Infra Noir 2020

Various authors
Zagava

Since some friends of Zagava missed single titles of our chapbook series, Zagava now offers all 11 Infra-Noir chapbooks published in 2020 as an inexpensive paperback! If you want all of the brilliant stories in one affordable place, this is the book for you.
D.P. Watt: Craft; Mark Valentine The Clerks of the Invisible; Jonathan Wood: The Idyll Is Over; Karim Ghahwagi: Codex of Light; Mark Samuels: Posterity; Rebecca Lloyd: Ancestor Water; Mark Valentine: Stained Medium; Timothy J. Jarvis: The Purblind Bards; Reggie Oliver: The Wet Woman; R.B. Russell: A House of Treasures; Rosalie Parker: Home Comforts 

Through 2020 Zagava released a series of small chapbooks by a coterie of authors associated with the publisher and enjoyed by us here at Wyrd Britain including Mark Valentine, Rosalie Parker, R.B. Russell and more.  These stories have now been collected together in this delightful volume.

D.P Watt has the honour of opening the proceedings with an entrancing tale of a beautifully made book whereas for Mark Valentine - in the first of two contributions - it's the mystery of a rare book and the joy of the hunt whilst Jonathan Wood explores the inner life of the book and the characters that the writer hopes to populate it with.

Karim Ghahwagi's 'Codex of Light' takes a different tack with a fantastical fable of fire and the restrictions of tradition.  Mark Samuels' 'Posterity' tells a wonderfully creepy talke of scholarlty hubris and a dead author (a thinly veiled Robert Aickman).  Rebecca Lloyd's 'Ancestor Water' like Ghahwagi's earlier story deals with the pull of heritage although it's contemporary setting free of gothic trappings gives it a more urgent and less folky aspect.

Happily we are given another Mark Valentine story (regular readers will be well aware of our love of Mark's writing) this time dealing with forgotten philosophies chance meetings and lost literary treasure whilst Timothy J. Jarvis spins a fascinating post apocalyptic tale in 'The Purblind Bards'.

Reggie Oliver is one of several authors on my ever growing 'must read more' list as what I have read has been a treat.  Here his story 'The Wet Woman' continues a trend I've noticed in his writing for a sort of dark whimsy which here takes the form of a group of thesps and musos engaging in petty revenge that unleashes more profound events.

The book ends with two stories from Tartarus Press publishers R.B. Russell and Rosalie Parker.  Ray's story 'A House of Treasures' is a beautifully poised tale of a search realised whilst Rosalie tells of desire and perhaps lust for a cuddly but avaricious toy waiter named Nigel.  It's very wrong and very funny.

Unfortunately this collection, as with all the Zagava paperbacks, was only available for a very short while due to to issues with print quality but if you can track a copy down it'll definitely reward the hunt.

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The Ghosts and Scholars Book of Mazes

Rosemary Pardoe (ed)
Sarob Press

M.R. James’s 1911 tale, “Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance”, is one of the most famous maze short stories, if not the most famous.
Editor Rosemary Pardoe has chosen eight supernatural maze stories to reprint, all of them taken from small press journals and books, and some of them never previously reprinted.
The mazes range from unicursal turf through puzzle hedge to modern crop examples; one tale is a prequel to “Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance”.
The second part of this volume consists of six brand new stories which range even more widely, from a Roman mosaic maze to a mirror maze at the top of a high-rise office block.
All of the stories have a folklore, folk custom and/or antiquarian background.
So, fourteen supernatural maze stories by some fabulous authors of folk horror and ghostly, ghastly, spooky tales of terror.

Selected and introduced by former Ghosts and Scholars head honcho Rosemary Pardoe this collection of ghostly and weird tales all share the theme of mazes (and labyrinths).

As demonstrated by M.R. James - the author whose work Ghosts and Scholars celebrates - in his story 'Mr Humphrey's Inheritance' mazes are a powerful object that hides, that confuses, that entices and entraps.  The stories in this collection all embrace these ideas to various extents.

Now I have small issue with themed collections, I'll get half way through and get a bit bored with the theme.   It doesn't matter how good the book is I just find them a tad repetitive and one dimensional which is what happened herd and the book ended up taking a few weeks to read.

