Canongate Myths

Myths are some of the world's oldest stories and, as you would expect, these tales have been re-written and re-told in tons of different ways over thousands of years. The publisher, Canongate, have latched onto this and started a series some years ago that saw successful writers re-telling some of these well-known tales. Not only do they make great reading, they are good in-between books. By that I mean that they are very short and are perfect for those times when you have a couple of days or even just an afternoon to hand. There are now 14 myths in the series with the most recent being Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt. I, myself, have read 6 now and will definitely be reading more! Here are 4 of my favourites:

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic - Baba Yaga Baba is an old hag who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children. It's a terrifying old Russian folktale that I used to love my mum read to me as a child. She has appeared in many different forms over time but is always recognisable. This is a beautiful and fresh reworking of a classic child-snatching myth.


The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman - I think Pullman had Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code in mind when he branded the back of the book with the words, "This is a story". I'm sure there was no way that this book could have been published without some kind of religious uproar, but Pullman does a fantastic job reworking arguably the world's most famous tale. In it Jesus and Christ are twins and represent the different faces of Jesus: the celebrity and the 'good man'. It's very short, lots of fun and Pullman's writing, as always, is frustratingly good.


Weight by Jeanette Winterson - This was probably my favourite of all the myths I've read in this series. I'm a big fan of Greek mythology and in this version of the story of Atlas, Jeanette Winterson fully provides. Weight offers a certain mythic quality that I can't quite put my finger on as well as recreating some great characters. Don't worry, though, if you're a fan of Winterson's other work like me, there's a healthy portion of 'strange'.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood - Now everyone loves a bit of Margaret Atwood to read and this is a nice short one for you and, I would argue, probably the most interesting new take on the myths that Canongate done. I say this because Atwood has decided to change the voice of the Odyssey to a woman's - Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. It's a great story and how nice to be able to read it in a couple of hundred of beautifully written but easily read pages!

Click here for a full list.