SPINDLEWOOD: A FAIRY TALE

by Marcus Attwater

novelette, epub

For sixteen years Celia has lived exactly as one would expect a nice middle class girl to live – cherished, sheltered and untried. But then she is struck down by a mysterious illness caused by a spiteful curse. Mortally tired and with her friends and family powerless to help her, she is sent away on a trip to Warwickshire in an attempt to raise her spirits. There, oblivious to the rich history of her surroundings, she meets a fairy woman on the edge of the woods who offers her a chance of escape. Celia only has to join her on the other side of the boundary and she will be well again. But those who enter fairyland at the Lady Spindle’s invitation rarely return to the human world...

Spindlewood is a Victorian fairy tale about the tension between wishes and expectations. It is part of the Tales of the Boundaries, a series of novellas exploring what happens when this and the otherworld meet. They can be read in any order.