Edmund - Son of Gloucester - On sale now

 Buy it here.

Black Meadow: The archive is open...

Black Meadow: The archive is open...: The Black Meadow Archive is open... You can now buy the book here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Meadow-Archive-1/dp/1688953167 ...

Wyrd Kalendar: 4 Star Review from Shindig Magazine for Wyrd Kale...

Wyrd Kalendar: 4 Star Review from Shindig Magazine for Wyrd Kale...:   We are very pleased to share the 4 star review from Shindig Magazine for the Wyrd Kalendar Book and Album. They said: "The etch...

Wyrd Kalendar: Launch Day! The Wyrd Kalendar Album is Released

Wyrd Kalendar: Launch Day! The Wyrd Kalendar Album is Released: You can buy the album right here, right now... WYRD KALENDAR Released by Mega Dodo Edited and curated by Chris Lamb...

Wyrd Kalendar: Wyrd Kalendar - The Book and CD together at last

Wyrd Kalendar: Wyrd Kalendar - The Book and CD together at last: Mmmmmm tasty Wyrd Kalendar goodness... the CD (currently on pre-order) and book are both available to buy... yum - good aural and visua...

Wyrd Kalendar - Twelve Tales of Magic, Murder, Terror, Love and the Wyrd...

Photo by Andy Paciorek

It is official.

On Saturday 21st October Wyrd Kalendar was published at The Unseelie Court in Edinburgh.

Chris Lambert launching "Wyrd Kalendar" on Saturday 21st October 2017.
In this image he is reading an extract from the July story "Grotto Day"
Photo by Sally-Anne Huxtable

The Unseelie Court was a conference and music festival organised by the Folk Horror Revival.

The book (published by Wyrd Harvest Press) is now available to buy from Lulu and all profits from sales will go to Wildlife Trusts. (You can also buy it from Amazon and other online retailers but the charities will get more money if you buy directly from Lulu).

Buy it here.

Black Meadow: Lost on the Black Meadow - An evening with Chris L...

Black Meadow: Lost on the Black Meadow - An evening with Chris L...

Review of the Comic Mystery Plays in the Church Times!

Very pleased to announce a lovely review from Dennis Richards in the Church Times this month.

"CHRIS LAMBERT’s The Comic Mystery Plays are an inspiring idea for next year’s Easter services in pri­mary schools. Teachers always ap­­preciate a volume that does the job for them, and the scripts of these nine sketches will save hours of work for drama teachers.

They have an intriguing back­ground: based loosely on the medi­eval mystery plays, they are in turn poignant, humorous, and trenchant. Furthermore, they take the Mystery Cycles from York and Wakefield as their inspiration. And, as any York­­shireman will tell you, you cannot do better than that."

You can purchase the book here.

You can read the full article here.

North - Wyrd Harvest Press - Foreword

"The eloquent words of two poets brought forth from the land, the lodestone and lodestar. All roads lead here. 

Join Tim Turnbull and Phil Breach as through poetry, prose and the atmospheric imagery of great photographers,they explore and invoke the physical and emotional landscapes. 

Head North my friends and don't look back."

I was honoured to be able to write a foreword for this magnificent book from Wyrd Harvest Press... 

It captures the beautiful spirit of both the real and an imagined North. Phil Breach and Tim Turnbull have created a fascinating work that skips adventurously along the border between myth and history, daring, at times, to tread into the mist and fog.

To give a little bit of a flavour of what you might expect I am publishing an extract from the foreword below...

"The North calls me.

The idea of North pulls at my hand like an insistent lover.

Our colonial ancestors ingrained in us the idea that the compass leads to very different destinations. The South was a place of heat, savagery and pirate treasure, the East a place of mystery, strange beliefs and tea, the West was where the civilised made their home and the cold North was a place of legend and myth.

I am from the South. I was born in Shaftesbury in Dorset and have remained in the  Southlands of the country ever since. My family lived in Saltburn-by-the Sea but moved to the South a few years before I was born. My aged father, in his reminiscences, recalls my presence there, but it was only my unborn self he sees, the suggested spirit of my own foetus drifting over the Yorkshire hills and down to the sea."

