Following the success of Handheld Press's 2019 best-selling anthology Women's Weird, British Weird is a new anthology of classic Weird short fiction by British writers, first published between the 1890s and the 1930s. To be published alongside the second Women's Weird anthology, Melisa Edmundson'sWomen's Weird 2, this collection - curated by James Machin, author of Palgrave Gothic's Weird Fiction in Britain, 1880-1939 - assembles stories to thrill, entertain, and chill. The nine stories are: 1.'Man-Size in Marble' by Edith Nesbit (1893): immense church effigies walk at night 2.'No-Man's Land' by John Buchan (1900): man find prehistoric tribe in Scottish Highlands 3.'The Willows' by Algernon Blackwood (1907): canoeing holiday on a haunted river 4.'Caterpillars' by E. F. Benson (1912): really bad country house hallucinations 5.'The Bad Lands' by John Metcalfe (1920): more hallucinations, but outdoors 6.'Randalls Round' by Eleanor Scott (1927): a folk tune with deadly effect 7.'Lost Keep' by L. A. Lewis (1934): a terrifying experiment with human scale 8.'N' by Arthur Machen (1934): why looking for a lost London street can be dangerous 9.'Mappa Mundi' by Mary Butts (1937): 20thC American student gets lost in medieval Paris British Weird also republishes an important 1933 essay by Mary Butts on the history of and recent work in supernatural writing: 10. 'Ghosties and Ghoulies' Uses of the Supernatural in English Fiction Machin's introduction describes the background for these excellent stories in the Weird tradition, and identifies their use of peculiarly British preoccupations in supernatural short fiction.
For fans of the best-selling Women's Weird anthology comes British Weird, a new installment of stories by British writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that embrace the supernatural, horror, and the Gothic. Curated by James Machin, the author of Palgrave Gothic's Weird Fiction in Britain, 1880 - 1939, who details the background of these stories in the Weird tradition, identifying their use of peculiarly British preoccupations in supernatural short fiction. Immense church effigies walk at night, man find a prehistoric tribe in the Scottish Highlands, canoeing on a haunted river--these are some examples of Weird stories that are uniquely British in style and content. Authors include Edith Nesbit ("Man-Size in a Marble"), John Buchan ("No-Man's Land"), Algernon Blackwood ("The Willows"), E.F. Benson ("Caterpillars"), John Metcalfe