Hampshire and Isle of Wight Folk Tales


Book Description

These beautifully told folk tales, brought vividly to life by Marcel O'Leary's graphic illustrations, have been collected by the author over his years of working as a greenkeeper, gardener, teacher and storyteller in Hampshire. Many are published here for the first time, and others have evolved through countless retellings in Hampshire schools, festivals, fêtes and events. Featuring dark tales of murderous kings and commoners, wild women, screaming skulls, galloping plague coaches, dragons dancing themselves to death, giants, and wandering corpses, combined with humorous stories and evocative tales of love, lust and passion, this book takes the reader beyond the written page and reveals the wonders that lie within the Hampshire landscape.




Hampshire and Isle of Wight Ghost Tales


Book Description

The stories in this haunting collection are as ancient and modern, powerful and fantastical, ambiguous and ambivalent as the ghosts they feature. Here you will find tales of headless horses riding moonbeams, an entrance to another world on Marrowbones Hill, drowned sailors and ghost ships, and a girl riding pillion on a motorbike driven by her dead boyfriend – all told in the distinct voice of noted storyteller Michael O'Leary who, for years, has wandered the highways and byways of Hampshire, immersed in the layers of ghost stories that have accumulated in this ancient county. Richly illustrated with original drawings, these tales are perfect for reading under the covers on dark, stormy nights.




Hampshire Folk Tales for Children


Book Description

If you love magic and adventure, here is the book for you. In this treasure trove of tales, storyteller Michael O' Leary has collected stories from the Hampshire Downs (which are up), the New Forest (which is old), the copses and coppices, fields and farms, villages, towns and cities of Hampshire. In these stories you will meet dragons, giants, knights, princesses and some vile Vikings– and of course the Liphook fairies. From 'Once upon a time...' to 'Happy ever after' you will be transported to Hampshire, where even the stones have stories to tell.




Sussex Folk Tales


Book Description

With screaming demons in Wealdon copses and dragons lurking in bottomless ponds, the folk tales of Sussex truly represent the diversity of the area. Meet knuckers and willocks, mawkins and marsh monsters, the Piltdown Man, Lord Moon of Amberley Swamp and the princess of the Mixon Hole. There is also something terrible crawling to Crawley from Gatwick, which develops a degraded appetite in a bin... From ghosts and madmen to witches and wise women, Michael O'Leary reveals many of the hidden horrors of Sussex – horrors that can be found in the most beautiful places, or that lurk beneath the seemingly mundane. Amid these dark tales are stories of humour and silliness, of love, lust and passion.




Haunted England


Book Description

Watch out for a ghostly ship and its spectral crew off the coast of Cornwall Listen for the unearthly tread and rustling silk dress of Darlington's Lady Jarratt Shiver at the malevolent apparition of 50 Berkeley Square that no-one survives seeing Beware the black dog of Shap Fell: a sighting warns of fatal accidents England's past echoes with stories of unquiet spirits and hauntings, of headless highwaymen and grey ladies, indelible bloodstains and ghastly premonitions. Here, county by county, are the nation's most fascinating supernatural tales and bone-chilling legends: from a ghostly army marching across Cumbria to the vanishing hitchhiker of Bluebell Hill, from the gruesome Man-Monkey of Shropshire to the phantom congregation who gather for a 'Sermon of the Dead' ...







The Pilgrimage of Piltdown Man


Book Description

Mike O’Leary has been a professional storyteller for 25 years and his post-fairy tale vividly knits together the knuckers, hags, wisht hounds and dragons of folklore with more contemporary concerns of roadkill, hitch-hiking, migration and abuse.







The Lore of the Land


Book Description

Where can you find the 'Devil's footprints'? What happened at the 'hangman's stone'? Did Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, ever really exist? Where was King Arthur laid to rest? Bringing together tales of hauntings, highwaymen, family curses and lovers' leaps, this magnificent guide will take you on a magical journey through England's legendary past.




Forgotten Folk-tales of the English Counties (RLE Folklore)


Book Description

In this book, first published in 1970, Ruth L. Tongue has collected a number of county folk tales recorded by her from childhood onwards, from old people, village children and farm round-the-fire sessions. Many of the beliefs embodied in the gipsy and witchcraft tales are still in practice today among the travelling people and locally ‘gifted’ healers. The tales reveal a good deal of fairy lore, some tree lore, including ghostly trees like Crooker, and the ‘uncanny’ Black Dog makes his appearance in more than one tale. The collection includes several of the long fireside tales which would be told on succeeding evenings on winter nights round the kitchen fire, and rhozzums from various localities.