To purchase the book click here or on the picture above. All profits from the sale of the book go to Wildlife Trust charities.

The Comic Mystery Plays - Out Now

This new collection of plays is available to buy from Amazon here.

The Mediaeval Mystery Plays Retold with added bite! Bring to life timeless tales from the bible in these new and exciting plays. Recreate the works of the Mediaeval Guilds as you perform your own Mystery Cycle!

Created for performance by school, church, community and amateur groups, these plays are designed to work in any location!

 Includes: Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, The Nativity, The Slaughter of the Innocents, The Wedding at Cana, The Garden of Gethsemane, The Trial of Christ, The Crucifixion, The Harrowing of Hell and The Resurrection.

 As well as the ten plays this book includes a foreword by the Bishop of Chelmsford, The Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, information about the Mystery Plays, Casting forms, workshop guides and other materials to help you put on your own performances.

For more information, a school's performance pack or permission to perform please contact comicmysteries@outlook.com

New play coming in July - In a NUCLEAR BUNKER!

Buy your tickets by clicking on this image of Mummers right now!

Tonight we don our tallow and hemp.

We dress the fool and dance the maelstrom.

Horse head cabbage head hare head ass head.

Rabbit head apple head mop head last head.

We are men of straw and string.

You walk your way to find answer or end.

We will not provide.

We will only shimmer half formed, crackling in the torchlight.

We stretch, we move in and out of dream.

The star on the floor, the antlers behind the branches.

We are the Mummers and the Pappers.

Buy your tickets by clicking on this image of Mummers right now!

The Mummers and the Pappers will be performing a new play written by Chris Lambert at Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker on Friday 28th July as part of The Delaware Road...

You can get your tickets here

The Delaware Road includes performances by:

DOLLY DOLLY, HOWLROUND, TELEPLASMISTE, RADIONICS RADIO, IAN HELLIWELL, GLITCH, SAUNDERS & HILL, CONCRETISM, SIMON JAMES, THE TWELVE HOUR FOUNDATION , LOOSE CAPACITOR, DJ FOOD

Wyrd Kalendar: Welcome to the Wyrd Kalendar - January

Wyrd Kalendar: Welcome to the Wyrd Kalendar - January: Join us as we explore the Wyrd Kalendar... Preparing the way for the forthcoming publication Wyrd Kalendar (written by Chris Lambert and ...

Christmas on the Black Meadow - On Sale Now

A perfect Christmas gift for the Black Meadow traveler in your life (or you could buy it for yourself!)

 Do you see shadows in the mist? Are you stalked by meadow hags? Do you long to play with black stars? Do you crave a darker yule?

Then this book could be for you!

Christmas on the Black Meadow

It is Christmas on the North York Moors.

The snow sits upon the heather and bramble. The fences around  

RAF Fylingdales are silent and still. A dense mist grows in the 

distance. If you listen closely you can hear strange Yuletide chants,

the hum of a land sphere and the cackle of a meadow hag.

This collection of Christmas tales from the Black Meadow 

contains three new Yuletide stories. Experience a beautiful 

inversion of The Nativity in A Black Meadow Christmas, warm

 your toes in a tale of matriarchal terror in The Meadow Tree and 

marvel at the delightful wonders of The Black Star. You will also find

 details of ideal gifts you could give and games that you can play 

when visiting the Black Meadow.

With beautiful illustrations by Andy Paciorek and Nigel Wilson, this is a festive treat that will bring joy and fear in equal measure to your Christmas celebrations.

All profits from the sale of this book 

go to Worldwide Cancer Research.

Click to buy here!

Please note...

You can buy Christmas on the Black Meadow around the world. Most of the Amazon outlets are now selling it...

So whether you are in the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, France, Spain, or Italy you can buy this lovely little Yuletide terror.

The Ghastling - Book No. 4 - The Patient

I am very proud to announce that a brand new story "The Patient" has been published in the new edition of "The Ghastling".

