EAVA ZINE #2 | ROOTS

TITLE - EAVA ZINE #2 | ROOTS 

CREATED BY - SOPHIE CURTIS & SIMON NUNN

GENRE - FOLKLORE/HAUNTOLOGY/POETRY/ART/THE LANDSCAPE & HISTORY OF EAST ANGLIA 

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - UNITED KINGDOM

A5/120 PAGES/FULL-COLOUR/PERFECT-BOUND 

PRICE - £13.00 + SHIPPING AVAILABLE FROM THE EAVA ZINE WEBSITE

"Eava Zine" is a collection of art, poetry, essays and folklore by East Anglian creators. The zine has an earthy vibe, exploring the possibilities inherent in leaving our ordered world and reconnecting with the sometimes chaotic landscape. 

I have been looking forward to issue two of "Eava Zine" since reading and enjoying issue one, "Pilgrimages", which I reviewed here. It offers a relaxing, otherworldly reading experience which is accessible to all, although natives of East Anglia will have an enhanced connection to it. Issue 2, entitled "Roots", has a welcome increased page count with an emphasis on the flora and fauna of the region. Photos and drawings of flowers fill the zine to give an impression of flowers pressed between the pages.

Sophie Curtis’ “Going To The River” explores an ancient East Anglian ritual known as the “Toad Bone Rite”. This article is well-written and researched, pressing all the right folky buttons - magic, frogs and toad-lore, witches and devilish pacts. In “Roger’s Place”, the longest article in the zine, Justin Partyka remembers the “Suffolk scene”, the loose collective of creative bohemians who settled in the area in the 60s and 70s, with emphasis on author Roger Deakin who organised bucolic fayres and published alternative newspapers. The article is illustrated with snapshots from Partyka’s own extensive archive of 35mm photographs of Deakin’s home, Walnut Tree Farm. This is an evocative piece that celebrates the kind of free, natural life that everyone yearns for. In her article “The Magic of Mugwort”, witch and herbalist Val Thomas celebrates that most potent and versatile of herbs, offering a thorough history and guide to its many beneficial uses. Bill Jackson’s “Nocturnal Wonderland” features stunning night photography and Benjamin Yates rounds off a brimming issue with “A Landscape Transformed”, about the transformations of the area known as Breckland, from the Neolithic through to the Cold War. Frank Watson’s accompanying photos show a liminal landscape of trees and barbed wire.

Glimpses of poetry and prose pepper the pages, including Roger Deakin and Wordsworth, evoking the theme of putting down roots and there is also a piece on the “Witch of Hethel”, one of the oldest hawthorn trees in the U.K. Other features include a look at the work of local painters Michael Carlo and Helen Taylor. As ever there is a full list of contributors and notes identifying the flora featured in the zine. Throughout, the artwork is abstract, vivid and noisy - you can almost hear the long grass rustling in the wind. Some of the photos of flowers look almost alien; the shots are taken from a low angle and are very arresting.

If you like the TV programme “Detectorists”, this zine has a similar vibe - it invokes a sense of something intangible that is slow and ancient. “Eava Zine” is a little more expensive than most zines, but rest assured this is a quality product, well-printed and sturdily bound. The writing is intelligent and interesting, and it is put together professionally. Still one of the new kids on the block but already making a name for itself, “Eava Zine” is the best zine you’ve never read.