Tongue, Pen, Ear, Page — Collecting and Performing Folktales and Ballads
How do writers collect and re-tell regional folktales? Kevan Manwaring explains his influences, methods, and inspirations for his work in this area.
From Generation to Generation: An Exploration of Myth and Landscape in the Work of Alan Garner
The emotional and spiritual dimension of being in place, in the work of Alan Garner, powerfully reminds us of our connection to the land and stories.
Matlock Hare and the Three Hares Symbol
Three – some say, is the lucky number. Others find it equally as unlucky, citing dark suspicions about Shakespeare’s ‘weird-systers’ in the equally infamous ‘Scottish Play’. Love it, loathe it, dismiss it, debunk it, or even worship it, there’s no doubting that somehow this single digit has provoked both mysterious interpretation and serious academic study and numerological […]
The Scottish Play and the Welsh Wizard: Witches in Punch Cartoons
From its beginnings in the 1840s until the late twentieth century it was Shakespeare’s Three Witches who inspired the majority of cartoons featuring witches in Punch.
From Oracle Ox to Gorse Goddess: Taking Lore Seriously in ‘Folk’
Writers have long retold folk tales just as musicians have reinterpreted folk songs. But when writing Folk, I aimed not to tell old tales but to imbue the world of the novel with folklore, both real and imagined.