Folklore

A gripping guide to the weird yet everyday world of British folklore.

In this unique, deeply researched book, two leading experts provide the definitive guide to British folklore past and present.

Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairy tales to UFO legends and internet fanfiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given.

The book's key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated.

'Meticulously researched, imaginative in scope and rich in strange stories and rewarding insights.' Malcolm Gaskill, author of The Ruin of All Witches

'The best overall view of the subject currently available, written by its most dynamic partnership of scholars.' Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present

'Essential reading for understanding our multi-folkloric present.' Dee Dee Chainey, author of A Treasury of British Folklore

'Full of surprising and brilliant research, the book is an excellent overview of folklore in the past and present.' Lally Macbeth, author of The Lost Folk: From the Forgotten Past to the Emerging Future of Folk