Ghost Realm

Jacket art by Jason Zerrillo.

By instinct rather than knowledge, he finally found the gap that led down to the road, and beyond that, to sanity, and hopefully — and, oh, how he begged for this — the world of reality rather than myth.

BRITAIN is a land steeped in history and mystery drawn from an almost infinite variety of sources. That in itself is hardly surprising, given the many races that have landed on its shores almost since time immemorial: the Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, and Romans all left their mark on the landscape and on the people.

Legends abound: tour any town, and you will encounter stories of haunted houses; look around the countryside, and you will see barrows, megaliths, and figures cut into chalk hillsides; walk the coast, and you will hear rumours of mermaids, sea serpents, and ghostly galleons.

Is there a sinister, supernatural underbelly to all of this? Paul Finch thinks so, and in the nine terrifying stories of Ghost Realm, his second collection for Ash-Tree Press, he explores the forms this might take.

Your tour bus awaits: journey from Cornwall to Essex, from the Midlands to East Anglia, from London to Scotland, visit the North of England and Wales. One thing is certain: with Ghost Realm as your guide, any preconceptions you may have of Britain will be changed — forever.

Contents:

• Introductory: A Welter of Lore
• The Killing Ground (A Story of the Midlands)
• The Gallows in My Garden (A Story of East Anglia)
• Be He Alive, Be He Dead (A Story of London)
• Tregeagle's Cove (A Story of Cornwall)
• The Crannog (A Story of Wales)
• This Place (A Story of the South Coast)
• Bloody Essex (A Story of the Home Counties)
• In the Black and Stinking Fume (A Story of Scotland)
• The Moon Rising Red (A Story of Northern England)
• Story Notes