Episode Details

This week's Local Legends episode sees Martin gather round the Three Ravens campfire with the rather extraordinary Dr Kevan Manwaring, a multi-talented son of Northamptonshire who is also a true champion of the underdog.

Kevan has written over 30 books, including his collections of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire Folk Tales, and his tremendous collection Ballad Tales - and that's not to mention his academic writing on the Bardic tradition, or his poetry and novels!

These days he is the course leader for the MA in Creative Writing at Arts University Bournemouth, with his current academic focus being around ecofiction – a subject we’ll explore in some depth during our conversation.

For many people, he will be more familiar as a storyteller and performance poet, in which guise Kevan has performed all over the place, including live on BBC One, at Glastonbury Festival, and at innumerable bookshops, museums, heritage sites, and in schools.

Touring both solo and in group shows, he has performed internationally in Germany, Italy, Greece, and North America, and has written so much, across so many forms, it’s frankly a bit ridiculous.

In our chat we cover a dizzying array of topics, from Dungeons & Dragons to Kevan's friendships with the likes of Alan Moore and Ronald Hutton, the life and legacy of the poet John Clare, Northampton's role in the birth of the Goth movement, ghosts, animism, the Bardic tradition, and much more besides.

You can learn more about his work on his website at https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/, though before you do, have a listen to him in conversation, as he’s outstanding company!

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

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🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and e