Log In SEVEN FABLES . . . a haven of inspiration on Exmoor WINTER VIEWING HOURS Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm *Closed Monday 18th November to prepare for the festive season!* DULVERTON BY STARLIGHT Sunday 1st December 11am - 7pm Join artist and poet, Catherine Hyde , by our fireside from 1pm until 4pm Portfolio Seven Fables is honoured to represent some of the finest, most skilled professional artists, writers and makers that are currently creating in the UK today. Deliveries of delight are always arriving and the best way to select and choose an item for your home is of course in person. We understand that this is not possible for everyone, so a selection is featured here on our website. Jackie Morris We are the principal UK outlet representing renowned artist & author Jackie Morris, winner of The CILIP 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal for The Lost Words created in partnership with Robert Macfarlane. To discover originals and prints that are currently available to purchase view here A selection of her work is displayed in the gallery but do book ahead if there are specific pieces you wish to view in person. Journal A celebration of the creativity at Seven Fables... Here you will find films, poems, articles and past antics! Books Storytelling has always been part of our lives. We delight in curating the book selection at Seven Fables and the response from our customers is always very positive! We stock a range of books in keeping with our ethos which is a love of nature, art, poetry, fairytale & folklore. We are always happy to offer advice on your purchase. New books arrive fresh from the publisher's press daily - some signed which will make your gift that little extra special. Walking Book Club If you love reading and enjoy walking then this could be just the book club you have been seeking. . . Seven Fables is ideally situated to take advantage of the many beautiful woodland & riverside footpaths that are within strides of our doorstep. Our Walking Book Club is now hibernating until next year... Forthcoming Events We regularly welcome artists and authors to Seven Fables. Our newsletter will keep you informed of future events, so do subscribe if you would like to join like minded 'Fable Folk' celebrating nature and the arts. Our next special event is on Sunday 1st December, when Catherine Hyde will be joining us to celebrate the publication of Darkling - The Owl's Song Full details HERE Christmas approaches which means that the musicians and their companions are on the move once more... A short film by Seven Fables featuring Jackie Morris and this year's artwork for Help Musicians. Original watercolour, limited edition prints and Christmas cards now available, discover and read more below... Where the White Bears Dance 'Dear Seven Fables, Just received your latest email and, on impulse, wanted to tell you how much joy your communications bring to me. Everything is just soooo beautiful, I feel such a glow as I read them.' Join fellow 'Fable Folk' and receive our newsletter from Exmoor First Name Last Name Email I agree to the terms & conditions View terms of use Subscribe Thank you for subscribing!

Events Seven Fables has hosted many exhibitions, workshops and book signings over the years - all we hope with a little magic! Last year we will welcomed writers Hannah Stowe, Katherine May, Catrina Davies, and Jackie Morris joined us for our 21st birthday celebrations. The Seven Fables newsletter will keep you updated with future dates and ticket details, so do subscribe if you wish to meet other likeminded 'Fable Folk'! If you require accommodation Knapp House , Mounsey End and Nutsford House offer a 10% discount to guests who are staying in order to attend any of our events, just let them know at time of booking. For future Walking Book Club dates and selected titles please visit the dedicated page here. Forthcoming Special Events 2024 Sun, 01 Dec Seven Fables Dulverton By Starlight 01 Dec 2024, 11:00 – 19:00 Seven Fables, 7 The High Street, Dulverton, Somerset TA22 9HB, UK A festive afternoon... Learn more Sun, 01 Dec Seven Fables Darkling - Book Signing 01 Dec 2024, 13:00 – 16:00 Seven Fables, 7 The High Street, Dulverton, Somerset TA22 9HB, UK Join Catherine Hyde by the fireside 'in the kitchen' at Seven Fables Learn more

Catherine Hyde Landscapes glimpsed... We have been representing Catherine's work at Seven Fables since we opened in 2002, during that time it has been an absolute delight and privilege to witness her work evolve and to see her creative wings unfurl to include the written word. Seven Fables is delighted that Catherine will be returning to our fireside to celebrate the recent publication of Darkling on Sunday 1st December, during the town's annual winter festivities, Dulverton by Starlight - we do hope you are able to join us for a truly festive afternoon, further details here. Beautiful Books by Catherine Hyde Just Published! Quick View Book - Darkling - Catherine Hyde Price £15.00 Shipping info Add to Cart Signed Edition Quick View Book - The Bee and the Sun - Catherine Hyde Price £15.00 Shipping info Add