The Bloody Branch Brigid Lowe 9781787305250

Three powerful heroines - a queen, a sorceress and woman made of flowers - plot revenge against the villain who wronged them. A gorgeously dark debut novel inspired by Celtic Britain's first fantasy fiction.

Man is cruel, but the flowers will take their revenge.

Three great heroines - slave queen Goewin, the reclusive sorceress Arianrhod, and Blodeuwedd, a woman conjured from flowers - unite to avenge themselves on the most dangerous man in ancient legend.

Gwydion is a powerful sorcerer, whose ambition and cruelty wreak havoc across the kingdom. When at last the earth itself is put at stake, Goewin, Arianrhod and Blodeuwedd each unleash their uncanny powers to challenge him.

In this vital and visceral retelling of one of the oldest stories in British literature and precursor of modern fantasy fiction, Brigid Lowe casts ancient light on desire, sex and our relationship with nature to bring Celtic myth to explosive, sensuous, blossoming new life.

Brigid Lowe grew up in remote Wales, where lessons were Bible stories, folk tales and immaculate cursive writing. She speaks Welsh, though her parents are Irish, and she now lives with her children in Scotland. Her part of Scotland is known as Yr Hen Ogled - 'The Old North' - because it was formerly part of one Cumbric kingdom with Wales. She is descended from travellers, circus performers, mill workers and gallowglass mercenary warriors.

Brigid studied literature, first at Bangor, and then at Oxford and Cambridge, where she published a book and many articles on the art of the novel. She now works as a tutor, ghost writer and market-seller.