A review by li22ybeth
The Dead of Winter: The Witches, Demons and Monsters of Christmas by Sarah Clegg

dark funny informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

4.0

Enjoyable read. Sarah Clegg had a tongue in cheek humours narration which I enjoyed. It was a bit like a travel blog at times but still good. Enjoyed the traditions, so much so I have booked onto a wassailing (sadly just toasting orchards and no horse skulls as it’s at a vegan farm). It does make me quite sad that a lot of English tradditions have been wiped out or left only in the scattered small villages whereas krampus and perchta etc are still very much a celebrated tradition in their European countries. In fact more English people have (sadly) probably heard of krampus than of mummers plays and mari lwyd. But do we blame the church, the Victorian’s, or just the lack of interest/pride in any of our history?
All in all an enjoyable read for people into myths legends and anthropology. I do feel the end of the “old gods” chapter tailed off a bit as she tried to wrap it up. Also would not class this as “horror” genre in the sense that it was not scary.