Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge #[nn]

Linda Medley's *Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge* opens her fairy-tale world with a cover that immediately sets an unsettling, storybook tone — a gaunt, white-wimpled figure with round spectacle lenses reflecting a woman's portrait cradles a wide-eyed infant, the whole scene framed by sinuous bramble vines. The contrast between the eerily composed elder and the alert, blue-eyed baby carries all the quiet dread of a dark nursery tale. Medley handles every aspect of this 1996 Olio release herself — writing, art, inking, and lettering — and that singular creative vision is unmistakable from the very first image.