About John Gibbons: John Gibbons is an environmental journalist and commentator who has been speaking about climate change in Ireland for over a decade. The Lie of the Land is his first book.

John Gibbons

Dave Gibbons

About Stella Gibbons: Stella Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She went to the North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including the Evening Standard. Stella Gibbons is the author of twenty-five novels, three volumes of short stories, and four volumes of poetry. Her first novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) was an immediate success and won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for 1933. Among her works are Nightingale Wood (1938), The Bachelor (1944), Westwood (1946), and Starlight (1967). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.

Stella Gibbons

Edward Gibbon

Lewis Grassic Gibbon

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Gladys and Annie Barnes are impoverished sisters who have seen better times. They live in a modest cottage in the backstreets of Highate with Mr Fisher, a mild but eccentric old man living secretively in the attic above them. Their quiet lives are thrown into confusion when a new landlord takes over, a dreaded and unscrupulous 'rackman'. He installs his wife in part of the cottages in the hope that there she will recover from an unspecified malady. With a mounting sense of fear, Gladys and Annie become convinced she is possessed by an evil spirit...

Starlight

Victor Pemberton

A trio of terrifying radio tales starring Roger Delgado, Vincent Price and Honor Blackman 
 
Author, playwright and TV producer Victor Pemberton was probably best known as a script editor and writer for Doctor Who, and as the inventor of the Doctor's trademark sonic screwdriver. But he also created numerous dramas for radio, among them the three cult classics included here. 
 
The Slide - In the Kent new town of Redlow, the residents are shocked by a sudden earthquake. But a worse subterranean threat is still to emerge. When a torrent of mud oozes from the fissure and the local wildlife begins to die, expert seismologist Professor Gomez is called in. His analysis reveals the awful truth: the mud is sentient, intelligent - and lethal... Roger Delgado and Maurice Denham star in this thrilling seven-part sci-fi serial. 
 
Night of the Wolf - March, 1883, and a monster is on the loose in the East Anglian Fens... Concerned about his missing son, Robert, Judge Mathew Deacon travels from Pennysylvania to Cambridge to find out what has become of him. His inquiries lead him to the remote Northcott Manor, deep in the marsh country, where he finds a family hiding dark secrets - and comes face to face with a werewolf... This Gothic horror play stars Vincent Price and Coral Browne. 
 
Dark- Virginia's lover was murdered and her husband hanged. Then, years later, inexplicable events occur in the room where the murder took place. Summoned to investigate, medium Simon Elliott becomes possessed by people from the past. Can the dead really return to exert control over the living? Honor Blackman, Bessie Love and Nigel Anthony star in this suspenseful paranormal thriller. 
 
 
Produced by John Tydeman 
 
The Slide 
Professor Josef Gomez - Roger Delgado 
Hugh Deverill MP - Maurice Denham 
Janet Marshall - Elisabeth Proud 
Dr Ken Richards - David Spenser 
Anna Deverill - Marion Mathie 
'Tug' Wilson - Stephen Jack 
Mrs Wilson - Miriam Margolyes 
Sergeant Johnson - Wilfred Babbage 
Inspector Baxter - Geoffrey Matthews 
Constable/First Journalist/Pilot - Anthony Jackson 
Professor Landers - Rolf Lefebvre 
Professor Lippert - Allan McClelland 
Newscaster/AC2 Gibbons - Nigel Graham 
Mrs Luke - Noel Hood 
Nursing Sister - Eva Haddon 
Sorensen - Fraser Kerr 
RAF Corporal - Anthony Hall 
Barry - Glyn Dearman 
Nurse - Patricia Leventon 
Dr Robeson - Michael Kilgarriff 
Second Journalist - Hector Ross 
Third Journalist/Policeman/Ground Control - Brian Hewlett 
American Journalist - Peter Marinker 
Vicar - Noel Howlett 
Margaret Griffiths MP - Joan Matheson 
TV Interviewer - Henry Stamper 
Special effects: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop 
First broadcast BBC Radio Light Programme, 13 February-27 March 1966 
 
