In this best-selling non-fiction book, David examines the bizarre artefacts that lurk in Britain’s churches and churchyards and the weird stories and folklore linked to them.
Church Curiosities: Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends (Shire/Bloomsbury) is a fascinating tour taking in bone crypts, Devil’s footprints, secret passageways, standing stones, and witches’ cauldrons. Come along on a journey during which you’ll encounter mummified skulls, pyramid tombs, ceremonies involving reindeer antlers, the graves of beloved church cats, and much more. Church Curiosities is a must for all lovers of the gothic, quirky, folkloric and strange.
“A valuable and fascinating read … the stories should delight and amuse”
The Folklore Podcast
“With colourful stories and gorgeous photographs … Castleton makes a convincing case in this enjoyable guide that British churches are delightfully weird.”
Publishers Weekly
By the winner of the 2019 Go Gothic Short Fiction Prize …
“Utterly intriguing … it sucks you into a dark world … quality fiction with a gothic edge.”
Newcastle Magazine ★★★★★
“The literary quality is very high and the writing is sometimes so good it is jaw-dropping.”
Samantha Anne, amazon.co.uk ★★★★★
“Magical realism with a touch of Edgar Allan Poe.”
Tina, amazon.de ★★★★★
Seen through the dreamlike, surreal vision of a seven-year-old boy, The Standing Water is a novel filled with gritty struggle, haunted imaginations, looming violence, dark psychological complexity and the brooding presence of myth and folklore.
Growing up in remote Emberfield, Ryan suspects his headmaster may be responsible for the deaths of two pupils. Could he be? In Emberfield – a place where dead boys might haunt ponds, where eerie churches apparently house cursed artefacts, where the fog-shrouded landscape is rumoured to be littered with ghosts and curses – the borders between the imaginary and real, light and darkness, life and death can seem blurred. Ryan struggles to cope with the volatile and inwardly tortured Mr Weirton and …