#Spooktober 8 – Ghosts of Wales

October 8, 2023

It’s Sunday again, which means we take a look at a book on spooky stuff.

The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts by Delyth Badder and Mark Norman recently dropped in both paperback and digital edition, and it’s a delight to read. After an introduction, the book analyses the concept of unfinished business of lingering spirits and then proceeds to talk about different kinds of ghosts: those haunting the outdoors, spectral beasts, holy ghosts, poltergeists, water spirits, and ghouls, down to more specifically Welsh stuff like Ladi Wen, the woman in white commonly seen at Hollantide. The last chapter is dedicated to Death Omens.

And from that brook was heard an untimely roar, the lifeless huntsman would be calling his pack. The hounds of fell would howl in the dead of night, seeing some phantom shapes on the moor.

comics and illustration

Leo Ortolani, Tapum

A un certo punto ci sarà una battuta, in questo fumetto, e riderete. Sappiate che è l’unica. Com’è giusto che sia. Se devo paragonare quest’opera a qualcosa, il confronto più azzeccato è probabilmente lo spettacolo che Marco Paolini trasse dal Sergente nella neve di Rigoni

August 9, 2026 9:00 am

Summertime

Omeros in the Caribbeans

Derek Walcott was a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, and painter, and one of the major voices of Caribbean literature. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, and his work often explores Caribbean history, identity, colonial inheritance, and the meeting of European and African

August 9, 2026 6:00 am

books and literature

Ioanna Papadopoulou’s The Castaway and the Witch

I had a genuine “oh shit” moment when I read the author’s preface saying this was darker than “Winter Harvest” because – and I absolutely ADORED “Winter Harvest” – that was pitch-black dark. I thought “we’re all going to die”. This maybe has something to

August 8, 2026 9:00 am