Welcome
I am a folklore researcher, author and broadcaster. I began my career as a journalist at the Sheffield Star and spent four years working as a Press Officer. But my passion was always for folklore and in 1999 I completed a PhD in Folklore at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield. I moved to Sheffield Hallam University in 2005 where for two decades I taught journalism and media law before I was promoted to Associate Professor. Working with colleagues who shared my interest in folklore, I co-founded the Centre for Contemporary Legend research group at SHU in 2018. I was Project Lead the AHRC-funded National Folklore Survey for England until I left the university in 2026 to return to full-time writing and broadcasting. My books include The Angel of Mons, How UFOs Conquered the World and Space Age Folklore that will be published by Reaktion in 2027. Contact me by email at furnival.news at googlemail.com
What is Folklore?
Once upon a time… ‘Folklore’ meant ancient ballads or fairy tales or the peculiar superstitions and customs of ‘primitive’ peoples. Today folklore is a tool for studying custom and belief, urban legends, modern myth and even rumours spread via the internet. Much folklore can be found online and buried in the narrative content of media and social networking - from legends and reports of ghosts, UFOs and 'big cats' to language, customs and traditions. The study of folklore is centrally and crucially important 'in our attempts to understand our own behaviour and that of our fellow human beings' according to one scholarly definition. Folklore is a vital and ongoing area of study and one of the few academic disciplines that engage, in a fundamental way, with everyday life.
Tag Archives: Professor Piers Robinson
100 years of Fake News: The German Corpse Factory
False stories that masquerade as real news are not a product of the modern age. But few realise the modern era of ‘Fake News‘ began one hundred years ago – during the carnage of the First World War. In the … Continue reading
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Tagged Arthur Ponsonby, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Berliner Lokalanzeiger, black and tans, Brigadier-General John Charteris, Cadaver, cannibalism, China, corpse factory, Daily Express, Daily Mail, David Lloyd George, Douglas Haig, Fake News, Falsehood in Wartime, First World War, Germany, glycerine, Ivor Montague, Joachim Neander, John Buchan, Kadaver factory, Karl Rosner, lies, Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Northcliffe, Lord Robert Cecil, Major Hugh Pollard, MI7, New York Times, North China Herald, Professor Piers Robinson, propaganda, Punch, Randal Marlin, rumours, Sir Austen Chamberlain, The 39 Steps, The Holocaust, The National Archives, The Times, University of Sheffield
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