On Dark Wings: Stories (2019)
Stephen Gregory
Book Description
Over the past four decades, few writers have created a body of work as distinctive – or disturbing – as Stephen Gregory’s. In his tales of death and madness the menace usually comes not from the supernatural, but from the natural, and particularly birds, which in Gregory’s fiction often bring terror on their dark wings.
Included in this volume are the ghost stories ‘The Late Mr Lewis’ and ‘The Boys Who Wouldn’t Wake Up’ as well as the macabre ‘The Cormorant’, which provided the inspiration for Gregory’s classic novel of the same name. But not all of the tales in this book are horror stories. The avian-themed entries also include tales like ‘To Catch a Thief’, in which a series of inexplicable thefts is revealed to have an unexpected culprit and ‘The Blackbird’s Song’, in which a celebrated flute player whose career was cut short by an accident rediscovers music after a visit from a blackbird.
This first-ever collection of the author’s short fiction brings together a rich and varied assortment of fourteen tales, including several never before reprinted, four previously unpublished early tales, and two new stories written specially for this volume.
Stephen Gregory
Book Description
Over the past four decades, few writers have created a body of work as distinctive – or disturbing – as Stephen Gregory’s. In his tales of death and madness the menace usually comes not from the supernatural, but from the natural, and particularly birds, which in Gregory’s fiction often bring terror on their dark wings.
Included in this volume are the ghost stories ‘The Late Mr Lewis’ and ‘The Boys Who Wouldn’t Wake Up’ as well as the macabre ‘The Cormorant’, which provided the inspiration for Gregory’s classic novel of the same name. But not all of the tales in this book are horror stories. The avian-themed entries also include tales like ‘To Catch a Thief’, in which a series of inexplicable thefts is revealed to have an unexpected culprit and ‘The Blackbird’s Song’, in which a celebrated flute player whose career was cut short by an accident rediscovers music after a visit from a blackbird.
This first-ever collection of the author’s short fiction brings together a rich and varied assortment of fourteen tales, including several never before reprinted, four previously unpublished early tales, and two new stories written specially for this volume.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR STEPHEN GREGORY
‘Gregory writes with the hypnotic power of Poe.’ - Publishers Weekly (on The Cormorant)
‘Gregory’s voice and vision are wholly original.’ - Ramsey Campbell (on The Woodwitch)
‘Feverish tales of madness and nightmare with lush, precise prose . . . A one-of-a-kind horror writer to read and re-read.’ - Paul Tremblay (on The Blood of Angels)
‘Gregory’s voice and vision are wholly original.’ - Ramsey Campbell (on The Woodwitch)
‘Feverish tales of madness and nightmare with lush, precise prose . . . A one-of-a-kind horror writer to read and re-read.’ - Paul Tremblay (on The Blood of Angels)
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1948405415 ISBN-13: 978-1948405416 $29.99 US, 134 pp. Trade paper Published 2019 BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1948405423 ISBN-13: 978-1948405423 $14.99 US, 134 pp. Trade paper Published 20139 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Gregory (b. 1952) was born in Derby, England, and earned a degree in law from the University of London. He worked as a teacher for ten years in various places, including Wales, Algeria, and Sudan, before moving to the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales to write his first novel, The Cormorant (1986), which won Britain’s prestigious Somerset Maugham Award and drew comparisons to Poe. The book was also adapted for film as a BBC production starring Ralph Fiennes. Two more novels, both set in Wales, followed: The Woodwitch (1988) and The Blood of Angels (1994). After the publication of The Blood of Angels, he worked in Hollywood for a year with Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (The Exorcist). More recently, he has published The Perils and Dangers of this Night (2008), and his new novel, The Waking That Kills, will be published in late 2013.