to Cart Catherine Hyde Limited Edition Prints Printed using light-fast pigmented inks, on Epson archive quality velvet fine art paper, all prints are supplied be-spoke mounted & cello wrapped. Catherine's prints are available in two sizes, regular and large, do refer to the gallery below for full details. A selection are also framed, please enquire. Delivery available throughout the UK and overseas Limited Edition Prints - Regular Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - The Brightening Dawn Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Into the Velvet Darkness Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Falling Through Starlight Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Soft Night Descending Call for availability Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Through the Darkness Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Under a Blanket of Stars Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Against the Night Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - Ask The Bee Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - The Nightjar's Call Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - The Mistletoe Tree Price £115.00 Shipping info Bespoke Mounted Print Quick View Print - The Sleeping Earth Price £115.00 Shipping info

A Musical Christmas Procession... Throughout her career, Jackie Morris has been creating dreamlike images for the Help Musicians Christmas card, and this year the white bears take centre stage, dancing on the back of an elephant as they parade across a winter landscape. It has in recent years become part of the festive tradition, for Jackie to invite a musician to compose a short piece of music to accompany the artwork. This year she invited Molly Howell, a young musician living in Wales to respond to the colourful, serene winter procession. Molly has worked previously with Jackie, creating the haunting soundscape for Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone and welcomed this new commission. Christopher and I were not expecting to make a film for the artwork this year as Jackie's time has been focused on completing The Book of Lost Birds, her head in paint, brush and feathers, and yet we unexpectedly found ourselves staying together at Northmoor House and never ones to miss a creative opportunity spent an afternoon at the piano... A visual delight... On returning home we spent a day by the fireside editing a short film to convey the spirit of this year's artwork, highlighting the colourful details that link the stories, the musicians and their companions across Jackie's imaginative winter realms. We hope you enjoy visiting their world for a brief, relaxing moment in time... If you are enchanted by this year's imagery you will be delighted to know that limited edition prints are available to order directly from Seven Fables, the original also. Delivery is available throughout the UK and overseas - please do enquire info@sevenfables.co.uk or view via the link below THE JACKIE MORRIS PRINT COLLECTION The Christmas cards are for sale exclusively from the Help Musicians website HELP MUSICIANS 'We love music and want a world where musicians thrive.' Help Musicians is a charity for professional musicians of all genres, both in work and in retirement. They offer support at times of crisis, but also at times of opportunity, giving people the help they need at the crucial stages that could make or break their career. Discover more by Molly Howell on Bandcamp... BANDCAMP: MOLLY HOWELL

...tell me the names of the sea' The story of a painting, a song of the sea and a film by Seven Fables For almost twenty years, if not more, Jackie Morris has been creating dreamlike images for the Help Musicians Christmas card, this year is the story of the Fox and Hare and Great White Bear, and the painting is accompanied by a haunting melody written and performed by Kerry Andrew - You Are Wolf . Jackie asked Christopher, and myself, if we would make a film to capture the beauty and vibrancy of her work, and highlight Kerry's music. We naturally said yes - Jackie is a joy to work with and having the luxury of a ready-made soundtrack was a gift, so while staying at Northmoor House , we set up a temporary studio in the scullery where the colour and gold shone in the October light. Before you continue reading, listening, watching, we suggest that you light a candle or two, make yourself comfortable, relax and enjoy... Fox and Hare and Great White Bear A story by Jackie Morris In every image there are as many stories as there are people who look. Each begins with a curiosity. Who is the woman in blue? Does the drummer summon the fish with the rhythm of her music? Does the boat follow the fish as they wander the world’s winds, or do the fish follow the boat, drawn by the music? Where are they going? What are they leaving? The fox and the hare and the great white bear had seen this before. On days like this when the sea was a palette of colours; green and slate green and silver and blue, paynes grey and smalt, and glass green. They knew how the fish would rise when colours sang in the water, and they knew