BIRD's EyeView
BIRD's EyeView of Books
Ep. 11 - Winter Ghosts
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Ep. 11 - Winter Ghosts

The American Gothic and ghostly tales for long winter nights

Winter can make us more reflective and susceptible to hauntings, old memories, places, and long-forgotten deeds of the past. In this episode, Math looks at the haunted side of winter with ghosts both real and imagined as explored through three engrossing books.

He begins with Miranda Corcoran’s Haunted States (Repeater Books, 2024), which, with its blend of travelogue, history, and cultural criticism, takes us on a journey across America to explore the American Gothic and how its stories and monsters help shape the American landscapes and cultural consciousness.

We then delve into the realms of the ghost story anthology and look at two fairly recently published collections: Ghosts of Christmas Past (John Murray, 2017), where tales both humorous and dark give us time for fearful, quiet reflection during those long winter nights.

And closing with The Haunting Season (Sphere, 2021), a modern collection of atmospheric, Victorian-inspired gothic tales that explore our darkest traits and fears amid supernatural landscapes and haunted buildings where confinement marries with isolation.

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BIRD's EyeView
BIRD's EyeView of Books
The podcast that celebrates and discusses books, stories, writing and writers. Writer and Welsh borderlands dweller Math Bird explores some of his books and stories, the books and stories he loves to read and the writers who write them, sharing his take on their themes, narratives, beginnings, endings, and everything else in between.