Ghost histories. A favourite snippet from my old book 'The Haunted' (2007). Advert 1936:

'HAUNTED HOUSE for SALE: 16th-century house in quiet Sussex village ideal for GUEST HOUSE. Freehold £5000 or offer.'

I sometimes wonder who bought it & whether it is still haunted...

Just putting out a call to other folklorists, do you know any TV documentaries that focus on British Cryptids?

Grumpy pill box.
Don't blame it, having to stand around in a damp field, waiting for a non-existent invasion for 80 years 🙄 #shropshire

If anyone in a post-92 would like me to talk to their dept about how to engage media with their research I’ll come & do it for free. Email me at [email protected]

Fascinated by the customs we practice, the legends we tell & the beliefs we follow? Interested in turning this fascination into a Folklore Studies MA University of Hertfordshire? Find out more at the online Let's Talk Postgrad event with me, 4pm 18th June: herts.ac.uk/study/open-day…

This should become an iconic image of democratic people power.

Cunning-women/wise-women. Definitely lots more research to be done on how, in the past, offering magical services provided a source of independent income for women. We'll be covering aspects of this in the Alternative Healers 1834-1948 project.

#Tbilisi #Tbilisi Protests

There's still time to join us for 5 excellent talks on medieval landscapes this Saturday in Ludlow or on Zoom 🙂

Even though the Parliament's Russian Dream party adopted Russian law in the third hearing, there is a veto ahead - and this image of people pushing police back is truly a masterpiece: light vs dark, democracy vs autocracy, the FREE people of Georgia against Russian law.

Get invulved!! Join us on Tues 21 May at 18:00 BST for Rosemary Power’s online talk about sheela-na-gigs. Tickets £6 (£4 for FLS members with Promo Code) from eventbrite.co.uk/e/sheela-na-gi…?

Bird folklore as our lovely swallows & house martins nest. Amongst the few birds to be protected by folklore. Bad luck to destroy their nests, as a Yorks farmer found in 1895

'everybody said they knew what would happen, for the birds’ nests could not be removed with impunity'

For centuries the figure of the bone setter has ensnared the collective imagination. Occupying a nebulous space between heroisms and villainy the bone setters nevertheless assumed a pivotal position within the milieu of alternative healing practices. Meet some of them…

Tbilisi Protesters #NoToRussianLaw

🇬🇪🇪🇺

I admire the passion of the Georgian protesters to be part of Europe, and then shake my head sadly at Britain and Brexit...

Crowds gather outside Georgian parliament to stay overnight and block it ahead of the Legal Affairs Committee set to vote for the foreign influence law in third hearing. interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said protestors who will attempt to blockade parliament will face jail

Goodnight

My new book is out in June 😎

A literary history of #psychedelics with a heroic dose of the sublime ❤️📖

tinyurl.com/ypemr6us

This is an absolutely incredible amount of people in the streets of Tbilisi.

Georgia’s future is in the EU and the West; and will never be in Russia.

I'd be delighted if you could join me at Conway Hall, Sun 2 June, where I’ll be talking about my book, The Undesirables. It’s my attempt to get to the heart of how c.50,000 UK youngsters were placed in mental institutions on purely social & ‘moral’ grounds rb.gy/4six3i