Scratch Moss

‘An agile and compelling storyteller’ Nick Cutter

1865. 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.

Praise for Scratch Moss

‘A creepy folk horror set in an old mining town which moves between generations to slowly build a picture of a town complicit in some terrible things. Really loved this one!’ Sarah Pinborough

What readers are saying about Scratch Moss

‘David Barnett may just be the new king of British Folklore horror.’

‘Holy CRAP. David Barnett is at the top of his game.’

‘Wow! I am firmly convinced that David Barnett is simply a master of the folklore horror genre.’

‘I can happily say this was phenomenal.’

‘David has once again made the sleepy corners of England creepy, taking the mundane of everyday live and making it extraordinary.’

‘Folk horror done right.’

‘Earning a locked-in place in my 2026 Top 10.’