Opening strongly with Mark Valentine's gentle and quiet love story 'As Blank as the Days Yet to Be' - which was the only story here I already knew having it in his Zagava collection from the other year and in booklet form - after which the book meanders slightly with some strong tales by John Howard, Michael Chislett, Rick Kennett, Cable Tyrell, John Reppion and Reggie Oliver, a few that were entertaining in their way and a couple of real stinkers (which I shan't identify).

Sarob are a strong and reliable publisher and Pardoe knows her stuff so this collection - even read piecemeal - really hit home but as I said I always struggle with themed but when they're as strong as this it's never going to be much of a problem picking them back

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The Far Tower: Stories for W.B. Yeats

photo by Brian J. Showers

Mark Valentine (editor)
Swan River Press

"All Art that is not mere story-telling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic . . . " – W. B. Yeats

Stories of magic and myth, folklore and fairy traditions, the occult and the outré, inspired by the rich mystical world of Ireland’s greatest poet, W. B. Yeats. We invited ten contemporary writers to celebrate Yeats’s contributions to the history of the fantastic and supernatural in literature, drawing on his work for their own new and original tales. Each has chosen a phrase from his poems, plays, stories, or essays to herald their own explorations in the esoteric. Alongside their own powerful qualities, the pieces here testify to the continuing resonance of Yeats’s vision in our own time, that deep understanding of the meshing of two worlds and the talismans of old magic.

Poet and mystic W.B. Yeats was a key figure in Irish literature and his poetry has retained it's place at the heart of the discipline with its mystical nature providing an inspiration on all those featured here.

Editor Mark Valentine has compiled this companion piece to Swan River's recent Oscar Wilde volume and invited various authors to contribute.  Amongst them we find familiar names such as Ron Weighell who tells a tale of a Yeats scholar who unlocks a hidden spell and finds himself in a torrid love affair with a beautiful and enigmatic woman, John Howard who finds inspiration in the moon as seen from atop a tower and Reggie Oliver whose melodramatic and farcical tale is perfectly suited to the seaside actors and charlatans he peoples his tale with.

Alongside them we find D.P. Watt with an intriguing tale of visions from elsewhere and Rosanne Rabinowitz continues that theme as an old friend of the poet is 'visited' from beyond the grave.  Caitriona Lally's tale of the problems with a self sufficient hermit-like existence was fun but a little insubstantial whilst Timothy J. Jarvis maintains a galloping pace with his fairy tale like story of the poets remains and the influence they exert.

I must admit my previous exposure to Derek John's writing, in 'The Pale Illuminations', hadn't blown me away but his story here of an unwelcome spirit at a seance was a lot of fun.  Lynda Rucker provides a nicely enigmatic tale of a world on the verge of catastrophe that felt almost too relevant as I'm sat here unable to leave the house due to the coronavirus and the book ends with Nina Antonia's exploration of the role of Yeats' relationship with the fairy folklore of Ireland and it's place in his work.

With a couple of exceptions I've never been much of a poetry buff and so my knowledge of and exposure to Yeats is very limited, barely more than knowing that The Waterboys used his words in a song, but the stories here have left me intrigued.  It's an excellent read that will, I think, prove a tantalising aperitif to newcomers like me and also a satisfying digestif for those who have a more experienced palette for the poet's offerings.

'The Far Tower' is available from the publisher at the link above (tell them Wyrd Britain sent you)

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Pale Illuminations

Mark Valentine,
Reggie Oliver
Peter Bell
Derek John
Sarob Press

Sarob Press is delighted to announce the publication of “THE PALE ILLUMINATIONS” ~ four all new darkly supernatural stories and novellas (each imbued with a sense of the mystery and the legends of landscape and place) by PETER BELL, MARK VALENTINE, REGGIE OLIVER and DEREK JOHN.
“Labyrinth” by Peter Bell ... set mostly in the 1960s this is a story of ancient well worship in the Peak District, and the cult of Proserpina in Roman Britain.
“A Chess Game at Michaelmas” by Mark Valentine ... a tale set in south-west England, and of strange customs and age-old ritual, a secret game, and a dark shadowy visitor.
“The Old Man of the Woods” by Reggie Oliver ... a new home in rural France, legends of the misty past, and a weird haunting story of the dark and deeply sinister woods.
“Cropmarks” by Derek John ... an Irish setting for a modern tale of witchcraft, dark ceremonies, a centuries-old place of worship, strange discoveries and a malevolent curse.

 I had the pleasure to read a previous Sarob collection a few years back and so was very happy to grab a copy of this new collection.  Inside we have four tales, two by authors who have featured in these pages before - Mark Valentine & Reggie Oliver - and two who are respectively new and newish to me - Peter Bell & Derek John.  Three of the stories I enjoyed very much indeed but one I found to be less to my taste and it's that one with which I'll start.

Derek John's 'Cropmarks' has at its heart a story that weaves communal life, neighbourly conflict and new age witchery into a tale that feels far too soap opera to satisfy me.  On the flipside though we have a trio of very fine stories beginning with Peter Bell's 'Labyrinth' a storythat tells of a student researcher investigating the remains of a 'forgotten' cult of Prosperina, the Roman Goddess of fertility, wine and agriculture.  Into a landscape drenched with the detritus of myth and folklore.  It's an absorbing tale that I could have lingered with longer and would have enjoyed watching Bell tease more out of his supporting cast of locals and yokels, particularly the stranger ones.

Reggie Oliver's 'The Old Man of the Woods' is a gentle story of a farmhouse haunted by loss and of the shadows we leave behind. As with the other stories of his that I've read - which admittedly isn't as many as I'd like - this is a delicate tale that unfolds around you and gently insinuates itself into your affections via the chills it sends up your spine.

Which leaves us with Mark Valentine's 'A Chess Game At Michelmas', one of Mark's signature strange little Machenesque / Dunsanyish / Blackwoody tales of neglected rituals and rural faery tale.  It is, of course, a wonderful read and Mark is, for me, alongside the creme of the weird fiction writers - I chose those names back there deliberately.  His writing is perfectly measured and I want to live in the worlds of his imagination and whilst I don't suppose that would be the most comfortable, or indeed safest, of existences what a time you'd have.

I've a couple of these Sarob Press collections now and they've been most excellent and whilst I'm pretty sure this lovely and very limited book is now sold out this is a publisher who deserves to be on the radar of everyone with a love of strange tales.

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The Scarlet Soul: Stories For Dorian Gray

Mark Valentine (ed)
Swan River Press

"Yet it was watching him, with its beautiful marred face and its cruel smile." — Oscar Wilde

Art, obsession, love, lust, sorcery—ten contemporary writers respond to the imperishable themes of Oscar Wilde’s great Decadent romance, The Picture of Dorian Gray. What happens when a face, a form, an uncanny force changes everything we thought we knew? What survives of us when we stray into a borderland of the mind, where our deepest urges seem to call up remorseless powers?

Whether in fantastic imaginary realms or in the gritty noir of today, these new stories, all especially written for this anthology, take us into some of the strangest and darkest places of the psyche. These ten boldly original portraits in the attic take many disturbing forms, revealing strong truths about the secrets of our selves, our society, and our very souls.

I don't quite know what it was about the book but from the moment the teenage me saw the bright yellow 'Complete Works of Oscar Wilde' with it's Aubrey Beardsley illustration (of 'Salome' if memory serves) I desperately wanted to read it.  It was a very out of character choice as at the time my reading materials of choice were post apocalypse sci fi, beat fiction and underground comics so when I saw, what I presumed to be, a book of drawing room farces sporting that stark and stunning erotic cover art I just couldn't resist.  I can't remember much about the whole but I do recall enjoying various shorts and trying, failing and skipping the plays but mostly I remember 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and the impact it made.  I became mildly besotted with it, nothing about it was like anything I'd read beyond those tedious group reads they make you do in school but living the lifestyle I did and with no knowledge of what to follow it with it lapsed into memory and it was many years before I pursued more literature of it's kind.

In his introduction Mark Valentine relates his own entanglement with the book and of his fascination with it's themes of identity, behaviours and destiny before handing us over to the ten authors chosen to reflect and reinterpret these themes.

Reggie Oliver (photo by R.B. Russell)

Reggie Oliver opens the book proper with a search for 'Love and Death' as art and life collide with terrible results.  I have long harboured a desire to read some of Oliver's work as I'd heard nothing by praise but my only previous encounter was a M.R. James pastiche which moved me not but here finally I see what the fuss is about as this is a fantastically powerful tale.

Caitriona Lally's 'This is How it Will Be' is certainly no less powerful but it's story of identity loss (or perhaps identity theft would be a more appropriate term) comes with the extra frisson of frustrating believability as it reduces you to uncomfortably berating the narrator for her passivity, her malleability and her gullibility in the knowledge that in doing so you are, perhaps, behaving no differently from her new friend.

