Spent the first full day of my 40s how I mean to go on - with beautiful views and muddy boots

From now on it won't be a birthday unless my book is turned into a cake 😍🥲 Thank you family!

💚💚💚https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp8rjk02r0jt

Yesterday I had the honour of talking about my folklore-related work at the Folklore Studies Master's in Herfordshire Uni. Dr. @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social takes are something I could listen to for hours, and sharing perspectives with other fellow Folklore Nerds™ (as we are) makes for the best days.

Used my upcoming birthday as an excuse in class to talk about the caterpillar cake (be it Colin, Morris, Cecil, Maisie, Vic, etc) as a contemporary British birthday tradition - the American students were bemused, asking why a caterpillar. I had no pearls of wisdom to share. But I did have cake.

Gibbets. Bit of fieldwork yesterday. Name this replica gibbet! It would originally have been four or five times higher, though. Strange juxtoposition of a macabre historical location with fast food and speed limits...

Today we welcomed the amazingly talented @diesclara.bsky.social to class @herts.ac.uk who talked to us about her journey to folklore, her artworks & her myriad projects (including a very exciting delve into witchcraft in northern Spain). Thank you so much for joining us!

Some of our amazing folklorists about to graduate and already doing amazing things, making the world a better place by caring about people's stories, customs & beliefs. You make me so proud 🥲

Folklore out and about, bringing delight at every stopping point.

This issue also includes my review of @odavies9.bsky.social and @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social's Folklore: A Journey through the Past and the Present

In Folklore Studies class last week @herts.ac.uk we were celebrating Lunar New Year and exploring the ways it's adapted to the present day. Then I head over to Liverpool and amidst the Lion Dance am handed a red envelope by the God of Fortune - with a chocolate 2p coin inside it

Invasion of the Saucermen is a new exhibition at the Old Head Post Office at @sheffieldhallamuni.bsky.social, opening next month. We caught up with Andrew Robinson to hear about its conception - and how the Survey feeds into the display: www.nationalfolkloresurvey.co.uk/news/invasio...

Episode four of Folklore Matters has landed and it’s a special one: a recording of @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social and @odavies9.bsky.social at Off The Shelf in October discussing their latest book, Folklore: a journey through past and present. It’s a corker if we do say so ourselves!

If you've ever been a Girl Guide and collected badges for a blanket, please consider filling in this survey by one of my brilliant Folklore students: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Waiting to cross the tram tracks at Manchester's Lunar New Year parade

This is a solid reference book. I expected to read of folk revivals, pleasantly surprised by inclusion of rituals like the ice bucket challenge, #goblincore and other subcultures. Honestly hadn't thought of them as folklore, an eye opening treat. @odavies9.bsky.social @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social

Today was spent ostensively playing ATU 122E - and if you get what I'm saying, you're my kind of person

Really grateful to the incomparable Terry Gunnell for zooming in from Iceland to chat with the Folklore Studies students @herts.ac.uk about digital archives, folk motifs & TROLLS🧌

You know all about The Wicker Man… now hear from one of the Children of The Wicker Man. On Folklore Matters today, we talk to Dominic Hardy, son of Robin, to hear all about the film’s legacy and its impact on his family. Source it wherever you get your podcasts…

A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

Legends in postcards. I give you the "Joe Stone" of Gretton. Known enough in early 20thC to be turned into a postcard. Unknown now. Still there, though. But no one knows how it got its name. Possibly used as a customary stone for farmers' transactions. Who knows! Who was Joe?

If the below picture gets you thinking stats, classes, campaigns, and the incomparable joy of crit successes then please consider answering this short survey for my Folklore student's research project: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

If you are interested, check out all the work by @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social. and here's a bit of research we collaborated on about geocaches and lovelock structures as serial collaborative creations. (Open access) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Went back to visit my old Christmas tree, which had been dying in a pot in my yard so I planted it in the wild. So pleased to see some fresh growth at the top

Great "in conversation with" Dr Jeff James, hosted by my colleague Dr William Bainbridge as part of our Heritage Hub seminar series

Ghosts. The Worcestershire folklorist Jabez Allies (1787-1856) once asked a local whether he had ever seen a ghost, and received the reply, "No, but my horse has."

Can anyone identify what type of creature this was meant to depict? I believe it's Native American

For anyone interested in the customs we practice, the stories we tell & the beliefs we hold, our MA Folklore Studies @herts.ac.uk may be for you! Sign up for the online info evening 4pm 24 Feb to learn more www.herts.ac.uk/study/open-d...