Night of the Wolf 
Judge Mathew Deacon - Vincent Price 
Robert Deacon, his son - Peter Whitman 
Mrs Northcott - Coral Browne 
Sybil, her daughter - Sheila Grant 
Dorothy, Sybil's daughter - Elizabeth Proud 
Nicholas, Sybil's son - John Rye 
Griffin, an undergraduate - Michael Cochrane 
Professor Forrester - Hugh Manning 
Sir Richard Burnett - Haydn Jones 
Morris - Paul Gaymon 
Jessie - Norma Ronald 
Technical assistants Jock Parrell, Marsail MacCuish, David Bitchinson and Alister Wilson 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 August 1975 
 
Dark 
Virginia Preston - Honor Blackman 
Mother - Bessie Love 
Simon Elliott - Nigel Anthony 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 February 1978 
 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Vintage BBC Radio Horror: The Slide, Night of the Wolf & Dark

Three full-cast supernatural thrillers

Tim Lebbon

‘Lebbon is quite simply the most exciting new name in horror for years.’ – SFX Magazine 
 
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER 
THE REASON IS COLDBROOK 
 
The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing. 
 
With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. 
 
In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. 
 
But will they find her in time?

Coldbrook

Various

An unsettling collection of full-cast dramas from the long-running BBC Radio 4 horror series. 
 
Throughout five series of Fear on 4 from 1988-1997, Edward de Souza was The Man in Black, a sinister raconteur who introduced a weekly half-hour of terror and suspense. Here, he welcomes us to his house of horrors as he presents thirteen terrifying tales that will make your flesh crawl. 
 
The Snowman Killing by J C W Brook 
Green and Pleasant by Bert Coules 
Survival by John Wyndham 
Soul Searching by Martyn Wade 
The Beast with Five Fingers by William Fryer Harvey 
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 
By the River, Fontainebleau by Stephen Gallagher 
The Face by E F Benson 
The Monkey’s Revenge by Guy Jenkin 
Fat Andy by Stephen Dunstone 
The Journey Home by Bert Coules 
Dead Man’s Boots by William Ingram 
The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker 
 
With eerie sound effects that enhance the atmosphere of dread, these bloodcurdling adaptations run the gamut from the mysterious to the macabre. With superb casts including Imelda Staunton, Bernard Cribbins, Anna Massey, Thora Hird and Sean Barrett.

Fear on 4

13 chilling BBC Radio 4 dramas

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories have lost none of their power to horrify. He remains a destabilizingly terse sketcher out of ideas, a writer who allows the reader to fill in the many ghastly blanks in his narratives of violence, retribution and animalism. It is hard to recommend Hop-Frog wholeheartedly (its original subtitle was: Or, The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs) as it is such an affront to decency, but you will certainly never forget it.

Hop-Frog

Samuel Butler

Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of Erewhon and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a malady to be cured, while illness, poverty and misfortune are cruelly punished, and all machines have been superstitiously destroyed after a bizarre prophecy. Can he survive in a world where morality is turned upside down? Inspired by Samuel Butler's years in colonial New Zealand and by his reading of Darwin's Origin of Species, Erewhon (1872) is a highly original, irreverent and humorous satire on conventional virtues, religious hypocrisy and the unthinking acceptance of beliefs.

Erewhon

Victor LaValle

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. 
 
The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and go West. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the ‘lone women’, a female homesteader travelling by herself to stake her claim, taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it. Except that she’s not really alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the untamed and unforgiving American frontier. 
 
Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.

Lone Women

William Hope Hodgson

From the beasts of the pit to the endless terror of the void 
 
A manuscript is found: filled with small, precise writing and smelling of pit-water, it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home &ndash; and its even stranger, jade-green double, seen by the recluse on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam. 
 
Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than this bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse &ndash; more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

The House on the Borderland

Charles Dickens

'The monstrous thought came into my mind as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.'

