‘Terra Incognita’: Tracing Literary Occult Pathways in North London

Woman in forest

North London has captured the imagination of gothic writers through the ages, exploring both sides of the region’s possibly: one a promise, one a threat.

The Grotter & the Strange History of Shell Grottos

Inside the Margate shell grotto © Ben Sutherland (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/4513647584

Shell grottos have a certain murky ambiguity to their history and folklore. This for me made them all the more enticing to use as the basis for a ghost story in my tale, ‘The Grotter’ in Nyctophobias. Especially with my roots as a Whitstable native in Kent, where grottos are still primarily lit once a year as part of the Oyster Festival celebrations. These grottos are usually stacked in a ‘beehive’ style pyramid, held together with wet sand and illuminated by a short candle.

The Seal Children: Sealskins and Soulskins. Or, When We Were Migrants

© Jackie Morris

The first story that I found in this land where I live was The Seal Children, and as we walk the path to Maes Y Mynydd where the story is set, my mind wanders back through selkie stories.

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