Scratch Moss - The most original folk horror novel of the year from the author of Withered Hill

'An agile and compelling storyteller' Nick Cutter1865. Coal lies beneath Scratch Moss Hall and Lord Henry Brody is determined to get to it. But something else lurks below, something dark and evil.
1905. Reverend George Ackman has never known such godless people as those of Scratch Moss. But if not God, what do they believe in?
1945. Arthur works for the Coal Commission, visiting privately-owned pits ahead of their nationalisation. On his visit to Scratch Moss, he finds only misery and death.
1985. The miners have lost. Thatcher reigns supreme. And in the shattered community of Scratch Moss, rumours resurface about Red Clogs, a terrible presence in the land below.
2025. Divorced, fifty-something writer Joe returns to his hometown of Scratch Moss for the funeral of his father. Soon the memories of Joe's teenage years, and the horror that blighted the community, come flooding back
A devastating, five-timeline tale centred on a community first invigorated, then devastated by the coal mining industry in the most original folk horror novel of the year.

About the author

David Barnett

Product details

• Authors: David Barnett
• Publisher: Pan macmillan Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 05.03.2026
• EAN: 9781835983195
• ISBN: 978-1-83598-319-5
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 12 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Suspense; Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Yorkshire, FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology, FICTION / Ghost, FICTION / Occult & Supernatural, FICTION / Gothic, Thriller / suspense, Horror & ghost stories, Psychological thriller, Myth & legend told as fiction, Family life fiction / Stories about family, FICTION / Horror / General, Classic horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction, Occult fiction / Paranormal Horror, Contemporary horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction