John Reppion
TALK 1 – Invoking the Spirits of Place
John Reppion is an author and Folklorist born and based in Liverpool.
In 2016 John organised and hosted the original Spirits of Place symposium, held at the Mansion House in Calderstones Park, Liverpool. The event was so well received that John went on to edit Spirits of Place the book, published by Daily Grail publishing the following year.
Adam Scovell
TALK 2 – Wilderness, Creativity, and Journeying – Sir Gawain’s Wirral-ish Legacy
Adam Scovell is a writer and filmmaker from Merseyside, now based in London. He completed his PhD in Music at the University of Goldsmiths in 2018. In his film work, he has collaborated with the author Robert Macfarlane in adapting his books Holloway and Ness.
He writes regularly about film and culture for the BFI, the BBC, and many other magazines and outlets. He is the author of Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (2017, Auteur), and three novels, Mothlight (2019), How Pale the Winter Has Made Us (2020) and Nettles (2022), all published by Influx Press.
Professor Carolyne Larrington
TALK 3 – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Sense of Place in Medieval Romance
carolynelarrington.wordpress.com
Carolyne Larrington brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our event. With a DPhil in Old English and Old Norse from Oxford University, Carolyne has made significant contributions to the field of medieval literature.
As an Official Fellow at St John’s College and Professor of Medieval European Literature, her research spans medieval English literature, Old Norse mythology, Arthurian literature, and the study of emotion in the medieval period.
Dee Dee Chainey
TALK 4 – Immersive Heritage: Bringing Folklore to Life through XR
waterstones.com/author/dee-dee-chainey
Dee Dee Chainey is a transmedia storyteller, currently working on unearthing innovative ways of bringing heritage to life. With an MA focusing on public heritage within archaeological landscapes, she is fascinated by placemaking, storied wayfinding, and how the technological horizons of prehistory shaped the world.
Professor Stephen E Harding
TALK 5 – Storeton: the Stanleys, Sir Gawain… and the Battle of Brunanburh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_E._Harding
Steve Harding – with a DSc in Biochemistry from Oxford and now at Nottingham – is well known for his Research on the Vikings in Wirral and with colleagues at Leicester led the successful Wirral & West Lancashire Viking DNA project.
He is a Knight of Norway and member of the Saving Oseberg team – designing new consolidants to save the artefacts of Norway’s National Treasure – and as a descendant of the Stanleys of Storeton has considered the link of the Green Knight poem with them & Wirral’s Viking past
Mark Penman
TALK 6 – The art of adapting Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
Mark Penman is a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Comic & Concept Art course. He is an illustrator and comic artist with a focus on narrative and storytelling. Before joining Leeds Arts University in August 2020 he was Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Game Art degree at Futureworks Manchester.
In 2021 he adapted Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into a Graphic Novel with writer John Reppion.
Maria J. Pérez Cuervo
TALK 7 – Hellebore, the British landscape and the sublime
Maria J. Pérez Cuervo is the founder and editor of Hellebore, a small press devoted to folk horror and the occult. As well as 12 issues of Hellebore magazine, she’s published the travel guide The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain, the card game The Magical Card Battle of Britain, and the magazine Yuletide Hauntings.
Maria is also a writer specialising in history, archaeology, myth, and mystery. Her work has appeared in Fortean Times, Mental Floss, The Order of the Good Death, Daily Grail, and others. She contributed to the original Spirits of Place book, edited by John Reppion.
Silvia Battista
TALK 8 – Yes!… But to what?
Silvia Battista is a multidisciplinary artist, associate professor at Liverpool Hope University, and one of the founding members of the art cooperative MM Material Matters. Central to her practice-research is the study of spiritual practices, ecologies and mythmaking processes in contemporary art.
She sees herself as a weaver of metaphorical fabrics, mythopoeia, and speculative fiction. She has presented her work internationally from pubs and music venues to galleries, museums, and universities.