Unquiet Slumbers: An Anthology of Folk Horror Tales

by Edward Parnell (Editor), Ron Weighell, Charles Wilkinson

Like tales of folklore and fairytale passed on orally over centuries, Folk Horror too is an ever evolving, and shape-shifting entity. Most famous perhaps are the three flagship films 'The Wicker Man', 'Blood on Satan's Claw' and 'The Witchfinder General, but in written form, Folk Horror has a rich history.



Writers such as M R James, Arthur Machen, Eleanor Scott and Algernon Blackwood were past masters, invoking fear and foreboding through tropes which have come to embody Folk Horror. Rural settings, a sense of isolation, superstition, paganism, the old gods, the awakening of a buried past and the darkest aspects of nature.



Unquiet Slumbers is a collection of seventeen such stories by some of the finest contemporary writers of horror fiction, twelve of these stories* will be published here for the first time.

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Contents:


Introduction - Edward Parnell
Byerly Mount - Ron Weighell
Absent Below the Lip - Charles Wilkinson*
Fangs and Teeth, Broken and Bloody - John Langan*
The Original Occupant -Adam Nevill
Greener Pastures - Michael Wehunt
Whisper to a Grey - Stephen Volk
Horns - Rowe Irvin*
Wassail - Sean Hogan*
The Knocking - Helen Grant*
The Whisky Spinners God - Alex Older*
The Tunnel of Saksaksalim - Ron Weighell
The Night Hag - Tracy Fahey*
The Water Bells - Charles Wilkinson*
The Grassman - Rebecca Lloyd
The Flabby Man - David Surface*
Maiden in the Moor - Elizabeth Dearnley*
Crow - Wren Robinson*

Designed and Illustrated by Elijah John.

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Genres: Horror, Short Stories

333 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Edward Parnell is the author of the narrative non-fiction 'Ghostland' (William Collins), shortlisted for the 2020 PEN Ackerley Prize for memoir. He lives near Norwich in the UK and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He has been the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing and a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. 'The Listeners' (2014) was his first novel, and was the winner of the Rethink New Novels Prize.

Reviews

[Jonathan Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of folk horror tales. Not a genre I have much experience with but one I’ll be seeking more of thanks to this great introduction for me. Splendid book.

[Adriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

First I must speak about the quality of this volume. I have one of the signed and numbered editions, and it is GORGEOUS! I have a small collection of books published by small presses, all of which are of great quality, but Unquiet Slumbers feels special. From the foil-blocked title to the sewn binding, the head and tail pieces and, most of all, the 12 full-page color Illustrations by Eli John, this book exudes quality. However, it doesn't stop there, the author lineup is incredible, which is why I was so happy to have gotten hold of one of these 200 copies. I wrote a little update about each of the stories as I read them, so I won't go into detail here, but they were all either 4 or 5 stars, which makes this an exceptional anthology. This one is highly recommended, and I will surely be getting more books from Nepenthe Press.

[Kevin Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this anthology of folk horror stories available for pre-order I jumped on it and waited. I wasn't disappointed.

Seventeen stories, twelve never before published. I enjoyed every one of them, although I did have some favorites.

This book is filled with incredible color artwork relating to each story.