This new tale concerns a man who is convinced that his wife is a ghost...

You can buy it here... 

Songs from the Black Meadow - Available now!

I am very proud to announce that you can buy this exciting folk horror album today (please click on the link) from Mega Dodo records. It costs £15 and all profits go to Cancer Research. You will be pleased to know that pre-sales have put it into profit already, all costs are now covered, so every penny you spend will go to Cancer Research.

This album is inspired by "Tales from the Black Meadow" which you can buy from Amazon here...

  Buy it at the Mega Dodo shop here.

 This beautifully packaged CD includes tracks by folk horror artists such as The Hare and the Moon, Emily Jones, Rowan Amber Mill, Kid Moxie, The Soulless Party, Mervyn Williams, Theale Green School Choir, Eastgreen, Alison O'Donnell, Angeline Morrison, Joseph Curwen, Winterberry/concretism, Elena Martin, Lost Trail, The Implicit Order, Septimus Keen, Wyrdstone, Keith Seatman... For a flavour  - check out the sampler below...

  Buy it at the Mega Dodo shop here.

Games for May!

May 29th will see the relaunch of "Songs from the Black Meadow".
MFZ have released a mix that includes tracks from the album and extracts from short stories and poems written especially for the event by Chris Lambert.
Share and enjoy!

The Ghastling - Book No 3 - "The Most Precious Possession"

A new short story entitled "The Most Precious Possession" is available to buy in this delightfully macabre magazine.

It is the tale of a box recently inherited that is best left closed...

You can buy it here...

Field Studies - Folk Horror Revival

This is a super book about all things folk horror by the massive Facebook group Folk Horror Revival. It contains an essay by me based on the paper I presented at "Fiend in the Furrows" at Belfast University last year on the Black Meadow. It also has interviews with Alan Lee, Philip Pullman and Kim Newman as well as a wealth of essays on the world of Folk Horror. Well worth a gander.

Click on the picture for more information and to buy it!

Off the Block 2015 - The Totherington Secret

 

This is where I ended up...

 

Richard Warwick and Daniel Creasey in "The Totherington Secret"

(Ian Legge Photography)

 

 

This is how I got there...

 

It turns out that this writing lark is harder than it looks.

I found this year as hard if not harder than the very first year.

This is my fourth year of writing for Off the Block...

Soooo...

At 7.30 on Wednesday April 29th I received an email from Dani at RBL:

"Well, here we go again... here is your start point and starting line. 

Your start point that has been passed on from our second writer, Beth, is:

 

She is unexpectedly, wonderfully happy. (feel free to change she to he if you like)    

This is only a start point and need not be an inspiration for the whole story line.

 

Your starting line that has also been passed on from Beth is: "Let's go home.""

 

I was also given info about the actors. This year I had four fellas...

 

Firstly...

 

There were two questions that needed to be considered.

 

1. Where are they (whoever they are?) as one of them wants to go home...

2. Why is someone happy? What has happened?

 

Soooo... reasons to be cheerful...

 

 

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Listening to this only now crossed my mind.

 

The first thoughts scribbled in my pad were:

• Guy has had proposal accepted
• Guy has had proposal rejected
• Guy has just got a job
• Guy has lost his job

What started to interest me was negative things that might make you cheerful and so I spent the majority of the day thinking about schadenfreude.

 

To help me come up with a starting point I considered what if the person suffering schadenfreude is the reason someone else wants to leave - and where are the worst places or the worst occasions to experience schadenfreude...

 

So I drew some matchstick men...

 

Because it helps...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just so you know I had a full day at work this day. Five hours of teaching and my duties. I did incorporate this into my lessons and did some one-off creative writing workshops (which were mainly spent discussing schadenfreude - which students seem to have an intuitive understanding of for some reason...) We even came up with an idea for a character called Mr Schadenfreude which was very funny. I do think Roger Hargreaves missed a trick by not including him in the Mr Men canon...

 

This is Mr Schadenfreude.

 

He laughs at people in pain.

 

Old Mrs Smith has just tripped on her front step.

