Steve Roud was Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, plus other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. His publications include London Lore (2008) and The Lore of the Playground (2010). He also compiles the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally acclaimed computer databases of traditional folk and popular song. He lives in Sussex.

Steve Roud

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Hilda Lewis

Joan Flower is long dead when she first appears to Samuel Fleming, a priest plagued by doubts about her and her daughters’ execution for witchcraft. Did he do all he could to rescue them from damnation? From beyond the grave, Joan reveals to him the spine-chilling tale of her seduction by Satan, her temptation of her own daughters to the Devil’s coven, her murderous sacrifices, and her final rejection by both Heaven and Hell – yet Samuel still strives for a way to redeem her sins. 
Over their terrifying conversations, Samuel learns the way of the witches’ sabbath and comes to the dark realisation that Joan’s soul may not be the only one in need of saving... 
 
Based on real seventeenth-century witch trials in Lincolnshire, The Witch and the Priest is a masterpiece of historical atmosphere and psychological horror. 
 
‘Strange terror fills this tale of seventeenth-century witchcraft … horrific and written with much skill.’ Daily Telegraph

The Witch and the Priest

J B Priestley

A group of travellers find themselves marooned in the Welsh countryside by torrential rains and buffeting winds. Desperate to find shelter from the storm, they flee to a crumbling mansion, where they are reluctantly taken in by the cloistered, erratic Femm family. Strange on first meeting, the secretive family’s true peculiarities only become clear as the night unfolds… 
 
A gothic treat shot through with the dejection and anxiety of a world recovering from the horrors of the First World War, J. B. Priestley’s Benighted is a razor-sharp blend of dark social satire and even darker dread. 
 
‘There are none too many stories comparable with this one’ - The New York Times

Benighted

Rosalind Ashe

Like moths to a flame, people are drawn to Dower House. To see the estate in dappled sunlight, to feel the breeze blown in from the river, is to forever be in love. Among those caught in its spell are James and Nemo Boyce, who quickly buy it, and Professor Harry Harris, who becomes captivated by both the house and its new mistress. But an uninvited guest soon corrupts their paradise, and quickly reveals the dark heart of the home... 
 
A tour-de-force of chest-tightening tension, Moths, one of the great gothic horrors of twentieth century, is an extraordinary tale of possession and sinister seduction. 
 
‘A magical novel, passionate, exciting, and beautifully written’ Iris Murdoch

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