Valancourt Books
  • Home
  • About
    • Our History
    • Who We Are
    • Where to Buy
    • Contact
  • Catalogue
    • Gothic & Romantic
    • Victorian & Edwardian
    • Horror & Science Fiction
    • LGBT Literature
    • Literary Fiction
    • International Series
    • Vintage Thrills and Chills
    • audiobooks
  • Authors
  • Booksellers
  • Blog
Picture
Picture
The Cormorant (1986)
Stephen Gregory
With a new introduction by the Author

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award

Book Description

A young family receives a surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian’s nephew and his wife Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their life in the city for a newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There’s just one catch. Uncle Ian’s will has an unusual condition: the couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest. The will’s provision seems harmless enough at first, but when their young son Harry develops a strange fascination for the increasingly sinister and malevolent bird, they soon find that Uncle Ian’s gift may not be a blessing, but a curse.

The Cormorant (1986), Stephen Gregory’s first novel, received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Somerset Maugham Award and earning comparisons to the works of Poe. This edition includes a new introduction by the author, in which he reveals the inspirations for this bleak and haunting tale.


reviews

‘[A] first-class terror story with a relentless focus that would have made Edgar Allan Poe proud.’ - New York Times

‘[N]o summary can do justice to the subtlety of Gregory’s first novel, with its fresh, vivid, sensual prose and its superb descriptive and evocative power. An extraordinary novel—original, compelling, brilliant.’ – Library Journal

‘Gregory writes with the hypnotic power of Poe.’ – Publishers Weekly

‘A work of tremendous self-assurance that leaves the reader with a lingering sense of unease and announces the arrival of a considerable new talent.’ – 
British Book News



BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1939140374
ISBN-13: 978-1939140371
$15.99 US, 132 pp.

Trade paper
Published 2013

Due to copyright restrictions, this title is NOT available in the UK & British Commonwealth. Orders from addresses in the UK/Commonwealth will be cancelled and refunded. Credit card processing fees of 5% are non-refundable on all cancellations. Any questions, please ask *before* ordering.
Purchase paperback

ALSO AVAILABLE THROUGH ONLINE RETAILERS

BUY PAPERBACK
$15.99
​Amazon US

Barnes and Noble
Book Depository*
*Free shipping worldwide
BUY EBOOK
$6.99

Kindle US
Nook
Kobo
iTunes
BUY AUDIOBOOK
Audible US
Audible UK
​iTunes

MORE TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

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.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to the publisher Valancourt, whose aim is to resurrect some neglected works of literature, especially those incorporating a supernatural strand, and make them available to a new readership." 
- Times Literary Supplement

ABOUT US

Our History
What We Publish
Who We Are
Contact

OUR CATALOGUE

Literary Fiction
Horror & Science Fiction
Vintage Thrills and Chills
LGBT Interest
Gothic & Romantic
Victorian & Edwardian

​MORE INFO

Booksellers
Valancourt Books | PO Box 17642, Richmond, VA 23226 | 804.873.8528 | email
Copyright © 2022 by Valancourt Books, LLC. All rights reserved. Valancourt Books® is a registered trademark of Valancourt Books, LLC.
Banner art by M.S. Corley