Ceri Houlbrook
AUTHOR

Ceri Houlbrook

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Dr. Ceri Houlbrook, Folklore Researcher Growing up next to Boggart Hole Clough, an inner-city park in Manchester, Ceri’s childhood was filled with local legends of child-snatching boggarts and dangerous fairies hiding in the undergrowth. She therefore also grew up knowing that folklore doesn’t just belong to the rural communities of the past. It is current, dynamic, and part of our everyday lives, wherever we live. Now, Ceri is the academic world’s leading expert on contemporary British folklore, combining scholarly rigor with creativity and a love of storytelling. Ceri has published widely on modern-day customs and rituals, from coin-trees and love-locks to fairy beliefs and domestic magic. Her most recent book ‘Folklore: A journey through the past and present’, with Manchester University Press and co-authored with Professor Owen Davies, has been described by Ronald Hutton as 'The best overall view of the subject currently available, written by its most dynamic partnership of scholars. It not only covers the traditional remit of folklore but extends it into many less conventional areas, right up to the present moment’ and by Zoe Gilbert, author of 'Folk', as 'Not just a fascinating tour of past practice but a compelling argument for the evergreen, sprouting nature of folklore. This book provides a refreshing lens through which to view a fertile, living subject.' Ceri is also a fiction writer, drawing on her folklore and archival research to weave new stories of magical realism in her debut novel 'Winter's Wishfall', and is represented by the Julie Crisp Literary Agency. Ceri is the Programme Leader of the only Masters in Folklore Studies in England at the University of Hertfordshire, and loves helping to train – and learn from – tomorrow’s folklorists. She’s a council member of the Folklore Society, which was established in 1878, one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the world, and is a frequent guest on Radio 5Live, BBC, the HistoryHit Podcast, for talking all things folklore, from Robin Hood and the landscape of the Bröntes to Spring-Heeled Jack. You can connect with Ceri on Instagram and X on @cerihoulbrook
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