No Fair Maidens

When Kim Willis feels herself drifting from the path every woman is expected to take, she finds no solace in the ashrams of India or plant ceremonies of Peru. Instead, she’s pulled to the source of the Severn, hearing whispers of ancient matriarchs: shape-shifting enchantresses, scaly nymphs and goddesses who once commanded our lands. These are no fair maidens, but animalistic beasts, snaking along the edges of watery places where reality and the otherworld meet in the shadows.

As she uncovers their dormant power hidden in the rugged landscapes of Britain, women like Arianrhod, Melusine and Cerridwen awaken the spark of something ancient in Kim. Journeying from the Severn to Skye, Eryri to Northumberland, she navigates through grief, love, lust, and a new intuition, unveiling forgotten truths about sexual empowerment, sisterhood, motherhood, fertility, freedom and relationships.

Through the threads of folklore, history and landscape, here Kim identifies a better way of being for modern women and crafts a new narrative for Britain, where women are - and always were - a force of nature.