Kate Forsyth is a storyteller whose books are spun out of magic and folklore. Her most famous work, Bitter Greens, is the retelling of Rapunzel. In all her stories there are princesses and wild forests, imagined terrors and real darkness, escapes to be made and arms to fall into. She is the ultimate giver of dreams, taking a fairytale and turning it around to provide even more possibilities, for both younger readers and adults.

In this latest novel, written for adults and based on historical details, she gives us the story of the most famous storytellers of all. Dortchen Wild grows up next door to the Grimm brothers in Hesse-Cassel, a small German kingdom. It is Dortchen who tells Wilhelm Grimm some of the most powerful and compelling stories that will later appear in the brothers’ famous fairytale collection. The two fall in love, but were only able to marry after the country, torn apart by the Napoleon War, was safe and her father, a miserable, violent man, had died. They waited, and lived happily ever after.

As Neil Gaiman says in his work Fragile Things, ‘[S]ome stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created.’

In this beautifully written, and yes romantic story, Forsyth has done lovers of fairytales a great service, giving us the ultimate homage.

Chris Gordon