Children of The Wicker Man: The True Story Behind One of the Most Remarkable Films Ever Made

by Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy, Chris Nunn (Editor)

Justin Hardy has always been conflicted over the exalted claims made about The Wicker Man, his father’s magnum opus: for him, the film destroyed his family. He has no photographs of Robin Hardy in his house. His brother Dominic, whom Robin abandoned as a baby, has been more distanced. Their father’s film is a set of fragmented stories: benighted production, brutal editing, critical reception, financial failure, and later revival.

Then, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Justin receives a letter from a woman he’s never met. She has found a cache of Robin’s personal papers that have been sitting untouched in the attic of Justin’s childhood home since the 1970s. Would he like them?

Using these newly uncovered sources, along with the Hardy family’s own letters and photographs, Children of The Wicker Man investigates what Robin Hardy’s creative contribution to The Wicker Man was, and considers who was truly sacrificed. In the process, the brothers discover an unlikely heroine: Justin’s mother Caroline, who bankrupted herself paying loans to her husband and the film, only for him to leave when it flopped. For all women behind artist husbands, this book reveals a series of heroines: the mothers of the children of The Wicker Man.

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 23, 2025

Reviews

[Ann Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book accompanying the documentary which was great .

[Sean Sadler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short review for the time poor
Memoir by two of Film Director Robin Hardy sons
The story of Hardy’s best known film The Wicker Man and what is was like being the sons of RH.
Dominic and Justin Hardy intersperse stories of their father with information about the making of The Wicker Man but overall at times it is related in an excruciatingly dull fashion I found and the words often swam in front of me particularly in the overuse of BFI style film speak ( Hetronormative being one example)
As an older reader I found the facsimiles of letters,documents hard to read and as such this contributed to a waning interest in the book
Information on the perspective of those still alive who were involved in the making of TWM is sparse unfortunately
This book follows on from a documentary his sons made( same title as the Book) and this add on to the documentary fails to fuel and ignite the story of that wonderful film The Wicker Man .