Christopher Hadley is a journalist and author. His pieces on such popular subjects as 18th-century religious tracts have appeared in The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, London Review of Books, Esquire and his local parish magazine, among many other publications. Hollow Places, an account of his search across a thousand years of British history for the dragon-slayer Shonks, is his first history book. Christopher is married with three children, whom he hopes will never grow-out of hunting for dragons and other marvels in the Hertfordshire countryside where they live.
EARLY PRAISE FOR THE ROAD 'There's something beguilingly mysterious about these ancient roads . . . When searching for his road, Hadley makes full use of his senses. . . the breadth of his knowledge . . . the beauty of his prose. This book deserves to be read at least twice, first to appreciate what it reveals and then to luxuriate in its effervescent voice. On nearly every page a random passage takes one's breath away' The Times, Gerard DeGroot 'Magnificent . . . exciting . . . This is no dry and prosaic history, but a work of imagination and a deeply literary book... wonderful prose . . . striking images and lapidary sentences... enthralling. It's an absolute joy to read and an early contender for every list of History Books of the Year' Sunday Telegraph, Harry Sidebottom 'Loving The Road, [it's] about a Roman road but also a rumination on the past and our relationship with it. [An] excellent companion piece to his previous book about a dragon slayer's tomb. The pair offer a whole new and very exciting model for how to do local history. Highly recommend' Dr Kelcey Wilson-Lee on Twitter PRAISE FOR CHRISTOPHER HADLEY'S HOLLOW PLACES 'Impossible to summarise and delightfully absorbing, Hadley's book is comfortably the most unexpected history book of the year' Sunday Times 'A sensitively intelligent excavation into Hertfordshire history, the English imagination and omnipresent myth' Country Life 'Hadley wears his scholarship lightly but at the heart of this antiquarian wild goose chase is an ingenious meditation on what history, in all its complexity and unevenness, really is.' Guardian 'Enthralling' The Oldie 'This meditation on the power of folk myth lives up to its billing as an 'unusual history'. It's also engaging, wide-ranging stuff, exploring how stories become ties that bind' BBC History Magazine