Welcome to Rapunzel's World of Fire and Hemlock.
Fire & Hemlock is a book by Diana Wynne Jones (see picture and links below). It's the most important book in Rapunzel's World (alongside the Bible, a nurses' dictionary and a notebook to scribble in). I first read it when I was about twelve and have read it at least once a year since (I'm 23 now). Every time I read it I discover some new and exciting Truth within its pages. It changed my life and is reponsible for the way I see the world. If you've read Fire and Hemlock (or any other DWJ books) and wish to comment then please email me at the address below.
Fire & Hemlock is loosely based on the two border ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer (see Tam Lin links below). It's about Polly Whittacker and her involvement with 'cellist, Thomas Lynne, who she meets when she gatecrashes a funeral after following a woman she mistakes for her pal, Nina. Polly was ten when this happened, and Tom was an adult of indeterminable age (at least indeterminable to a ten-year-old-Polly). They are drawn in and out of each other's lives over the next nine years in a series of adventures until Polly's Heroism is put to the test in a dramatic and confusing finale.
You've really GOT to read it to understand!
