Myths in Isolation is a gorgeous art book with new folk tales, myths and fantasy stories inspired by the artworks of Katherine Soutar.
The book is a collective response between artist and authors to the 2020 pandemic. The artist created a painting each day of mythological creatures from A-Z. The images express the way the artist herself was feeling on the day that she created them.
Sharing them on social media, excitement grew. A suggestion to make the stories into a book came from Katherine's publisher-to-be, Tom Muir, sparking a flurry of stories from some talented authors. The original artwork blends beautifully with the stories written especially for them by sixteen different authors. One special chapter features the unicorn, the story of which is Katherine's own: a song written by her deceased husband, the great folk singer-songwriter and guitarist Bill Caddick - "Unicorns".
Although this book features 26 full-color illustrations, it is not a children's storybook but a collection of wildly creative "myths" for our day arising out of an unusual time and with much to say to us today.
All images © Katherine Soutar 2025
From the artist:
This book would never have happened if the pandemic had not hit us in spring 2020.
I work primarily as a book illustrator and during that first UK Covid lockdown in 2020 all my freelance work had suddenly been put on hold, and like many of us I was struggling with anxiety and feeling rather uncertain and adrift as everything in my world suddenly seemed to have utterly changed.
I desperately needed a focus. To get back to drawing as a way of working through my feelings a friend suggested a daily drawing challenge, which was eventually to grow into this book. The idea of taking all these characters from world folklore and depicting them in isolation gave me a focus and a way to get my own feelings down on paper.
The idea was to follow the alphabet. I would search for a character from world mythology each day beginning with the next letter and draw it by the day’s end. I found many characters of some letters to choose from and very few of others – X and Z were quite a challenge! – and was introduced to many myths and legends which were completely new to me along the way.
These images are of themselves but also very much of me. They express so much about how I felt on the day I drew them. Some are almost unfinished, some polished. Some are dark and brooding, some thoughtful, some hopeful, even celebratory, some sad.
It was Tom Muir of Orkneyology Press who first seriously suggested that perhaps they should have stories, and offered a beautiful one of his own – S for Selkie.
The stories reflect the images beautifully, as they were written especially for them, in a complete reversal of the way these things usually work. They have been written by sixteen different writers and storytellers – some well-known, some just starting out, all talented and very generous souls.
Their stories reflect the times we are all living through, but with the original folklore themes running through them like a bright thread that connects the old with the new. It’s a book for our time and a book for all times, as all the best folk tale books are.
All images © Katherine Soutar 2025
Contributing authors:
Cara Viola, Louise Norgate, April Madden, Janet Dowling, Jane Stemp, Liu Hong Cannon, Fiona Angwin, Georgë Kear, Maria Gillen, Nimue Brown, Suzi Clark, Tom Muir, Bill Caddick, Louise Gabriel, Peter Stuart Lakanen, Ursula Jeffries, Simon Heywood
