"Folk horror may have had a dramatic resurgence in recent years, but it has always been the backbone of much of our national storytelling. A new anthology of 10 stories set across England, Bog People, brings together some of the most accomplished names in the genre. In her introduction, editor Hollie Starling describes an ancient ritual in a Devon village: the rich throw heated pennies from their windows, watching those in need burn their fingers."
"Draper's story about an eternal stew, passed around a village from house to house, hob to hob, will haunt my dreams. Every family contributes meat and keeps it bubbling on and on. Some of the stew is eaten by the heads of family on the occasion of a significant death, then it's returned to its endless progress round the village. I will not spoil the recipe."
"Carole, bereft at the loss of her daughter, walks from a city courthouse to Stonehenge at dawn and then on and on, through a feverish vision of moors and motorways, to Dartmoor, nights and days passing like moments. The rain stops, the sun shows, another night comes dark and flowing with energy. I don't sleep; I feel my way through the landscape, the trees that reach and catch"
An anthology of ten stories set across England presents folk-horror rooted in class tensions, tradition, and communal rites. Rituals include wealthy villagers throwing heated pennies to watch the poor burn and a perpetually simmering communal stew circulated house to house after deaths. Several narratives begin with funerals and bereavement, exploring enduring customs that double as oppression. One story traces a bereaved mother's feverish pilgrimage from a city courthouse to Stonehenge and Dartmoor, where nights and days blend into an energetic, hallucinatory journey. The collection foregrounds working-class perspectives and the haunting persistence of ritual and landscape.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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