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Local Haunts
'In this wonderfully eclectic collection of essays Adam Scovell makes a beguiling guide, leading us along numerous haunted byways of British and European literature, television and cinema.'
– Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland
'Scovell's incisive essays, distributed across space-time, come together in this volume to form a cohesive travelogue through the hinterlands of our cultural landscape and the imaginal topographies of great artists, writers and filmmakers. It's an enriching journey that takes regular pitstops in those enchanted zones where a place and its stories are one and the same.'
– Gareth E. Rees, author of Sunken Lands
For more than a decade, writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell has been preoccupied by the strange connections between place and curious about the graves of writers, determined to find the locations of iconic films, intrigued by the landscapes that inspired novels.
From obscure British television to European cinema, the poems of playwrights to the psychogeography of Weird Fiction, Local Haunts brings together a collection of essays, photographs, travelogues, and journalism that explores the connections between art and the landscapes that inspire it. With particular focus on several key figures that emphasised place in their work – including W.G. Sebald, Alan Garner, Agnès Varda, M.R. James, and Marguerite Duras – Scovell examines culture that is haunted by locales, rural and urban.
Taken from a range of print and digital publications, including work published by Sight & Sound, Literary Hub, Caught By The River, and Little White Lies, as well as Scovell's Celluloid Wicker Man site that brought many ideas surrounding Folk Horror and the Urban Wyrd to prominence in the early 2010s, Local Haunts brings together a decade of work treading the ghostways and the corpse roads of film, literature, and art.
– Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland
'Scovell's incisive essays, distributed across space-time, come together in this volume to form a cohesive travelogue through the hinterlands of our cultural landscape and the imaginal topographies of great artists, writers and filmmakers. It's an enriching journey that takes regular pitstops in those enchanted zones where a place and its stories are one and the same.'
– Gareth E. Rees, author of Sunken Lands
For more than a decade, writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell has been preoccupied by the strange connections between place and curious about the graves of writers, determined to find the locations of iconic films, intrigued by the landscapes that inspired novels.
From obscure British television to European cinema, the poems of playwrights to the psychogeography of Weird Fiction, Local Haunts brings together a collection of essays, photographs, travelogues, and journalism that explores the connections between art and the landscapes that inspire it. With particular focus on several key figures that emphasised place in their work – including W.G. Sebald, Alan Garner, Agnès Varda, M.R. James, and Marguerite Duras – Scovell examines culture that is haunted by locales, rural and urban.
Taken from a range of print and digital publications, including work published by Sight & Sound, Literary Hub, Caught By The River, and Little White Lies, as well as Scovell's Celluloid Wicker Man site that brought many ideas surrounding Folk Horror and the Urban Wyrd to prominence in the early 2010s, Local Haunts brings together a decade of work treading the ghostways and the corpse roads of film, literature, and art.
401 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 4, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2025
As a fellow born and bred Wirralite, I love supporting a homeboy!
This collection of essays by Adam Scovell is some really inspired writing. He covers everything from the horror stories of M R James, to French Cinema to Derek Jarman's garden to W G Sebald's grave.
The writing is intelligent, thoughtful, questioning, sometimes subjective, always interesting and entertaining to read.
My favourite section was "Wanders", the middle part of the book, where the author follows the trails of different writers and film-makers, scouting out their locations of inspiration. He also returns to the Wirral to revisit the site of his own ghosts from the past. "Wanders" is accompanied by black and white photographs, some of them grainy and difficult to see a great deal but they convey a real sense of impression. I am interested in the works of M R James and Sebald so the essays relating to them were particularly appealing to me. In addition I ended up adding Under the Volcano to my reading list given its Wirral references throughout.
Scovell mentions Teju Cole and Mark Fisher during his writing. The essays here remind me of their insightful and perceptive writing style, the ability to break something down and really scrutinise it in an intuitive manner. I like a book that has you googling, researching and referencing, and this book certainly provoked me to look up authors, settings and stories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and will be returning to it again in the future. An exceptional 5 stars.
This collection of essays by Adam Scovell is some really inspired writing. He covers everything from the horror stories of M R James, to French Cinema to Derek Jarman's garden to W G Sebald's grave.
The writing is intelligent, thoughtful, questioning, sometimes subjective, always interesting and entertaining to read.
My favourite section was "Wanders", the middle part of the book, where the author follows the trails of different writers and film-makers, scouting out their locations of inspiration. He also returns to the Wirral to revisit the site of his own ghosts from the past. "Wanders" is accompanied by black and white photographs, some of them grainy and difficult to see a great deal but they convey a real sense of impression. I am interested in the works of M R James and Sebald so the essays relating to them were particularly appealing to me. In addition I ended up adding Under the Volcano to my reading list given its Wirral references throughout.
Scovell mentions Teju Cole and Mark Fisher during his writing. The essays here remind me of their insightful and perceptive writing style, the ability to break something down and really scrutinise it in an intuitive manner. I like a book that has you googling, researching and referencing, and this book certainly provoked me to look up authors, settings and stories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and will be returning to it again in the future. An exceptional 5 stars.
May 25, 2025
Adam Scovell has collected essays where he explores the strange connections between locations and art. He uses photos, travelogues and essays to explore the landscapes that inspired authors and filmakers to create their unique art. Bridging the gap between place and culture, these writings overlap in describing the spark that allowed these creatives to make their most iconic works.
This collection is divided into three sections. One for filmmakers and one for writers with a third that connects the two. Some of these overlap due to the nature of their history.
As the author explores significant figures, there is this sense of going where one would not normally tread and find treasures of information that may alter perceptions of how these figures worked to create their stories.
I found the writings to be insightful, there were many authors and locations I recognised as well as films that are mentioned. However there were also several that were new to me. If anything I am now intrigued to learn more.
A well researched collection that will appeal to many.
Many thanks to @influxpress for a copy of this book.
This collection is divided into three sections. One for filmmakers and one for writers with a third that connects the two. Some of these overlap due to the nature of their history.
As the author explores significant figures, there is this sense of going where one would not normally tread and find treasures of information that may alter perceptions of how these figures worked to create their stories.
I found the writings to be insightful, there were many authors and locations I recognised as well as films that are mentioned. However there were also several that were new to me. If anything I am now intrigued to learn more.
A well researched collection that will appeal to many.
Many thanks to @influxpress for a copy of this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews