These Our Monsters and Other Stories: The English Heritage Book of New Folktale, Myth and Legend

Myths, legends, folklore: they are what we grow up with, from Easter bunnies to tooth fairies, to those tales repeated within families down the generations, to the older accounts that are fundamental to societies and nations and can form the backdrop to our understanding of ourselves. Crucially, they are stories, and stories that offer us a glimpse of a world slightly other than the one we know; magical, terrifying, or simply unsettling.

Here eight well-known writers tell stories inspired by the myths, legends and lore attached to historical sites within the care of English Heritage:  Sarah Hall, Sarah Moss, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Edward Carey, Alison MacLeod, Paul Kingsnorth and Adam Thorpe; also included is a foreword by journalist James Kidd, who reflects on their stories and the meaning of myth to us today, and a discussion of myths and legends attached to English Heritage sites by the historian Charles Kightly.