I spent nine months visiting Grovely Wood, a 2,000 acre registered common and former Norman hunting forest near to Salisbury, Wiltshire. Grovely has a distinctive, slightly eerie atmosphere, is rich in ancient trees and folklore, is traversed by a Roman road and has a complex, fascinating history.
Clouties - a Scots word for offerings hung on trees - brings together folklore and history and explores Grovely affectively. It's also my first foray into fiction, and has a light folk horror touch. It premiered at the 2022 Biennial Conferance of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (UK & Ireland) in Newcastle.
