Tag Archives: folklore

The National Folklore Survey

I am pleased to announce the launch of the National Folklore Survey #NFS In Charlie Cooper’s new series Myth Country (streaming on BBC I-player) the actor and writer reveals his passion for folklore and how the peculiar rituals and traditions of this … Continue reading

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Two Podcasts: All About UFOs and Covid-19 folklore

Children’s publisher Usborne have reissued the classic 1977 title All About UFOs from The World of the Unknown series. The UFO title is the second in the series to be brought back through popular demand (a companion volume on ghosts … Continue reading

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Dead Flows the Don

Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University appeared on a BBC Radio 3 documentary about the River Don. In the Sheffield Telegraph he traces the myths and legends of the river as it flows through Sheffield: One of my earliest … Continue reading

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Katharine Briggs award shortlist

My book How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth was shortlisted by The Folklore Society for the Katharine Briggs book award for folklore scholarship in 2015. The judges described the book as ‘a lucid account based on 30+ years of … Continue reading

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UFOs Conquer The World

My new book How UFOs Conquered the World was published on 14 May and is reviewed by The Sunday Times here. In his review James McConnachie says UFO believers will not like this book, ‘it is not a classic debunking. … Continue reading

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Emails from the dead

Supernatural folklore is a dynamic force. It adapts to new technology but incorporates traditional beliefs that date back thousands of years. Soon after the invention of photography in the 1850s, the first photographs of spirits appeared. Following the invention of … Continue reading

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Tabloid Tales

The red-top tabloids are a rich source of modern folklore and urban legends – and today’s front page splash in The Sun is a case in point. “Girl Eats 4,000 washing-up sponges” tells the bizarre story of dental nurse Kerry … Continue reading

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Return of Spring-heeled Jack?

Spring-heeled Jack, the legendary bogeyman familiar to students of British folklore, has been invoked by news of an extraordinary experience with a road ghost in Surrey. Scott Martin and his family told the Surrey Comet they were confronted by a ‘dark … Continue reading

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Celtic curse tested?

BBC Scotland has reported the latest on the campaign to protect the Tigh nam Bodach pagan shrine in the Highlands from a hydro-electric dam scheme. The stones, hidden in remote Glenlyon, featured in my 1996 book with Andy Roberts, Twilight … Continue reading

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