To Be Read at Dusk

Dan Freedman

Nick Romero

The swashbuckling exploits of Edwardian occultist and adventurer Lord Zimbabwe, written by and starring Nick Romero and Dan Freedman Laugh out loud at this 2000s sitcom featuring the outrageous time travelling Edwardian Lord Zimbabwe (Nick Romero), and his friend the German inventor Doctor Lilac (Dan Freedman). This pacy comedy has the travelling duo racing across space and time solving mysteries and thwarting evil enemies with the help (or lack thereof) of Zimbabwe’s butler, Theremin, who refuses to carry out any of his instructions, and Schrödinger, a semi-corporeal cat that exists in a superposition of quantum states of life and death.First stop on the adventure is Ancient Egypt, where Lord Zimbabwe must swash a buckle or two! The tackiest Pharaoh civilisation ever created experiences an untimely death and unwittingly unleashes an evil curse on humanity - will the intrepid adventurers be able to save the day as well as the damsel? There is barely time for a hot buttered crumpet and a cup of tea when a mysterious Countess begs Lord Zimbabwe to win back her soul from the Lord of the Underworld. The stakes are high – if the soul is not retrieved, the Countess is destined to become a Barry Manilow fan for eternity… Soon after, the beautiful Miss Clanton summons the occultist over the seas of time to the Wild West and the town of Tombstone, where her evil uncle, the Waffle Barron is set on dastardly acts. Despite his trusty butler Theremin, refusing to carry out any of his commands, Lord Zimbabwe presses on and faces his greatest challenge yet when an American heiress is subject to a cruel alien abduction and taken into space - will Zimbabwe and Dr Lilac successfully be able to reach the moon and save her? And more importantly, will they be back in time to feed Schrödinger?This delightful comedy, written by award-winning duo Nick Romero and Dan Freedman, famous for their fast jokes and clever puns, will have you laughing from here to there and back again.Cast and creditsWritten by Dan Freedman and Nick RomeroProduced by Helen WilliamsLord Zimbabwe - Nick RomeroDr Lilac - Dan FreedmanTheremin/Ringo - Peter DonaldsonProfessor Cockcroft/Contessa Del Monte/Miss Clanton - Sophie AldredPriest/Vicar - Colin GuthrieIke Clanton/Cletus - Owen OakeshottOther parts played by the cast.First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 11 Jul - 1 Aug 2000©2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Ectoplasm

A BBC Radio Sitcom

Richard Littler

Welcome to the weird and warped world of Scarfolk, a town forever trapped in the 1970s... Based on the cult blog, the massive online hit which has over a million page views in a year, this is an illustrated guide to the Lancashire town which brings nightmarish childhood memories relentlessly back to life. Fans of Charlie Brooker, The League of Gentlemen and Brass Eye will love this... 
 
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING 
'Delicious and hilarious' -- ***** Reader review 
'Witty and savage' -- ***** Reader review 
'Brutally funny and scarily accurate' -- ***** Reader review 
'Marvellously dark and dangerous' -- ***** Reader review 
 
*********************************************************************************************** 
"Scarfolk is a town in north-west England that did not progress beyond 1979. The entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. In Scarfolk children must not be seen OR heard, and everyone has to be in bed by 8 p.m. because they are perpetually running a slight fever..." 
 
 Part-comedy, part-horror, part-satire, Discovering Scarfolk is the surreal account of a family trapped in the town. Through public information posters, news reports, books, tourist brochures and other ephermera, we learn about the darker side of childhood, school and society in Scarfolk. 
 
 A massive cult hit online, Scarfolk re-creates with shiver-inducing accuracy and humour our most nightmarish childhood memories. 
 
 The perfect gift or self-purchase for any forty or fifty-something with a dark sense of humour!

Discovering Scarfolk

a wonderfully witty and subversively dark parody of life growing up in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s

Mark Z Danielewski

*Special hardback edition with foil cover* 
The first-ever UK hardback publication of the cult horror classic, featuring a special embossed ‘maze’ case design and full-colour text. Get ready to (re)discover the terrifying, thrilling, and mind-expanding immersive classic horror that redefines the boundaries of a novel . . . 
 
 
'Phenomenal . . . thrillingly alive, sublimely creepy, distressingly scary, breathtakingly intelligent.' Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho 
'A genuinely scary chiller, a satire on the business of criticism and a meditation on the way we read.' OBSERVER 
'I've never read anything like it' ***** Reader review 
 
 
A young couple - Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson and his partner Karen Green - move into a small house on Ash Tree Lane. 
 
It soon becomes clear that something is terribly wrong - their new home is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside . . . 
 
Neither Will nor Karen are prepared to face the consequences of this impossibility until the day their two small children wander off, and their voices eerily begin to tell another story - of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams and create nightmares. 
 
