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Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City
As the fog thickens and the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge from all over the city. A jilted lover returns as a demon to fulfill his revenge in Kensington, and a seance becomes a life and death struggle off Regents Canal. In the borough of Lambeth, stay clear of the Old House in Vauxhall Walk and be careful up in Temple—there’s something not right about the doleful, droning hum of the telegram wires overhead . . . Join Elizabeth Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through the Big Smoke, a city which has long fueled the imagination of writers of the weird and supernormal. Waiting in the shadowy streets are tales from writers such as Charlotte Riddell, Lettie Galbraith, and Violet Hunt, who delight in twisting the urban myths and folk stories of the city into pieces of masterful suspense and intrigue. This collection will feature a map motif and notes before each story, giving readers the real-world context for these hauntings and encounters, and allowing the modern reader to seek out the sites themselves—should they dare.
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 2020
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February 25, 2023A collection allegedly of weird tales of London, which weirdly includes a bunch of things that aren't weird tales at all. Why is the Sam Selvon story (not remotely weird) or some reportage about the WW1 blackout, or a rambling and spiteful piece by Virginia Woolf at her nasty snobbiest included in a collection of "eerie and weird"? Baffling. There are some good stories in here, particularly the Elizabeth Bowen, but mostly it does not do what it says on the tin.
January 18, 2025
“The ghost story was also a hugely popular form for Victorian women writers, enabling them to discuss gender dynamics, sexuality, the constraints of domestic life and other taboo topics. The second half of the nineteenth century was a period of increasing activity for women’s rights movements and wider debate about women’s role in public life, with many of these issues explored under the guise of supernatural fiction.”
The title of this gives it away. This British Library collection contains stories set in London and in particular the fog which London is geographically prone to (less these days since the Clean Air Act). In this volume there are contributions from Elizabeth Bowen, Lettice Galbraith, Violet Hunt, Rhoda Broughton, Thomas Burke, Virginia Woolf, Claude Mackay, Arthur Machen, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Sam Selvon, Edith Nesbit, Charlotte Riddell, E F Benson and one anonymous. They range in time between 1868 and 1957.
Four of the contributions are not fictional. These are an excerpt from Claude McKay’s autobiography, an anonymous account of the urban myth of Spring-Heeled Jack, a piece by Virginia Woolf called Street Haunting and Thomas Burke’s memories of London during the First World War when the streets were unlit. The introduction by Dearnley is well worth reading as the quote above indicates. Galbraith’s story In the Séance Room shows how this female society subverts the male gaze and brings a man to account. There are also a couple of contributions from black Londoners.
Lowndes’s story is set in Whitechapel and was written in 1910. It progressed into a novel, probably the first covering the Ripper murders. A couple take in a lodger who seems initially ideal, however things take a turn.
Woolf reflects on the possibilities involved in walking the early evening streets:
‘’No one perhaps has ever felt passionately towards a lead pencil. But there are circumstances in which it can become supremely desirable to possess one; moments when we are set upon having an object, an excuse for walking half across London between tea and dinner.’’
‘’The hour should be the evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. We are not then taunted as in the summer by the longing for shade and solitude and sweet airs from the hayfields. The evening hour, too, gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves.’’
This is a good collection one of the better ones in this series.
The title of this gives it away. This British Library collection contains stories set in London and in particular the fog which London is geographically prone to (less these days since the Clean Air Act). In this volume there are contributions from Elizabeth Bowen, Lettice Galbraith, Violet Hunt, Rhoda Broughton, Thomas Burke, Virginia Woolf, Claude Mackay, Arthur Machen, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Sam Selvon, Edith Nesbit, Charlotte Riddell, E F Benson and one anonymous. They range in time between 1868 and 1957.
Four of the contributions are not fictional. These are an excerpt from Claude McKay’s autobiography, an anonymous account of the urban myth of Spring-Heeled Jack, a piece by Virginia Woolf called Street Haunting and Thomas Burke’s memories of London during the First World War when the streets were unlit. The introduction by Dearnley is well worth reading as the quote above indicates. Galbraith’s story In the Séance Room shows how this female society subverts the male gaze and brings a man to account. There are also a couple of contributions from black Londoners.
Lowndes’s story is set in Whitechapel and was written in 1910. It progressed into a novel, probably the first covering the Ripper murders. A couple take in a lodger who seems initially ideal, however things take a turn.
Woolf reflects on the possibilities involved in walking the early evening streets:
‘’No one perhaps has ever felt passionately towards a lead pencil. But there are circumstances in which it can become supremely desirable to possess one; moments when we are set upon having an object, an excuse for walking half across London between tea and dinner.’’
‘’The hour should be the evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. We are not then taunted as in the summer by the longing for shade and solitude and sweet airs from the hayfields. The evening hour, too, gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves.’’
This is a good collection one of the better ones in this series.
October 9, 2020
I'm going a 3.7 rounded up. It's a 4.5 for the fictional stories in this book; a 3 for my actual reading experience, which I will say is not the norm with this series. I have to say that after the end of my initial, ranty tempest in a teapot when I first started reading this book, I felt I should relax and just go with the flow, but when all was said and done, I realized it was the flow that bothered me. More on this to come
full post here
https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
In her introduction, editor Elizabeth Dearnley notes that in the years following the Clean Air Act of 1956, "true London fog" had disappeared. The stories and essays in this book range from 1868 to 1957, "all written within the decades when London was at its foggiest..." She also presents a unique method of ordering her lineup, arranging the stories as a sort of literary tour of London, inviting readers to "take a closer look at some the more uncanny corners of the city." The first story is set in Temple, with the final entry taking us to Peckham. It's quite clever, actually, although not being a Londoner myself, I had to have a map of the city to refer to while going from story to story.
An unusual, and now that I think about it, unsurprising thing happened to me with this book -- aside from the five nonfiction entries, I found that I had read all but one of the stories included here, Rhoda Broughton's "The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth" (1868). I knew that would happen at some point, as I tend to spend quite a bit of time reading ghostly/supernatural tales from yesteryear, especially those written by women. Out of the nine fictional tales in this anthology, seven of these stories are from female authors; of those seven, four are Victorian-era writers whose collected works are a large part of my home library. It's okay though, because aside from missing that feeling of joy derived from finding someone new to explore, the editor chose some of my personal favorites, Victorian and later. The two male writers, EF Benson and especially Arthur Machen, have also provided me with hours and hours of great reading in the past.
