Scratch Moss
The most original folk horror novel of the year from the author of Withered Hill
Published on 5. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-83598-319-5 (ISBN)
Description
'An agile and compelling storyteller' Nick Cutter1865. Coal lies beneath Scratch Moss Hall and Lord Henry Brody is determined to get to it. But something else lurks below, something dark and evil.
1905. Reverend George Ackman has never known such godless people as those of Scratch Moss. But if not God, what do they believe in?
1945. Arthur works for the Coal Commission, visiting privately-owned pits ahead of their nationalisation. On his visit to Scratch Moss, he finds only misery and death.
1985. The miners have lost. Thatcher reigns supreme. And in the shattered community of Scratch Moss, rumours resurface about Red Clogs, a terrible presence in the land below.
2025. Divorced, fifty-something writer Joe returns to his hometown of Scratch Moss for the funeral of his father. Soon the memories of Joe's teenage years, and the horror that blighted the community, come flooding back
A devastating, five-timeline tale centred on a community first invigorated, then devastated by the coal mining industry in the most original folk horror novel of the year.
1905. Reverend George Ackman has never known such godless people as those of Scratch Moss. But if not God, what do they believe in?
1945. Arthur works for the Coal Commission, visiting privately-owned pits ahead of their nationalisation. On his visit to Scratch Moss, he finds only misery and death.
1985. The miners have lost. Thatcher reigns supreme. And in the shattered community of Scratch Moss, rumours resurface about Red Clogs, a terrible presence in the land below.
2025. Divorced, fifty-something writer Joe returns to his hometown of Scratch Moss for the funeral of his father. Soon the memories of Joe's teenage years, and the horror that blighted the community, come flooding back
A devastating, five-timeline tale centred on a community first invigorated, then devastated by the coal mining industry in the most original folk horror novel of the year.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
255 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83598-319-5 (9781835983195)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
David Barnett
Scratch Moss
The most original folk horror novel of the year from the author of Withered Hill
E-Book
03/2026
Canelo
€5.99
Available for download
Person
David Barnett is an author, journalist and comic book writer based in West Yorkshire. He writes in a range of genres for various publishers, works for a wide variety of press outlets including the Guardian, Independent and BBC, and in comics has written for DC, 2000AD and more.