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Ghostland

In Search of a Haunted Country

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Ghostland

By: Edward Parnell
Narrated by: Sam Woolf
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About this listen

‘A uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature’ Philip Hoare

‘An exciting new voice’ Mark Cocker, author of Crow Country

In his late thirties, Edward Parnell found himself trapped in the recurring nightmare of a family tragedy. For comfort, he turned to his bookshelves, back to the ghost stories that obsessed him as a boy, and to the writers through the ages who have attempted to confront what comes after death.

In Ghostland, Parnell goes in search of the ‘sequestered places’ of the British Isles, our lonely moors, our moss-covered cemeteries, our stark shores and our folkloric woodlands. He explores how these landscapes conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema, from the ghost stories and weird fiction of M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to the children’s fantasy novels of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper; from W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift’s Waterland to the archetypal ‘folk horror’ film The Wicker Man…

Ghostland is Parnell’s moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – and what is haunting him. It is a unique and elegiac meditation on grief, memory and longing, and of the redemptive power of stories and nature.

©2019 Edward Parnell (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Art & Literature Authors Cultural & Regional Grief & Loss Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Personal Development Relationships Science Grief Fantasy Scary Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"Ghostland is a delicious, creepy, gothic gazetteer to a British landscape filled with folkloric, literary and filmic spirits, avian auguries, and natural history and a deeply touching personal grief that speaks to the hauntedness of childhood memory and teenage dreams. Obsessive, possessive, nostalgic, an act of vivid retrieval - this is a uniquely strange and wonderful work of literature." (Philip Hoare)

"A marvellous blend of travel writing, history and grief memoir, Ghostland provides not only a seance with the author’s lost family, but also a premonition of his dazzling literary future." (Paul Willetts, author of Members Only, filmed as The Look of Love)

"A skillful and intriguing weaving together, less of haunted houses as of haunted people, including MR James, Alan Garner, W G Sebald and the author himself, in places where the past has left its mark." (George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen)

All stars
Most relevant  
If you love folk horror and dark romantic whimsy
then this will make you happy.
Reminds me to look up lots of things I missed and revisit others.

useful compendium of folk horror

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I absolutely love this book.

A fascinating tale interwoven with references I will follow up.

Wasn't sure what to expect...but wow!

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Beautiful, moving and full of references to films and stories both familiar and yet to be discovered. I was drawn in by the subject matter and wonderful Richard Wells illustration on the cover. What I got was much more than I bargained for. Just finished listening in unexpected tears. But it’s a hopeful book and one full of delight taken in uncanny stories and images.

Beautiful, moving and full of references

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The narrator of this book never dropped a line, word or pronunciation as far as I can tell - this is more rare than you realise. His tone and pitch are spot on throughout. Wonderful book, weaving his own story and places with those of the ghost stories he is exploring, and landscape and nature of those stories too. Need a paper copy now to refer to so we can follow some of the trails and stories too.

Excellent narration

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I never thought I’d say this was a beautiful book after the first couple of hours of listening to it, but this becomes so much more than a book about ghost stories. Excellent.

Beautiful

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This book made me reflect on my own life as well as my thoughts on British weird, horror and fantasy fiction. It’s a beautiful memoir and exploration of Britain.

A truly unique book, and one I will come back to.

A wonderful personal history of a British literary tradition

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An evocative book, tracing the places that inspired or were lived in by storytellers like MR James among many other authors of the uncanny, woven in with memories of his family and holidays . A story of ghosts in more than one sense. if you are keen on birdwatching, which I can't claim to be, you will get even more from the book as bird sightings feature a good deal in the travels.

Elegy for stories landscapes and family memories

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with a great selection of titles and places to discover which are lost on the reviewer who unfairly and rather spitefully gave this book a 1/5 because of it's lack of direction. the family tragedy was dealt with bravely and an economy that made it all the more real. i congratulate the author on an unusual book and would recommend to those on the pursuit of the hauntological, perhap those of a similar age to the author who this book will no doubt resonate with.

a nice listen

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References to alderley edge and the Wicker Man and the Red Shift- plus so much I grew up with

The recognition of Alan Garner

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I found this book moving, intriguing and informative. Among the best I have ever heard.

Coming to terms with life, death and memory.

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