Listen free for 30 days

Preview

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Cunning Folk

Written by: Tabitha Stanmore
Narrated by: Anna Wilson-Jones
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $24.59

Buy Now for $24.59

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Bloomsbury presents Cunning Folk by Tabitha Stanmore, read by Anna Wilson-Jones.

"Rich and lively."—New York Times Book Review

A vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic.

Imagine: it’s the year 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they’ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you’re facing a trial. Maybe you’re looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do?

In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might have been cunning folk: practitioners of “service magic.” Neither feared (like witches), nor venerated (like saints), they were essential to daily life. For people across ages, genders, and social ranks, practical magic was a cherished resource for navigating life’s many challenges.

In historian Tabitha Stanmore’s beguiling account, we meet lovelorn widows, dissolute nobles, selfless healers, and renegade monks. We listen in on Queen Elizabeth I’s astrology readings and track treasure hunters trying to unearth buried gold without upsetting the fairies that guard it. Much like us, premodern people lived in a bewildering world, buffeted by forces beyond their control. As Stanmore reveals, their faith in magic has much to teach about how to accommodate the irrational in our allegedly enlightened lives today.

Charming in every sense, Cunning Folk is at once an immersive reconstruction of a bygone era and a thought-provoking commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.
©2024 Tabitha Stanmore (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Cunning Folk

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.