Mischief Acts

Author Zoe Gilbert
Narrator various
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 12 hours and 39 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Fantasy, Folklore, myths and legends, Magical realism, Modern and contemporary fiction, Society and Social Sciences.

Get in the xigxag app

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Pre-order Buy Now £{{ price }}

How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
_______________

'A work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised’ OBSERVER
'A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining’ THE TIMES
_______________

Herne the hunter, mischief-maker, spirit of the forest, leader of the wild hunt, hurtles through the centuries pursued by his creator.

A shapeshifter, Herne dons many guises as he slips and ripples through time – at candlelit Twelfth Night revels, at the spectacular burning of the Crystal Palace, at an acid-laced Sixties party. Wherever he goes, transgression, debauch and enchantment always follow in his wake.

But as the forest is increasingly encroached upon by urban sprawl and gentrification, and the world slides into crisis, Herne must find a way to survive – or exact his revenge.
_______________

With its intoxicating, chameleonic voice and boundless imagination, Mischief Acts is British folklore as you’ve never read it before: dangerous, sexy, troubling, daring, savage, an exhilarating race through time and space, weaving together the ancient and the contemporary.

‘A dark-dazzling archive of enchantments, pursuit, and desire’ ELEY WILLIAMS

'This is the most adventurous, stylistically magnificent thing I’ve read for years. Nobody does fantasy like Zoe Gilbert' NATASHA PULLEY

'Mischief Acts is brimming with magic ... The story of Herne, like the forest itself, transforms, entangles and enchants' LUCY WOOD

'A dazzling new take on an ancient myth, reminding us of the wildness within. I adored it' KERRY ANDREW

'Superb. A work of shimmering allure' IRENOSEN OKOJIE

Critics Review

Wild and wonderful … a delirious labour of love
SUNDAY TIMES, BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Inventive and subversive … A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore
MAIL ON SUNDAY
A joyous mad brick of a book
THE TIMES, Best summer reads 2022
Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining
THE TIMES
A dark-dazzling archive of enchantments, pursuit, and desire
ELEY WILLIAMS
Weaving together prose and poetry, myth and history, the past, present and future, it’s a work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised
OBSERVER
Gilbert conjures up an enchanting history of a now near-forgotten woodland. elegizing the myths lost to modernity and the wild spaces swallowed by the city
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
This is the most adventurous, stylistically magnificent thing I’ve read for years. Nobody does fantasy like Zoe Gilbert
NATASHA PULLEY
Mischief Acts is a deeply lyrical, century-spanning polyphony of voices; a dazzling new take on an ancient myth, reminding us of the wildness within. I adored it
KERRY ANDREW
Mischief Acts is brimming with magic – full of wild hunts, river spirits and revelry. The story of Herne, like the forest itself, transforms, entangles and enchants
LUCY WOOD
Superb. A work of shimmering allure. By turns beguiling and mercurial, Gilbert takes British folklore to new heights
IRENOSEN OKOJIE
Charming, naughty, epic, adventurous, mystical, beautifully penned, and incredibly good fun to read – do so as soon as you can … A little bit David Bowie in his chameleonic charisma, with a touch of Jim Morrison, perhaps, the character imagined here can’t help but charm the reader, but it’s Gilbert’s effortless, imaginative prose that is the true delight, for it’s just as stylish and suave as the central protagonist
BUZZ MAGAZINE
Such an important novel for our times … Reconnects us with a centuries-old story of an environment that is bigger than us, older than us and at whose whim we are ultimately dependent on for our survival
THE CONVERSATION
An absolutely glorious work
FORTEAN TIMES, Books of the Year

More from the same

Narrator

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.