The Various

The Various is a 2003 children's fantasy novel written and illustrated by Steve Augarde. It is the first book of the Touchstone Trilogy which continues with Celandine and Winter Wood. The trilogy tells the story of the hidden tribes of little people who live in a tangled forest on a hill in Somerset, and their interactions with the children at the farm on whose land the hill stands. The tribes, who call themselves the 'Various', live difficult, self-sufficient lives, always in fear of discovery by the 'Gorji', or giants, as they call the humans who now dominate the countryside.