Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields: The Zombies of William Seabrook’s ‘Magic Island’

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As something of a follow-up to our last episode about the birth of the ‘Spooky New Orleans’ archetype, join Cian for a lockdown bottle of ale on the porch at the Cabin in the Woods for a reading from the book ‘The Magic Island’ by William Seabrook. In 1929, Seabrook’s book was a massive success, telling dark tales about Haiti and its voodoo secrets, and in particular popularising the word ‘zombie’ among Western audiences. Having always been haunted by a story about zombified sugar-cane plantation workers, Cian has tracked the story down to the chapter ‘Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields’ from this book. So pour yourself some rum and settle down for a story from the very dawn of the zombie genre – the Dawn of the Dead, if you will.