THE MOONSTONE

Wilkie Collins was in such pain from rheumatic gout when dictating The Moonstone, a succession of secretaries gave up, unable to endure his cries and groans. The last parts of the novel were written under[…]

THE BLACK CAT

  by American writer Edgar Allen Poe. A study of the psychology of guilt, using Poe’s favourite technique of the ‘unreliable narrator’ (telling the tale from prison).

THE CAT-WITCH

  An African American tale. In Southern states, to be “hagridden” or “a witch riding your back” was to have sleep paralysis or nightmares. (Excuse the accent!)

A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA

Originally titled The Innocent Voyage by Richard Hughes, published in 1929 and thereafter called A High Wind In Jamaica, this is probably the first dark modernist novel of childhood. Can pirates be trusted? Can children?[…]

STRAW, COAL and BEAN

  Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne auf der Reise, from the original Folk & Fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm

SOMERSSUAQ

from traditional Inuit and Eskimo stories collected by Angela Carter

BLUBBER BOY

  from traditional Inuit and Eskimo stories collected by Angela Carter