Britain’s Hidden Beasts:: Cryptids, Folklore and Things That Shouldn’t Exist

Britain is smaller than its imagination, and the hedges know it.

Across the country, strange creatures wait in the margins: black dogs at road bends, lake monsters beneath dark water, phantom cats in the long grass, winged watchers above old church towers, water horses in treacherous shallows, hairy hands on Dartmoor roads, sea serpents off sensible coasts, and goblins making a nuisance of themselves in the pantry.

Britain’s Hidden Beasts: Cryptids, Folklore and Things That Shouldn’t Exist is a witty, eerie and richly atmospheric journey through Britain’s strangest legendary creatures.

This is not a dry catalogue of monsters. It is a folklore journey through the places that make Britain feel wonderfully unsettled after dark: lonely lanes, lochs, fens, bridges, churchyards, moors, railway cuttings, coastal paths, old cottages and the sodium-lit edges of modern towns.

Inside, you will discover:

Black dogs, Barghests and death-hounds of the old roads.

Lake monsters, river shadows and sea serpents.

The Beast of Bodmin Moor and Britain’s phantom big cats are also part of this strange world.

Owlman-like winged watchers and strange things over fields and fens.

Kelpies, water horses and creatures that wait at the edge of deep water.

Goblins, bogles, boggarts and domestic nuisances.

Modern monsters seen from trains, cars, CCTV and late-night car parks.

The folklore meanings behind Britain’s strangest beasts.

Blending local legend, cultural history, eerie storytelling and dry British humour, Robin Wickens explores why Britain needs its monsters. These creatures may be misidentified animals, inherited warnings, local jokes, cultural memories or something stranger, but they all make ordinary places feel alive with possibility.

Perfect for readers who enjoy British folklore, cryptids, strange history, gothic landscapes, haunted roads, mythical creatures and books that make you look twice at the hedge.