One of my students is investigating 'Healing in Ink: Ritual, Pain, and Meaning in Tattoo Traditions' for their assignment on the Contemporary Rituals & Traditions module. If you have one or more tattoos & are up for answering some questions please head to this survey forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

On Saturday 7th February, 1-2pm, I'm giving a talk in my role at the Pankhurst Museum. The slightly tongue-in-cheek title is 'What About the Men?', but it's mostly about patriarchy, the institution of marriage, and the doctrine of coverture. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-about...

Latest in my occasional series of jolly gibbet postcards! It'll be in my forthcoming book "Legend and Landscape: An Alternative History of Britain."

Today was our inaugural wassail, with staff & folklore students waking the apple trees on @herts.ac.uk campus allotment with historic lyrics, the pouring (& drinking) of mulled apple juice & the hanging of toast on branches. Wake up, wake up, it's time to wake up! #uhwassail #HertsMAFolkloreStudies

After careful consideration I've selected my footwear for tomorrow's wassail - the first @herts.ac.uk! Let's wake up the orchard for spring #uhwassail #FolkloreStudiesMAHerts

On the trail of witches, cannibals, ghosts & outlaws, @odavies9.bsky.social & I will be talking about 'Legend Tripping in the British Landscape' (including the Edge of Alan Garner) in Goostrey on 28 March: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legend-tri...

Pleased to be doing the northern leg of my book launch at @wcmlibrary.bsky.social with Isaac Rose and the Greater Manchester Tenants' Union on 26 Feb. Northerners, book now!

Saying hi to an old friend - the coin-tree of Bolton Abbey

This beautiful pin was gifted to me by a very generous folklore student recently returned from Ukraine. The label says it's an amulet that "symbolises the unity & indomitability of the Ukrainian state. On the Motanka, elements of clothing from nine historical and ethnographic regions are depicted" ❤️

Sad to finish this wonderful book--I wished it was twice as long. Fascinating topics and beautifully, lucidly written. May we have a sequel, please? #Folklore @odavies9.bsky.social @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social

Earth Mysteries. Been researching the importance of the printed Ordnance Survey maps of Britain for the generation of the 'Earth Mysteries' tradition from late 19th-20th century. Joining lines on a map is fun ... Walking them sometimes challenging. Image from Maltwood collection UVIC Libraries

33 month postdoc (0.8 FTE) on a really interesting project at Essex on #EarlyModern German and English witchcraft... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQC497/s...

What better way of conducting a planning meeting about our upcoming wassail @herts.ac.uk than amidst the trees we'll soon be waking up in crisp winter sunshine with mulled apple juice?

The beautiful cover of the North American edition - out 2026!

While leading us through a glow worm cave in NZ, our Maori guide said that if water drips on your head it's good luck. My son rolled his eyes. "Oh no, mummy's gonna be folkloring again". I've never been prouder.

'Folklore is still part of everyday life in the cities as well as in the countryside.' Novelist and folklore academic @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social is on Northern Voices today talking about boggarts, writing and her new book, Folklore, from @manchesterup.bsky.social on.soundcloud.com/Zn0M7epQr9rg...

Towncreep. Been researching a supposedly lost town in deepest Sussex that 19th century locals called "Towncreep". They said it was destroyed by "the red-haired men". Now that's a folk horror scenario for you. I'll explain in forthcoming book...

'as a rich and fascinating overview and introduction to British folklore this book is really essential reading for anyone interested in the subject. I know I’ll be returning to my copy again and again' - a lovely review of #Folklore on @shinynewbooks.bsky.social shinynewbooks.co.uk/folklore-a-j...

Did you catch our Ceri on BBC Breakfast this morning? If you want more, grab a copy of her Christmas novel, Winter’s Wishfall www.waterstones.com/book/winters...

Loved talking about the history of letters to Santa on BBC Breakfast this morning 💌 🎁 🌲

If anybody wants to hear me babble (hopefully coherently) about my research into letters to Santa archives live on TV, tune into the BBC Breakfast Show this morning at 8:50ish...

In today's Folklore Studies MA class we had the wonderful Sarah Bellisario talking us through her doctoral practitioner work on objects, ritual & emotion, did some creating ourselves along with some eating of Christmas themed snacks