Advertisement
Books

Top 5 books featuring magical creatures, selected by Katherine Rundell

Fauns, dragons, shooting stars – some of author and academic Katherine Rundell’s favourite magical creatures

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

I have a friend who fell in love with Mr Tumnus the Faun at seven and has found it very hard to reconcile herself to dating human men ever since.

The Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 77AD

Alongside accounts of hedgehogs and bats, it contains entirely serious accounts of mythical creatures, such as the Jaculus dragon, which “darts from the branches of trees… for these fly through the air even, just as though they were hurled from an engine.”

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

The star of this book is Calcifer, the shooting star who lives in the fireplace of a magical castle and talks like a wayward academic.

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin

The dragons in Le Guin’s wonderful Earthsea Quartet speak the Old Speech: they are at once terrible and ancient, and full of a kind of wisdom beyond mankind. One of my characters in my new book is called Irian Guinne in her honour.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

I love Garner’s books for their density of atmosphere, and their strangeness. This book, with its journey into dark mines amid the elf-like svart alfar, is unforgettable.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Impossible Creatures book cover

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell is out on 14 September (Bloomsbury, £14.99).You can buy these titles from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.To support our work buy a copy!

If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement

Become a Big Issue member

3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty. Turn your anger into action - become a Big Issue member and give us the power to take poverty to zero.

Recommended for you

Read All
Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt
Books

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story
Family secrets

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story

The Most by Jessica Anthony review – cracks just beneath the surface of an all-American family
Books

The Most by Jessica Anthony review – cracks just beneath the surface of an all-American family

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened
Science

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue