The Lost Folk

Name: The Lost Folk
Price: 26.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780571388318

From the Forgotten Past to the Emerging Future of Folk

Lally MacBeth

$26.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

Faber & Faber
04 August 2026

Folk art; British & Irish history; Folklore, myths & legends

'An exceptionally thoughtful and beautifully written.' Maxine Peake 'Erudite, questing and endlessly fascinating . . . the book that British folk has long needed.' Katherine May 'A splendid museum full of strange and wonderful things.' Peter Ross

A fresh and engaging celebration of the customs, places, objects and peoples that make up what we know as 'folk' in Britain.

By its nature, folk is ephemeral: tricky to define, hard to preserve and even more difficult to resurrect. But folk culture is all around us; sitting in our churches, swinging from our pubs and dancing through our streets, patiently waiting to be discovered, appreciated, saved and cherished.

In The Lost Folk, Lally MacBeth is on a mission to breathe new life into these rapidly disappearing customs. She reminds us that folk is for everyone, and does not belong to an imagined, halcyon past, but is constantly being drawn from everyday lives and communities. As well as looking at what folk customs have meant in Britain's past, she shines a light on what they can and should mean as we move into the future - encouraging us to use the book as an inspiration, and become collectors and creators of our very own folk traditions.

By: Lally MacBeth
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780571388318
ISBN 10: 0571388310
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 04 August 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Lally MacBeth is an artist, writer and curator based in Cornwall. Her work takes in history, folklore, performance, ritual and artifice - and the links between high and low culture. She is the founder of The Folk Archive and co-founder of Stone Club. She has written for Caught by the River, House and Garden, and Hellebore, appeared on BBC Radio 3 and programmed events for the Tate, the British Museum and the ICA, amongst others. The Lost Folk, published by Faber on June 19th, is her first book.