The Summer Solstice: Myths and Madness of Midsummer

Drake's Island sits in Plymouth Sound, around 500 m from the mainland. The island is just 6.5 acres, and around 250 yards wide at its broadest point. You can reach the island by boat in 10 minutes. I...

8 Nov 202522min

Today marks All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day or the Feast of All Hallows. That's why Hallowe'en is called that - it's All Hallow's Eve. The day celebrates saints, but the far more inter...

1 Nov 202525min

If I ask you to think of a famous haunted house, will your mind wander to a white Dutch Colonial house, with quarter-round windows lit from within to look like red eyes? Yes? Then the reputation of 11...

25 Okt 202518min

The Palazzo Ducale dominates the view as your vaporetto approaches the San Marco stop. The huge building is an example of Venetian Gothic architecture, all pointed arches and quatrefoils. It's hard to...

18 Okt 202520min

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I'm talking to two folklore heavyweights - Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook! Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshi...

14 Okt 202550min

If you've ever read any Charles Dickens novels, especially Great Expectations, then you'll have run into Newgate Prison. The hulking, notorious jail loomed large in London's history, before its demoli...

11 Okt 202521min

Bedlam, or Bethlem Royal Hospital to give it its full name, is actually the world's oldest psychiatric institution. It began life in 1247 in the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem, which stood where we no...

4 Okt 202524min

Foxes appear in literature and legend across the world. Look at Brer Fox in the American South. In Rebel Folklore, I discussed the Jiuwei Hu of China, or nine-tailed fox, who drains men of their life ...

27 Sep 202518min