Monsters, in all their terrifying glory, have preoccupied humans since we began telling stories. But where did these stories come from?
In Monsterland, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber goes on a journey to discover more about the monsters we’ve invented, lurking in the dark and the wild places of the earth—giants, dragons, ogres, zombies, ghosts, demons—all with one thing in common: their ability to terrify.
His far-ranging adventure takes him across the world. He sits on the thrones of giants in Cornwall, visits the shrine of a beheaded ogre near Kyoto, travels to an eighteenth-century Balkan vampire’s forest dwelling, and paddles among the shapeshifters of the Louisiana bayous. On his travels, he discovers that the stories of the people and places that birthed them are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves.
Artfully written, Monsterland is a fascinating interrogation into why we need these monsters and what they can tell us about ourselves—how they bind communities together as much as they cruelly cast away outsiders.
“As a collection of wonderfully creepy travels, Monsterland is both chillingly delicious and uncannily joyous.”
John Gimlette, author of Elephant Complex
“An exquisite, carefully assembled tapestry of otherworldly beasts, mega-ghouls, and fiendish demigods. There’s so much here—not just on a whole pantheon of monsters but about our universal need for them. I loved every page. A treasure trove of fascinating lore, gossip, and cautionary tales of the fantastic, telling of our human capacity to conjure vampires, zombies, ogres, and dragons not just from the darkest corners of our imagination, but wherever and whenever we may. Absorbing stuff.”
Benedict Allen
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“Monsterland is a tour de force. It combines scholarly folklore academia with nature writing at its best. Nicholas Jubber is an amusing travel companion, with a self-deprecating humour and unobtrusive presence. The shoestring nature of his travel budget makes him even more endearing. Like a modern day troubadour or Romantic poet, he recounts tales of sleepless nights in bus shelters, a disused mill in Serbia, and his beloved tent, battered by the gales of Orkney. It made we want to canoe through the bayous of Louisiana, pray in the temples of Kyoto, and clamber over the clifftops of Cornwall. In showing how monsters are mirrors to our deepest fears, this is an erudite, surreal but also profound meditation on the human psyche.”
Richard Hamilton, author of The Last Storyteller
“In this fascinating book, Nicholas Jubber ranges far and wide to answer one simple question — why do we create monsters? The answers he uncovers turn out not to be so simple. His first-hand research acknowledges that each culture is specific to itself. For instance, in Fez it is unlucky to shower after evening prayer, because it ‘disturbs the jinn in the drains’. The deft elegance of his prose makes the book mesmerisingly approachable. Learning worn lightly.”
Neil Philip, author of The Watkins Book of English Folktales
Praise for The Fairy Tellers:
‘Prepare yourself for a wild ride.’
The Times
Praise for The Fairy Tellers:
‘His cornucopia of tellers and tales is a delight, a riveting celebration of a genre that revels in its own hybridity and the imaginative riches produced by the crossing of cultural and literary borders.’
Financial Times
Praise for The Fairy Tellers:
‘Engaging and interesting ... Jubber’s book shows the long-sustained value of these narratives, and should make us wonder what might happen to us if they disappeared from somewhere at the back of our brains.’
The Spectator
Praise for The Fairy Tellers:
‘Like a child after the Pied Piper I pursued Jubber into a world both human and full of magic. A carnival of a book, rigorously researched and jostling with life.’
Amy Jeffs, author of Storyland
Praise for The Fairy Tellers:
‘Wondrous. Jubber evokes hidden moments and atmospheres across the world, from smoke-filled dens to exquisite palaces, so beautifully that they will linger long in my memory. A treasure trove of a book.’
Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk
