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Borderlands and Otherworlds
Mark Valentine’s Borderlands and Otherworlds explores supernatural fiction of the 1920s, occult thrillers of the ’30s, and the English Fantastic in the ’40s and ’50s.
He discusses notable names in the field, such as Arthur Machen, Dion Fortune and E.F. Benson, and also lesser-known figures such as J.M.A. Mills, Humphrey Gilkes and Charles Whitton. He offers the reader an understanding of these writers in their wider literary context, drawing out links and resonances between them.
Valentine celebrates the byways of book collecting, such as old monographs found in obscure boxes, noticing unusual details and unexpected stories. Other essays celebrate landscape, legend and lore. The author writes engagingly, with a lightly-worn knowledge, a companionable tone, great enthusiasm and an undercurrent of good humour.
He discusses notable names in the field, such as Arthur Machen, Dion Fortune and E.F. Benson, and also lesser-known figures such as J.M.A. Mills, Humphrey Gilkes and Charles Whitton. He offers the reader an understanding of these writers in their wider literary context, drawing out links and resonances between them.
Valentine celebrates the byways of book collecting, such as old monographs found in obscure boxes, noticing unusual details and unexpected stories. Other essays celebrate landscape, legend and lore. The author writes engagingly, with a lightly-worn knowledge, a companionable tone, great enthusiasm and an undercurrent of good humour.
259 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 17, 2025
About the author
Mark Valentine
274 books138 followersMark Valentine is an English author, biographer and editor.
Valentine’s short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since the 1980s, and the exploits of his series character, "The Connoisseur", an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in 2010.
As a biographer, Valentine has published a life of Arthur Machen in 1985 (Seren Press), and a study of Sarban, Time, A Falconer (Tartarus Press), is published in 2010. He has also written numerous articles for the Book and Magazine Collector magazine, and introductions for various books, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J. Meade Falkner and others.
Valentine also edits Wormwood (Tartarus Press), a journal dedicated to fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature, and has also edited anthologies, including The Werewolf Pack (Wordsworth, 2008) and The Black Veil (Wordsworth, 2008).
Valentine’s short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since the 1980s, and the exploits of his series character, "The Connoisseur", an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in 2010.
As a biographer, Valentine has published a life of Arthur Machen in 1985 (Seren Press), and a study of Sarban, Time, A Falconer (Tartarus Press), is published in 2010. He has also written numerous articles for the Book and Magazine Collector magazine, and introductions for various books, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J. Meade Falkner and others.
Valentine also edits Wormwood (Tartarus Press), a journal dedicated to fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature, and has also edited anthologies, including The Werewolf Pack (Wordsworth, 2008) and The Black Veil (Wordsworth, 2008).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 5, 2025
Mark Valentine.. what can I say.... has he ever written anything duff? He is so adept at making the seemingly trivial fascinating, making me look at things differently (old adverts) . Makes me search for forgotten writers and rifle through boxes of old papers at flea markets and junk shops. That's before we get to his glorious fiction... Just fantastic..
July 16, 2025
I admit I’m a Mark Valentine fan! I’ve always enjoyed his fiction writing, but this beautifully written book of essays and musings on the Weird and Strange fiction of the first half of the 20th Century was also a real treat. Beware though, you’ll want to start tracking down and buying more books!
June 24, 2025
A fine collection of book reviews and desedimentary readerly discoveries, as well as explorations of the English Tarot and the Voynich manuscript.
June 26, 2025
[Tartarus Press] (2025). HB/DJ. 1/1. Signed. 317 Pages. n/350. Purchased from Ray Russell.
32 essays. Literature dominates the subject matter, but there are several pleasant diversions: Bygone Booksellers, Collecting, Ephemera, Pub Signs, The Voynich Manuscript… There’s also a quantity of biographical material.
A diverse, erudite, marvellous collection, ranging from celebrated to obscure authors, works and topics. I was enthralled from start to finish. My ‘wants list’ is much expanded.
I’d love to know which titles comprise the two dozen most regretted disposals. I wonder whether Claude Houghton features. Combined with a favourites list and most lamented missed (and seized) opportunities to acquire… it’d make a fascinating future article.
There are isolated examples of inelegant writing. They’re very few and far between, thus conspicuous:
“Margaret Irwin’s novel of a timeslip between the late Georgian period and the contemporary 1920s, involving a delicately handled time-slip.” (p.15.)
The volume itself - like all publications from the brilliant Tartarus Press - is superbly produced. The boards are beautifully decorated. A sumptuous offering.
Signed copies of this Limited Edition remain available at a modest £45.00 (inc. P&P) - highly recommended.
32 essays. Literature dominates the subject matter, but there are several pleasant diversions: Bygone Booksellers, Collecting, Ephemera, Pub Signs, The Voynich Manuscript… There’s also a quantity of biographical material.
A diverse, erudite, marvellous collection, ranging from celebrated to obscure authors, works and topics. I was enthralled from start to finish. My ‘wants list’ is much expanded.
I’d love to know which titles comprise the two dozen most regretted disposals. I wonder whether Claude Houghton features. Combined with a favourites list and most lamented missed (and seized) opportunities to acquire… it’d make a fascinating future article.
There are isolated examples of inelegant writing. They’re very few and far between, thus conspicuous:
“Margaret Irwin’s novel of a timeslip between the late Georgian period and the contemporary 1920s, involving a delicately handled time-slip.” (p.15.)
The volume itself - like all publications from the brilliant Tartarus Press - is superbly produced. The boards are beautifully decorated. A sumptuous offering.
Signed copies of this Limited Edition remain available at a modest £45.00 (inc. P&P) - highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews