Halloween: The Quintessential British Guide to Treats and Frights Coming Next Year
Due out October 1, 2011, is a new book about Halloween, written by our cousins across the pond, where Halloween is not (or not yet) the bacchanalia we celebrate. UK readers, take note and rejoice that two of your fellow Brits have taken it upon themselves to write what they hope will be THE British Bible on celebrating Halloween.
And we Yanks might just learn a thing or two to add to what is already our favourite holiday. Keep your eyes on both Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk, where Halloween: The Quintessential British Guide to Treats and Frights by Mark Doody and Kristoffer Hughes will soon be available.
In order to do the book justice, as no advance copies have been distributed yet, I will let the authors describe their forthcoming guide:
“A roaring fire casts an orange glow mimicking the Jack-o-Lantern that graces the hearth; the wood crackles and mocks October winds that howl mercilessly at the window. The table is set for a Halloween tea; the finest china with its gold rim glistening in the fire’s glow commands centre stage on the small lace covered table; treats bedeck the cake stand with promise of sweet delights. A knocking on the door announces the arrival of another batch of Trick or Treaters. It is a typically British scene, a warm and cosy Halloween. A tea cup rings as it meets its saucer, the warm blood within the cup almost spilling over the golden rim to kiss the blood-stained lip mark on the teacup’s edge. With a chuckle, the resident achingly rises to its feet and meanders to greet those eager to receive their treats.”
The feast at the end of October invokes an ancient magic that rises from the depth of our ancestry, a calling that connects us to over 2,000 years of history. It is quintessentially British yet fabulously international. Its history is peculiar for it embodies a quality unlike the majority of annual festivals and celebrations that mankind has adopted. The feast at the end of October is one of mischief, of guising, of ghouls and spirits and things that go bump in the night.
Something within the bizarre rituals and traditions of October feels familiar, like echoes from past times we sense a remembering, as if memories of times gone by rise up to invoke something within mankind. Accentuated by the vibrant colours of late autumn, cooling nights, and flickering lights, by myth and fairytale, the primary feast of October is firmly entrenched in the popular imagination.
Quintessentially British: The purpose of this book is threefold: Primarily its nature is one of reclamation, as the first part of this book will demonstrate the festival of Halloween is rooted in Celtic Britain. Therefore, our main drive for compiling this work is the desire to reclaim Halloween as a recognisable British festival. We strive to bring Halloween back home! America has inspired the resurgence of interest in the celebration of Halloween in all its commercial and frivolous glory. The authors take that inspiration and bring it home, planting the seeds of American enthusiasm next to a seed bed of ancient British culture and traditions, the result a quintessential blend of America’s Technicolor vigour for Halloween flavoured by a good dash of Britishness! Fine tea should be consumed in fine china; the finest Halloween should be experienced with a smattering of American enthusiasm and a dash of British sophistication.
This new book combines the mystery and magic at the origin of Halloween with its development through the centuries to its current form. With offerings of decor and party ideas and recipes to suit a varied budget, the easy to follow instructions and advice will serve to provide readers with a foolproof, tried, and tested guidebook to celebrating their best Halloween to date.
How does this happen? Two grown men come together for the love of one thing, for the fun-fuelled, ghost-driven spookiness of a single night in October! Traumatised by childhood nightmares of Swedes and bin bags, these two men form an unlikely partnership in pursuit of a single goal…to make Halloween as monumental an event as practised by our cousins across the pond in the United States of America. The Americans do it so well, but so can we; after all it was ours to begin with.
So, we invite you on a journey with two guys who live for the 31st of October, who chuckle in delight as supermarkets fill their shelves with imported plastic tat. Men who squeal in glee at the horrified cries of guests terrorised by scenes of horror and pretence but who also acknowledge the sombreness of the season in its reverential tradition of honouring the dead. Wait until dusk, put the kettle on, and settle on the sofa and take a ride with two somewhat unhinged guys who just know how to do Halloween so well!
For more info check out the book’s Facebook page and become a fan.
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