What happened next is loosely recorded on videotapes and in interviews, and impelled an eccentric old man to compile - on loose sheets of paper, stained napkins, crammed notebooks - a definitive account of what took place at Ash Tree Lane that seems to unveil a thrilling and terrifying history. 
 
Because these scraps prove to be far more than the deranged ramblings of a reclusive old man . . . 
 
Immensely imaginative. Impossible to put down. Impossible to forget. 
House of Leaves is thrilling, terrifying and unlike anything you have read before. 
 
 
Praise for House of Leaves: 
'Genuinely clever and learned, often funny, brilliantly constructed and surprisingly touching . . . a debut of scintillating intelligence and scope.' Mail on Sunday 
‘An astonishing book . . . buy it, read it, be scared. – SFX 
‘Intricate, erudite and deeply frightening.’ – Wall Street Journal 
‘A fascinatingly insane triumph.’ – Independent on Sunday 
‘Demonically brilliant’ - Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn 
'Strange, highly addictive and slowly creepy' ***** Reader review 
‘Genuinely chilling… I can't recommend this book highly enough.’ ***** Reader review 
'The creativity and originality is astonishing' ***** Reader review

House Of Leaves

Francine Toon

WINNER of the McIlvanney Prize 2020 
Shortlisted for Bloody Scotland's Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2020 
 
 
'It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure 
 
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. 
 
Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone. 
 
In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago. 
 
Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust. 
 
In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times. 
 
'Hugely atmospheric, exquisitely written and utterly gripping' Lucy Foley, author of The Hunting Party

Pine

The spine-chilling Sunday Times bestseller

C.N. Vair

'People did not expect such a thing, from a woman or a fawn; we were both meant to be prey.' 
 
In the Appalachian hills, Tess Wynne lives in precious quiet. She tends her wildlife sanctuary, honours old rituals and survives what comes for her each year. 
 
Then she finds a doe split open. And the fawn who survived. Red-mouthed. Full set of teeth. Hungry. 
 
Nature knows what must be done. The town watches to see if Tess will do it. 
 
She does not. 
 
Whispers spread. Old bargains strain. Something feral stirs within Tess—anger, appetite, the slow understanding that prey is only prey for so long. 
 
A dark folktale of teeth and inheritance, Fawn asks what a woman must become to keep what is hers—and what the land demands in return.

Fawn

Karl Ove Knausgaard

'Strikingly humane, unsettling, and wholly unique' Ferdia Lennon 
 
‘Ferociously readable. . . I still can't get enough' The Times 
 
If no one ever died, what would happen then? 
 
For several days, a bright new star in the sky above Norway has blazed over the restless lives of those below. Tove, an artist, is consumed by intense creativity as she spirals towards psychosis. Line falls in love with a musician named Valdemar and is lured to a secret black metal gig in a remote forest. Geir, a policeman, is investigating a ritual murder but chances upon something more horrifying even than the bodies in the trees – the last bodies he sees, because, as undertaker Syvert is the first to realise, people have stopped dying since the star appeared. 
 
What is haunting the world – and why? 
As profound as it is thrilling, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm is a breathtaking novel about ordinary lives on the cusp of irrevocable change. 
 
PRAISE FOR THE THIRD REALM 
 
‘A visionary epic' Guardian 
 
‘One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. . . This book made me afraid of the dark again.’ Brandon Taylor, Washington Post 
 
‘As accessible and creepy as anything by Stephen King and as addictive as your favourite TV drama series. There is no writer I would rather devour’ Spectator 
PRAISE FOR KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD: 
 
'Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my literary heroes' Torrey Peters 
 
'Addictive' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Knausgaard retains the ability to lock you, as if in a tractor beam, into his storytelling' New York Times 
 
‘Casts an existential spell. . . captivating' Financial Times

The Third Realm

Camilla Bruce

'This might be the best book I've read all year' JOANNE HARRIS 
 
'A glorious, pitch-black fairytale of a book' KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Things We Say in the Dark 
 
'A feast of storytelling...lingers long after the last morsel's been consumed' SAM LLOYD, author of The Memory Wood 
 
'Brutal and beguiling story of love and revenge' LUCIE McKNIGHT HARDY, author of Water Shall Refuse Them 
 
'Lascivious and bloody' JAMES LOVEGROVE in the Financial Times 
 
Everyone knew bestselling novelist Cassandra Tipp had twice got away with murder. 
 
Even her family were convinced of her guilt. So when she disappears, leaving only a long letter behind, they can but suspect that her conscience finally killed her. 
 
But the letter is not what anyone expected. It tells two chilling, darkly disturbing stories. One is a story of children lost to the woods, of husbands made from twigs and leaves and feathers and bones . . . 
 
The other is the story of a little girl trying to make sense of a damaged life lived in the shadows . . . 
 
But which story is true? 
 
Unsettling yet unputdownable, You Let Me In dares to cross the boundary between reality and somewhere else entirely . . . 
________________________ 
 
What readers are saying... 
 
'I loved this book, was blown away by it' 
'I would certainly read more from this author' 
'Unexpected, thrilling and darkly twisted' 
'I found myself thinking about it for several days afterwards' 
'The writing was just sensational' 
'An impressive debut' 
'I would love to see Guillermo del Toro make a movie based on this story'

You Let Me In

The acclaimed, unsettling novel of haunted love, revenge and the nature of truth

M. R. James

Horror maestro Christopher Lee reads this quartet of supernatural tales, adapted from the stories of M. R. James 
 
Over a century ago, M. R. James was the provost of King's College, Cambridge. He would gather together a select group of students in his rooms every Christmas Eve, and give a candlelit performance of one of his superbly unsettling ghost stories. Christopher Lee recreates the spine-chilling atmosphere of those evenings, as he dons James' mantle to read these four fearful tales. 
 
The Stalls of Barchester - Perusing the papers of Archdeacon Haynes, our narrator uncovers a hidden history of intrigue, murder, a sinister cat and some strange ecclesiastical carvings. 
 
The Ash Tree - When Sir Matthew Fell, squire of Castringham Hall, testifies against suspected witch Mrs Mothersole, she is found guilty and hanged. From that day forward, a series of tragic events afflict the Fell family, all seemingly linked to the old ash tree growing in the Hall grounds... 
 
Number 13 - Staying in Room 12 of the Golden Lion in the Danish town of Viborg, historian Mr Anderson is perturbed by the mystery of the room next door. Who, or what, is the inhabitant of number 13? 
 
A Warning to the Curious - The horrific account of an archaeologist named Paxton, who takes the fateful decision to excavate the last of the legendary East Anglian crowns - and unleashes a terrifying supernatural force... 
 
 
Cast and credits 
Written by M. R. James 
Adapted by Ronald Frame 
Read by Christopher Lee 
Directed by Eleanor Yule 
Produced by Richard Downes 
Title music: Geoffrey Burgon 
Editors: James Hamilton and Phyllis Ironside 
Production manager: Monica O'Connor 
 
First broadcast on BBC Two on the following dates: 
 
The Stalls of Barchester 23 December 2000 
The Ash Tree 26 December 2000 
Number 13 29 December 2000 
A Warning to the Curious 31 December 2000 
 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Ghost Stories with Christopher Lee

Four chilling tales from the BBC TV series

Ray Russell

Haunted Castles is the definitive, complete collection of Ray Russell's masterful Gothic horror stories, including the famously terrifying novella trio of "Sardonicus," "Sanguinarius," and "Sagittarius." The characters that sprawl through Haunted Castles are frightful to the core: the heartless monster holding two lovers in limbo; the beautiful dame journeying down a damned road toward depravity (with the help of an evil gypsy); the man who must wear his fatal crimes on his face in the form of an awful smile. Engrossing, grotesque, and completely entrancing, Russell's Gothic tales are the best kind of dreadful.

Haunted Castles

'Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was a groan of mortal terror ... the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul.' 
 
Stories about murder, mystery and madness, portraying the author's feverish imagination at its creative height. 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Poe's works available in Penguin Classics are The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Portable Edgar Allan Poe and The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.

