Book review: Hookland Fragments Volume One by David Southwell

The Hookland project has existed primarily on social media for more than a decade but now, finally, has manifested in physical form. In Hookland Fragments Volume One, David Southwell, the creator of Hookland, an imaginary and particularly haunted English county, tells the story of its genesis. In 2012 he explained the concept to a friend, and his intention to post fragments on Twitter. The friend replied, “Dude, just write a fucking book.” And it is a puzzle to many people that there hasn’t been a Hookland book before 2026 or, indeed, several. This wisp of a publication, with just over 60 pages, feels like a testing of the water by someone who seems torn between two impulses. On the one hand, justifiable bigheadedness about the depth of his knowledge, the richness of his life experience, and the fact that his creation is beloved by so many. And, on the other, there’s a certain self-deprecating diffidence: What? This old thing? In a book? If we buy this, read it, and appreciate it,…