Folk horror author David Barnett: I'm lucky to have had the chance to chop and change genres
When David Barnett began writing folk-horror, he claims it wasn’t a widely recognised genre. “I would use the film The Wicker Man as a reference point for people,” the Bradford-based author says. “The term folk horror wasn’t massively well known a few years go but now it's entered into the common currency and people understand what you mean when you say that.”
He shares his thoughts on why that’s changed. “I think people now tend to be more interested in folklore and local myths and stories,” he says. “Also a lot of folk horror talks about a place or a sense of place and is linked to the land. I think people have become more aware of the environment in terms of the places where they live...and I think that’s driven an interest in this type of folklore horror which deals with specific places and the land in which we live.”
The genre is a far-cry from much of David’s other work to date. Originally from Wigan, the now 56-year-old started in journalism at the age of 19, taking his first job at the Chorley Guardian. He stayed in the industry until leaving the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in 2015, even then freelancing for a while before shifting his main focus onto writing novels.
He’d dabbled in fiction for some time, beginning with a number of fantastical novels from 2005. Then, ten years ago, he changed tack, writing rom-coms and feel-good fiction. Only a couple of years ago did he then decide he wanted to write “something darker” and turn his attention to folk horror.
David also writes in comics, having produced for DC and 2000AD. “It’s a different sort of writing because it’s somewhere between prose fiction and screen writing – you’re writing a script which an artist then works from to create the narrative sequence of illustrations,” he reflects. “It’s nice to flex different writing muscles.”
“I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to chop and change genres because a lot of writers aren’t able to do that,” he adds.
His work in the folk horror genre stems from his interest in local folklore and stories attached to places. “(The genre) draws on folklore and local legend and myths and puts that through this folk horror lens, which is often about isolated communities, outsiders coming in and a clash of cultures...Yorkshire is full of folklore and stories that people pass down, some of them spooky, some of them quirky. I’m always on the look out for local tales that have been passed through generations that are attached to a specific place.”
He’ll soon be releasing Twisted Pike, the fourth and last title in a group of his books, returning the reader to Withered Hill, a mysterious village in an earlier novel of the same name. It will be a big milestone after a challenging year which has seen him diagnosed with and undergo treatment for oesophageal cancer. “I’m looking ahead to the future and more books,” he says. “I’m glad to be writing.”
- Twisted Pike is out October 1. David is at Wave of Nostalgia Haworth on October 29.