Regional Hauntology or How History Lingers, Despite It’s Virtual Abolition

Martin Wall felt impelled to start writing when he returned to the western Midlands about twenty years ago after a long absence. As a literary novice he began writing historical stories for children but soon turned to historical non-fiction themes, mainly influenced by the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard near to his home in 2009. The themes of history, magic, folklore and myth dominated his subsequent work, combined with a strong personal element, culminating in his best-selling ‘The Magical History of Britain’ in 2019. Several books followed, including ‘Warriors and Kings: the 1500 year Battle for Celtic Britain’ which focused his mind on the liminal borderland between England and Wales.

‘West: Tales of the Lost Lands’, recently published in paperback, marks a new turn in his work, an implicit, deeply personal hauntology, exploring the paradox of an area perceived as hostile to Literature, and culturally backward, and the literary gems which have emerged from the locale all through the ages, the very bedrock of English Literature. The armature of his next project, a more explicit hauntology, emerged from these previous efforts, provisionally entitled ‘The Haunted Island: History, Hauntology, and Folk Horror’, he hopes to publish this in the next year or so.

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