Pungent and vigorous. . . a wide range of appeal.

When Ramsay Wood retells a story he makes a proper job of it: not for him those pale imitations of a nobel original which is what your average reteller palms off on his readers.

A beautiful book full of mirth and human interest and unsentimental wisdom and vigorous writing.

Jewels of story-writing, narrated with the psychological insight, subtle rhythms and changes of pace of a veteran. Playful, allusive, richly ambiguous, teasing in their narrative complexity and yet deceptively clear in their resolutions: immersing oneself in the world of this trickster is to savour the pleasure of reading at its most intense. . . .
What Ramsay has done over the last thirty years is to have made the version for our time.

Wood’s superb stories should be set alongside Italo Calvino’s retelling of the folk tales of Italy. No higher praise is necessary.

One almost forgets these are animals, speaking and acting. Adults interested in the history of folklore should be joined by children in reading these colourful tales