Making reading accessible – an emerging children’s author based in Leeds

She Who Strides The Stars is a book set in mystical ancient times, written by Annabel Gaskin. Join the battle against an evil witch!

Telling Tales To Teach – the story of She Who Strides The Stars

It was 2020, the dreadful quarantine year and we were all stuck indoors. I was under instruction to tidy up my books and sort them out. What a terrible thing I had to do when the sun was out, and the day was warm.

Muttering under my breath I began to look at my books. As I went through them, I found some bits of writing and pictures. “Wow” I thought. These must be at least twelve years old!

Then the memory came back. It had been Christmas, and I had written these few paragraphs over the holiday. Should I keep them, or throw it all away? I thought hard about what I had written. I even put it in the bin, but it didn’t stay there. It haunted me so I took it out of the bin again.

Out went all but two of the paragraphs and all the pictures except one and I was there, in Camelot woods a thousand years ago, at a crisis meeting of all the animals with a hare with a scrunchie, a reindeer older than time itself, a wizard called Merlin, a glamourous, beautiful Morgan, a witch with horrible and nasty eating and wearing habits, and her cat called Lupus.

The reindeer picks seven warriors to find the Tree of Life. The way there is not easy. They have frightening, disturbing, evil experiences. Morgan kills some of them. But don’t despair, when you get the book, read on through right to the end.

I think you might enjoy it.

About the author

Annabel Gaskin was born in 1949 in Streatham, South London in a very heavy snowfall. Her father was an engineer and a sailor and her mother a nurse with the army, but both gave up their dreams of travelling to give her a stable upbringing.

She tells me that from an early age she noticed the black and white lino, bare bulbs and chipped cups and glasses. Everything had been destroyed in World War 2 and the family had to begin again.

Her grandparents moved in, too, so it was a bustling, busy house. There was always someone in to look after her. She began school when she was three years old and also went to ballet classes, too. Her school friends remember her as being very busy. She went to drama classes, bell ringing and singing at the local church. She doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t reading…

More than “just a children’s book”

I feel passionately about nature, our relationship with animals and the consequences of global warming. My book is also available in audio format which is very exciting. There is also an extension on this website with signing.

The story of She Who Strides The Stars is one tailored to children aged 8 to 12, but equally it can be enjoyed at all ages, even by parents! I am dedicated in exploring the themes of nature, our relationship with animals as food, and positivity, and making them accessible to all.

As well as my book, I have created an expanded universe, and resources that are freely available for educational purposes: