Title:The Shape of Darkness Writer: Laura Purcell Publishing House: Raven Books Date of Publication: January 21st 2021 Rate: 5 stars ‘’Shadows flee across the cobbles and climb up walls. Agnes has spent her life studying them, but she has not appreciated their sheer number until tonight. She sees shadows thrown by a dancing flame, the…
Tag: Britain
Offshore
Title: Offshore Writer: Penelope Fitzgerald Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: March 28th 2013 (first published 1979) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I can’t do the things that women can’t do,’ she said. ‘I can’t turn over The Times so that the pages lie flat, I can’t fold up a map in the right creases, I…
Ιnto the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City
Title: Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City Writer: Various, edited by Elizabeth Dearnley Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 20th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like London fog itself, the power of the weird tale lies in its potential to suddenly shift from benign to baleful as the light…
Dead Relatives
Τitle: Dead Relatives Writer: Lucie McKnight Hardy Publishing House: Dead Ink Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The garden lies quiet, as if it’s sleeping. Nothing grows this late in November, and everything is sad and grey. The only thing of beauty is the lake that lies at the bottom of the…
The Schoolhouse
Title:The Schoolhouse Writer: Sophie Ward Publishing House: Corsair Date of Publication: May 5th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’The university library was housed in an unimposing corner of North London, halfway up the Holloway Road. A small campus occupied the grounds of a former landfill site and seagulls still circled overhead, drawn by the scent of…
Drift
Title: Drift Writer: Caryl Lewis Publishing House:Random House UK Date of Publication: April 21st 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’A ripple. A disturbance on the sea that didn’t settle. Something that couldn’t be let go, and the warmth of the sun would magnify it into wind. And the wind would worry it until the weaves and…
The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain and Northern Ireland
Title: The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain and Northern Ireland Writer: Various edited by Maria J. Perez Cuervo Publishing House: Hellebore Date of Publication: December 2021 Rating: 5 stars This beautiful (BEAUTIFUL, I TELL YOU!!!!) guide is an outstanding journey within the heart of Britain and Northern Ireland and all their magical, witchy, ritualistic, occult…
Minor Hauntings (Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth)
Title: Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth Writer: Various edited by Jen Baker Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: April 29th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Many years ago there stood at the corner of the street leading out of Upper Kennington – lane a great red-brick mansion, which one very wet evening,…
Florence Nightingale (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title: Florence Nightingale (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’ s Books Date of Publication: April 12th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Never give nor take an excuse.’’ Florence Nightingale 1820, Florence, Italy. A child with a brilliant mind and a golden heart is born….
Midwinter Folk Tales
Title: Midwinter Folk Tales Writer: Taffy Thomas Publishing House: The History Press Date of Publication: February 1st 2015 (first published October 15th 2014) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and a talk beside the fore, it is the time for…
The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights
Title: The Haunting Season Writer: Various Publishing House: Sphere Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’He stared down at the trees, feeling a kind of vertigo that was not quite fear. The unearthly light – the dark shapes against the moon-drenched sky – the clarity of outline, the density of the shadows…He…
The Hotel: Ghost Stories with a Feminist Twist
Title: The Hotel Writer: Daisy Johnson Publishing House: BBC Audio Date of Publication: May 27th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’There were 63 jars here and this is the room of 63 fears, all clamoring, all so loud. It is the room I will come back to and, perhaps, this room leads only into the ground.’’…
Murder After Christmas
Title: Murder After Christmas Writer: Rupert Latimer Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10th 2021 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Anyway, Christmas is a time for forgetting the past and burying hatchets, isn’t it?’’ ‘’What about after Christmas’’, said Frank. ‘’Now you’re making difficulties’’, said Rhoda.’’ The arrival of Uncle…
Crimson Snow
Title: Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: November 10th 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’But seated in the holly-decked apartment before a noble fire which roared bravely up the wide chimney we cared nothing for the frozen world out of doors. We laughed…
Charles Dickens (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title: Charles Dickens (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Isobel Ross Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: November 9th 2021 Rating: 5 stars “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend) A young boy sees his world…
Τhe Christmas Egg
Title: The Christmas Egg Writer: Mary Kelly Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10th 2019 (first published 1958) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Princess Karukhina once had been used to lying in a carved bed inlaid with mother-of-pearl, between silk sheets changed daily, covered with down quilts and white urs. The walls of…
A Surprise for Christmas
Title: A Surprise for Christmas Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was Christmas Eve and nearly five of the clock, but an afternoon less like the traditional ideas of the seasons would be hard to imagine. True, a little…
Chill Tidings
Title: Chill Tidings Writer: Various, edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 16th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’At the edge of the dark sky, sprinkled with stars, a faint band of cold light heralded the rising moon. How different from the grey light of dawn, that ushers in the…
The Magic Toyshop
Title:The Magic Toyshop Writer: Angela Carter Publishing House: Virago Date of Publication: May 3rd 2018 (first published 1967) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Melanie had never seen uncle Philip. Once, when she was a little girl, he sent her a jack-in-the-box. He was a toymaker. When she opened the jack-in-the-box, a grotesque caricature of her own face…
Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights
Title: Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights Writer: Various (edited by Lucy Evans and Tanya Kirk) Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: October 21st 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like any other boy I expected ghost stories at Christmas, that was the time for them. What I had not expected, and…
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