how each fish pulled the snow into the sky with their great fan tails, searching for dreams, carried a sliver of the old moon in their eyes, keeping the moon safe until she grew in her power to fulness again. They knew that on days like this it would seem as if the whole world were made of music and this would be where answers could be found. For a year they had been walking, together over the white, footfall after footfall, through snow, in new moon and full moon, and each of the moons with its own name, its own story. She carried her question to the edge, to ask the fish for an answer. “What,” she asked, “would have the power to call all of the birds to make a bridge of their wings to stretch across the universe?” And the fish answered, as always, with a story. It was said that he was born to the song of the nightingales, and their thrilling notes were the first music he heard. And so, from his birth, he understood the language of birds. And if some are born rich and some are born poor there are those who understand the nature of true wealth does not lie in gold, but somewhere more precious. As a babe he would lie in his cradle as his mother worked, watch the light in the leaves dance patterns across his crib and listen to the language of birds. When she worked the fields he was strapped to her back and would watch the wild geese, an autumn arrow across the sky. In spring he thrilled to the voices of oriels. And as he grew he began to help his mother, clearing the fields of stones, bending to plant rice, standing to watch the cranes dance to their own music, in the turning world. His father was often away, caring for sheep on the mountain pastures, but one day, home for a while, he took down a painted box from a high shelf. In the box, wrapped in golden silk, an intricately carved bamboo flute. He handed it to his son, who admired the object, intrigued, then gave it back to his father. And when his father raised the instrument to his lips and played the first note the boy knew he could never be a farmer. His life belonged to the flute, to music. He learned how to make his own instrument. He learned to play. Everywhere he went he carried the flute, every spare moment he practiced. And he made new flutes, from bamboo, from wood, from the bones of a swan. And with every new making the sound became richer, wilder, deeper. Now when he played the nightingales would come to listen, thread their music through his, thrilling and filling the starlight hours. When he went with his father to watch over the sheep it was said the wolves would gather to listen. There was a wild haunting ache to the young man’s music, which left within it space for the wild song of the world to enter, the voices of others, the river, the wind, the colours of butterflies and moths, wild flowers and always birdsong. It was said that his music could heal even the most broken of hearts or minds. People would gather to hear him play and it wasn’t long before musicians made pilgrimage to his door to request that he make them a flute. And so he began to make flutes for others. He would look at the person, listen closely to their colours, and know exactly how to make the best instrument to fit them perfectly. His fame spread, tales of a shepherd boy troubadour. By now he was a young man, restless in the world, spending most of his time in the mountains, charming the wolves, making laments powerful enough that the moon would stop in her tracks to listen. And this was how he came to the attention of the Emperor. The Emperor sent a summons. He wanted the boy to come and play to his daughter, struck down by a melancholy so deep she hardly ate, spending her days locked in a tall tower, refusing food, sleeping and sighing and wasting away. He offered wealth. The boy thanked him, but said he could not leave the mountains. He did not need money. The Emperor sent again, this time a command. The boy said he could not come as he was learning from the birds. The Emperor was angry. But he was also measured. He knew that a songbird in a cage does not sing as sweet as one who flies free. He commissioned a portrait of his beloved child, and sent this to the young man. The boy left the mountains, travelled over the sea, learned the music of waves, came to the Emperor’s door. Every night for seven nights he sat at the foot of the princess’ tower and played. In moonlight and starlight, as shooting stars fell he played. As the rain added a rhythm to his music he played. As the lights of the aurora danced in the sky, he played. Night birds came and added a chorus and the wind threaded through the leaves of the forest. His music became a current that was one with the river and on the seventh night the princess rose from her bed and went to the window. Notes from the flute lifted skyward, a simple, dark love song, out from the mind of the boy and into her heart. Did she fall in love from the first note that entered her dreaming mind? Probably. Was the Emperor pleased to witness the revival of his child? Yes. But....... she was betrothed to the King in the North, a treaty of great trade and power. And if that king was 60 years