Lynda E. Rucker's 'Every Exquisite Thing' is a tricksier affair that chases love or at least the ghost of it to various locations only to find it unknowing and disheartening .  It seemed to me to speak of hidden lives and the reinventions of self and of a futile desire for stability amidst change.

John Howard

I've had the great pleasure to read a few things by John Howard over the last couple of years and he never disappoints.  His stories are often gut-wrenchingly acute dissections of life and love and in 'Speck' he takes us on an exploration of lives and identities used and discarded, of the callous disregard of others and of innocence and kindness.

D.P. Watt's tale of psychic vampirism, 'Doreen', is a jarring contrast to the subtlety of the previous and feels in many ways to be a hark back to the macabre tales of old but with a touch of the Beryl Cook in it's cast and milieu.

Rosanne Rabinowitz brings us right up to date with a harrowing and odd tale of two women caught up in the upsurge of racist idiocy that followed the E.U. vote in 'All That's Solid' while Avalon Brantley offers a tale redolent of Victorian houses filled with artistic gentlemen of impeccable manners and indulgent habits. Of discussions over brandy and cigars and of falls from grace as inevitable as they are improbable.

Timothy J. Jarvis' story within a story - that great tradition of the ghostly tale - 'The Yellow Book' layers the weird and the mundane to create an oddly soap operatic folk horror whereas in 'A Labyrinth of Graves' John Gale offers a tale of love, jealousy, rage, regret and longevity as we are offered fleeting glimpses of the long existence of a god and the mutual impact of the life and death of one particular devotee.

The book ends with 'The Anatomy Lesson of Professor Stebbing' by Derek John a light footed and fun steampunkish yarn concerning the titular 'scientist' and his machine to modify and manipulate the soul.

When I begun this book I was definitely expecting a parade of stories more directly linked to the original but what I got was something far more diverse and significantly more interesting.  There are moments when the link seems particularly tenuous but once you accept this the quality of the individual pieces shines through and what you get is a set of thought provoking and hugely enjoyable stories by a group of very interesting new (to me at least) writers assembled by one of the pre-eminent writers of (and about) the weird working today.

Available direct from the publisher.

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The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24

Stephen Jones (ed)
Robinson

For nearly twenty-five years The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror has been the world's leading annual anthology dedicated solely to showcasing the best in contemporary horror fiction. Comprising the most outstanding new short fiction by both contemporary masters of horror and exciting newcomers, this multiple award-winning series also offers an overview of the year in horror, a comprehensive necrology of recent obituaries, and an indispensable directory of contact details for dedicated horror fans and writers.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world's leading annual anthology dedicated solely to presenting the best in contemporary horror fiction.

I don't often do modern anthologies - for no other reasons really than I don't find them very often and I have more than enough old ones here to keep me going  - but I came across this one recently and it caught my eye due to the presence of Mark Valentine and Reggie Oliver, the first being a writer I like very much and the second being one I've wanted to check out for a while now.

The collection is bookended by two long reviews of the year (2012) with the first being a what's happened and the second a who's died.  Neither of these interested me much so I skipped them in their entirety. Of the stories, of which there are 22, they are generally pretty sound, which you should hope from the title of the anthology.  There are some big names included here, Neil Gaiman provides a poem which didn't do much for me but I'm generally not much of a poetry buff,  Ramsey Campbell provides a great fun, witchy bingo story full of cackling old women and Joe R. Lansdale has a fairly tasteless and unpleasant zombie tale.

Of the others there were a few standouts, Mark Valentine's 'The Fall of the King of Babylon' is a dark fantasy with interesting and unexpected tinges of Mervyn Peake and of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories, Steve Rasnic Tem's 'Waiting at the Crossroads Motel' had me singing a theme tune to myself (if you're a Brit of a certain age you'll know the one - if not) but offered up a satisfying piece of Loveceraftian mischief whilst Glen Hirshberg's 'His Only Audience' was an interestingly open ended slice of devilish whimsy.  The rest were all readable to varying degrees with none standing out as particular stinkers and provided a suitable distraction as I navigated new year with a stinking cold and has left me quite curious about the other year's collections.

Buy it here - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24 (Mammoth Books)

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain