Tales of Britain and Ireland

19/09/2026

I was lucky enough to be gifted this incredible cool stone map of Arbor Lowe stone circle by .

I'm so greatful for it- love the intricate detail and the stone on stone is very pleasing.

Check out her page to see the many awesome thing's she makes!

Not only do I love it but it inspired an impromptu return visit to one of my favourite sites, which was itself surrounded by numerous mushroom rings.

Not many known old folktales about this tumble down circle so I get to enjoy it without reference to old legends, which is unusual when I'm visit the places.

(Because I'm so rare posting on social media I will also take the opportunity to update you: I'm hard at work reducing the c 4 hours of fairy show to a coherent twoish hour live show in time for my November performance. I'm set to reannounce a Sheffield show very soon after two seperate venue cancellations!

And after that I'm straight on your man Guy of Warwick again - that episode I hope will be in December, and after that I hope to have some very big news.)

08/09/2026

Very pleased to announce Episode 60 is out now!

The Woman who went to Hell

My version of an Irish folk tale with everything – a spoilerific title, weddings, funerals, cabbages, amazing abs and a very special guest.

Listen wherever you get podcasts or on my website at:

An Irish folk tale with a spoilerific title, weddings, funerals, cabbages, amazing abs and a very special guest

08/08/2026

The Biddenham Rabbit and wicked folklorists:

An ancient custom to do with fertility and the like!

So this is very silly but I love stuff like this.

In the very first edition of Folklore in 1878 it was claimed in an article by Laurence Gomme that an ancient procession took place in the Bedfordshire village. A "curious" local custom, ancient and with certain implications (unmarried young women) it came ultimately from a Captain Robe via a more local folklorist, William M Harvey.

It does crop up occasionally in books in the 20th century of local english customs which is where I found it.

And yet it was immediately met with disbelief from the local rector in his rather (understandably) indignant letter, calling on the pretty good authority of all the old people on the village!

Even more tellingly I've a much later (1921) reference to it all being a confessed hoax by "wicked" folklorists who were bored at a train station.

Frustratingly I cant find that confession anywhere but I'm minded to believe it given the rector's authority.

I can't justify going any further down this rabbit hole (ho ho) as I've spent best part of an hour and a half on it already and I'm supposed to be deep in research for my next episode and my fairy show today (this is why I never release anything) so have to set this one aside.

A good lesson in the unreliability of wicked 19th century folklorists!

But what I enjoy the most given I'm reasonably confused it is a hoax is by witness statement from John Radfort directly replying to the rector where he claims to have been there.

I am pretty sure he is just really stirring things up for his own amusement - trolling (in the original meaning of the word).

There are later idignant letters responding to his witness statement that are I'm sure exactly what he wanted!

Anyway I see no reason the u***d women of Biddenham couldn't (re)create this tradition if they wanted - sounds like a fun thing to do on a unremarkable September day, as long as your rabbit doesn't get away.

06/08/2026

Last week I took a wonderful trip to some CCT t churches that are localish to me - all around Doncaster.

Can't pretend that this is anything more than my holiday snaps as I've no tales about them directly but it was partly magical to see these buildings and graveyards - all not far short of a millenium old, and particularly to admire the carvings in them.

The beaked heads on the door of St Peter's Edlington (the very first conservation trust church) were especially striking - a representations of the dark horrors of the world apparently, and their contrast with the golden altar bathed in light had quite possibly precisely the effect desired by the original builders.

A massive thanks to Steve who showed us around. when we dialled the number on the door!

The location of St. Oswald's was its own kind of magic the builders could not have intended - at the very end of a long road - alone on its unwalled graveyard amid a very modern housing estate and just by the canal it seemed very anachronistuc and somehow it felt like it was situated right at the very ebd of the world.

These might not have been right up there in tourist hotspots and certainly aren't on any top things to do in Doncaster lists but I'm so glad they exist. The Churches Conservation trust do some truly fantastic work and I'm very glad that such places remain.

(The Churches were St John's, Throapham - where crossing the stile into the yellow field beyond felt like entering another world, St Peter's Edlington - the first CCT church and St. Oswald's Kirk Sandall- end of the world.)

03/08/2026

New Live Show announcement!

Tales of the Faeries: Lust, Loss and Hollow Hills

So happy to announce I've a new storytelling show (for adults) and this time it's all about the "Good folk"

(There will also be some folklore rambling).

First performing in Leeds on November 18th but if it goes well I'm really hoping to take this one all over. Sheffield date to be announced imminently.

Expect all your usual faerie favourites - s*x, violence, bagpipe music, obligatory liminality, child abduction and very thorough housework. With nary a gossamer wing in sight. Iron will be provided (but turn your own clothes inside out).

So excited about this one and I hope it'll be a wonderful night out for everyone who survives.

A massive thanks to Arcane & Fable (Bunty May Marshall) for the truly magica and super cool event poster. Feel like a proper event hosting person now.

The Old Woollen

Early bird tickets here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tales-of-the-faeries-lust-loss-and-hollow-hills-tickets-1996479793807

26/07/2026

The Original poem is a fair bit longer - newspapers really did go on a bit then!

You can go down it these days but you have to be a proper caver. Unsure if they encounter Goblins there now...

18/07/2026

Regardless of how good the Odyssey film is it is crazy to me that people keep retelling the same story when there exist no big budget filmed versions of anything from (just for example) Sumerian and Irish epics when the material is just as good.

Genuinely baffled.

17/07/2026

Folklore faeries are a nasty bunch - but there's a lot to tales of them (sometimes they are even nice!) and reducing them to just one aspect is quite misleading.

All tales mentioned are from Britain and Ireland.

It goes without saying by this point that they don't have wings.

I love the brain story as a story but I'm in little doubt that behind it is a very real person to whom something awful happened.