Scotland the Strange: Weird Tales from Storied Lands

There was no sleep for him that night; he fancied he had seen the stone – which, as you know, was a couple of fields away – as large as life, as if it were on watch outside his window. 

The standing stones, stone circles, dolmens and burial sites of the British Isles still resonate with mystery of their primeval origins, enthralling our collective consciousness to this day. Rising up in the field of weird fiction, ancient stones and the rituals and dark forces they once witnessed have inspired a wicked branch of the genre by writers devoted to their eerie potential. 

Gathered in tribute to these relics of a lost age – and their pagan legacy of blood – are fifteen stories of haunted henges, Druidic vengeance and solid rock alive with bloodlust, by authors including Algernon Blackwood, Lisa Tuttle, Arthur Machen and Nigel Kneale. 

Publication date: 07/12/2023

Author: Edited by Katy Soar

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 240

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130mmThere was no sleep for him that night; he fancied he had seen the stone – which, as you know, was a couple of fields away – as large as life, as if it were on watch outside his window.

The standing stones, stone circles, dolmens and burial sites of the British Isles still resonate with mystery of their primeval origins, enthralling our collective consciousness to this day. Rising up in the field of weird fiction, ancient stones and the rituals and dark forces they once witnessed have inspired a wicked branch of the genre by writers devoted to their eerie potential.

Gathered in tribute to these relics of a lost age – and their pagan legacy of blood – are fifteen stories of haunted henges, Druidic vengeance and solid rock alive with bloodlust, by authors including Algernon Blackwood, Lisa Tuttle, Arthur Machen and Nigel Kneale.

Publication date: 07/12/2023

Author: Edited by Katy Soar

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 240

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130mm'Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood. Let us go to sleep now.'

A prophecy threatens a volcanic upheaval for a star-crossed pair. A forbidden rite binds a dark arts dabbler to a phantom bride. A barstool chancer invites a devilish retribution on the dance floor.

Beckoning from this tome are twelve tales of dark romance and undying passions hailing from 1832 to 2022, marrying bewitching classics by Mary Shelley, Wilkie Collins and Angela Carter with twisting modern pieces by Nalo Hopkinson, Tracy Fahey and V. Castro - alongside the classic Gothic novella of sapphic vampire romance, Carmilla. Indulging in the strangest eddies of literary love, this new anthology bids you enter a doom-laden yet irresistibly seductive corner of the Weird.

Publication date: 25/01/2024

Author: Edited by Jo Parsons

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 272

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130mm

QtyTimothy followed, in his dream, and saw the ungainly, yet agile creature clamber in through the cat-flap… He could hear the flip-flop as it went up the stairs, and he woke himself, screaming, in a tangle of sheet and blanket.

On Sunday night the dream was even worse.

Through eighteen dark tales bubbling with the ghostly and the occult, Mike Ashley traces the phenomenon of families in which a talent for channelling the Weird passes down the generations, showcasing six lineages whose names echo through the halls of speculative fiction: Dickens, Hawthorne, Le Fanu, Pangborn, Marryat and Aiken.

With a story each from selected members of these families along with introductions on the history of their bloodlines, this collection explores unexpected connections and the strange influences that define us while offering a rare selection of chilling Weird fiction.

Publication date: 25/03/2024

Author: Edited by Mike Ashley

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 336

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130 mmAn anthology pulling together the stories of the forgotten women writers who pioneered and developed the ‘weird tale’ in the early 20th Century. The majority of the volume is never before republished material, exclusive to the BL collections. This title is a spiritual successor to Glimpses of the Unknown, an early Tales of the Weird title which has seen a positive response from fans, scholars and booksellers.

It is too often accepted that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the male writers who developed and pushed the boundaries of the weird tale, with women writers following in their wake – but this is far from the truth.

This new anthology presents the thrilling work of just a handful of writers crucial to the evolution of the genre, and revives lost authors of the early pulp magazines with material from the abyssal depths of the British Library vaults returning to the light for the first time since original publication.

