The Wicker Man

In the evergreen paradise of Summerisle lurks a pagan horror unimagined by the Christian world…

This island is to be found somewhere off the harsh Scottish coast, yet it is bathed in the light of a perpetual spring. Someone has beckoned to its shores Sergeant Howie, a rigidly moralistic police constable from the mainland, to search for a missing girl.

On the eve of May Day, strange, mystical and erotic events erupt around him: the stage is set for a terrifying and thrilling clash between ideas and beliefs.

The Wicker Man was first published five years after the release of the chilling cinema classic. Called by Christopher Lee ‘the best-scripted film I ever took part in’, it was hailed in America as ‘the best horror film to have come out of Britain in 30 years… for sheer imagination and near terror, The Wicker Man has seldom been equalled.’ Robin Hardy, author of The Education of Don Juan also directed the film, and Anthony Shaffer, whose many creations include Frenzy and Sleuth, write its screenplay. Allan Brown is the author of Inside the Wicker Man.