Surely you\u2019ve heard of Elijah Page? A voice from the past, yes, but a voice you remember: he played guitar and stood up alone to sing about injustice and heartbreak in the days when it still seemed possible to change the world. Dylan, Guthrie, Seeger, Page \u2013 performing in clubs and at festivals, for \u00adaudiences that took those voices to heart, that shaped their lives according to the songs they heard.
In reality, you are unlikely to have heard of Elijah (or Eli) Page, because W B Belcher invented him for his debut novel \u2013 but Page is a pretty convincing concoction. A compelling performer in his day, he vanished from the scene and, it seems, disappeared completely, as the narrator, Jack Wyeth, relates. Wyeth is a Page-obsessed folkie, a millennial with father issues (his guitar-playing dad left when he was five) who drops girlfriends and dead-end jobs like so much change from his pocket, never able to settle, never knowing what he wants.
One day, out of the blue, he gets a call from Eli Page\u2019s manager. Page is ready to write a memoir; all he needs is a ghostwriter. Wyeth takes the job and goes to upstate New York but when he gets there he discovers, perhaps unsurprisingly, that his task is not as straightforward as he\u2019d hoped.
The American folk scene offers a good canvas for the shattering of youthful illusions. It is hard to avoid comparing this novel to the Coen brothers\u2019 haunting 2013 film, Inside Llewyn Davis , in which Oscar Isaac plays a 1960s folk musician based on a singer called Dave Van Ronk. Van Ronk gets a namecheck in Belcher\u2019s book and, for those who love conspiracy theories, it may be worth noting that the writer who helped Van Ronk put his posthumously published memoir together was called Elijah Wald.
There\u2019s more. Albert E Brumley\u2019s 1929 spiritual \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d, which you can find on the soundtrack of the Coens\u2019 O Brother, Where Art Thou? , also gets a mention here. This is the kind of knitting together that is intrinsic to folk on both sides of the Atlantic, where old tunes and new tunes circle each other and bind until it becomes hard to tell them apart.
Folk is \u2013 let\u2019s be frank \u2013 always on the margins. If it weren\u2019t, it wouldn\u2019t be a place for rebellion and protest. Both Eli and Jack are marginal figures \u2013 even in their own lives, it seems. What brings them together is a need to escape from the confines of the present day, though that desire takes different forms. Eli has become a crank, a near \u00adrecluse: imagine Bob Dylan crossed with J D Salinger and you\u2019ll start to get the picture.
Belcher\u2019s portrait of small-town life and the dark currents running under any surface is well done, and it\u2019s clear that the author knows the drill. He lives along the same river, the Battenkill, that winds through the book; he is also on the board of directors of Caffe Lena in New York, the most venerable folk venue in United States.
Perhaps, at times, the material is a little too close to his heart. One of the strengths of Lay Down Your Weary Tune is its sense of mystery, but that mystery is stretched out just a little too long. What is going on with Eli? Who is responsible for the strange spate of crime in town? The story is a good one \u2013 laced with lost fathers and vanished daughters \u2013 but like those long, long Child ballads, it wouldn\u2019t have suffered by losing a verse or two. And sometimes the similes get out of hand: wine glasses that \u201cchirped like falsetto birds\u201d when they clinked; a spine curved \u201clike a lazy creek\u201d. It\u2019s lovely, but occasionally distracting.
The characters, however, are vivid and true. Jack becomes enamoured of Jenny, whose connection to Page is a puzzle right to the end of the book. Jenny is soft and strong and real, and her attachment to her ex-fianc\u00e9, a bullying local police officer called Cal, perfectly convincing. Eli stays just out of focus \u2013 but by design, dimmed to himself as well as to the people who try to get close to him. In the final pages, Jack finds a moment in which he sees: \u201cEverything was perfect and everything was perfectly broken.\u201d That may be the vision he has to live by. I\u2019ll be happy to listen to the next song Belcher chooses to sing.
