Michael E Bell

Vampire quotes --- When Michael Bell published his now classic work Food for the Dead, none of us dreamed of a global pandemic which would rival consumption for its ability to decimate towns, villages and families. Here, in the long-awaited sequel, Vampire's Grasp, Bell peels away the sensationalism of 'vampire rituals' to detail in richly sensitive and dramatic form the real and living communities threatened by consumption - and so often turning to the dead to deal with death. At once gripping...See more

Vampire quotes --- When Michael Bell published his now classic work Food for the Dead, none of us dreamed of a global pandemic which would rival consumption for its ability to decimate towns, villages and families. Here, in the long-awaited sequel, Vampire's Grasp, Bell peels away the sensationalism of 'vampire rituals' to detail in richly sensitive and dramatic form the real and living communities threatened by consumption - and so often turning to the dead to deal with death. At once gripping and encyclopaedic in its range, this new work reveals fresh cases of historic grave rituals, and leads us on into some unjustly neglected fictional re-creations. If further proof were needed, Vampire's Grasp shows us time and again that history is so much stranger than fiction. Richard Sugg is the author of 16 books, including Fairies: A Dangerous History (2018), Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires (2020), and The Real Vampires (2023). You can see him discussing vampire beliefs with Dan Snow, and hear him talking on supernatural topics on podcasts with Jim Harold, Karen Rontowski, and Michelle Fisher. He is currently working with Steve Gamester, Alan Clements and Paddy Duffy of Saloon Media on a documentary version of The Real Vampires. @DrSugg --- Michael Bell is the ultimate folklorist on the 'real' vampires of New England. If you have any interest at all in the subject, of how, what and why they appeared, and what it might say to us in a post-Covid world, you need to get this book. Simon Bacon, editor of The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. --- If you thought only remote, pre-scientific societies believed in vampires, this book will enlighten you. ... In his brilliant and meticulous analysis of historical records, newspaper reports and folklore, Michael Bell traces nearly a hundred 'vampire killings' in New England and adjoining states, and sets them in their medical, cultural and intellectual contexts. -John Blair is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. His book, Killing the Dead: Vampires, Social Anxiety and Female Power, is forthcoming. ----------------------------------- If you thought only remote, pre-scientific societies believed in vampires, this book will enlighten you. As family members succumbed to the scourge of tuberculosis, desperate New Englanders between the 1780s and 1890s found an explanation that was not irrational in the light of traditional m See less