Speaking of favorites, Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" (1945) gets my vote in this book. John Banville wrote of her wartime stories that
"the city becomes an ethereal, haunted place, unhuman, otherworldly, where people move about in a fevered, dreamlike state."
Given that Banville's description of Bowen's wartime London aligns so closely with Dearnley's vision for this collection, I'm not surprised that "The Demon Lover" is included here.
Now back to that flow I mentioned:
As part of Into the London Fog, the editor has chosen to add, alongside the fiction, four pieces from various authors who have both experienced and written about the foggy city, another factor making this volume a bit different from the norm of this series. At first, I was sort of like "what the ... ?" because "eerie" must be in the eye in the beholder and I didn't particularly find any of the four to be so; they were nonfiction, which completely threw me, and finally here I am, having made my way through four ghostly tales and then I run into Thomas Burke's "War" extracted from his London In My Time, followed by thirty pages of Virginia Woolf and Claude McKay, completely distrupting the reading flow until returning to the supernatural with Machen's "N" and the psychologically creepy short story "The Lodger. " Then it's back to Sam Selvon and more nonfiction before three more other-worldly tales, and by the time I'd reached the article written about "Spring-Heeled Jack" (thankfully at the end), my reading rhythm was just blown completely off.
Don't get me wrong: the nonfiction, little glimpses that offer "further constructions of the city and how it was experienced, showing the potential for strangeness in the most mundane urban encounters" were fine in their own right, informative, and very well written -- my complaint is that having them tossed into the midst of the fictional stories threw me off balance readingwise. Perhaps a better way to introduce them would have been to have them all grouped together after the fictional tales; I know I would have enjoyed the book a lot more had that been the case.
Overall, though, it is a good anthology, perhaps not the best in the series, but another fine volume of the British Library's Tales of the Weird to add to the growing number of these books on my shelves.
full post here
https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
In her introduction, editor Elizabeth Dearnley notes that in the years following the Clean Air Act of 1956, "true London fog" had disappeared. The stories and essays in this book range from 1868 to 1957, "all written within the decades when London was at its foggiest..." She also presents a unique method of ordering her lineup, arranging the stories as a sort of literary tour of London, inviting readers to "take a closer look at some the more uncanny corners of the city." The first story is set in Temple, with the final entry taking us to Peckham. It's quite clever, actually, although not being a Londoner myself, I had to have a map of the city to refer to while going from story to story.
An unusual, and now that I think about it, unsurprising thing happened to me with this book -- aside from the five nonfiction entries, I found that I had read all but one of the stories included here, Rhoda Broughton's "The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth" (1868). I knew that would happen at some point, as I tend to spend quite a bit of time reading ghostly/supernatural tales from yesteryear, especially those written by women. Out of the nine fictional tales in this anthology, seven of these stories are from female authors; of those seven, four are Victorian-era writers whose collected works are a large part of my home library. It's okay though, because aside from missing that feeling of joy derived from finding someone new to explore, the editor chose some of my personal favorites, Victorian and later. The two male writers, EF Benson and especially Arthur Machen, have also provided me with hours and hours of great reading in the past.
Speaking of favorites, Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" (1945) gets my vote in this book. John Banville wrote of her wartime stories that
"the city becomes an ethereal, haunted place, unhuman, otherworldly, where people move about in a fevered, dreamlike state."
Given that Banville's description of Bowen's wartime London aligns so closely with Dearnley's vision for this collection, I'm not surprised that "The Demon Lover" is included here.
Now back to that flow I mentioned:
As part of Into the London Fog, the editor has chosen to add, alongside the fiction, four pieces from various authors who have both experienced and written about the foggy city, another factor making this volume a bit different from the norm of this series. At first, I was sort of like "what the ... ?" because "eerie" must be in the eye in the beholder and I didn't particularly find any of the four to be so; they were nonfiction, which completely threw me, and finally here I am, having made my way through four ghostly tales and then I run into Thomas Burke's "War" extracted from his London In My Time, followed by thirty pages of Virginia Woolf and Claude McKay, completely distrupting the reading flow until returning to the supernatural with Machen's "N" and the psychologically creepy short story "The Lodger. " Then it's back to Sam Selvon and more nonfiction before three more other-worldly tales, and by the time I'd reached the article written about "Spring-Heeled Jack" (thankfully at the end), my reading rhythm was just blown completely off.
Don't get me wrong: the nonfiction, little glimpses that offer "further constructions of the city and how it was experienced, showing the potential for strangeness in the most mundane urban encounters" were fine in their own right, informative, and very well written -- my complaint is that having them tossed into the midst of the fictional stories threw me off balance readingwise. Perhaps a better way to introduce them would have been to have them all grouped together after the fictional tales; I know I would have enjoyed the book a lot more had that been the case.
Overall, though, it is a good anthology, perhaps not the best in the series, but another fine volume of the British Library's Tales of the Weird to add to the growing number of these books on my shelves.
January 18, 2021
A question of expectations…
An anthology of horror stories on the theme of London Fog had my anticipation levels high. The introduction is interesting, so long as you can tolerate the lit-crit language, where words like “gender” and “other” are used as verbs. Dearnley discusses the “transgressive” nature of horror and how fog could be used either literally or metaphorically.
There are fourteen titles listed in the index, although it transpires that several aren’t stories, but essays or extracts from writers such as Sam Selvon, Virginia Woolf, et al. Also, several – both stories and essays – mention fog barely or not at all, and occasionally barely mention London either. It’s a question of expectations – when an anthology is subtitled “Eerie Tales from the Weird City” and titled “Into the London Fog”, then my pedantic mind expects fourteen eerie, weird tales with something to do with London fog. The result was that I found this collection disappointing, even although there are a few good stories in it.
Here’s a flavour of the entries I enjoyed most:
The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen – this story about a woman returning to her closed-up London home during the Blitz is excellent – atmospheric, evocative and scary! I posted about it earlier in Tuesday Terror!
N by Arthur Machen – this lives up to the book’s subtitle, falling distinctly into the definition of weird. Three old men discuss a place in Stoke Newington called Canon’s Park. One tells of a man who saw it and described it as a place of great, almost impossible, beauty. But another of the old men remembers the place from his youth, and declares it to be nothing more than a district of streets and houses. The third man investigates, and finds the place is connected to strange and spooky events! Machen is a great writer, and here he gives some excellent depictions of old London and a tale that is odd, ambiguous and well told.
My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon – despite my annoyance at the inclusion of extracts and essays, I must admit I loved this piece. It’s a reflection on Selvon’s love of London, and the difficulty for a writer of finding a way to write about something that has already been experienced by so many and written about so often before. It is beautifully written – a love poem to his girl and to the city.
Overall, this one didn’t hit the mark for me because it didn’t meet my expectations of it. However, if the idea of a mix of horror and literary essays and extracts appeals to you, then it may work better for you.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
An anthology of horror stories on the theme of London Fog had my anticipation levels high. The introduction is interesting, so long as you can tolerate the lit-crit language, where words like “gender” and “other” are used as verbs. Dearnley discusses the “transgressive” nature of horror and how fog could be used either literally or metaphorically.
There are fourteen titles listed in the index, although it transpires that several aren’t stories, but essays or extracts from writers such as Sam Selvon, Virginia Woolf, et al. Also, several – both stories and essays – mention fog barely or not at all, and occasionally barely mention London either. It’s a question of expectations – when an anthology is subtitled “Eerie Tales from the Weird City” and titled “Into the London Fog”, then my pedantic mind expects fourteen eerie, weird tales with something to do with London fog. The result was that I found this collection disappointing, even although there are a few good stories in it.
Here’s a flavour of the entries I enjoyed most:
The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen – this story about a woman returning to her closed-up London home during the Blitz is excellent – atmospheric, evocative and scary! I posted about it earlier in Tuesday Terror!
N by Arthur Machen – this lives up to the book’s subtitle, falling distinctly into the definition of weird. Three old men discuss a place in Stoke Newington called Canon’s Park. One tells of a man who saw it and described it as a place of great, almost impossible, beauty. But another of the old men remembers the place from his youth, and declares it to be nothing more than a district of streets and houses. The third man investigates, and finds the place is connected to strange and spooky events! Machen is a great writer, and here he gives some excellent depictions of old London and a tale that is odd, ambiguous and well told.
My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon – despite my annoyance at the inclusion of extracts and essays, I must admit I loved this piece. It’s a reflection on Selvon’s love of London, and the difficulty for a writer of finding a way to write about something that has already been experienced by so many and written about so often before. It is beautifully written – a love poem to his girl and to the city.
Overall, this one didn’t hit the mark for me because it didn’t meet my expectations of it. However, if the idea of a mix of horror and literary essays and extracts appeals to you, then it may work better for you.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
December 2, 2025
A great selection of London based stories. Admittedly some of them don't feature fog and some of them aren't particularly eerie (Woolf's Street Hauntings despite the name is just an observational walk) but they are a good collection.
Some of the more obscure tales were actually the most enjoyable.
There is some intelligent and atmospheric writing here.
5 stars
Some of the more obscure tales were actually the most enjoyable.
There is some intelligent and atmospheric writing here.
5 stars
March 12, 2024
Well, there are a couple of pretty poor ones in this, but the majority are ok! And there are a couple of really good ones too. The non-fictions will put some ppl off, as these are not eerie or supernatural in subject! But I found them fairly interesting. And they did glimpse at the spirit of London in various past-times.
September 20, 2020
Into The London Fog - Eerie Tales From The Weird City invites the reader to join editor, Elizabeth Dearnley, on an 'atmospheric tour through a shadowy London, a city which has long inspired writers of the weird and uncanny.' What a tour it is for those who enjoy strange stories of hauntings, seances and dark secrets which, as in any good gothic tale, return to terrify the living.
Dearnley, a folklorist, introduces this collection of short stories, taking the reader back to the 1840s when London first earns its reputation as a city forever shrouded in fog. Due to London’s geography, the Industrial Revolution and its rapid expansion during the Victorian period, she tells us there was 'a record-breaking fog in 1890.' Dearnley's introduction is informative and entertaining, adding much to the reading experience, setting the stories in their historical context, explaining how the ghost story and other weird tales are vehicles to explore the fears and anxieties of urban living. Many Victorian women writers used the ghost story to explore a rapidly changing society 'under the guise of supernatural fiction.' Women's’ role in society was changing rapidly with demands for women’s suffrage gaining momentum and greater equality in all areas of their daily lives.
There are fourteen short stories in this collection and Dearnley's narrative about each one enriches the reading experience enabling it to be seen in the context of the time it was written. Dearnley gives a short biography of each writer before the reader turns to their story. These tales are from the Victorian era and the first half of the 20th Century; it is fascinating to read how these writers had lived and what their literary output was beyond the particular story in this collection.
The stories included in Into The London Fog are from the well known such as Virginia Wolf and Edith Nesbit to some less well known and the last tale is from an anonymous writer. The book is divided into fourteen ‘chapters’, one per story and by location; Mayfair to Stoke Newington, Regent's Park to Vauxhall, Whitechapel to Putney. Three personal favourites are The Telegram by Violet Hunt, set in Temple and Marylebone and originally published in 1911. Alice is a privileged young lady with an adoring suitor whom she only offers friendship until later in life she finds she needs a husband to enable her to move freely in society. The dark emotional undercurrents flow from the beginning of this chilling and weird story, gradually deepening as the reader is pulled along by the narrative. Alice’s inability to be independent in her own right is examined, society demanding a chaperone, either a companion or husband is required even into her late thirties.
The second is set in Regent's Park and comes from Lettice Galbraith. In the Séance Room is a sinister story of seduction and murder when "a seance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of Regent's Canal." This story was first published in 1893 in the anthology New Ghost Stories, which Dearnley tells us was one of the most popular anthologies of its day. Judging by this story, it is easy to understand why. Galbraith’s prose is evocatively written, quickly drawing the reader into an atmospheric and chilling story.
Lastly, The Chippendale Mirror by E.F.Benson is set in Putney and Bloomsbury. The use of mirrors is a well-used trope of gothic fiction, but despite this cliche, the story is still a compelling tale and a very enjoyable read.