The Tell-Tale Heart

For millennia, societies have told tales of their fears incarnate – otherworldly couriers of plague, death, temptation and moral decline. Drawing from three thousand years of religious traditions and world literature, The Penguin Book of Demons follows these supernatural creatures – and the humans who have hunted and been haunted by them – through accounts across cultures and continents, including: the daimones of ancient Greece and Rome; the giant, biblical half humans known as Nephilim who stalked the earth before the Great Flood; corrupted angels, condemned to eternity in Hell; the djinn of Islamic Arabia; the female, child-eating gelloudes of Byzantium; the seductive incubi and succubi of northern Europe; the animal spirits of early modern China; and the cannibalistic wendigo of Native American folklore. From demonic possession to black magic, these accounts give life to a spellbinding, skin-crawling history of the paranormal.

The Penguin Book of Demons

Gaie Sebold

All Tastes! All Species! All Currencies! 
 
You can find anything in Scalentine, the city of portals, but you won't find a better brothel than the Red Lantern. And its proprietor, Babylon Steel (ex-mercenary, ex-priestess, ex... lots of things), means to keep it that way. But a prurient cult are protesting in the streets, sex workers are disappearing, and Babylon has bills to pay. When the powerful Diplomatic Section hires her - off the books - to find a missing heiress, she has to take the job. And then her past starts to catch up with her...

Bad Gods

Anne Rice

The Mayfair Witches are in danger. 
 
There is a new, unimaginable threat to the family – the Taltos, a species gifted with preternatural knowledge who created Lasher, the being who gave the witches their power and 
almost destroyed them. 
 
Unknown to the Mayfairs, another Taltos still lives. And Rowan is still tied to the grief of the past, unable to move on. 
 
But as the witching hour comes to an end, Rowan must find the courage once again to face her past and, together with Michael, confront the legacy of the Mayfair Witches head on. 
 
The third hypnotic book in her epic story of the Mayfair witches, following The Witching Hour and Lasher

Taltos

Lives of the Mayfair Witches

Caitlin Starling

Beatrice is a broodmother: a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron's skyscraper, raising two fractious fledglings. 
 
But when she decides to take on a third fledgling, Beatrice finds herself strained by her own ravenous hunger - her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous. 
 
Desperate to master herself once more, Beatrice courts a mortal who might be able to unravel the secrets of her unnatural anatomy. But their connection threatens the secrecy of her vampiric coven and all the BEatrice holds dear to he runbeating heart.

Milkteeth

Saratoga Schaefer

'Absolutely unputdownable' The Mirror 
'A riveting, raw and savage story' Ghouls Magazine 
'An intense, gory and brutally honest tale' CrimeReads 
'Timely, terrifying, and touched with humour, this book will chew you up and spit you out' C.J. Dotson 
_______ 
 
Every #tradwife needs a baby. Camille will get one - no matter the cost. 
 
Camille lives to embody the perfect traditional wife—cooking, cleaning, homesteading, and documenting it all for her followers. But without a baby, her image—and her following—feels incomplete. As Camille's husband begins to withdraw and his attention in her waning, Camille’s desperation deepens. 
 
When Camille discovers a crumbling well hidden in the wheat field behind her new house, she is drawn to it, despite its proximity to an intimidating local forest. Unsure of what else to do, she makes a wish. 
 
Soon, she’s haunted by vivid dreams she believes are divine. Then something visits her—something not quite angelic. Her belly swells unnaturally fast. Her cravings turn raw. And yet, her announcement goes viral. 
 
But as Camille’s influence grows, so does the horror inside her. The life she always wanted is finally within reach… if it doesn’t consume her first. 
_______ 
 
Readers love Trad Wife: 
 
'An incredibly timely horror story!' 
'Unsettling and sharply clever' 
'A dark and fascinating look into society and standards for women'

Trad Wife

Joshua Gaylord

Nobody knew why, but when the boys and girls reached a certain age the parents locked themselves up in their houses, and the teenagers ran wild... 
 
Lumen Fowler knows she is different. While the rest of her peers are falling beneath the sway of her community’s darkest rite of passage, she resists. 
 
For Lumen has a secret. Her mother never ‘breached’ and she knows she won’t either. But as she investigates her town’s strange traditions and unearths stories from her family’s past, she soon realises she may not know herself – or her wild side – at all...

When We Were Animals

H. P. Lovecraft

In the deep glens of Massachusetts, in the wild hills of Vermont, and in Australia's sandy wastes, unfathomable things lurk. Things that shine with an unnatural light, that speak and buzz strangely in the night, that prowl in the mind. Things not of our Earth. 
 
