The Mab – Ed. Matt Brown & Eloise Williams, illustrated by Max Low (Unbound)
If you think you’ve heard all the fairy tales out there, think again. Here are eleven epic Welsh tales that are bound to enchant. The Mab is a collection full to the brim with brand new versions of old, old stories from the Mabinogi which are also strange, funny and thrilling. Alive with mystery and magic, they speak of a time when the gates between the Real World and the Otherworld were occasionally left open … and sometimes it was possible to step through.
The Blackthorn Branch – Elen Caldecott (Andersen Press)
Cassie’s older brother Byron has fallen in with the wrong crowd – these boys are wild, reckless and not human at all. They are tylwyth teg – Fair Folk – who tempt humans into the dark places of the world. And Byron is tempted. When he goes missing, Cassie and her cousin, Siân, follow his trail to an abandoned railway tunnel which goes down into Annwn, the underworld. Here they find that the tylwyth teg are restless and angry. Their leader, Gwenhidw, wants to protect Annwn from the damage humans are doing to the world. Byron is part of her plan, but Cassie won’t let him be part of anyone’s plan. Can she rescue him before it is too late?
The Drowned Woods – Emily Lloyd Jones (Hodder)
Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict, and eighteen-year-old Mererid – ‘Mer’ – is well-acquainted with both. As the last living water diviner, she can manipulate water with magic, a unique elemental power many would kill to possess. For years, Mer has been running from the prince who bound her into his service, and forced her to kill thousands with her magic. Now, all Mer truly wants is a safe, quiet life, far from power and politics. But then Mer’s old handler, the king’s spymaster, returns with a proposition: she is to use her powers to bring down the very prince that abused them both.
The Blue Book of Nebo – Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly Press)
Dylan was six when The End came in 2018; when the electricity went off for good, and the ‘normal’ world he knew disappeared. Now he’s 14 and he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above their village in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living. Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. They each have their own secrets, which emerge as they jot down their thoughts and memories in the Blue Book.
Available now from your local bookshop.
The winners will be announced on the Radio Wales Arts Show, on 2 June 2023.