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Zakia Sewell’s debut book recounts the author’s quest for Albion – the ancient, mythological name for the island of Great Britain. Its pages are filled with lost legends, forgotten fables and tales of anti-establishment resistance. Amongst the mystical songs and writings of the past, Sewell unearths Britain’s subversive history, charting a trajectory from the final battle of King Arthur to the true story behind the 1850s folk ballad about the violent clash of the Rufford Poachers.
Crucially, she demonstrates how this alternative past never truly faded. Instead, she expertly uncovers the myths, rites, rituals and magical practices that continue to shape modern paganism and New Age spirituality today, offering an intimate and enlightening glimpse into the contemporary celebrations that honour them. Through this journey, she untangles the isle’s official, state-sanctioned narratives to exhume the hidden histories buried beneath the soil. In doing so, she reveals a country shaped not by its kings and empires, but by the wild, whispered traditions of its ordinary people. Finding Albion opens with the legend of Albina and her thirty sisters, daughters of the Syrian King Dioclisian, who were known as much for their astonishing beauty as for their fierce disobedience. The story goes that when Albina is commanded by her father to submit to her husband, she refuses, resulting in her and her sisters rebelliously murdering their spouses in the night. Exiled as punishment, the sisters are made to sail the seas in search of refuge, until they happen across an uninhabited island. Here they embark on a liberated life, learning to live seasonally and in harmony with the natural cycles of their new home, which Albina eponymously names ‘Albion’.
Sewell pointedly highlights how one of Britain’s earliest origin stories begins with the island’s first inhabitants – a group of Syrian immigrants – arriving in small boats in search of asylum, new life and security. This leaves readers with a powerful question: what would it mean today if Albina, rather than Britannia, were the monumental symbol of the UK? It raises vital questions concerning Britain’s hidden histories, and notably how key aspects of our national story – particularly such as those around empire and power – have been shrouded and obscured.
The chapters move through the Wheel of the Year as readers travel across the country on Sewell’s captivating personal journey, discovering an enchanted and spiritual Britain. Beginning in Glastonbury, whose iconic hill amongst its “otherworldly credentials” has contributed to it being a globally recognised ancient spiritual centre, and a strong symbol of mythical and pagan Britain, she attends contemporary rites and festivals and travels to the lesser-known Isle of Erraid in the Inner Hebrides.
What immediately becomes apparent is the spirit of community that comes together to honour, to offer and to share during the key seasonal dates that make up Britain’s folkloric calendar, including the Spring Equinox, May Day, Lammas, Samhain, Imbolc and the Winter Solstice.
Along the way, she explores the epistemological origins of the word ‘pagan’. However, Finding Albion is not merely a historical account of Britain’s shamans and witches. It also delves into the deep, ongoing complications and shame attached to folk traditions and magical practices within Caribbean countries and their diaspora in the UK: “Where the Christianity imported by missionaries during the colonial era still maintains a powerful hold, some folk traditions and magical practices carry a lot of stigma.” Sewell illustrates how Britain’s colonial past left a legacy that weaponised spirituality, falsely equating Indigenous practices with being “wild and uncivilised” in contrast to “conservative”, “good”, Christian ways of being.
Ultimately, Finding Albion is a study of counter-culture communities and a narrative of resistance. It challenges us to look beyond institutionalised history and find liberation in forgotten roots. Sewell leaves us with a resonant question: “Are there teachings in these older practices that could prove useful for the present day?” For anyone looking to re-enchant their connection to the land, mend our ailing connection to the more-than-human world and question the stories we’ve been told, it is well worth taking a leaf out of this book.
Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain by Zakia Sewell. Hodder & Stoughton, 2026. ISBN: 9781399735902
