118 – Fiona Barnett & If You Go Down to the Woods Today

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It’s coming home, it’s coming … horror’s coming home!

Alright, no one panic – this isn’t about football. We’ll avoid that particular nightmare of human corruption and talk about something much more nourishing – the delights of British Folk Horror.

Our guest is Fiona Barnett, and these days it’s seems like a mini-celebration everytime I have a fellow Brit on the show. Her debut novel The Dark Between the Trees is also quintessentially British, mired in the myth and lore and landscape of these sceptic isles. Her novel follows two groups into the cursed Moresby Woods. One is a group of soldiers from the 16th Century; the other is a research group in the present day. Neither expedition goes at all well…

Amongst many things, Fiona and I talk about writing female groups, about propelling the plot in the face of paralysis weirdness, we discuss the nature of folktale and truth, and we look into the abyss of Deep Time.

And in case that all sounds awfully hifalutin – I make sure to talk about monsters as much as I can. Though this week, I promise, there is no Bigfoot. 

Enjoy! 

The Dark Between the Trees was released on October 11th by Solaris

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

• Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer
• Mythago Wood (1984), by Robert Holdstock
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967), by Joan Lindsey
• Deep Time: A Literary History (2023), by Noah Heringman
• Begars Abbey (2022), by V.L. Valentine
• Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman (1926), by Sylvia Townsend Warner

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