Earlier this year I completed one of my most enjoyable projects to date: Great British Folklore – Volume 1. It’s a fully illustrated collection of twelve strange encounters reported across the UK – from the legendary Loch Ness Monster to the eerie Beast of Bolam Lake, right through to the unsettling mystery of the Hexham Heads.
What makes this book different is that it isn’t a collection of ghost stories or old myths retold. Each chapter is based on a documented encounter, described by real people who claim to have lived through it. Wherever possible, I drew on eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, and research gathered by cryptozoologists and investigators. My aim was to retell each story in a way that pulls you directly into the moment – as if you’re the one walking through the forest at night, or catching sight of something impossible moving across the water.
Alongside the research, I illustrated every story. This was one of my favourite parts of the process: finding the right balance between atmosphere and detail. The drawing process felt like an extension of the research itself – a way of interpreting what people described and bringing those accounts to life on the page.
The book covers well-known cases like Nessie and Black Shuck, but also some that are far less familiar, particularly here in the North East: the Beast of Bolam Lake, the sinister Alnwick Vampire, and the unsettling tale of the Hexham Heads. I loved being able to shine a light on these local stories, as they give a real sense of just how much mystery is woven into the British landscape.
Researching, writing, and illustrating this book reminded me how deep these rabbit holes go – and how much fun it is to follow them. Britain is full of places labelled as “areas of high strangeness,” where the veil between the ordinary and extraordinary seems especially thin.
Digging into the stories connected to these places was a reminder that, whatever you choose to believe, the UK has no shortage of spine-tingling tales reported by people who are convinced they saw something out of the ordinary.
Please enjoy the sample chapter – The Hexham Heads.
Great British Folklore – Volume 1 was a joy to create, and it has left me with enough ideas (and plenty of new rabbit holes to explore) for future volumes.
