Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond

By Sharon Blackie

From early childhood, we learn about the world and its possibilities through myths and fairy tales. The heroines, though, tend to be golden-haired princesses, and the evil-doers often older women.

But women today are searching for positive versions of themselves from midlife onwards, and this dazzling array of not-to-be-messed-with characters – from ungainly giantesses and sequin-strewn fairy godmothers to misunderstood witches and craggy crones – provides them. They outwit monsters, test and mentor younger heroines, embody the cycles and seasons of the earth, weave the world into being – and almost always have the last laugh.

These women manifest their wisdom in different ways, and so offer us inspiration for how we too can walk boldly and live authentically in the second half of life.

Reviews of Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond

'An extra­ordinary selection of stories … beautifully and vividly retold' TLS

'Features an exuberant cast … The collection is precious … Genius' IRISH TIMES

'A fascinating collection of female myths and legends' SARA SHERIDAN, author of The Fair Botanists

'Read it, absorb it, treasure it!' SHAHRUKH HUSAIN, author of The Virago Book of Witches

'Wonderful, both comforting and inspiring' VICTORIA SMITH, author of Hags

'The book I've been longing for' JILL DAWSON, author of The Bewitching

'I adored Wise Women – this is the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle when it comes to reframing the narrative in our culture about the role of older females' ELEANOR MILLS, author of Much More to Come: Lessons on the mayhem and magnificence of midlife

'Reading it quenched a thirst I didn't know I had. Oh for a world where stories of the power and joy of women's elder years are celebrated everywhere' DOREEN CUNNINGHAM, author of Soundings

'Revisits our old stories, making them thrilling for us now' STELLA DUFFY OBE