The London Fog - Eerie Tales From The Weird City is a delicious selection of eerie and weird tales as the title suggests and comes strongly recommended to any reader who enjoys gothic fiction and tales of the supernatural.
Dearnley, a folklorist, introduces this collection of short stories, taking the reader back to the 1840s when London first earns its reputation as a city forever shrouded in fog. Due to London’s geography, the Industrial Revolution and its rapid expansion during the Victorian period, she tells us there was 'a record-breaking fog in 1890.' Dearnley's introduction is informative and entertaining, adding much to the reading experience, setting the stories in their historical context, explaining how the ghost story and other weird tales are vehicles to explore the fears and anxieties of urban living. Many Victorian women writers used the ghost story to explore a rapidly changing society 'under the guise of supernatural fiction.' Women's’ role in society was changing rapidly with demands for women’s suffrage gaining momentum and greater equality in all areas of their daily lives.
There are fourteen short stories in this collection and Dearnley's narrative about each one enriches the reading experience enabling it to be seen in the context of the time it was written. Dearnley gives a short biography of each writer before the reader turns to their story. These tales are from the Victorian era and the first half of the 20th Century; it is fascinating to read how these writers had lived and what their literary output was beyond the particular story in this collection.
The stories included in Into The London Fog are from the well known such as Virginia Wolf and Edith Nesbit to some less well known and the last tale is from an anonymous writer. The book is divided into fourteen ‘chapters’, one per story and by location; Mayfair to Stoke Newington, Regent's Park to Vauxhall, Whitechapel to Putney. Three personal favourites are The Telegram by Violet Hunt, set in Temple and Marylebone and originally published in 1911. Alice is a privileged young lady with an adoring suitor whom she only offers friendship until later in life she finds she needs a husband to enable her to move freely in society. The dark emotional undercurrents flow from the beginning of this chilling and weird story, gradually deepening as the reader is pulled along by the narrative. Alice’s inability to be independent in her own right is examined, society demanding a chaperone, either a companion or husband is required even into her late thirties.
The second is set in Regent's Park and comes from Lettice Galbraith. In the Séance Room is a sinister story of seduction and murder when "a seance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of Regent's Canal." This story was first published in 1893 in the anthology New Ghost Stories, which Dearnley tells us was one of the most popular anthologies of its day. Judging by this story, it is easy to understand why. Galbraith’s prose is evocatively written, quickly drawing the reader into an atmospheric and chilling story.
Lastly, The Chippendale Mirror by E.F.Benson is set in Putney and Bloomsbury. The use of mirrors is a well-used trope of gothic fiction, but despite this cliche, the story is still a compelling tale and a very enjoyable read.
The London Fog - Eerie Tales From The Weird City is a delicious selection of eerie and weird tales as the title suggests and comes strongly recommended to any reader who enjoys gothic fiction and tales of the supernatural.
November 11, 2020
I wanted to like this book. London. Atmosphere. Creepy. It superficially has all the elements I love.
But - I was mostly bored. The short stories were disappointing. Obviously, given that the writing was chosen from a specific period then the stories would be of that period, but in all of these cases it really showed, and not in a good way. A lot of set up ... set up ... set up followed by 'instant resolution'. Including in one case 'he died. This is a true story'.
The Virginia Woolf piece was my favourite, mainly because it was written the way I walk around London too. It was also the least 'creepy London' piece.
All in all this collection just fell flat on pretty much every level for me.
But - I was mostly bored. The short stories were disappointing. Obviously, given that the writing was chosen from a specific period then the stories would be of that period, but in all of these cases it really showed, and not in a good way. A lot of set up ... set up ... set up followed by 'instant resolution'. Including in one case 'he died. This is a true story'.
The Virginia Woolf piece was my favourite, mainly because it was written the way I walk around London too. It was also the least 'creepy London' piece.
All in all this collection just fell flat on pretty much every level for me.
January 16, 2024
Just read "The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen
April 22, 2021
If you are looking for Stevensonian urban tales, where ghosts and other creatures of the night haunt the gaslight and foggy streets of old London, seek elsewhere: this collection ain't going to do it for you. Editor Dearnley's intentions are fine, and I applaud her earnest desire to make this selection more broadly representative in terms of ethnicity and gender than is sometimes the case with the other volumes in this British Library series of Weird tales. In order to be more inclusive, however, she is forced to stretch a point so far as to include a handful of nonfiction pieces that can not be considered Weird, Gothic, ghostly, horrific or any other category that could justify their placement here. I might have been inclined to go along with these decisions had the more traditionally fictional selections been more in keeping with the ostensible theme of the volume, but in fact very few of the stories here actually convey that sense of foggy, gaslight atmosphere that the title would suggest.
March 15, 2021
I have read a few of these collections of stories from the British Library now and I have come to the conclusion that they are all just mediocre, mediocre at best.
These are apparently weird tales, which quite frankly is an insult to the genre of weird, inhabited as it is by a lot of genius. These stories are actually just a mix of ghost stories and murder mysteries. Now I did skip a few so maybe they where weird and odd? Who knows?
But what can one expect from the British Library, one of the ugliest buildings in London??
The Telegram - 🖤🖤
In the Seance Room - 🖤🖤🖤
The Demon Lover - 🖤🖤
The Truth - 🖤🖤🖤
War - 🖤
Street Hunting - 🖤
Pugilist vs Poet - 🖤
N - 🖤
The Lodger - 🖤🖤🖤
My Girl & The City - 🖤
The Mystery of the Semi-detached 🖤🖤
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk - 🖤🖤
The Chippendale Mirror - 🖤🖤
Spring Heeled Jack - 🖤🖤
These are apparently weird tales, which quite frankly is an insult to the genre of weird, inhabited as it is by a lot of genius. These stories are actually just a mix of ghost stories and murder mysteries. Now I did skip a few so maybe they where weird and odd? Who knows?
But what can one expect from the British Library, one of the ugliest buildings in London??
The Telegram - 🖤🖤
In the Seance Room - 🖤🖤🖤
The Demon Lover - 🖤🖤
The Truth - 🖤🖤🖤
War - 🖤
Street Hunting - 🖤
Pugilist vs Poet - 🖤
N - 🖤
The Lodger - 🖤🖤🖤
My Girl & The City - 🖤
The Mystery of the Semi-detached 🖤🖤
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk - 🖤🖤
The Chippendale Mirror - 🖤🖤
Spring Heeled Jack - 🖤🖤
November 30, 2025
4,5 stars rounded up to 5.
