IN SEARCH OF THE UNWELCOME

                  A collection of haunting ballads and images

 A new 6x8 hardback 113 pages with 21 original works by P.G. Horey plus two other traditional ballads by Sir Wakter Scott and Matthew Lewis  (1808), plus accompanying atmospheric images in both colour and black and white (also by P.G. Horey). Another great fireside read tfrom the author of  'Where The Night Rooks Go'. Includes a foreword by Sylvia Blakely of the Haunted Palace blog and books.

                                                                        Limited edition of 100 hardback books,

                                                                                           Cindy's Curse

                                                                                         All Hallows Eve

                                                                         Sir Guy The Seeker

                                                                           Plus many more

I first came across the work of PG Horey in 2019, with the publication of his book, Where the Night Rooks Go, when my co-writer wrote a review of it. As a huge fan of the photographic techniques of the late, great, Sir Simon Marsden, I was intrigued by Phil's work. The book explores a selection of England and Scotland's mythic heritage and is illustrated with atmospheric black-and-white photographs that beautifully evoked the numinous nature of landscape and architecture.
Since then, I have continued to follow Phil on his photographic journey on Instagram, where he has been expanding his repertoire to include digital and colour images, creating enigmatic and sometimes unsettling tableaux to illustrate his favourite dark folklore and legends. 
As a keen writer of dark history and folklore myself, with a distinct leaning towards tales from the North of England and Scottish Borders, I was delighted when Phil asked me to write a foreword for his new book, In Search of the Unwelcome.
In Search of the Unwelcome develops the themes explored in Where the Night Rooks Go and includes a wealth of original poems and ballads by PG Horey himself (alongside two works by other poets) each tale amplified by Horey’s carefully crafted photographic storytelling.
Horey's poetry evokes his interests and passions - the folklore and legends of the Northeast of England and of Scotland. Here you will find tales of King Arthur sleeping beneath Hadrian's Wall, and the Lock Ness Monster in battle with a holy man. Other poems explore ideas of grief and remembrance, Christmas Ghost Story is a meditation on a fractured relationship and the death of a brother, while Culloden, Blood Red Coat, considers how we remember the past and what the past might want or need from us. But it is not all darkness, while Chillingham Castle provides several philosophical points of view on the nature and possibility of ghosts it also includes a humorous incident experienced by the author and his son on a ghost hunt at the infamous castle. Perhaps my favourite of these lighter works is Sindy's Curse, which will resonate with anyone of a certain age who had Sindy Dolls when they were growing up, I always suspected Sindy had a dark side!
Each poem is illustrated with a selection of evocative photographic images, some using new techniques, where colours are saturated, darkness is absolute, and murderous tentacles may rise from the deep; while others hark back to his trademark black and white and seem to blur the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. 
Like all good ghost stories and poems, In Search of the Unwelcome is best read aloud, preferably on a dark winter's night, in front of a log fire, where the crackle of the wood and the dancing flames might hint at worlds more mysterious than our own. 

Sylvia Blakeley
@Lenora_hauntedpalaceblog
Co-author of The Haunted Palace Blog at www.hauntedpalace.co.uk, and The Haunted Mirror - History, Folklore, and the Supernatural Volumes I and II.
 
 

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