Amy Jeffs in conversation with Ana Sampson

Amy is the author of the bestselling Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain, an enthralling storyteller and authoritative voice on medieval lives and legends. This year she is on a mission: she believes the legends of Saints should be given the same attention
we devote to mythology. This rich and strange web of lost stories can tell us so much about our ancestors, our landscape and sacred places, our history and ourselves. Her new book Saints: A New Legendary of Humans, Heroes and Magic is assiduously researched history and a deep dive into the earthy, visceral and unruly medieval cult of saints. Beautifully illustrated by the author with thirty dramatic paper cut-outs, Saints retells stories that enjoyed centuries of popular appeal reconstructing a view on Britain's deepest past.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Amy Jeffs is an author, artist and medievalist. During her PhD in Art History at the University of Cambridge, she co-convened a project researching medieval badges and pilgrim souvenirs at the British Museum. She then worked in the British Library’s department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts. Now a Somerset-based author, she illustrates her books with print and paper cutout. Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain was published in 2021. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Waterstones Book of the Month, as well as being shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year. Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britainwas published in 2022. Its audiobook, illustrated with 7 original songs, was named Audiobook of the Week by the Guardian and the Times.

Find Amy on Twitter as @amy_historia and on Instagram as @amyjeffs_author and you can listen to her perform songs she has composed inspired by medieval myths on Spotify.

ABOUT THE HOST

Ana Sampson is the author of many best-selling anthologies including I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and Other Poems You Half-Remember from School, Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much Loved Poems you Half-Remember, Poems to Learn by Heart, Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside, Best-Loved Poems: A Treasury of Verse, and Wonder: The Natural History Poetry Collection.
Ana grew up in Kent and studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield. After achieving both a BA and an MA, she began a career in publishing PR and has appeared multiple time on radio and television discussing books and poetry. She lives in Surrey with her her husband, and two daughters.

Host or Publisher Guildford Book Festival