Widely considered to be the most significant writer of supernatural tales in the twentieth century, H.P. Lovecraft made a profound contribution to science fiction. From their singularly creepy atmospheres to their portrayal of extraordinary creatures and happenings, the three stories included in this collection - 'The Colour Out of Space', 'The Whisperer in the Darkness' and 'The Shadow Out of Time' - are peerless examples of the genre.

The Colour Out of Space

H G Wells

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Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. 
 
From the planet of war they came to conquer the Earth ... 
 
The night after a shooting star is seen streaking across the sky, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common. Fascinated and exhilarated, the local people approach the mysterious object armed with nothing more than a white flag. But when gruesome alien creatures emerge armed with all-destroying heat-rays, their rashness turns rapidly to fear. As the rays blaze towards them, it soon becomes clear they have no choice but to flee - or die. 
 
The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear ...

The War of the Worlds

Penguin Classics

Willy Russell

The hilarious, bittersweet novel from the playwright behind EDUCATING RITA, SHIRLEY VALENTINE and award-winning musical BLOOD BROTHERS. 
 
Dear Morrissey, 
I'm feeling dead depressed and down. Like a streetlamp without a bulb or a goose at the onset of Christmas time. 
Anyroad, I thought I'd pen a few lines to someone who'd understand... 
 
It's 1991. Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. Only lately, he's been feeling dead down. His dad left home after falling in love with a five-string banjo. His fun-hating grandma believes she should have married Jean-Paul Sartre: 'I could never read his books, but y' could tell from his picture, there was nothing frivolous about John-Paul Sartre.' Felonious Uncle Jason and Appalling Aunty Paula are lusting after the satellite dish. 
 
And so he turns to the one person who'll understand what he's going through: Morrissey. Told through a series of heartfelt letters to the frontman of The Smiths, this is a laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly poignant tale from a character you can't help but love. 
 
'Big-hearted, wonderfully funny and engrossing' THE MIRROR 
 
'A warm, funny, poignant story. I loved The Wrong Boy - and so will you' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 
 
'A comic masterpiece' BEL MOONEY, MAIL ON SUNDAY

The Wrong Boy

Mary Shelley

Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Frankenstein

Max Brooks

FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WORLD WAR Z 
 
'TRUE TERROR' Guardian 'NAIL CHOMPING SUSPENSE' Total Film 
______________________________________ 
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. 
 
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing - and too earth-shattering in its implications - to be forgotten. 
 
In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate's extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the beasts behind it, once thought legendary but now known to be terrifyingly real. 
 
Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death. 
 
Yet it is also far more than that. 
 
Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us - and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity. 
 
Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it - and like none you've ever read before. 
______________________________________ 
'Unputdownable' John Marrs, bestselling author of The One 
 
'A bloody good read' Andrew Hunter-Murray, bestselling author of The Last Day 
 
'A masterful blend of laugh-out-loud social satire and stuff-your-fist-in-your-mouth horror. One elevates the other, making the book, and its message, all the more relevant.' David Sedaris 
 
'For any fan of Bigfoot or cryptozoology, it's a referential treat.' Guardian 
 
'Dark, gripping and visceral, Devolution is a unique journey into terror.' Waterstones 
 
'Another triumph from Max Brooks! . . . I can't wait until he turns every monster from childhood into an intelligent, entertaining page-turner' Stephen Chbosky, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Imaginary Friend and The Perks of Being a Wallflower 
 
'Drawing you in with likeable characters in a real-world situation, then smashing your trust to pieces like a giant ape crushing a skull with his bare hands. Devolution will make you think twice about booking that remote weekend getaway in the woods.' Sci-Fi Now, 5* review 
 
'Max Brooks has written the next great epistolary novel. Devolution is phenomenal' Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box 
 
'One of the greatest horror novels I've ever read. The characters soar, the ideas sing, and it's all going to scare the living daylights out of you' Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter 
 
'Grisly page-turner . . . Brooks' eye for rich characterisation, pointed social commentary and nail-chomping suspense is as sharp as ever' Total Film 
 
'Delightful . . . A tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
 
'Timely, terrifying, and utterly terrific.' SFX Magazine *****

Devolution

From the bestselling author of World War Z

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