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The Book of Flowering
A remarkable collection of eighteen new and previously unpublished dark, weird fictions, exploring, in their various ways, the the concepts of fatal beauty and impermanence.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2019
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91 people want to read
About the author
Mark Beech
19 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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February 5, 2019Limited to 350 copies
Contents:
001 -Mark Valentine - "The Pale Sentinels Of Asphodel"
011 - Tiffani Angus - "What Cannot Be Described"
027 - Sheryl Humphrey - "Flora’s Lexicon"
055 - Timothy J. Jarvis - "With Scourges, With Flowering Sprigs"
073 - Ron Weighell - "Fugues of The Blue Lilly"
093 - John Gale - "A Garden of Sorrow and Sorcery"
105 - Reggie Oliver - "Lady With A Rose"
123 - D. P. Watt - "But They Withered All"
133 - Colin Insole - "Gallybag"
153 - Alison Littlewood - "Down In The Dendrons"
167 - Damian Murphy - "Flower Dream Sermon"
203 - Rebecca Kuder - "The Only Flower That Mattered"
215 - Mat Joiner - "Belbyne’s Lane"
227 - N. A. Jackson - "A Phantom Flowering"
241 - V. H. Leslie - "Marginal Species"
247 - Jonathan Wood - "The Absence"
261 - Charles Schneider - "The Floral Seasons of Life"
265 - Thomas Strømsholt - "The Book of Flowering"
Colour endpapers by Toru Kamei.
The cover features a detail from "Wreath of Flowers Encircling a Niche" by Karel Batist (active 1659 - 1668)
Contents:
001 -Mark Valentine - "The Pale Sentinels Of Asphodel"
011 - Tiffani Angus - "What Cannot Be Described"
027 - Sheryl Humphrey - "Flora’s Lexicon"
055 - Timothy J. Jarvis - "With Scourges, With Flowering Sprigs"
073 - Ron Weighell - "Fugues of The Blue Lilly"
093 - John Gale - "A Garden of Sorrow and Sorcery"
105 - Reggie Oliver - "Lady With A Rose"
123 - D. P. Watt - "But They Withered All"
133 - Colin Insole - "Gallybag"
153 - Alison Littlewood - "Down In The Dendrons"
167 - Damian Murphy - "Flower Dream Sermon"
203 - Rebecca Kuder - "The Only Flower That Mattered"
215 - Mat Joiner - "Belbyne’s Lane"
227 - N. A. Jackson - "A Phantom Flowering"
241 - V. H. Leslie - "Marginal Species"
247 - Jonathan Wood - "The Absence"
261 - Charles Schneider - "The Floral Seasons of Life"
265 - Thomas Strømsholt - "The Book of Flowering"
Colour endpapers by Toru Kamei.
The cover features a detail from "Wreath of Flowers Encircling a Niche" by Karel Batist (active 1659 - 1668)
January 21, 2021
GALLYBAG by Colin Insole
“And there were other patterns in the landscape that he could not decipher — like shapes from an old watermark that had faded and merged with its paper.”
This book happens to bear a proud watermark on its title page as this story is arguably the book’s literary watermark that I cannot imagine fading as such, but perhaps ever merging and meshing with our past and future, giving the expression ‘hidden in plain sight’ a new meaning. I could have quoted most of this story as prime poetic prose of such a feeling, but reading it all is your only path back to the village, with its lime trees and mistletoe, its collision with conscription in the Great War, the return diaspora of its dead, its clearance as a punishment or for utility army means, and the regathering of its ashes and blue flowers, its gallybags, and more, regathered by one man who retrieves names, old postcards and one diary in particular that, as a disarming info-dump, leaks to and from Insole.
“The goods leak from one emporium to another.”
A major Insole work that should enable you to recreate or transcend its stated “ecstasy and despair”, whatever the modern inroads against it. I cannot do justice to it here.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
“And there were other patterns in the landscape that he could not decipher — like shapes from an old watermark that had faded and merged with its paper.”
This book happens to bear a proud watermark on its title page as this story is arguably the book’s literary watermark that I cannot imagine fading as such, but perhaps ever merging and meshing with our past and future, giving the expression ‘hidden in plain sight’ a new meaning. I could have quoted most of this story as prime poetic prose of such a feeling, but reading it all is your only path back to the village, with its lime trees and mistletoe, its collision with conscription in the Great War, the return diaspora of its dead, its clearance as a punishment or for utility army means, and the regathering of its ashes and blue flowers, its gallybags, and more, regathered by one man who retrieves names, old postcards and one diary in particular that, as a disarming info-dump, leaks to and from Insole.
“The goods leak from one emporium to another.”
A major Insole work that should enable you to recreate or transcend its stated “ecstasy and despair”, whatever the modern inroads against it. I cannot do justice to it here.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
April 8, 2020
For me, The Book of Flowering was more a 3.5 that I decided to round up to 4.o due to the beauty of the edition and to the fact that I believe my disappointment comes from too high expectation. Some of the stories in this volume were excellent, but most were just average, and some I had to make an extra effort to finish. The stories that stood out were "The Pale Sentinels of Asphodel", "Flora's Lexicon", "Fugues of the Blue Lilly", "But They Withered All", "Down in the Dendrons", "Belbyne's Lane", and "The Book of Flowering". Damian Murphy's "Flower Dream Sermon" was definitely the best of the lot and is worth the cover price on its own.
August 18, 2024
Various (Editor: Beech, Mark) - The Book Of Flowering
An oft scented cluster of diverse blooms, vegetative and otherwise.
Most of the authors will be familiar to this community.
“The Pale Sentinels Of Asphodel” finds an illustrator of somewhat arcane botanica lovingly maintaining a garden of scented flora.
In “Flora’s Lexicon,” a visiting salesman takes note of a beautiful woman who tends a patch of blooms to supplement her livelihood.
A talented young artist in Venice is given a mysterious commission in “Lady With A Rose.” Those who recall Browning’s “My Last Duchess” will savor the dour aristocrat.
Flowers of a different breed emerge during rare, though predictable, times in “Gallybag.”
Speaking of the different breed, “A Phantom Flowering” observes a research scientist, once on a career fast track, now cast aside into a backwater. A heady perfume lures him into an encounter that mixes Kafka with Terry Carr’s “Virra.”
Just a handful of stories in a collection well chosen and skillfully arranged.
An oft scented cluster of diverse blooms, vegetative and otherwise.
Most of the authors will be familiar to this community.
“The Pale Sentinels Of Asphodel” finds an illustrator of somewhat arcane botanica lovingly maintaining a garden of scented flora.
In “Flora’s Lexicon,” a visiting salesman takes note of a beautiful woman who tends a patch of blooms to supplement her livelihood.
A talented young artist in Venice is given a mysterious commission in “Lady With A Rose.” Those who recall Browning’s “My Last Duchess” will savor the dour aristocrat.
Flowers of a different breed emerge during rare, though predictable, times in “Gallybag.”
Speaking of the different breed, “A Phantom Flowering” observes a research scientist, once on a career fast track, now cast aside into a backwater. A heady perfume lures him into an encounter that mixes Kafka with Terry Carr’s “Virra.”
Just a handful of stories in a collection well chosen and skillfully arranged.
March 8, 2021
Pretty good collection. Beautiful book, lovely art, typical Egaeus Press excellence. Stories were mostly entertaining. "Fugues of the Blue Lilly" was a little too purple for my taste. "Belbyne's Lane" was very difficult to read, as the author's choice of prose and lack of ideal narrative pacing resulted in numerous reading roadblocks--very annoying. Jackson's "A Phantom Flowering," however, was truly wonderful (despite the blaring typo in the last sentence). And of course, V. H. Leslie's "Marginal Species" was the crown jewel for my tastes, a no brainer though, as her stories are always spectacular.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews