Brunt Boggart: A Tapestry of Tales

A tapestry of tales; threads winding in and out to create vivid pictures, each individual but all connected. David Greygoose has created just such a tapestry. This is not a book that can be read as a straight chronological story that flows easily from its beginning to its end. Rather, as a storyteller, he tells a sequence of tales that are built around the imaginary village of Brunt Boggart and its colourful inhabitants. Every tale begins with the same words ‘Let me tell you… let me tell you…’ – which if read continuously becomes too repetitious. However, if taken a story at a time, the magic can begin. And the stories are magical and surreal. Adopting the mad logic and leaps of imagination that reflect folk tales, Greygoose explores the psychologies of a little village – the loneliness, the jealousies, the ambitions, the relationships. He tracks, through metaphor and imagery, the exodus of the young as they follow the lure of the city only to find a very different reality. Inventive, told with the immediacy of the oral tradition in language that is rich, redolent of poetry, this is not a book for everyone. It is a book, however, to discover and should be recommended to readers who are looking for something different; who want to be carried away and who will respond to the rhythms of these stories.