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Mike Ashley
Starlight Man:The Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood
Published November 2001 by Constable at £18.99
ISBN: 1841194174
The Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood Mike Ashley Revealing and intriguing biography of a visionary writer
Algernon Blackwood, who died 50 years ago this year, was one of the greatest writers of
supernatural fiction of the twentieth century. Yet he remains a mysterious figure, despite
a published autobiography, Episodes before Thirty - as its title suggests it covers only the
period up to 1899 and it ends: 'Of mystical, psychic or so-called "occult" experiences, I
have purposely said nothing.' But there was much to be said.
Blackwood was no ordinary writer of ghost stories or weird fiction. To him there was no
'super'-natural: all was natural. He published over 200 stories and a dozen novels, all
designed to awaken our consciousness to the wonder, mystery and power of the world,
and he said all his stories -however strange and exotic-were based on personal
experiences or those of close friends.
An adventurous traveller, an undercover agent during the First World War, and Searcher
for the Red Cross, he originated the Starlight Express, was a member of the magical
order of the Golden Dawn, and knew most of the literary and artistic establishment of his
day from Hilaire Belloc to Arthur Machen, from Sinclair Lewis to H.G. Wells, and from
Gracie Fields to Sir Edward Flgar. He even went toboganning on tea trays with Lord
Dunsany.
From an aristocratic and deeply evangelical family, Blackwood rebelled and became a
Buddhist. He tried many careers, ending up as a down-and-out sleeping in New York's
Central Park, before returning home, the prodigal son. And then his life really began,
investigating haunted houses and helping people with psychic afflictions; he found love,
and eventually fame as a writer, and Britain's first television story-teller.
Mike Ashley, prolific author and editor, has been researching Blackwood's life for more
than twenty years.
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Meg Elizabeth Atkins
A Death out of Season
Published November 2001 by Constable at £16.99
ISBN: 1841194336
See Review by
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries
What links an armadillo to a packet of crisps, and two old friends to the death
of the village social-climber?
Jaynie Turner, divorced, beautiful, bossy and widely loathed, announces to
anyone who cares to listen that she is doing historical research into the
village of Clerehaven and its residents. Very soon after this announcement
she is found dead in a derelict building. Who could want to kill Jaynie? It had
to be someone who had secrets to hide -secrets which Jaynie in her
blundering manner came close to discovering. But what secrets can there be
in such a small community as Clerehaven?
This is the task facing Inspector Sheldon Hunter and his loyal, lovestruck
sidekick Annette - and once they start to dig deeper into Clerehaven's history
they soon discover that Jaynie's is not the first murder in this seemingly
peaceful village...
Cruel as the Grave
"A pleasure to read such a sparely written, well observed novel' Susanna
Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'This civilised novel demonstrates traditional crime writing is alive and
well' Val McDenmid
Tangle
'... brilliant hard core of vivacious three-corpse embroglio'
Sunday Times
The Folly
'Stylish analysis of arcane family relationships and English social
attitudes suggests a good-humoured, ironic reincarnation of Ivy
Compton Burnett' The Irish Tmes
Meg Elizabeth Atkins has been compared to Elizabeth Bowen and Barbara
Pym for the elegance of her writing. She lives with her husband in a North
Yorkshire village where she teaches creative writing and also writes non-
fiction books such as Haunted Warwickshire.
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Bill Knox
The Deep Fall
Published October 2001 by Constable at £16.99
ISBN: 184119414X
From the start it was obvious they were dealing with a professional - the
killing was vicious and clever. William Carter, managing director of a firm
carrying out secret work for the Admiralty, was found dead in his factory's
enamelling oven. He left behind him a wide choice of suspects - and the risk of
a major security leak.
Why had Carter sent urgent messages to his attractive wife and his business
partner just before his murder? Had he known that his life was in danger?
Thane and Moss, assigned to this most bizarre case, find some of the answers
in the depths of a booby-trapped building - but the rest of the truth almost
comes too late, with a nightmare journey still facing the two detectives...
'The expertise is interesting, the invention good and the writing literate and
lively' The Sunday Times
'Always a thoroughly reliable, good read'
The Times
`His plotting is impeccable ....and he can build his books to a relentless
climax' New York Times Book Review
'Sound technical details thrills without frills' Sunday
Telegraph
'Bill Knox is a highly skilled professional ....he stamps his books with his own
brand of authenticity and accuracy
and compelling plotting' Irish Times
Bill Knox began his writing career as a Glasgow journalist and was variously
employed as a crime reporter, motoring correspondant and news editor. He
made many contributions to radio and television and was well known to
scottish viewers as the writer and presenter for twelve years of the Scottish
Television police liason programme, 'Crime Desk'.
Before his death in March 1999 he had written nearly seventy novels including
twenty four in the Thane and Moss series.
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Anthony Masters
Lifers
Published November 2001 by Constable at £16.99
ISBN: 1841194069
The murder of two prisoners serving life sentences at a top security prison is
a severe political embarrassment to the government. Both lifers' throats
have been cut and the word JUSTICE crudely carved into their foreheads
with a blunt knife.
The CID investigation has ground to a halt so undercover police officer Danny Boyd has
been sent to join the prison staff as a new warder. Has a new inmate perpetrated the
murders? Or could several prisoners - or even a warder? be involved? And
will there be more victims before Danny Boyd finds answers to these
questions.
Praise for Anthony Masters
'He deals with powerful and complex
emotions in understated plain prose.' Times Literary Supplement
Anthony Masters writes for both adults and children and his first novel won
the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. This is the third book in his 'Insider'
crime series
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Maureen Peters
Goodbye Holly Jane
Published October 2001 by Constable at £16.99
ISBN: 1841194050
Something terrible happened long ago in the old Tyler house high on the
Yorkshire Moors but in the early 1960s twelve year old Cordy Sullivan and
her friends often play in the abandoned building, leaving notes for each
other in its crumbling brickwork and make up stories about the rust stains in
the bath and the empty swing near the twisted thorn tree.
Then newcomers move in and Cordy meets the enchanting Fay and
wonderful Fred, whose care of their children Holly Jane and Edward is in
sharp contrast to Cordy's severe upbringing, where her sister Susan is quite
obviously the family's favourite.
Yet nothing and nobody at the house or in the village below are quite what
they seem and when Cordy's school friends begin to dissapear she must
fight to preserve her loyalties and use her wits to keep the secrets she holds
against the relentless probing of her parents and the police.
Against a background of growing fear and suspicion the truth is turned on its
head and a tale that began long ago is eventually linked to events which
reach their terrifying climax many years in the future.
Maureen Peters is a prolific author who writes under her real name and two
pseudonyms. Since 1965 she has had over 150 novels published and she
regularly contributes to Bella, Woman's Weekly and My Weekly.
She lives in Suffolk where she is regularly taken for walks by her old English
sheepdog