Supernatural Tales

Well, that was quite a ride. Stones! And the Old Ways are by no means past... This six part BBC series, made partly in conjunction with BBC America, is certainly one of the most ambitious and successful examples of folk horror. It was created by Ashley Pharaoh, whose previous achievements include Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars. Ingredients are as follows: Attractive cast, with two eye-candy leads and a ton of old-school Brit supporting talent, including excellent child actors. Visually beautiful - this is Hardy's Wessex turned even more dangerous and cruel than the man himself imagined it, an English landscape replete with beauty, pregnant with death. At its best TLATD looks like a wonderful arty Euro-film without ever becoming one. All credit to the hard-working team who must have slaved round the clock for some of these brief scenes. Interesting plotting keeps your attention, with nothing simply shoved in there for effect. Characters behave as they would, and are ...

Those lovely fellow mortals at Tartarus Press have republished the first issue of Wormwood, an excellent journal devoted to all things weird and wondrous. Here is their press release, because I'm a bit tired and would rather cut and paste. Dear All, We are pleased to announce that we have reprinted Wormwood 1 . This inaugural issue of our journal devoted to fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature contains the following: 'Gustav Meyrink: The Monster-Magician in Kafka’s Shadow' by Adam Daly'The Heroic Hereafter: Explaining Eddison' by Jonathan Preece'Ernest Bramah: A Challenge to the Biographer' by William Charlton'A Very Real Presence: Dame Muriel Spark, Briefly Interviewed''The Ninefold Kingdom and Others: Four Fictional Visions of the Political Future' by John Howard'Everything Ends in a Greater Blackness: Some Remarks on the Fiction of Thomas Ligotti' by Mark Samuels'The Decadent World-View' by Brian Stableford...

The title is the only dull thing about it. This new BBC series has the following synopsis. 'A brilliant young couple inherit the farm and are determined to start a new life together. But their presence in this isolated corner of England starts to unleash strange, unsettling and dangerous supernatural phenomena that will start to threaten their marriage.' This doesn't state a few very important points. Firstly, we're in Victorian England, rural Somerset to be precise, in the age when steam power is still relatively new but photography is well-established and both psychology and Spiritualism are capturing the public's imagination. Light is provided by the sun in the daytime and candles or lamps at night. This is significant because director Alice Troughton makes excellent use of light and shade, offering a number of deeply Gothic images but also scenes of rural life - especially ploughing and harvesting - that recall adaptations of Hardy novels. (There's even...

I like some of these words very much. 'Sunstay' is excellent. Isn't English generally great at stuff like words? Trying to think positive thoughts about England.

My novella Sentinels, a homage* to M.R. James, is available here if you like that sort of thing. I don't normally refer to 'real world' stuff here, but the launch of my first book doesn't feel like a big deal. Not compared to the terrible things happening to good people in the name of bigotry and ignorance. Still, anyone feeling the need for a bit of light escapism might like it, I suppose. Update - here I am reading an extract from the book, possibly with the opposite of the desired effect, who knows? *'homage' in this context means "If he was still alive I'd need a very good lawyer."

Here's a fascinating piece on a Victorian artist who may have been the first abstract painter. Georgiana Houghton is almost unknown today, but in her time she was a sensation because she claimed to be producing new work by famous dead painters. Not surprisingly, some suggest that this was a mental trick she played on herself to 'justify' a woman pushing the boundaries of art. See what you think.

The special thirtieth issue of ST is the gift that keeps on giving. I'm very proud that it has spawned such a fine collection of award nominees and 'Best Of' inclusions. The latest accolade is for Mark Valentine's tribute to the late Joel Lane. 'Vain Shadows Flee' has been included by Nicholas Royle in his anthology Best Short Stories 2016 , from Salt. Congratulations to Mark for an accolade that, I think, is a little belated, as he's been writing finely-crafted short fiction for quite a while now. And of course if you want to read the story you don't have to buy the anthology, because ST 30 is still available, hint, hint...