Lay Down Your Weary Tune by W B Belcher is published by Other Press, 408pp, \u00a313.99
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If you\u2019re a woman under 50, the name Mildred Hubble probably means something to you. Jill Murphy wrote her first book, The Worst Witch , when she was just 18. First published in 1974, it captivated audiences with its story of a bumbling young girl trying to scrape through her magical education. Perhaps your imagination was first caught by the books, with their descriptions of Miss Cackle\u2019s Academy for Witches, which \u201cstood at the top of a high mountain surrounded by a pine forest\u201d and \u201clooked more like a prison than a school, with its gloomy grey walls and turrets,\u201d and the students themselves \u201cdressed in black gymslips, black stockings, black hobnailed boots, grey shirts and black-and-grey ties\u201d.
Or perhaps it was the Nineties TV show that you really remember, starring Georgina Sherrington as Mildred, practically falling over her incredibly long plaits, and Felicity Jones as a deliciously posh and evil Ethel, Mildred\u2019s long-standing nemesis.
However you fell in love with Mildred, Maud, Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom, there\u2019s good news. The Worst Witch returns today on CBBC (4.30pm), with a cast borrowed from Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey , updated special effects, and a more modern take on a magical boarding school. The series will also be available globally on Netflix later this year.
Mildred Hubble is played by 13-year-old Bella Ramsey, a talented actress who frequently stole the show in several recent episodes of Game of Thrones : no easy feat in a programme overrun with known scene-thieves. But unlike Mildred Hubbles of yore, this character is not from a family of witches \u2013 she\u2019s just a normal girl from a council estate.
Like Hermione or Harry in Harry Potter , she has no idea magic even exists until she makes her way to school. In fact, here the script seems to borrow directly from Harry Potter: Maud\u2019s question, \u201cDidn\u2019t anything ever happen to you that you couldn\u2019t explain?\u201d is reminiscent of Hagrid\u2019s \u201cNot a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?\u201d
Dowton Abbey \u2019s Raquel Cassidy makes for a particularly sarcastic Mistress Hardbroom, with other teachers played by Kacey Ainsworth, Clare Higgins and Amanda Holden.
There are lines about allergies and preferring \u201cMs\u201d over \u201cMistress\u201d, and even references to online magazines for witches. But while there are plenty of superficial updates, this new series doesn\u2019t need to stray too far from the timeless source material. It’s full of brilliant women \u2013 students and teachers alike. Just look at these badass bitches:
But The Worst Witch is, essentially, a story aimed at bookish young women that deals with imposter syndrome. Mildred finds herself at a competitive school, in intimidating surroundings, with a demanding and complex set of rules and requirements. Murphy writes, \u201cThere were so many rules that you couldn\u2019t do anything without being told off, and there seemed to be tests and exams every week.\u201d She constantly feels like an outsider \u2013 she even has the wrong cat. But despite constantly doubting her own ability and even her own identity as a \u201cwitch\u201d, she frequently surprises herself (and others) with great achievements.
The new series runs with this theme \u2013 Mildred stumbles across the school by chance, and knows nothing at all about witch society. She fumbles over the appropriate way to address people, she gets motion sickness when magically transported (which other students find \u201cpathetic\u201d), she tells herself she cannot do potions or exams.
But when it comes down to it, Mildred\u2019s fears about herself are misplaced. Friends and teachers are able to sense her talent, even as she makes mistakes. This is a show that also shows how constant comparisons with peers can only lead to more insecurity \u2013 brainbox Ethel is unreasonably hard on herself for missing the 100 per cent mark.
This is a delightful adaptation with a cast full of personality and an empowering message for CBBC audiences, which tells us you can save the world, even if you trip over your shoelaces while doing it. What could be more faithful to Murphy\u2019s original books?
The Worst Witch, a CBBC production in collaboration with ZDF, ZDF Enterprises and Netflix, airs on CBBC today at 4.30pm.<\/p>\n

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