Book Review: "Weird Woods" ed. by John Miller

Full Title: Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain edited by John Miller

For small creatures, a tree is a world and a forest is a universe. To pay attention to those lives, we need to think beyond ourselves and put our species hubris in perspective. There is an urgent, ethical demand for humans to feel less at home in the world and less entitled to impose their own will on nature. It is one of the fuctions of good writing to generate discomfort, to prod us out of our tired ideologies and familiar assumptions. Perhaps therefore, the most significant effects we might take from these stories would be to feel more like aliens in the world and through that to tap into the world's strangeness...

The Introduction to "Weird Woods" edited by John Miller

This is just one of the interesting quotations we can find in the introduction to the book Weird Woods edited by John Miller. Miller, who also edited Polar Horrors, clearly knew what he was doing when he put together a book of weird tales set in the British woodlands. Including not just the old and unchanged Medieval-like atmospheres, but also the fact that nobody wants to be left alone in the woods at nightfall, this book explores every angle from fearing the forests as dusk approaches.

The first story I thought stood out was called Man-Size in Marble and it was by Edith Nesbit. This was not however, because of the storyline. Though the story itself was very interesting and sinister at some points, I actually thought that more than anything this story managed to create an absolutely brilliant atmopshere of treelands. The churchyard is filled with trees and, in these churchyards of Britain especially, we have old and weird connections to the afterlife, the religious past and the horrors of old. This, blended with the almost forcefulness of the storyline and all its oddities makes for an excellent and dramatic tale of hubris.

Another story I enjoyed was called The Man Who Went too Far and it was by E F Benson. It is set in one of the most famous forests in Britain which once served as the hunting grounds for the old king William the Conqueror. I like this story because of its use of olden world aspects such as the setting itself and oh yes, the God, Pan. Pan is always a brilliant character to use when you are destined to write upon a forest. He makes for a sinister but rather mischevious atmosphere alongside the horrific and supernatural side that he has come to represent in more recent pasts. Many people have interpreted this tale to be something to do with E F Benson's own struggle with expressing his sexuality. I have an open mind - it could be about anything.

Now, what would a ghost story anthology set in the woods be without Algernon Blackwood? Ancient Lights may be quite a short story of the anthology but it is still just as good as the others. It was first published in a newspaper and deals with the area of West Sussex which is associated with ghost sightings, demonic possession, and, in more recent years, with UFOs. This story tells us about a man who starts to see things on his land and obviously, when he tries to do something about it - he finds that he cannot. The forest is as malevolent and mischievous as it is dark and foreboding.

I love atmospheres involving folk horror, the forests, the trees and the involvement of the God, Pan. Therefore, this makes quite a nice anthology for someone like me who is currently going through trying to find more stories like these. But, apart from the three mentioned, there are even more great narratives by Walter de la Mare, Marjorie Bowen, Gertrude Atherton, W H Hudson and even M R James. This means that I was in no short supply of stories but, I have a secret to reveal right about now - I have actually read this anthology before. I am reading it again only for the sake of having to fill my time with a book whilst I find another I might enjoy just as much.

However, it really has been exciting.