Inspired by the Purbeck coastline, writer Annie Herridge heard the voices of the animals calling to her. Ancient voices whispered of the spirit of the wild wood, a magical force that wants to heal and free us.

‘The Woodland Clan’ is a story set in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, a modern-day fable for today’s society. The animals’ peace and joy are ruined by the Big Foots and Small Foots – human adults and children – who leave rubbish and glass in the Woodland that kill Blackbird’s new-born chicks. Distraught with grief, he cannot sing to herald the dawn of spring and so spring can’t be sprung. The animals plan an uprising on a Blood Moon to make the island fall into darkness. In that darkness, Big Foots and Small Foots listen to the voices of beak, bone, feather, and song that warn and awaken them to the damage they are causing to nature and to the world.