WISE WOMEN

Praise for Wise Women

‘An extra­ordinary selection of stories … beautifully and vividly retold, elaborating the bare-bones structures of folk tales into delightful literary short stories that will be enjoyed by a wider readership than the wise older women for whom the book is intended.’
– Times Literary Supplement

‘The genius of Wise Women – and the reason it can be put to such practical and uplifting use in the lives of eldering women – is that the stories are partnered by illuminating essays of symbolic psychoanalysis: maps to personal life application that Jungians can generate for our culture, which has lost the ancient skills of dream, myth and folktale interpretation. Wise Women has a radically transformative agenda: to reawaken powerful elder female archetypes buried in our unconscious minds; to redress the imbalance created by millennia of patriarchy, by bringing elder women into their agency as wise leaders.’
– Irish Times 

‘A triumphant antidote to the falsities spread about women’s aging, Wise Women is a solace- and life-giving collection of fairy and folk tales.’
– Foreword Reviews

‘A collection of stories retold to celebrate the power of women in the second, golden half of their lives. Begone crones, witches and hags – here, the old ways of thinking are cast aside for inspiration, boldness and fierceness.’
– The Bookseller (category highlight)

‘Nestled in insightful notes, this collection turns the spotlight on older women, celebrating their perspicacity and clout with the flair of a seasoned Broadway performance. This will be a smash-hit of a show starring mature and canny women in its second and third acts!  Read it, absorb it, treasure it!’
– Shahrukh Husain, author of The Virago Book of Witches

‘The glorious possibility that we might age and ripen, age and grow greater, age and be-come, while also accepting that we will age and die – this is what I have come to expect from Sharon Blackie’s expansive work’
– Stella Duffy, author of The Room of Lost Things

‘A wonderful collection of tales casting light on older women’s desires and roles. Blackie’s careful analysis of myth and fairy tale awakens a powerful sense of connection with our most difficult and our most nurturing selves. In a world that often struggles to acknowledge the richness and complexity of this stage of women’s lives, I found these stories of carers, peacemakers, tricksters and more both comforting and inspiring. I will be recommending this to all the wise women I know!’
– Victoria Smith, author of Hags

‘The book I’ve been longing for. I immediately want to give it to all my woman friends. It is so important and Sharon Blackie is exactly the right inspirational person to bring this topic and these new stories of old women to the culture’
– 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. Sharon Blackie has unearthed the tales we Queenagers need to see what we can be and become as we age. Essential reading.’
– Eleanor Mills, founder of Noon.org.uk and author of Much More to Come: Lessons on the mayhem and magnificence of midlife

‘This rich curation re-iterates the truth that women in midlife – and beyond – are a vital source of wisdom. Reading them ignited a fire in my belly!’
– Julia Bueno, author of Everyone’s a Critic

‘A fascinating collection of female myths and legends that read like both dreams and nightmares’
– Sara Sheridan, author of The Fair Botanists

‘This book populated my head with older women who stride, trick, battle, guide and outwit their way through the pages. The giant who forged Scotland’s landscape with clay and her great hammer, the legendary warrior who trained the Irish hero Cuchullain in arts of combat and a mother who stood between armies and bared her breasts to prevent war between her sons. 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

‘Wondrously wise, clever and insightful as well as slyly funny. A new path made of old stories, offering an alternative for women in the second half of life – a reframing as a harvest season of experience rather than a dying off.’
– AG Slatter, author of The Briar Book of the Dead

‘The stories which are retold in this book, based on originals scattered throughout several European traditions, are stories in which older women positively dazzle. In bringing together these ungainly giantesses, glamorous fairy godmothers, misunderstood witches, fierce grandmothers and perspicacious wise women, my aim was both to challenge and change the current cultural discourse around ageing – to help older women to transform themselves, and live and tell their own stories in their own unique way.’

– from the Introduction