Mythologising Contemporary English Landscapes: Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall and Benjamin Myers’s The Perfect Golden Circle

This article discusses the processes of deliberate mythologisation of contemporary English landscapes as depicted in Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall (2018) and Benjamin Myers’s The Perfect Golden Circle (2022). In the former, the characters engage in “experiential archaeology” by re-enacting ancient rituals and modes of living. The plot revolves around the constant tensions between modernity and the misguided desire for an authentic immersion in the Iron Age past. Similarly, the protagonists of Myers’s novel are dedicated to what they describe as “myth-making” (73) by secretly creating elaborate patterns in the fields of rural England and subsequently enjoying the widespread public interest and wild theories which their designs trigger. As in Moss’s novel, the myth-making activities clash with modern ways of life. However, even though in both stories the myths are exposed as fake, there are also hints that the landscapes indeed contain layers of intrinsic meaning which can be intuited in rare moments of heightened perception.