The prolific American science-fiction author Poul Anderson also wrote historical fantasy novels. One was even set here in England and had a witty earth-mysteries / dark-faerie twist.

A Midsummer Tempest (1974) is an alternative history fantasy set in an England in which Shakespeare’s Fairy Folk are real and the English Civil Wars are partly an early-steampunk affair with airships. Better, I see it has scenes set in Buxton, the Welsh Marches of Shropshire and Stratford-upon-Avon. There’s even a passing mention of Stoke. A quality local(ish) fantasy novel that I had no idea existed. Who knew?

At just 200 pages it’s not one of those over-padded 1990s/2000s “thick as a brick” fantasy books, either. Nice.

It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel. It also won the Mythopoeic Award. And that was back in the 1970s, when awards in fantasy and SF still meant something and had not been hijacked by the far-left.

Stoke and Newcastle Ramblers are soon to do walks over more-or-less the ‘Gawain country’, which may interest those who have read my recent book on Gawain in North Staffordshire. I’m uncertain if they’re even aware of Sir Gawain but their relevant 2019/2020 walks include, in order of possible/likely Gawain travel…

Danebridge(?)
Mow Cop(?)
Biddulph Moor(?)
Rushton Spencer
Out of Peak Forest
Ecton Hill and the Manifold Valley
Alton Common

A new scan of the famous story “The Garden Of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges in its 1958 English translation. The story appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review, Spring 1958. As I’ve shown, it is mostly set in Stoke-on-Trent.