The Lost Folk

Faber will publish Lally MacBeth’s debut work of non-fiction, The Lost Folk, in June 2025. Hannah Knowles acquired World Rights All Languages at auction from Becky Thomas at Lewinsohn Literary Agency.

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.

Lally MacBeth said:

‘When I started The Folk Archive in 2020, I quickly became aware that there was a need for a book that celebrated folk culture in a way which was inclusive and hopeful – a book that opened up the conversation of who folk was for and how it was evolving for the future. That I get to write that book is a great honour, and that it gets to sit with Faber is an even greater honour. It is a long-held dream, and one which I am delighted to say is now a reality, and for that I am incredibly thankful to Hannah for her openness to the project, to Becky for her guidance and wisdom throughout, and of course to my friend Jeff Barrett without whom The Lost Folk would not have found life.’

Publishing Director Hannah Knowles said:

‘Lally MacBeth’s brilliance lies in how she manages to shine a light on disappearing traditions in a way that brings hope and shows a way forward to what folk might look like in the future. Never indulging in rose-tinted nostalgia, she reminds us that folk is for and by the people, and, as such, it is incumbent on us to forge new folk ways while celebrating the old.’

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. This is her first book.