Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology

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The book includes a foreword by the author Benjamin Myers, amongst whose gritty novels The Gallows Pole has made an impression on many folk horror revivalist readers (and which has been adapted to screen by Shane Meadows and the BBC), and that’s another box ticked in its favour. I had never seen a Folk Horror anthology before, and especially one that was so beautifully illustrated. Most are very English in style and setting (and for this reason, the very American Jackson feels a bit of an outlier, though her inclusion is an obvious ‘big name’ draw).

However, even after vowing to only read good books from now on, I soldiered on as I thought maybe the remaining stories would pull it all back. firstly, this is NOT an anthology of "folk horror" (whatever you take that to mean); instead this is a rehash of the usual out of copyright 19th century ghost stories available in 90% of other anthologies, and which i'm sure you've already read dozens of times (do you really need M R James' "The Ash Tree", Edith Nesbit's "Man-size in Marble", or R L Stevenson's "Thrawn Janet" AGAIN?

EXCEPT for the story where they kill a child and sow it’s ground up bones into the soil to provide a good harvest. Sheridan Le Fanu's dark fairy tale, 'Laura Silver-Bell' is also hard going on a first read (even the narrator apologises for the Northumbrian dialect) but stick with it.

This anthology of Folk Horror Tales curated and illustrated by Richard Wells, has the most hauntingly beautiful imagery to accompany diverse and Damnable Tales about the horrors of the ages. There is a quirkiness and humour to some which suits folk horror tales really well, yet – even so – the image for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Thrawn Janet’ is rather disturbing (and also my favourite illustration in the book). Andy Paciorek is an author and artist working mostly within the fields of horror, folklore, Forteana and other Weird stuff. By this I mean it is not likely that these stories are already in an anthology you already have in your collection, which is a problem I usually have, especially with vampire stories. Every story is accompanied with its own linocut by Richard Wells add something really special as well.Others seemed to recognise the inherent uneasyness of some landscapes and that feeling, creeping up on you through the autumn mist, and that's what I'm really chasing when I turn to folk horror. E. Nesbit's 'Man-Size in Marble' seems to be in every anthology I read, but no wonder - it's a classic piece, and I find the ending even more alarming now than when I was first scared by it aged nine.