BleakChesneyWold

                                              Serious Treatment of Unreality  ' The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson, edited by Xavier Aldana Reyes, is  part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series, published in 2019. Contains ten short stories.  William Hope Hodgson was born in Whetherfield, Essex in 1877: His father was the Reverend Samuel Hodgson, who was placed by the Church in different stipends, including at Middlesburgh, Nottinghamshire, Battersea, then Ireland, and finally became curate of All Saints Church in Blackburn in 1890. William was educated at school in Margate, and settled with his family in Blackburn for a year before serving in the Merchant Navy from 1891-1900. The sea became an important setting for much of his subsequent fiction, which is reflected in the above collection. TIMELINE The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph obituary of 2...

          The Parlour Game is book one in The Corvidae Hauntings                                                                                                  Quite a gripping novel. Probably belongs more to the category of horror than more standard historical fiction. A young lady from a good home in the countryside, with a love of plants and nature, sensitive to voices and visions, embarks on a quest to find a friend of her recently deceased mother,who has vanished after conducting a seance in London. A harrowing experience at times which builds up to quite a staggering ending. Bleak,brutal and unromantic. Dealing with addiction, suicide, and loss.  Probably not for readers who want a sentimental read. But ...