The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest

“Sarsen Wood”

What do you like most about Folk Horror?

I grew up in the English countryside and live there now, so folk horror’s connection with rural settings and landscapes is important to me. (This can also be something I dislike about folk horror, such as the trope of the sympathetic urban protagonist who falls into the clutches of the ‘backward’ country types). There’s a tendency of the English to romanticize the countryside, and to associate this imagined place with some aspect of our national identity. I like the way that folk horror sets about digging up this psychic village green, revealing the strange and troubling things buried beneath the neatly mown grass.

What inspired you to write your FIENDS III story?

Two sources of inspiration come to mind. One is simply the experience of living in Britain – and England in particular – over the past few years. It’s a story about insularity, tensions between generations, radical resistance to change, and a community that not only exploits its most vulnerable, but blames them for it at the same time. Of course, other countries have their problems too.

The second source of inspiration was an unpleasant mycological experience I once endured in a park. As I lay on the grass, I saw the ground start to bubble up and burst underneath me. In the story this becomes a rather more extreme upheaval, but at the time it felt horrific enough.

What upcoming projects are you working on?