Bog People

Unleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voices

A phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old stew made of severed body parts; a bigoted woman working at an ossuary, the bones she watches over her only remaining friends; three siblings who set out to scatter their father's ashes, a man none of them could stand; and a hag stone sitting in the pocket of a witch.

Uncanny and unsettling, wild and wyrd, the ten stories in this collection showcase the best of folk horror. Set in and across England, they celebrate working-class culture and history, and, sharp as a guillotine blade, reveal the real monsters that stalk our green and pleasant land.

Includes writing from: A.K. Blakemore, Daniel Draper, Emma Glass, Mark Colbourne, Mark Stafford, Hollie Starling, Jenn Ashworth, Natasha Carthew, Salena Godden and Tom Benn.

Review

A masterful collection that captures the raw, unsettling essence of folk horror and its working-class roots -- MAXINE PEAKE

The working class understand horror, often sharing its postcode. They know about crossed knives on the tea-table, and hagstones, and the people in the puddles. Bog People is a thrilling cache of unearthed diamonds, black, brilliant and beautifully cut, none of them rough, born of the lower strata where the pressures are greater. Astonishing and long overdue, you really need to read this -- ALAN MOORE

Folk horror at its most feral and furious. Just as it should be -- CHARLIE COOPER

An absolute treat - a giddy tumble into wild and diverse British folk-horror. This feels like the countryside of my childhood, before every thatched cottage had a Mercedes in the driveway. It's raw, earthy (in every sense of the word) and darkly fun - you'll come away with dirt under your nails and woodlice in your hair -- ADAM S LESLIE, author of Lost in the Garden

This collection is everything folk tales and folk horror should be. It's angry, disturbing, and shines a light on the obvious problems in society that mainstream media continues to ignore -- TABITHA STANMORE, author of Cunning Folk

Deeply unsettling and totally radical it tells of the horrors of our age in complex and haunting ways that will stay with the reader long into the future -- LALLY MACBETH, author of The Lost Folk

A brilliant and eclectic collection of tales that illuminated all the darkest corners of my mind. I’m thrilled Bog People has lead me to find a selection of my new favourite writers -- KIRI PRITCHARD-MCLEAN

About the Author

Hollie Starling (Anthology Editor, Contributor)
Hollie Starling is a Lincolnshire-born writer working in London. She is the author of The Bleeding Tree: A Pathway Through Grief Guided by Forests, Folk Tales and the Ritual Year. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in various print and online publications. Starling runs the page Folk Horror Magpie on social media. Visit her website at holliestarling.com for updates.

Salena Godden (Contributor)
Salena Godden is a writer, poet and broadcaster who has been described as 'the doyenne of the spoken word scene' (Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3's The Verb); 'the Mae West madam of the salon' (the Sunday Times) and as 'everything the Daily Mail is terrified of' (Kerrang! magazine). To mark twenty years of poetry and performance, a new collection Fishing In The Aftermath – Poems 1994-2014 will be published with Burning Eye Books in the summer of 2014. Her most recent documentary for BBC R4 was Try a Little Tenderness: The Lost Legacy of Little Miss Cornshucks, which aired to rave reviews.

Tom Benn (Contributor)
Tom Benn was born in 1987, and grew up in Stockport. He is a graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA and was the recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Bradbury bursary. His first novel, The Doll Princess, was shortlisted for the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, and longlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey Dagger. Chamber Music was published in 2013.