Delve in to see the darker side of The Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett and the sensitively-drawn nightmares of Marie Corelli and May Sinclair. Hear the captivating voices of Weird Tales magazine contributors Sophie Wenzel Ellis and Greye La Spina, and bow down to the sensational and surreal imaginings of Alicia Ramsey and Leonora Carrington.

Publication date: 24/09/20
Author: Edited by Mike Ashley

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 352

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130 mmAnother Tales of the Weird anthology from John Miller, who previously edited Tales of the Tattooed and will publish The Philosophy of Tattoos with the British Library in Autumn 2020. The tales in this title span all regions of the U.K. – from the obviously eerie rural areas of Devon and Yorkshire to more unexpected cosmopolitan locations like Stoke Newington, London. It resonates with a growing readership of nature and folk stories, and contains fascinating notes on the history of these stories and their writers.

Woods play an important and recurring role in horror, fantasy, the gothic and the weird. They are places in which strange things happen, where you often can’t see where you are or what is around you. Supernatural creatures thrive in the thickets. Trees reach into underworlds of earth, myth and magic. Forests are full of ghosts.

In this new collection, immerse yourself in the whispering voices between the branches in Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor, witness an inexplicable death in Yorkshire’s Strid Wood and prepare yourself for an encounter with malignant pagan powers in the dark of the New Forest. This edition also includes notes on the real locations and folklore which inspired these deliciously sinister stories.

Published: August 2020

Author: Edited by John Miller

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 288

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130 mmStrangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) ‘killer plant’ in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s giant wistaria and H. G. Wells’ hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood and the frightful drone of the moaning lily, and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit’s wandering creepers…

Every strain of vegetable threat (and one deadly fungus) can be found within this new collection, representing the very best tales from the undergrowth of Gothic fiction.

Part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series.

Author: Edited by Daisy Butcher

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 288 pages

Binding: Paperback

Dimensions: 190 x 130 mmOnce I thought I glimpsed her high up in a bush, like dirty rags in a gale. Not that so far there has been any gale, or even any wind. The total silent stillness is one of the worst things.

Yes, it is a battle with strong and unknown forces that I have on my hands.



From the shorelines, hills and towns of ancient lands, tales of twisted creatures, sins against nature and pagan revenants have been passed down from generation to generation. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, folklore from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man inspired a new strain of strange short stories, penned by writers of the weird and fantastic including masters of the form such as Arthur Machen, Edith Wharton and Robert Aickman.

In this volume, Johnny Mains dives into the archives to unearth a hoard of twenty-one enthralling tales imbued with elements of Celtic folklore, ranging from the 1820s to the 1980s and including three weird lost gems translated from Gaelic. Together they conjure uncanny visions of eternal forces, beings and traditions, resonating with the beguiling essence of this unique branch of strange fiction.



Publication date: 10/11/22

Author: Edited by Johnny Mains

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 336

Binding: Hardback

Dimensions: 210 x 149 mm

Qty
Something was coming down the tide. It came down as quiet as a sleeping bairn, straight for him as he sat with his horse breasting the waters, and as it came the moon crept out of a cloud and he saw a glint of yellow hair.

From misty moors, crags and clifftops comes a hoard of eighteen strange tales gathered by Johnny Mains, award-winning anthologist and editor of the British Library anthology Celtic Weird. Sourced from Scotland’s storied literary heritage and bustling with witches, ghosts, devils and merfolk, this selection celebrates the works of treasured Scottish writers such as John Buchan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dorothy K. Haynes and Neil M. Gunn alongside rare pieces by lesser-known authors – including two tales translated from Scots Gaelic.

Brooding in the borderlands where strange folklore, bizarre mythology and twentieth-century hauntings meet, this volume promises chills and shivers as keen and fresh as the wind-whipped wilds of Scotland.

Publication date: 16/11/2023

Author: Edited by Johnny Mains

Brand: British Library Publishing

Number of pages: 320

Binding: Hardback

Dimensions: 210 x 149mm