Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present by Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook

In Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present (Manchester University Press, 2025), Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairy tales to UFO legends and internet fanfiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given.

The book’s key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated.

Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He has been described as Britain’s foremost academic expert on the history of magic. Ceri Houlbrook is Senior Lecturer in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire. In addition to her scholarly work, she writes folklore-inspired fiction.