 

Does Mr Schadenfreude help her up?

 

Of course not!

 

He points and laughs.

 

Oh Mr Schadenfreude!

 

(If anyone would like to draw Mr Schadenfreude for me in a Hargreaves style I would love to see it!)

 

 

At the end of the school day I sat in my classroom and began...

 

It was the funeral that most interested me. Why would someone be happy at a funeral?

 

I considered the idea of someone dancing at a funeral, which would upset the others.

 

I decided that this would be the brother of the deceased... we would then work out what the deceased had done to provoke such a reaction.

 

So I wrote and I wrote...

 

The piece began to mould into a portmanteau moving forward and backward in time. Telling little stories. It became harder and harder to write... I slowed down and by 6pm I absolutely...

 

...hated...

 

it...

 

 

6pm

 

I looked at the drawings again and the settings...

 

 

An old haunted house had been suggested by one of the students...

 

I wasn't keen on possession but could a haunting make someone happy?

 

Hmmm... there is a moment in Poltergeist where the spirit of Carol-Anne passes through her mum and she suddenly feels happy.

 

And then I remembered this poem by Thomas Hardy:

 

The Glimpse
Thomas Hardy

She sped through the door
And, following in haste,
And stirred to the core,
I entered hot-faced;
But I could not find her,
No sign was behind her.
"Where is she?" I said:
- "Who?" they asked that sat there;
"Not a soul's come in sight."
- "A maid with red hair."
- "Ah." They paled. "She is dead.
People see her at night,
But you are the first
On whom she has burst
In the keen common light."

It was ages ago,
When I was quite strong:
I have waited since,--O,
I have waited so long!
- Yea, I set me to own
The house, where now lone
I dwell in void rooms
Booming hollow as tombs!
But I never come near her,
Though nightly I hear her.
And my cheek has grown thin
And my hair has grown gray
With this waiting therein;
But she still keeps away!

 

And it was from this starting point that "The Totherington Secret" grew. It was a very silly and very theatrical romp with multi-rolling, flashbacks and too many words! So sorry actors...

 

Ian Legge Photography

 

 

I finished at about 1am. Having written nearly half of another and starting the new version at 6pm...

 

On the Friday I was blown away by the quality of all the pieces. The winning short by Paul Houghton was about a mysterious poo on the floor of a posh house was brilliantly written and performed. The first main piece by Freddie Machin was a wonderful play within a play in which the breakdown of a writer's relationship infected her own entry in a writer's relay leaving her cannibalistic Vladimir and Estrogen like characters spouting inappropriate platitudes to each other in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Beth Flintoff's piece was an inspiring epic that dealt with mortality, family breakdown and growing up in a moving and poetic fashion. Her final line and action lead to my piece (of which more in a moment) and my own last line "Still, when in Rome..." and action "He holds their hands" was the starting point for the final writer's  (Paul Houghton) murderous chamber piece that ably finished off a superb evening's entertainment.

 

"The Totherington Secret" was very well-received by the audience. The director Thom Sellwood really got into the coarse acting and theatrical style required; adding some wonderful touches that brought it to life. The actors were all wonderful, energetic and clearly enjoying the madness of it.

 

The following photographs are courtesy of Ian Legge Photography.

 

The stunning Daniel Creasey and the fabulous David Bailey

The beautiful Richard Warwick as the Lady with the Red Scarf.

The lovely Max Roll.

The gorgeous David Bailey

 

 

At the end I managed to grab the actors for a quick photograph. They were exhausted! I do think that it was the maddest piece I had written yet...

 

Richard Warwick, Max Roll, Thom Sellwood (Director), Daniel Creasey and David Bailey

 

Thank you.

 

Until next year?

 

 

 

 

 



 



Black Meadow: The Audire - A Seance at Syd's

Click on the link below for details of an exciting new Black Meadow tale "The Audire" by Chris  Lambert in "A Séance at Syd's".

Black Meadow: The Audire - A Seance at Syd's: Out this month is "Seance at Syd's", an exciting new book by Dave Thompson that features interviews with many Black M...