Saw this book on a recent book trawl and snapped it up as soon as I saw it. Folk Horror, whether in book form or filmic form is a gripping genre that quietly yields all amnner of antiquated horrors. Yet Foklk horror has never really made a transition to the mainstream (Although I would not discount some episodes of Emmerdale I have seen over the last couple of years.) So this was an unexpected but welcome find. Nine stories all exploring new and old areas of intrest with regard to folkloric tropes, if they can be said to exist. All nine stories celebrating various aspects of the folk horror tradition. Or at the very least the loose tennents that are the muddy roots of its unsettled furrows.
I am not familiar with any of the contributors but in their work they traverse the seperate themes that combine to hold up the lore; strange rituals, even stranger people, paranoid communities existing in timeless isolation. All following their own muddy muderous paths. I jumped in the very night I picked this book up and I am glad I did. Trudging home from the bookshop I picked it up in through an uncleared morass of sopping fallen leaves which set the tone it felt the appropriate time. One story in particular raised the hairs on the back of my neck. A descent into manmade depravity in all too famil;iar places followed. But I will not say which story it was. You can find that out for yourself. The editors of this collection made strong and diverse choices and nothing as simple as a "my favourite" should detract from their bold choices.
A great anthology plucked from a fertile field.
I doff my flat cap to Nosetouch Press the publishers.
Who knows what I mean by this.
