Valancourt Books

'John Blackburn is today's master of horror.' - Times Literary Supplement 'Achieves a delicious sense of nausea.' - The Guardian '[G]iant monsters . . . products of a mutation . . . bubonic...

'The book is a bravura performance, exhibiting the virtuosity that has lit up all Sinclair's work.' - C.P. Snow, Financial Times 'This is a rich and satisfying hybrid work - part fiction and part...

After a falling-out with his father, Reginald de Brune travels to St. Michael's Monastery for a short stay. There, one night at midnight, he observes a beautiful young woman, Christabelle, swearing a...

An adulterous young woman - Her husband's affair with an evil French temptress - A violent murder - A sensational trial - Mesmerism and trances - A lunatic asylum - Jealousy - Revenge These are just...

"[A] book of strange adventures, of ghostly, nightmare visions; you will want to read it at a sitting, but do not begin it at bedtime unless your nerves are in a thoroughly healthy condition" - The...

'[A] tale of psychic terror . . . arresting . . . a poetical exploration of dark mind-scapes.' - Times Literary Supplement '[A] very well done novel. . . . Very highly recommended.' - The Ladder 'A...

'A writer of subtle, finely crafted supernatural tales.' - T.E.D. Klein '[H]is stories . . . build up a unique sense of unease.' - Brian Stableford '[T]ense, cryptic . . . brooding supernaturalism ...

'This is an historical novel in the grand manner . . . A lot of research must have gone into the work, and the result is wholly satisfactory.' - The Guardian 'The versatile John Blackburn has...

'Brilliantly clever . . . mercilessly funny.' - Kenneth Allsop, Daily Mail 'One of the most brilliantly written books since the war.' - Ian Fleming, Sunday Times '[A] clever and pitiless novel.' -...

Fifteen year old Graham Iddesleigh dreams of a past life, where he frolicked in a garden with a young Greek god. However, his dreams threaten to come to an abrupt end when his father decides to send...

It was only a scrawled note with a drawing of a stick figure and a cryptic reference to "the Gaunt Woman," but when Sir Martin Rolfe, a powerful British official, reads it, he nearly succumbs to a...

'He writes a clear, light prose, and he makes his interests, however bizarre, seem important.' - Punch 'One of the more earnest and interesting writers of his generation.' - The Guardian 'He has...

"In my time I have seen men who have come to their death by violence, but I have never seen such an extraordinary sight as he presented. It was as if some savage thing, fastening upon him, had torn...

Alan and Kate Marlowe are a typical, loving, middle-class couple, with four young children. But they wish they had just one more, a beautiful baby daughter. So when a strange young woman abandons her...

The poetry of the Graveyard School - gloomy meditations on mortality, often composed in churchyards - was immensely popular in 18th-century England and was an important forerunner of the Romantic...

"An extravaganza . . . fertile invention and forceful style . . . Mr. Kersh's many admirers will undoubtedly devour this highly flavoured hotch-potch with avidity." - Julian Maclaren-Ross, Sunday...

"The best writer in the genre since H. P. Lovecraft." - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner "Outstanding in the genre." - August Derleth "In the same class as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood." - Michael...

"A striking contribution to the literature of darkness." - Humbert Wolfe "A disturbing study of spiritual domination . . . subtle and terrifying." - Daily Telegraph "Mr. Onions is an inspired...

"So effective is the author's treatment . . . that he manages to bring home in a remarkable manner the suffering of the homosexual. . . . It took real courage to write this story, plus a profound...

"I finished The Heroine last night and was very much amused by it. It diverted me exceedingly. I have torn through the third volume; I do not think it falls off. It is a delightful burlesque..." -...

'Our only current writer who can induce such terror as the Grimm Brothers did.' - Times Literary Supplement 'Lots of unguessable surprises.' - The Observer 'He is certainly the best British...

"A memorable first book of fiction, one which belongs on any shelf of the best contemporary weird tales." - August Derleth, Chicago Tribune "[E]xtraordinary . . . gives Mr. Beaumont undeniable...

"I believe that the three writers of the nineteenth century who had the greatest natural talents were D'Annunzio, Kipling and Tolstoy." - James Joyce "In Gabriele D'Annunzio's new novel, 'The...

The Supreme Court has ordered an end to racially segregated schools, and folks in the predominantly white Southern town of Caxton are prepared grudgingly to comply with the ruling. At least until...

"[An] exercise in the macabre, the bizarre, the psychologically unaccountable ... worked out with conspicuous craft and dexterity ... ingenious, accomplished." - Times Literary Supplement "[A]...

"[U]nlike any other tale I can recall. It is not only a good story; it has a charm beyond that. The spirit of the open air is in it, the freshness and poetry of Nature." - Forrest Reid "The story...

'Gillian Freeman is among the finest contemporary novelists.' - Brigid Brophy, New Statesman 'Realistic and unsentimental ... Their relationship is handled with delicacy and has an authentic ring.'...

Somewhere in the darkness it is watching and waiting -- for you! THE LEGACY Chester Rawlings is the first victim - he blows his brains out to escape a living death. THE LEGACY Then old Sam is...

Jachin-Boaz is a maker and seller of maps. In his shop are maps that will lead you to whatever it is you most desire: love, inspiration, wealth. But his greatest achievement is a master-map showing...

It is the twelfth century, the era of Richard the Lion-heart and the Third Crusade. Along the Danube, the tranquil world shared by the young squire Otto and his cousin Bertha is changed forever when...