Mythago Wood: A True Fantasy Masterwork

I’ve written about Robert Holdstock a number of times since his untimely death, five years ago. Along with most of the Gollancz team, I was lucky enough to know the man as well as the writer; and, although he produced an incredible body of work – enough, certainly, to place him in the very highest rank of modern fantasy writers – I know I’m not alone in missing the former more than the latter.

Far from Rob’s beloved wildwood – indeed, in the very heart of the city – lies Saint Paul’s Cathedral. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren almost 350 years ago, and he was the first person to be interred within. The wall above his tomb bears the words Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice: ‘Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you’.

It occurs to me, that these words could so easily apply to Robert Holdstock. His monument, too, lies around us: in the strange worlds of his early SF, in the audacious blend of Greek mythlogy and Arthurian legend that is his Merlin Codex trilogy, and in the wildwoods of Ryhope Wood. As we approach the fifth anniversary of his passing, Gollancz is delighted to be publishing, today, a thirtieth anniversary edition of Rob’s greatest work, the World Fantasy Award-winning Mythago Wood.

This new edition is published, fittingly, in our Fantasy Masterworks series, and is adorned without by the stunning artwork of Grzegorz Domaradzki, as art directed by Graeme Langhorne, and adorned within by a wonderful introduction from Neil Gaiman.

Welcome to Ryhope Wood.