Took my two readings to fully fathom
what a treasure this little book of London weird tales is.
Took my two readings to fully fathom
what a treasure this little book of London weird tales is.
September 29, 2024
Decent mix of stuff in this one, even if the London-ness of some of them did sometimes feel a bit incidental. Including some non-fiction (mostly memoir-y stuff) was an interesting choice, albeit one that I don't think entirely worked out. While they were nice to read (especially the extract from Claude Mckay's book, might have to give that a proper look in at some point), they did sometimes feel pretty tenuous in their connection to the weird. Very little in the way of duds in this one, with perhaps the exception of Woolf's Street Haunting, which I just did not get on with (If Virginia could stop with the poverty tourism and rubbernecking at disabled people and get on with buying her sodding pencil that'd be great).
Highlights:
- Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover: That woman knows how to do an ending properly
- Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger: What if you were Jack the Ripper's landlady is just a really solid idea
- Arthur Machen's N: I would absolutely not be able to get away with having a long anecdote about this weird guy I met once as an endnote in my thesis.
Highlights:
- Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover: That woman knows how to do an ending properly
- Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger: What if you were Jack the Ripper's landlady is just a really solid idea
- Arthur Machen's N: I would absolutely not be able to get away with having a long anecdote about this weird guy I met once as an endnote in my thesis.
September 15, 2021
O que está acontecendo comigo esse mês que já li vários livros???
June 18, 2025
Just not what it says on the tin. Some of the stories are interesting or well written, but an awful lot are just quite dull. Only one or two of them were even remotely eerie. A slog.
June 10, 2024
I've been thoroughly enjoying this series but this one is another new flavour. We are treated to some very varied tales of London, ranging from the typical spooky tales to more haunting but natural views. I'm sure purists are upset but I rather enjoyed the mix. At the end of the day, it was all new perspectives of that strange capital city, and all from accomplished word smiths.
Just wonder why my copy has a yellow cover?
Just wonder why my copy has a yellow cover?
October 23, 2021
Excellent
A enthralling mix of stories set in various parts of London, most with a supernatural aspect to them. Perhaps the most varied and fascinating of this series I've read so far.
A enthralling mix of stories set in various parts of London, most with a supernatural aspect to them. Perhaps the most varied and fascinating of this series I've read so far.
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October 31, 2022I love old ghost stories, and London, which to some extent makes me the perfect audience for this, but equally results in my being a pretty tough crowd. Especially if the book is arranged by district, and I excitedly turn to the one pinned to my home turf, Crystal Palace – only for Edith Nesbit's The Mystery Of The Semi-Detached to explicitly open with the Palace's lights "far away to the south-west". Granted, there is an off-screen visit to the Palace by supporting characters, but even so...and regardless of all that, it's distinctly minor Nesbit compared to the chilling likes of Man-Size In Marble. Still, there's merit in digging out a more obscure offering...which makes one wonder why the collection also includes Virgina Woolf's Street Haunting, undoubtedly a brilliant essay, but also one often reprinted, and only debatably a tale. Also a little vexing is the presence of Arthur Machen's N, which like Street Haunting is a masterpiece, but which is available even closer to home – in the same imprint's Weird Woods collection. Still, in that instance I'm inclined to absolve Into The London Fog of blame; it comes right before Weird Woods in the series' numbering, and for my money has a better claim to the story of a fabulous park where no park should be, in the overlooked corners of the metropolis.
Some of the other non-fictional inclusions are rarer than the Woolf, but set against that, even less obviously at home here. The extract from Thomas Burke's London In My Time, regarding London during the Great War, is fascinating as social history, whether it be little details ("In ordinary life most people can live comfortably without potatoes. Many do." Was this really true of Britons so recently, until a shortage made the spud suddenly desirable?) or the broader argument that, compared to the Boer War, the average Brit and especially the military found unabashed patriotism a fitting target for mockery this time around – something which seems inconceivable now that the First World War has become so hallowed by a century and more of solemn remembrance, precisely as ever fewer of the people who were actually there remained to kick against the canonisation. It's a good read, it's undeniably thought-provoking – but beyond a fairly brief passage about how the street-lamps being painted blue made the nocturnal city new and strange, it doesn't feel eerie in any but the most oblique sense. And Claude McKay, while likewise thoroughly interesting on race in pre-Windrush London, hasn't even that nod to the ostensible theme. One is left with the sense that Dearnley might have been happier compiling a book on a broader theme – say A Cabinet Of London Curiosities: Glimpses Of The City's Other Side In The 19th & 20th Centuries – and that its presence in the British Library's Tales Of The Weird imprint is not altogether a comfortable fit. Even then there would have been occasional unnecessary glitches: Ford Madox Ford gains an extra D (and not even at the end of one of the Fords, where it would at least be amusing); elsewhere there are spots where either OCR has gone awry, or old misprints have been reproduced, without it getting caught: "He had been walking for a long time, ever since dark in fact, bind dark falls soon in December."
Still, these quibbles aside, there are plenty of fine and eerie stories of the capital here. Some of them are more historically interesting than effective: Violet Hunt's The Telegram reminds me of the Stella Gibbons stories I've read which aren't Cold Comfort Farm, despite coming a generation earlier, but I think this is simply because I don't read much which exists at quite that constricted interface of accepting social mores as good and proper, while maybe trying to push their boundaries ever so slightly (and, true to the easy reading of social change across those years, Hunt is definitely that little bit stricter in her insistence that flirting and having fun rather than marrying young will end badly). But Rhoda Broughton, for all her maids and butlers, still feels entirely relatable in basing The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth around what people will try to put up with on account of London's overheated property market. Something similar is at the back of Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger, here as the short story which would grow into the novel which would inspire Hitchcock's film, and which also does a good job of having its cake and eating it in terms of riffing on the Ripper, while also recoiling from the queasy fascination of true crime. EF Benson's The Chippendale Mirror is straight down the line stuff compared to some of his stranger stories, but still chills for all that; most of all, Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover is a fabulous, insidious thing, probably just behind the Woolf and Machen as my favourite piece here, and this one with no reason to quibble over its place.
