranging introduction to medieval saints' lives
The legends are beautifully told and illustrated . . . The writer's approach is both imaginative and scholarly.
Jeffs has a great eye for vivid creaturely detail
Illustrated with her own black paper cut-outs, it is a book of remarkable beauty, mystery and originality
All stars
Most relevant
I loved how Amy Jeffs explored the Saints and the historical context she gives to each Saint. I just wish there was more written about each Saint and we explored more of their stories (more like how Stephen Fry writes in Heroes). My favourite part of Saints was the song at the end, the production was superb!

Also, is there a way for audio listeners to get access the wood carvings Jeffs drawers in the book?

Relaxing read

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I stumbled on this book and it was exactly what I was looking for. Great and atmospheric introduction to medieval saints with each saint having a story and a commentary.

Beautiful Storytelling

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A quirky and enthusiastic introduction to the stranger saints of Medieval Christianity. While entertaining, students of the period won’t find much here they didn’t already know.

'When I was at Cambridge...'

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