Halloween Folklore & Ghost Stories by Brice Stratford

Book Review

It’s the start of the October half-term and it falls a bit late here in the south of the UK, this year, so Hallows Eve and Trick-or-Treating is firmly ensconced mid week, making this one of the busiest October half-terms I’ve had so far. So what is the truth behind the urban lore that brings us to each others doors on this dark and eldritch night. Enter Brice Stratford’s, book ‘Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories’.

Here’s the blurb:

HALLOWEEN. The night when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. When ghosts walk and corpses writhe, and innocent souls had best beware.

Let acclaimed storyteller Brice Stratford take you on a wild and witchy ride, fascinating and unnerving in equal measure, through the twists and turns of Allhallowstide, and the forgotten history of Halloween and the wider Hallowmas season.

With ghost stories, ancestor worship, bone fires, otherworld pixies, Pagan belief and archaic, Christian mythology along the way, Stratford shares for the first time the deeper tales and stranger lore that lurk beneath the tricks and treats we know so well, and the ancient flame that keeps the Jack o’Lantern lit. Light the candles, lock the doors, and prepare to be unsettled.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin.

The issue with trying to find the truth or origin of any folk lore is that it is just that, lore of the folk. It’s ever evolving, ever changing and is not always based in fact. This means that when you are trying to decide which lore is correct and which is not, which is ancient and which is modern, it’s gets very messy and indeed you might even question why you are trying to unpick it in the first place, but that is exactly what Stratford has tried to do with this book.

He starts with the modern bit of lore that current trick-or-treating practices came from America and do not originate in Britain. I agree this is not the case, the current practices are a mix of very old British traditions that were practiced, lapsed and then practiced again, and those that were taken to America, adapted as that culture evolved, lapsed and rose again making their way back to Britain. It’s a never ending cycling of adaption and evolution so often present in these practices. However, I think it’s an error to dismiss the lore that it came from America or was in fact the Irish festival of Samhain, as ‘hogwash’ as Stratford states on p5 of the book. This undermines the whole premise of the book and indeed folklore. Surely it is all these things as this is what folklore is. If you read it, I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Stratford straddles the line between academic study and entertainment with this book and he does it very well making the book accessible but equally full of interesting snippets and ‘evidence’ for those who require their traditions to be backed up and centuries old. Approaching the book in this way though does on occasion remove some of the magic and it can come across as a little patronising in places.

I’m not sure this is his intention or just the way it translates in text, I suspect he would be very happy to have a healthy debate over a pint on some of these subjects but we only have his voice in this book, as with all books.

This book is an excellent resource for those interested in the late October/ early November customs of British people and some of my favourite sections include a rendition of the Devil of Woodstock, a section on soul cakes, and a chapter on bonfires and tar barrels. What this book does do brilliantly is show very clearly that these traditions have been with us in Britain in one form or another for hundreds of years and should not be dismissed as a modern affectation of consumerism.

If you are looking for light entertainment though this is not a standard collection of folktales and folklore, it’s much more evidence based than hearsay, although by its very nature there’s a healthy dose of hearsay within it. Ultimately, it’s up to you which bits you choose to follow and those which you dismiss as ‘hogwash’.

You can buy ‘Halloween Folklore & Ghost Stories’ in all good bookshops. If you would like to buy a copy online, please consider visiting my page on Bookshop.org where I have gathered some of the books I read and recommend. Here you will find a plethora of myth, legend and folktale.

And don’t forget to support your local library too. See if they have a copy to borrow.

November’s Reading List:

Above is a list of the books I am hoping to read over the next month. I will be collating the books I read into one multiple book review post called ‘The Storyteller’s Library’ and will post it towards the end of November.