Some of the other non-fictional inclusions are rarer than the Woolf, but set against that, even less obviously at home here. The extract from Thomas Burke's London In My Time, regarding London during the Great War, is fascinating as social history, whether it be little details ("In ordinary life most people can live comfortably without potatoes. Many do." Was this really true of Britons so recently, until a shortage made the spud suddenly desirable?) or the broader argument that, compared to the Boer War, the average Brit and especially the military found unabashed patriotism a fitting target for mockery this time around – something which seems inconceivable now that the First World War has become so hallowed by a century and more of solemn remembrance, precisely as ever fewer of the people who were actually there remained to kick against the canonisation. It's a good read, it's undeniably thought-provoking – but beyond a fairly brief passage about how the street-lamps being painted blue made the nocturnal city new and strange, it doesn't feel eerie in any but the most oblique sense. And Claude McKay, while likewise thoroughly interesting on race in pre-Windrush London, hasn't even that nod to the ostensible theme. One is left with the sense that Dearnley might have been happier compiling a book on a broader theme – say A Cabinet Of London Curiosities: Glimpses Of The City's Other Side In The 19th & 20th Centuries – and that its presence in the British Library's Tales Of The Weird imprint is not altogether a comfortable fit. Even then there would have been occasional unnecessary glitches: Ford Madox Ford gains an extra D (and not even at the end of one of the Fords, where it would at least be amusing); elsewhere there are spots where either OCR has gone awry, or old misprints have been reproduced, without it getting caught: "He had been walking for a long time, ever since dark in fact, bind dark falls soon in December."
Still, these quibbles aside, there are plenty of fine and eerie stories of the capital here. Some of them are more historically interesting than effective: Violet Hunt's The Telegram reminds me of the Stella Gibbons stories I've read which aren't Cold Comfort Farm, despite coming a generation earlier, but I think this is simply because I don't read much which exists at quite that constricted interface of accepting social mores as good and proper, while maybe trying to push their boundaries ever so slightly (and, true to the easy reading of social change across those years, Hunt is definitely that little bit stricter in her insistence that flirting and having fun rather than marrying young will end badly). But Rhoda Broughton, for all her maids and butlers, still feels entirely relatable in basing The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth around what people will try to put up with on account of London's overheated property market. Something similar is at the back of Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger, here as the short story which would grow into the novel which would inspire Hitchcock's film, and which also does a good job of having its cake and eating it in terms of riffing on the Ripper, while also recoiling from the queasy fascination of true crime. EF Benson's The Chippendale Mirror is straight down the line stuff compared to some of his stranger stories, but still chills for all that; most of all, Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover is a fabulous, insidious thing, probably just behind the Woolf and Machen as my favourite piece here, and this one with no reason to quibble over its place.
October 30, 2022
This volume of the British Library Tales of the Weird focuses on London's fog as a literary trope: from the pea-soup atmosphere of Victorian London to the wartime blackouts and air raids of the 20th century.
As usual, the stories offered are varied; a mixture of short story, essay, autofiction and report:
* 'The telegram' by Violet Hunt: in which a woman proposes to the spectre of a dead man.
* 'In the séance room' by Lettice Galbraith: a murder victim emerges in a séance session.
* 'The demon lover' by Elisabeth Bowen: a woman is taken into a taxi by her former cruel, dead boyfriend/soldier.
* 'The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' by Rhoda Broughton: in which two people are petrified after seeing a ghost in a haunted house.
* 'War' (an extract from London in my time) by Thomas Burke: a non-fiction account of the nightcloaking of London during WWI, focusing on the adaptability and endurance of the population.
* 'Street haunting' by Virginia Woolf: brilliant observations of a flaneuse, off to buy a crayon at the Strand.
* 'N' by Arthur Machen, in which a Kubla Khan-vista is spotted in London.
* 'The lodger' by Marie Belloc Lowndes, in which an elderly couple suspects their lodger is none other than Jack The Ripper.
* 'The Chippendale mirror', in which a mirror reflects a murder scene.
* 'Spring-heeled Jack', from a newspaper report, about the first Victorian urban legend of spring-Heeled Jack
... and some others.
Unfortunately, the non-fiction parts and their matter-of-factness destroy the building of atmosphere and tension in the short stories, and hamper the reading experience. Hence three stars instead of four.
As usual, the stories offered are varied; a mixture of short story, essay, autofiction and report:
* 'The telegram' by Violet Hunt: in which a woman proposes to the spectre of a dead man.
* 'In the séance room' by Lettice Galbraith: a murder victim emerges in a séance session.
* 'The demon lover' by Elisabeth Bowen: a woman is taken into a taxi by her former cruel, dead boyfriend/soldier.
* 'The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' by Rhoda Broughton: in which two people are petrified after seeing a ghost in a haunted house.
* 'War' (an extract from London in my time) by Thomas Burke: a non-fiction account of the nightcloaking of London during WWI, focusing on the adaptability and endurance of the population.
* 'Street haunting' by Virginia Woolf: brilliant observations of a flaneuse, off to buy a crayon at the Strand.
* 'N' by Arthur Machen, in which a Kubla Khan-vista is spotted in London.
* 'The lodger' by Marie Belloc Lowndes, in which an elderly couple suspects their lodger is none other than Jack The Ripper.
* 'The Chippendale mirror', in which a mirror reflects a murder scene.
* 'Spring-heeled Jack', from a newspaper report, about the first Victorian urban legend of spring-Heeled Jack
... and some others.
Unfortunately, the non-fiction parts and their matter-of-factness destroy the building of atmosphere and tension in the short stories, and hamper the reading experience. Hence three stars instead of four.
March 4, 2024
As others have noted, this selection of stories include some odd choices that have nothing to do with the weird, and the famous London fog barely makes an appearance throughout. However, the stories themselves are very good, and let us be very clear, tales of the weird are still rife throughout the work.
Of the non-weird offerings, a story by Virginia Woolf seems out of place save for the revelation of a descriptive experience of an evening walk along the London streets. This short entry was my first experience with Virginia Woolf's work and I was so enraptured with her writing that I am thankful for its inclusion and plan to seek out her works; likewise, an excerpt by Claude McKay.
