Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories

by Brice Stratford

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.

BRICE STRATFORD is an actor, storyteller, theatre director, folklorist, historian and former stuntman. Born and raised in the New Forest, he’s a regular fixture at folk, fringe and fright events across the country with his award-winning theatre company, the Owle Schreame. He currently sits on the board of the New Forest National Park Authority, and writes regularly on culture, heritage, architecture and the arts for a range of periodicals. In 2024 he launched the Finding Folklore podcast, an expansive storytelling and research project designed to unearth the hidden lore beneath the humdrum veneer of modern England.

Genres: Horror, Halloween, Folklore, Short Stories

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect seasonal reading and the perfect companion to Skal's DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY or any other American history of Halloween. The variety of customs and observations in the British isles in the late Fall season certainly finds echoes over here, even in our mostly sanitized and commercialized celebration of the chill before Winter's darkness.

Stratford notes that the film ET had a major impact on the modern English Halloween scene, data both amusing and sad. It's the nature of customs to change but so much change now is being driven at an almost universal level by our media at a pace that trivializes nearly everything. A book like this becomes even more valuable as a repository of matters and purposes otherwise forgotten.

Also, it’s a whole lot of fun.

[Sara Elston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t get past the ai art. Disappointing to me personally.

[Patrickderaaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I expected: a collection of scary stories about grizzly ghouls, haunted happenings and fantastic frights. New or retellings, but stories nonetheless.

What I got: a rather interesting book filled with the origins of the celebrations and traditions surrounding Hallowmas in the United Kingdom. I would have preferred fiction, but I still was not disappointed with this book, though towards the end i lost interest a bit. I love the illustrations on the cover and inside.

[Kirsty Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book , two of my favourite things history and Halloween combined. Great stories of communities joining together over old festivities to celebrate the season and the different ways they do celebrate in England . I was almost jealous some of this spirit doesn’t still exist in my local area and loved finding out the history and traditions that I haven’t heard of and some I didn’t know the history behind. Really enjoyable read

[MKF]

DNF.
The whole point of this book is to convince us that everything Halloween related came from Britain and nowhere else.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read

Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories is a mixed genre book, its a mix of historical events and history, fairy tales/ ghost story's/ Folklore and has a mix of horror elements in.

I rated this book 5* I love learning about the history of Halloween, its one of my favourite holidays and even more so now after learning about the stories that helped forge the well known holiday. I love the Folklore that's been passed down through time, it really makes you question if there is more to it especially when there are people's accounts that have been written when experiencing it too.

I'd highly recommend this book to those interested in learningabout Halloween's origin.

[Sammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to learn more about the history and traditions of Halloween in the UK this is the book to read!! Woven in between the informational chapters are brilliant ghost stories set on and around the spookiest night of the year. I also love the artwork in this book, it's so atmospheric and eerie.

[ProudDyslexic]

I was excited about this book and was wholly disappointed. I could not even rate it