old, well, such was the ways of power. And if now she had fallen in love with this peasant musician, well, that had not been a part of his plan. On the eighth night there was silence. The boy had been exiled. Far away to the other side of the universe, where his music could never again reach the ears of the princess. But the Emperor, who understood wealth and the power of politics, failed to comprehend the power of music and wild magic. Far away the boy began to play. Each note summoned a bird. Each bird spread wide their wings, all the colours of a rainbow of feathers, blackbird and starling, thrush and oriel, eagle and wren, flamingo and crane, nightingale and owl, sparrow and finch, turtle dove and collared dove, gannet and heron, parrot and plover and curlew and pintail, songbird and hawk, sea bird and river bird, hummingbird and toucan. All the birds of the air sent someone, and together they made a bridge of their wings that spanned the universe, from the boy to the tower. On one side he began to walk, even as she stepped out of her window onto the wings of the dancing cranes. One wing, one step at a time, and still he played, lending the wings of the birds strength through his music, until they met at the apex of the arch, where they danced to the music of the spheres. The woman in blue thought for a while. She could hear, distant, yet clear, the music of a flute threading through the waves. She gathered the threads of the answer, thanked the fish, and began a new journey. In every story there are as many images as people who have ears to listen and hearts to hold it. If you are captivated by the story, song and imagery you may be delighted to know that limited edition prints are available to order directly from Seven Fables - the originals have recently made their swift fluid flight to an admirer and collector of Jackie's work in America. However, the prints that you see being delicately hand finished by Jackie with 'shell gold' in the film are available, marked as artist proof, AP, and signed. Delivery is available throughout the UK and overseas - please do enquire info@sevenfables.co.uk or view via the link below THE JACKIE MORRIS PRINT COLLECTION The Christmas cards are for sale exclusively from the Help Musicians website HELP MUSICIANS 'We love music and want a world where musicians thrive.' Help Musicians is a charity for professional musicians of all genres, both in work and in retirement. They offer support at times of crisis, but also at times of opportunity, giving people the help they need at the crucial stages that could make or break their career. Kerry Andrew’s latest album was published on the 3rd of November and was funded in part by Help Musicians. Entitled 'hare // hunter // moth // ghost' it comprises eleven tracks about transformation, populated by queer ghosts and magicians, storm kelpies, shapeshifting hares and foxes, pansexual kings, iconic stag-men and vengeful wolf-girls. It features lyrics by Robert Macfarlane, guest vocals from Sam Lee a nd Ben See, with words by two wonderful writers, Nick Hayes and Kerri ní Dochartaigh. To discover more and purchase the album do head over to Bandcamp. BANDCAMP: KERRY ANDREW - YOU ARE WOLF

Last week we ran away, it was quite unplanned and not that far, for Jackie Morris came to play. We had the most wonderful, creative few days together, walking, talking, sharing tales by the fire and listening to the stags bellow as the leaf colour changed.   We stayed at a favourite place, Northmoor House , where the scullery became a dark room for playing with cyanotype, the piano a backdrop for a short film for this year's Help Musician's Christmas card, which is now in the editing stages. Northmoor has the most wonderful atmosphere, I love its long corridors, the collection of colourful carpet runners that invite you to explore, each time we visit another secret reveals itself. The textured paintwork and eclectic collection of ornaments and paintings make it feel loved & lived in. The house invites you to feel relaxed about how you use the space, it's not overly precious or crudely and unsympathetically modernised with wet rooms and hot tubs - its deep Victorian bathtubs are heaven. It is a space that inspires creativity, and I know that we are not alone as many artists and writers stay each year. A recent visitor to Seven Fables kindly gifted Christopher the chemicals to make Cyanotype - Northmoor provided the perfect space and room to play. Jan Jan went off in search of a key, and found a beauty that belonged to the log store, which in turn inspired Davina to play with keys and cats, while Jackie created paper cut outs of her distinctive doves... We took some wonderful walks along Danes Brook and to Burridge Woods leaving a labyrinth or two for others to find... Others too had been playing with stones... Amid the play we also we also did a little filming, but then we try to make life and work, a mixture of tales, art, play ... The film for Where the White Bears Dance will be released shortly so do look out for it this coming winter. We look forward to returning to Northmoor House next summer with the Wild Folk family.