"Simon Young is one of the leading scholars of a new generation of folklorists. His research and scholarship in this evolving and exciting discipline is thorough and outstanding. His meticulous attention to detail and skill in using newspaper archives as primary sources for folkloric materials makes The Boggart a unique resource for those who wish to delve deep into traditions of supernatural belief in England and elsewhere." David Clarke, author of Supernatural Peak District and Associate Professor, Centre for Contemporary Legend, Sheffield Hallam University "This is an excellent study, focusing on an aspect of the folklore from one corner of England. Drawing on a wide range of sources beyond the 'usual suspects', it presents a new, multidimensional picture of a particular folk belief." Jonathan Roper, author of Charms, Charmers and Charming and Associate Professor of English and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu "Boggarts are elusive creatures, but Simon Young has vividly captured their inherently slippery natures. Never before has the landscape of Boggartdom been so carefully mapped, nor its history so comprehensively told." Dr Ceri Houlbrook, author of Magical Folk, Building Magic and The Materiality of Magic and Lecturer in Folklore and History, University of Hertfordshire "The Boggart is a ground-breaking exploration of a supernatural entity from the north of England.
More importantly the author offers an object lesson in how we can recreate, on the page, vanished mental universes. Key to his success is combining digital resources (even Facebook!) with a cross-disciplinary approach (linguistics, onomastics, history, oral history and folklore). What emerges is a study of the boggart ecosystem, as Simon Young describes it, exploring a hazy land that only nuance crafted by an expert can bring to focus. Here is the definitive treatment of the wispy tradition of the boggart." Ronald M. James, author of Introduction to Folklore and The Folklore of Cornwall "The study of legends in relation to the landscape and its evolution has seldom been pursued by scholars. Simon Young offers a truly innovative combination of landscape studies, social history, linguistics and folkloristics. His book transforms our understanding of how legend and landscape interact at the local level.
" Davide Ermacora, University of Turin "The Boggart is a meticulous, eye-opening and likely definitive account of a central figure in the folklore of the North of England." Francis Young, author of Magic in Merlin's Realm.