In this prequel to The Standing Ground, we travel back two generations to the origins of the oppressive E-Government state that infiltrates every aspect of people's lives in the decade following Brexit and a global pandemic. But, as the darkness overtakes Britain and other areas of Europe, the light of resistance wakes in a community that spans the Celtic outposts of Brittany and North Wales. And in a strange child, Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin.

Weaving together Arthurian legend and exploratory fiction of the near future, The Roots of the Ground explores the human cost of a monoculture that tramples freedom and privacy and asserts with Carl Jung that:

'As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.'

Jan Fortune is a writer, mentor and herbalist living in a forest in Finistère. She has a doctorate in feminist theology and is the founding editor of Cinnamon Press. Jan has taught writing courses across Europe and mentors writers across several genres. Her previous publications include creative non-fiction on writing, Writing Down Deep, plus poetry collections and novels, most recently the poetry pamphlet, At world's end, begin, the novel smiling at grief in a house in a forest where life grows and her memoir, at the heart's farthest edge.
Jan writes at the intersection of story, poetry and herbalism. You can follow her weekly essays on her website Terrain, where she offers a community for those exploring writing and the animate world (Alchemical Gatherings), a monthly meeting to explore herbalism in daily life (Triskelewell) and runs the yearly writing community, Kith: for a different story.
Find out more at https://terrain.estate/