British Folklore from Past to Present with Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook

from Fabulous Folklore with Icy · host Icy Sedgwick

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I'm talking to two folklore heavyweights - Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook! Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Art of Grimoire and Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum (both 2023). He has been described as Britain's foremost academic expert on the history of magic. Ceri Houlbrook is Senior Lecturer in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire. Her books include The Magic of Coin-Trees (2018), Unlocking the Love-Lock (2021) and Ritual 'Litter' Redressed (2022). In addition to her scholarly work, she writes folklore-inspired fiction. We chat about their new book, Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present, about whether folklore should open up to admit openly-invented lore, the importance of the urban environment to folklore which has often been overlooked, and the way social media has shifted 'local' traditions into often international ones. There's even a mention of the folklore of ice cream vans! Buy Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781526180384 Find Ceri on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cerihoulbrook.bsky.social Find Owen on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/odavies9.bsky.social Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

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This episode was published on October 14, 2025.

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