Dr Alice Christopher had been waiting twenty years for this opportunity. Twenty years of being dismissed, refused funding, thought of as mad, sniggered at behind her back, but now she was determined to prove her detractors wrong. The mysteries surrounding Moresby Wood in the north of England had not only obsessed her but also her own PhD supervisor, Deirdre Ellison. She had her theories about this place, one subject to rumours surrounding the supernatural, a witch, and a frightening creature. Then there were the tales of those who entered the wood who never came back out and were never seen or heard of again. Alice would be carrying on the research and had fought to get the funding, people and resources for a research trip. Most importantly she had got permission to enter the wood which was fenced off and out of bounds to the public, the gate padlocked and warning signs to keep out for any unwary wanderer.

One incident in particular was the focus of Alice’s research: the disappearance of a group of Roundhead soldiers who had fled into the wood after being ambushed by a band of Royalists. Only two had survived by deserting the troop and fleeing to the nearby village of Tapford. Their story, given to the local minster, was the only tantalising account of what happened to the troop. Local folklore had that a creature, a Corrigal, lived in the woods and preyed on anyone who strayed into it. Of what had happened to the main party after the deserters left remained a mystery. Alice hoped to find evidence of the troop and answers to their fate.

Alice had persuaded a PhD student, Nuria Martins, whose area of study involved folklore and legends, to come along. Alice was her second supervisor. Her main supervisor, Alistair Bell, had warned her about Alice Christopher and advised not to go with her, her maverick reputation worried him. Nuria was in the final stages of writing up her thesis; quiet and in awe of her academic supervisors, she allowed herself to be persuaded to go along. She pushed her misgiving aside along with the feeling that she would really rather be in the library doing her work, which she was due to submit in six weeks’ time. There were three others to make up the party: Kim Macleod and her colleague Helly were from the National Parks authority and Sue Aitken was from Ordnance Survey. The wood had been fenced off so long that there was no up to date map of the area. The last one had been done in the 1960s, previous to that there was only an eighteenth-century map; neither one of them could be said to be accurate. Kim, Helly and Sue were hoping that they could gain more information on the terrain. They had heard that compasses went ‘a bit wonky’ in the wood, but they had GPS and felt confident they would not get lost. As they enter the wood Nuria looks back with a sense of misgiving, still feeling that she would rather be doing her thesis, but it was too late now to turn back.

The troop had not meant to go into Moresby Wood, but the attack left them no choice. Their leader, Alexander Davies, had sustained a bullet in the shoulder and others had been injured or killed. On the outskirts of the wood Davies noticed one of his sergeants, a man named Thatcher, remonstrating with a young soldier. Alwood, who was from the north, was showing great reluctance at going into the wood. After being given an order, he complied and followed them in. Alwood and fellow northerner Stiles knew of the stories about the wood that went back to the fourteenth century about a creature that prowled within it and took anyone who entered. Davies dismissed their talk as superstitious nonsense. They found a clearing in which stood an enormous oak tree. Alwood had advised they all leave the wood as soon as possible and not spend the night there, but Davies was having none of this. Night fell, Alwood and Stiles sat together fervently praying and a fire was eventually lit when felt safe to do so. It was on this night that two of the party, Thomas Edgeworth and Josiah Mosely, fled. They were the only two of the whole party who lived to give an account of events. Edgeworth told their story to a local priest. They had fled after seeing something in the wood, something that terrified them. They were put in prison where Moody died, so Edgeworth’s story was the only account the party led by Alice Christopher could go on in their search for the truth behind the disappearances.

The two men were not the only thing that disappeared that night. The remaining men saw that the large Oak had also disappeared in the night. The others now wanted to know more about this wood and what was it about it that terrified Alwood and Stiles. Their sense dread and fear was infectious, but Davies still brushed aside the stories of beasts and devils in the forest as superstitious nonsense. They needed to get out of the wood, find the deserters, and continue their journey south. However, he senses that the wood had changed, was different in some way, but he keeps his thoughts to himself and sets about keeping his men focussed on getting themselves out of this place. Sargeant Thatcher, the one who had forced Alwood into the forest, was now suggesting they pray, that the Devil was behind this frightening and disorientating place; Davies has to bottle down his own uncertainty to keep order, but this, as they set off through the woods, would prove extremely difficult. As they travel some feel that they are being watched.

Alice hears the other’s tents unzipping and exits her own tent. The large Oak has disappeared. Kim looks at the photographs from the day before on her digital camera. There was the Oak, no doubt about it, and now it was gone. Alice, like Davies, felt that the wood as a whole had changed somehow, that in fact there was more than one wood in existence, but she keeps this to herself. She remains calm as the rest of the party voice doubts about continuing the project. All the batteries had mysteriously gone completely flat overnight, and the GPS was not working at all. Alice is insistent that they continue; she had waited a long time to do this, and they had to consider all the planning and funding that would be lost should they give up now. Nuria is conflicted, but a sense of obligation to her supervisor keeps her loyal and she backs up Alice. In spite of this the rangers are the ones who have the final say. The set off back but the further they walk the deeper they seem to be going into the wood. They continue to try and find their exit with the same sense of disorientation as their predecessors, and the feeling that they were not alone.

The parties travel on and struggle to find their way, all the while sensing, and almost seeing out of the corners of their eyes a flicker of what? A creature, devil or witch? It depended on which legend you chose to accept to explain the growing horror of their predicaments. All the while they sense that the wood itself is controlling them, pushing them in the direction it wants them to go. Davies is determined to lead his troop out to safety. Alice is determined to succeed in her quest to solve the mystery that is this wood and that of the missing men. So consumed is she by this that she completely disregards the danger she had led the others into and has no concern for her own safety. The dream of academic success was too strong for her to see sense. Nuria realises, too late, that she has allowed herself to be led by Alice into this scheme, one that she knows has put her in danger of her life and wishes she’d heeded the warnings about Alice. She is not sure that she will ever leave these woods at all.

Inevitably the fear and disorientation create discord and conflict within both groups as they try and get out of the wood. They know they are definitely lost, but is it in this world or another, or in another time? To their horror whatever is in the forest makes its presence known in the most devastating way and the groups begin to fracture, consumed with dread, horror and panic to save themselves, however they all fear that they will never be allowed to leave.

Time slips and weird woods have provided a rich source of fiction for writers with the fear of the unexplainable and the disorientation causing confusion and terror. Drawing on folklore, legends, the supernatural and cryptozoology, these phenomena tap into deep seated fears of being lost, not in control and seeing no way out of precarious and potentially dangerous situations. Woods and forests have been an important feature of stories of horror, the uncanny, weird and dangerous from the earliest fairy tales (Snow White is taken to the woods to be killed on the orders of her stepmother, Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by parents who cannot support them who then face the danger of being eaten by a witch) to modern writers of the weird such as Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen. They are both beautiful places full of wonder but also can be unsettling, menacing places that harbour threats; nasty things can lurk in the shadows of the trees and even nastier things can happen to those who enter. As with the old house just passed on the road, the deserted hospital or the abandoned fairground rotting away, woods and forests are places that you enter at your own risk. The disorientation caused by times slips and the physical disorientation of Moresby Wood make for a very satisfyingly unsettling read touching on our deepest fears of being lost, frightened, confused and powerless.