What the Wind Saw

‘What The Wind Saw’ is an odd, yet intriguing, title for an odd – yet often intriguing – book from the pen of Zoë Jasko. Intriguing, ingenious and, at times, enigmatic, the book is a collection of 25 short stories set in various eras but all focused on an area designated ‘Middle Hertfordshire’ – perhaps in homage to that great storyteller of the last century, JRR Tolkien, and his mythical land of Middle Earth largely born out of his experiences in ‘Middle England’. Each of Zoë’s tales – a mixture of fiction, fancy and ‘faction’ (a basically factual story re-imagined) – is told with an urgency that keeps the storyline moving at the rapid pace required of short stories. In four sections – Villages (Wheathampstead and Ayot St Lawrence); Field, Lake and River; Towns (Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City), and The City (St Albans) – the book also contains a foreword by Robert Voss, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, as well as a clever epilogue which draws parallels between the coming of the Black Death in March 1349 and the introduction of regulations aimed at preventing the spread of Covid19 in March 2020. The concept of telling stories concerning people living on one area of land, over the centuries, is ingenious – and could appeal to those who know that particular area well. The stories illustrate an unsurprising but often ignored truth that, in every era, people’s concerns are the same. They yearn for stability, love, food and safety. Life doesn’t always provide these things easily and the perpetual challenge is how people cope with this and how they try to achieve their aims, given each era’s social conventions, technology and so on. This book should appeal to those who have a connection with and a liking for ‘Middle Hertfordshire’. It could also attract short story devotees – especially those who are partial to having a variety of genres represented in the tales they consume. In addition, those searching for passing diversion and distraction in a book could find that dipping into ‘What the Wind Saw’ meets their need. – Bob Little