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:
This collection is certain to thrill, entertain, and chill any fan of classic Weird fiction.
"A landmark anthology. . . " - Gingernuts of Horror
"This book is an absolute must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the pre-WW2 era of the British Weird, and the stories have been chosen with obvious care." - Horrified
Review quotes for Women's Weird:
"Handheld Books...publish[es] tempting, macabre treats." -The Washington Post
"This book is an absolute must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the pre-WW2 era of the British Weird, and the stories have been chosen with obvious care. Machin has avoided the temptation towards an over-emphasis on the folk-horror weird of the cultish countryside by including more modern-feeling and urban pieces, and there's a refreshing variety of voices." - Horrified
"The collection is a deliberate effort to attenuate, in the horror tradition, the dominance of men like M R James, Arthur Machen, H P Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce, and restore to prominence innovative writers such as May Sinclair, Mary Butts and Margery Lawrence. They show the continuing influence of Gothic and supernatural tropes and the effect of their collision with a modernizing world and women's changing roles within it." -Times Literary Supplement
"The range of authors and stories suggests that the Weird is perhaps more an approach than a genre, demonstrating the Weird's ability to discomfort and disturb ... Women's Weird is an essential read for any fan or scholar of Weird fiction, and we are indebted to both Handheld Press and Melissa Edmundson for performing this service." -The Fantasy Hive
"This book is the perfect companion to an evening of weird ... The stories explore a vast array of ideas and occurrences that feed into our human psyche, the scares and the fear that we hear about in folklore and legend come to the surface in these stories. In some cases, these tales go beyond our primal fears and go into the world of the surreal, opening up new ideas and new fears for us to process.'" - Black Sunday
"There are so many stories I loved in this collection, but the ones that stood out to me as unlike any of the weird fiction I've read before were those that located their horror within the mundane ... "Couching at the Door" was perhaps my favorite story in the collection, and its exploration of the relationship between art and morality as well as the story of a hedonistic older man leading a beautiful young protégé into depravity" -The Gothic Library
"A landmark anthology ... Edmundson has curated a solid journey through weird landscapes ... The notes/annotations at the back of the book by publisher Kate Macdonald should become an industry standard ... This is an unmissable, urgent and era-defining work." - Gingernuts of Horror
"Handheld Press have really nailed the market in these brilliant anthologies particularly in the area of Weird." - Backlisted
"This anthology is a beautiful selection of chilling tales which steps out of the cosy drawing rooms of more mainstream offerings and onto the uncanny moorlands that lie beyond." - Sublime Horror