The Boggart

The amount of focus, lateral thinking and sheer dogged research that has gone into this work is admirable dedication, and leavened by a light touch that makes it intensely readable throughout.

-- John Billingsley, Northern Earth

In stories, plays, films and folklore collections [the boggart] became remote from the anarchic and frightening creatures of lonely lanes, deserted houses and bleak moors that the ordinary people of the nineteenth century reported. These are the stories which Young has uncovered in searching digital archives of newspapers and other ephemera, allowing us a much clearer picture of the boggart as a creature of the folk, rather than the folklorist.

-- John Rimmer, Magonia Review

Detailed, scholarly, packed with great tales and interesting speculations, The Boggart is a groundbreaking study that rescues and re-establishes the scary boggart of the 19th century.

-- Katherine Langrish, Gramarye

...a highly informative monograph on the ‘boggart’...this book sets a benchmark.

-- Ian Shiels, Northern History

...one would have to struggle to find a comparative analysis of a supernatural being or myth/folklore-related creature that can be compared to the depth and detail presented in the work done by Simon Young. Young’s research successfully manages to empirically outline a myth by tracing the historical, linguistic, and cultural development of a phenomenon.

-- Marko Lukić, Oral History Society

The Boggart is a brilliant piece of scholarship that brings to life, through a wide-range of research material, the essence of what lurked in the shadows of society.

-- Nigel Watson, Fortean Times

The Boggart is well written, with light touches of humor that make this a compelling and enjoyable read. Given both this and the quality of the research underlying it, the book represents a stellar study of British popular belief that should be seen as an exemplar for future works on similar topics...The Boggart is folklore history at its best, a book that deserves a very wide readership.

-- Ethan Doyle White, Reading Religion

This comprehensive and groundbreaking study will be essential reading for folklorists, historians, social scientists, and others interested in the world of the supernatural, not least in providing an outstanding model for innovative research in these and related fields.

-- J. D. A. Widdowson, Tradition Today

There is a wealth of information here to be drawn in and fully to inform the reader seeking to explore our forebears’ lives as they involved the supernatural both in earnest and in fun, and to understand how beliefs emerged, existed formerly, and are being transformed for the modern age. 

-- Clive Upton, Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society

Because Young’s writing style is lively, engaging, and accessible, The Boggart appeals to both scholars and general readers. One does not need to be a folklorist to enjoy reading about this supernatural figure’s development over time and to savor the local legends in which it has a starring role. The range of Young’s research is impressive, and his inclusion of intriguing images and maps adds to the book’s impact. For scholars who are interested in writing books about the development of a particular supernatural figure, this study offers a valuable model.

-- Elizabeth Tucker, Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

...there should be more studies of this quality on the subject of creatures of folklore, whatever the region concerned. We hope to read more books of this type in the future.

-- Guillaume Oudaer, Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée

Simon Young has reclaimed a forgotten supernatural being in all its formless awe.

-- Jeremy Harte, Folklore

This is meticulously and reflectively researched, with rigorous academic argumentation, yet also eminently readable. While covering the wide philosophical and ethical debates surrounding interpreting, collecting and studying folklore generally, it doesn’t fail to pin down the material with ease–from delivering an in-depth study of historical toponymics, to a diagram depicting the 'folk taxonomy of Boggartdom'. A delight in every way.

-- Katharine Briggs Award Panel

An immensely comprehensive examination of boggart-lore in a specific part of Northern England he calls “Boggartdom” throughout Victorian times and beyond. … This book should appeal to anyone interested in nineteenth-century supernatural subjects in general or the boggart in particular.

-- Taten Shirley * The Incredible Nineteenth Centu