Dreadful Stories

Robbery. Alcoholism. Trespass. Fornication. Murder. These are just five of over sixty themes to be found in this book you are considering buying. Kitty Brownbelt has gone to a great deal of trouble in compiling this melee of obscure folk narratives. Reading Dreadful Stories is like taking a walk around the night-time of the British imagination without your clothes on. You’ll feel vulnerable and frightened but also strangely liberated and thrilled by the experience. These are tales of monstrous jealousy, bloody vengeance, nocturnal horror and parsley cultivation. Because the themes are so powerful, and because the stories on their own can be so disturbing, Kitty Brownbelt presents each narrative with a warming introduction, followed by a thorough, almost forensic analysis – just in case you failed to register the moral messages being repeatedly conveyed to your head by a sturdy but metaphorical cricket bat.