Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country

Ghostland follows Edward Parnell through haunted and secluded landscapes across the British Isles, from Welsh and Scottish locations to Cornwall, East Anglia and the north-west. Along the way, he considers how moors, woods, cemeteries and remote shores have shaped Britain’s literature and cinema.

The book brings together ghost stories and weird fiction by M. R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood with children’s fantasy by Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, alongside W. G. Sebald, Graham Swift and The Wicker Man. Parnell also reflects on a family tragedy and his own lifelong fascination with ghosts, linking literary and cinematic hauntings with grief, memory and the consoling power of stories and nature.