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Summary
‘An exceptionally thoughtful and beautifully written.’ Maxine Peake
‘Erudite, questing and endlessly fascinating . . . the book that British folk has long needed.’ Katherine May
‘A splendid museum full of strange and wonderful things.’ Peter Ross
A fresh and engaging celebration of the customs, places, objects and peoples that make up what we know as ‘folk’ in Britain.
By its nature, folk is ephemeral: tricky to define, hard to preserve and even more difficult to resurrect. But folk culture is all around us; sitting in our churches, swinging from our pubs and dancing through our streets, patiently waiting to be discovered, appreciated, saved and cherished.
In The Lost Folk, Lally MacBeth is on a mission to breathe new life into these rapidly disappearing customs. She reminds us that folk is for everyone, and does not belong to an imagined, halcyon past, but is constantly being drawn from everyday lives and communities. As well as looking at what folk customs have meant in Britain’s past, she shines a light on what they can and should mean as we move into the future – encouraging us to use the book as an inspiration, and become collectors and creators of our very own folk traditions.
LallyMacBeth
Lally MacBeth is an artist, writer and curator based in Cornwall. Her work takes in history, folklore, performance, ritual and artifice – and the links between high and low culture. She is the founder of The Folk Archive and co-founder of Stone Club. She has written for Caught by the River, House and Garden, and Hellebore, appeared on BBC Radio…
Read MoreLallyMacBeth
Lally MacBeth, author of The Lost Folk, chooses five objects from her collection, things with sentimental or historical significance.
Faber will publish Lally MacBeth’s debut work of non-fiction, The Lost Folk, in June 2025