So, despite the inclusion of a very few (and very enjoyable) non-weird tales, this collection of stories are well worth reading.
The stories include:
The Telegram by Violet Hunt
In the Séance Room by Lettice Galbraith
The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth by Rhoda Broughton
War, an extract from London In My Time by Thomas Burke
Street Haunting by Virginia Woolf
Pugilist vs Poet, an extract from A Long Way from Home by Claude McKay
N by Arthur Machen
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes
My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon
The Mystery of the Semi-Detached by Edith Nesbit
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk by Charlotte Riddell
The Chippendale Mirror by E. F. Benson
Spring-Heeled Jack by Anonymous
Of the non-weird offerings, a story by Virginia Woolf seems out of place save for the revelation of a descriptive experience of an evening walk along the London streets. This short entry was my first experience with Virginia Woolf's work and I was so enraptured with her writing that I am thankful for its inclusion and plan to seek out her works; likewise, an excerpt by Claude McKay.
So, despite the inclusion of a very few (and very enjoyable) non-weird tales, this collection of stories are well worth reading.
The stories include:
The Telegram by Violet Hunt
In the Séance Room by Lettice Galbraith
The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth by Rhoda Broughton
War, an extract from London In My Time by Thomas Burke
Street Haunting by Virginia Woolf
Pugilist vs Poet, an extract from A Long Way from Home by Claude McKay
N by Arthur Machen
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes
My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon
The Mystery of the Semi-Detached by Edith Nesbit
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk by Charlotte Riddell
The Chippendale Mirror by E. F. Benson
Spring-Heeled Jack by Anonymous
December 3, 2021
Of the fiction, only Arthur Machen's story "N" is really good. Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" is all right, a superior example of the shaggy-dog yarn that most weird stories ultimately are. Violet Hunt's "The Telegram" is elevated above that by the tragic sexual politics involved. Marie Belloc Lowndes's "The Lodger" is clumsily written (lots of tell) but an inspired concept thrillingly told, so you can see why Hitchcock made it into a movie. Rhoda Broughton's is only interesting for the epistolary form.
The real gems are the nonfiction, especially Virginia Woolf's "Street Haunting", about as fine a piece of writing as exists anywhere in the English language. I was intrigued by the blue-lit WW1 London described by Thomas Burke, angered by the racism that Claude McKay encountered in the 1930s, and enchanted by Sam Selvon's rapid-fire rush through the London of the late '50s.
Dr Dearnley might have been better off dropping the stories by Lettice Galbraith (yes, really), Edith Nesbit, Charlotte Riddell and E F Benson in favour of Greene's "A Little Place Off The Edgware Road", Hartley's "A Visitor From Down Under", or anything at all by A J Alan, whose omission here is almost criminal. The Greene and Hartley stories might be too well-known, but there's a reason why they have survived and Lettice Galbraith, for example, has not. And no Dickens? Good heavens!
The real gems are the nonfiction, especially Virginia Woolf's "Street Haunting", about as fine a piece of writing as exists anywhere in the English language. I was intrigued by the blue-lit WW1 London described by Thomas Burke, angered by the racism that Claude McKay encountered in the 1930s, and enchanted by Sam Selvon's rapid-fire rush through the London of the late '50s.
Dr Dearnley might have been better off dropping the stories by Lettice Galbraith (yes, really), Edith Nesbit, Charlotte Riddell and E F Benson in favour of Greene's "A Little Place Off The Edgware Road", Hartley's "A Visitor From Down Under", or anything at all by A J Alan, whose omission here is almost criminal. The Greene and Hartley stories might be too well-known, but there's a reason why they have survived and Lettice Galbraith, for example, has not. And no Dickens? Good heavens!
November 3, 2025
Bastante buen recopilatorio sobre el Londres extraño y oculto. Me gusta mucho que dividan las historias por barrio de Londres. Viviendo en Londres es fácil imaginar las historias de manera muy vívida. Le doy 3 estrellas y media. Algunos cuentos me gustaron mucho, pero hubo algunas historias que no tenían mucho sentido en el recopilatorio.
Procedo a mencionar mis top 5, a los que daría 4 estrellas:
-top 5: ‘N’(Arthur Machen) Historia súper rara y original sobre alucinaciones compartidas, otras dimensiones y barrios en Londres desconocidos.
-top 4: ‘Street Hunting’ (Virginia Woolf) Ensayo de no ficción de la maravillosa Virginia Woolf sobre el Londres de después del atardecer.
-top 3: ‘The Chippendale Mirror’ (E.F.Benson) Un espejo en el que se ven más que reflejos y un gato. Muy chula.
-top 2:’The telegram’ (Violet Hunt) Una cita que acaba de manera inesperada. Quedé fría con el final.
-top 1: ‘The Lodger’ (Marie Belloc Lowndes) Increíble historia de ficción basada en los asesinatos de Jack el destripador. Me puso los pelos de punta sin ser muy explícita y manteniendo todo el rato el suspense.
Procedo a mencionar mis top 5, a los que daría 4 estrellas:
-top 5: ‘N’(Arthur Machen) Historia súper rara y original sobre alucinaciones compartidas, otras dimensiones y barrios en Londres desconocidos.
-top 4: ‘Street Hunting’ (Virginia Woolf) Ensayo de no ficción de la maravillosa Virginia Woolf sobre el Londres de después del atardecer.
-top 3: ‘The Chippendale Mirror’ (E.F.Benson) Un espejo en el que se ven más que reflejos y un gato. Muy chula.
-top 2:’The telegram’ (Violet Hunt) Una cita que acaba de manera inesperada. Quedé fría con el final.
-top 1: ‘The Lodger’ (Marie Belloc Lowndes) Increíble historia de ficción basada en los asesinatos de Jack el destripador. Me puso los pelos de punta sin ser muy explícita y manteniendo todo el rato el suspense.
