folklore fiction
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Ralph Travers, a curate in Exeter, struggles with his conscience after inadvertently making the Devil, Bucky, known to children through a rhyme. As children start disappearing, he faces the consequences of his actions.
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In a series of intertwined tales, women at fairs confront the consequences of seeking love through an ancient ash charm. Each one learns that desires shape their fates, often leading to regret.
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About a 40-minute read or 1hr 3-minute listen. In Hagley Stile, magpies are never merely birds. One by one, the old rhyme becomes a reckoning as sorrow, joy, birth, theft, silver, gold and secrets gather beneath black-and-white wings.
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About an 11-minute read or a 14-minute listen. This folklore tale warns against taking unbaptised children near the Smothing. When a family breaks the rule, they face dire consequences as their child changes, seemingly possessed. An old woman helps reclaim the child, but the experience leaves lasting scars. Villagers remember the tale as a cautionary…
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About a 30-minute read or a 41 minute listen. Jess Harwood returns to her late mother’s home after seven years, uncovering memories and remnants of her mother’s life and secrets. As she begins to help the village with herbal remedies, she discovers a powerful stone, the Eye of the Dracan, which deepens her connection to…
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About a 20-minute read or a 30-minute listen. In Duskdale, the arrival of winter deepens despair as a blight affects children, including young Pip. Emmie, seeking to save him, takes an apple from a forbidden orchard, causing a troubling shift in the village where memories of the dead fade. Ultimately, Emmie must sacrifice her memories…
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About a 13-minute read or a 20-minute listen. During the reign of King Stephen, two children of strange green hue were discovered near Woolpit in Suffolk, speaking in an unknown tongue and refusing all common food save raw beans. What follows is not a retelling of that story, but an imagined prelude to it
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About an 8-minute read or 12-minute listen. Yarnulf misjudged a journey to the nearest town, taking a shortcut through the forest. He encounters Gossia, a pixie, who reveals her garden of skeletons, victims of laughter. Despite earlier warnings, he becomes part of her collection.