November 15, 2020
Every one of these British Library weird tales collection is better than the last, although I may be particularly susceptible to tales of the London fog. All of these are top-notch, and I particularly liked the unusual inclusion of some nonfiction essays. I might have been slightly skeptical at the idea, but they are a really good addition, especially the piece by Thomas Burke on nighttime during World War I, with the city blacked out for air raids but continuing to be a site of entertainment, and the essay by Virginia Woolf, which are both incredibly evocative. My other favorite was the story "The Lodger," adapted into film by Alfred Hitchcock, which is so concerned with mundane everyday life, but is super suspenseful, as an ordinary couple each begin to suspect they're rending a room to Jack the Ripper, but keep their fears to themselves until the husband's teenage daughter comes for a visit. Very unsettled. But they're all great!
November 15, 2022
A collection of stories and nonfiction accounts. The stories on their own probably deserve four stars as most of them are good, many are very well known and loved. However, the collection calls itself eerie tales of the weird, which several are not. It seemed possible the editor simply looked for stories with “fog” somewhere in them, but that is even not true of all of them. I have been feeling of late with these BL collections that they are just done to give fellowship scholars something to do, and have very little thought put into them.
If you are hoping for a collection of the weird, this will disappoint. But if you just like, or have been wanting to read the stories listed in the contents, it is not a bad little combination. That is why I struggled to rate it. It does not do what it says, but that isn’t the fault of the original authors
If you are hoping for a collection of the weird, this will disappoint. But if you just like, or have been wanting to read the stories listed in the contents, it is not a bad little combination. That is why I struggled to rate it. It does not do what it says, but that isn’t the fault of the original authors
March 20, 2023
There were some good parts of this book. Many of the spooky stories were ones that I had read in other collections. They were good stories, but not the most creative selections. There were a number of non-fiction selections by famous authors. I understand why they picked them, but I had a hard time sticking with the longer selections. Virginia Woolf wrote a meandering, stream of consciousness account of a walk through the London twilight that would had been more impactful with some editing. I like short stories and even novellas when they have a beginning, middle, and end. The non fiction selections did not. They were hard to stick with. I would recommend this book for someone who hasn't read a lot of late 19th century, early 20th century, short selections. It would be a good introduction to the setting.
November 29, 2023
A little more like what I was hoping for from a series like this! The quality of the stories in this anthology was much higher, and overall the book seemed a little more mature than the previous one I'd read. London is a delightfully creepy city so it's not difficult to draw on plenty of inspiration, and anyone who's been to London and is a halfway decent writer probably can't fail to capture some of its incredibly potent atmosphere. Even so, these stories are very enjoyable, wonderfully creepy and some of them allegedly true, for that extra terror factor.
Each story is prefaced by a short biographical and contextual essay, which are informative and brief. There's a good variety of locations, times, and authors, and while there were personal stand-outs, there was nothing in here I thought was outright bad. Just what I was hoping for in the lead-up to Halloween, really.
Each story is prefaced by a short biographical and contextual essay, which are informative and brief. There's a good variety of locations, times, and authors, and while there were personal stand-outs, there was nothing in here I thought was outright bad. Just what I was hoping for in the lead-up to Halloween, really.
March 14, 2022
Whoops read this in the latter half of '21 and forgot to add it to my tally. This book of stories could have been compiled especially for me as I adore older ghost stories and set in London, all the better. I especially like War, a piece about how spooky London was during WW1, Street Haunting by Virginia Woolf, as a fan of Hitchcock films, The Lodger was amazing also, and I liked My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon. The Demon Love by Elizabeth Bowen is one of my all time favourites so it was nice to see it in the collection.
As previous reviewers have noted, a few of the stories are slow moving but it's a fantastic collection, really well chosen for breadth, with a fantastic introduction by Elizabeth Dearnley. I'll be keeping this collection and returning to it.
As previous reviewers have noted, a few of the stories are slow moving but it's a fantastic collection, really well chosen for breadth, with a fantastic introduction by Elizabeth Dearnley. I'll be keeping this collection and returning to it.
June 17, 2022
This is the second of the 'Tales of the Weird' books I have read and already I think I'm something of a fan!
Naturally, given the variety of the authors collected, some stories hit harder or work subtler than others. To my mind this collection has two complete dudds, but at least three real treasures and the rest ranging between the two poles.
There are few genuine terrors here, but there are some intriguingly creepy feels, and some deeply atmospheric writing.
It being high summer at the time I write this, this is possibly the wrong time to be reading this book. Autumn or early winter would work best. When the fog rolls in...
3.5 rounded up to four!
***** Great
**** Good
*** Fair
** Poor
* Dire
Naturally, given the variety of the authors collected, some stories hit harder or work subtler than others. To my mind this collection has two complete dudds, but at least three real treasures and the rest ranging between the two poles.
There are few genuine terrors here, but there are some intriguingly creepy feels, and some deeply atmospheric writing.
It being high summer at the time I write this, this is possibly the wrong time to be reading this book. Autumn or early winter would work best. When the fog rolls in...
3.5 rounded up to four!
***** Great
**** Good
*** Fair
** Poor
* Dire
April 7, 2023
I knew this book would be trouble when the introduction rambled on about feminism, now I ain't got a problem with that usually, I just want to read some creepy short stories. Nothing more, nothing less.
The stories are a massively mixed bag and having read the intro I can't escape the thought that some of these tales have been picked because of what was between the writers legs. That kind of introduction does nothing but put a bad taste in your mouth before reading a single page.
Am I reading the best short stories the editor could assemble? Or I am reading a collection based on the editors bias/political leaning?
Time and a place for that kind of thing. A short story horror book ain't it.
The stories are a massively mixed bag and having read the intro I can't escape the thought that some of these tales have been picked because of what was between the writers legs. That kind of introduction does nothing but put a bad taste in your mouth before reading a single page.
Am I reading the best short stories the editor could assemble? Or I am reading a collection based on the editors bias/political leaning?
Time and a place for that kind of thing. A short story horror book ain't it.
February 19, 2025
some great stuff in here and i really enjoyed the individual pieces, but the nonfiction included in here seems a bit crammed in and i feel like there are definitely other essays about london that fit the theme better. i enjoyed the essays in the collection but they didn’t seem to fit the theme at all — they each had one brief mention of fog or darkness and that was really it. i feel as if the title maybe dictates the collection too much — “into the london fog” is a snappy name for this collection but based on the essays included purely by virtue of having a single mention of fog or nighttime it seems to have dictated the terms of inclusion for the pieces in this collection too much. really enjoyable pieces in here that were unfortunately poorly curated.
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