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Illusions of Presence
Lost Christmas Ghost Stories
Brief Description
Oh! Grandmamma, do tell us a story a nice, horrible ghost story. A trip to the dentist becomes a ghoulish ordeal on Christmas Eve. Blood spilt over a Christmas wedding begets a ghostly vengeance. In the dark of a mine, an elemental spirit claims its Yuletide...
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Format: Hardback
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See moreA beautiful collection of forgotten classic ghost stories to bring the eerie into Christmas, from the editor of the run-away Halloweird and ongoing bestseller Celtic Weird, Johnny Mains.
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Description
Oh! Grandmamma, do tell us a story a nice, horrible ghost story.
A trip to the dentist becomes a ghoulish ordeal on Christmas Eve. Blood spilt over a Christmas wedding begets a ghostly vengeance. In the dark of a mine, an elemental spirit claims its Yuletide sacrifice.
The Christmas ghost story is a cornerstone of supernatural writing, with a legacy stretching back centuries, and scores of classic tales awaiting rediscovery. Returning from a hunt through the murk of newspaper and journal archives, eminent anthologist Johnny Mains brings you the gift of fifteen long-lost yarns spun for weird Christmas days and nights.
With tales penned by Victorian novelists, anonymous enigmas and 1920s pulp writers, this sparkling selection of rarities is a festive riot of the spectral and macabre.
Series: British Library Gilded Nightmares
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Illusions of Presence
Oh! Grandmamma, do tell us a story a nice, horrible ghost story. A trip to the dentist becomes a ghoulish ordeal on Christmas Eve. Blood spilt over a Christmas wedding begets a ghostly vengeance. In the dark of a mine, an elemental spirit claims its Yuletide sacrifice. The Christmas ghost story is a cornerstone of supernatural writing, with a legacy...HardbackSold Out -
Bewitched
Drawing from a lifetime of supernatural short-story writing, this new collection of Edith Wharton's greatest and most chilling tales showcases one of the most talented ghost story practitioners of all time at her very best. This new edition features a new introductory essay discussing Wharton's indelible influence on the ghost story genre, as well as rarely anthologised tales from the...HardbackSold Out -
The Dead of Summer
May Day Eve, Walpurgis Night and Midsummer Eve or the Summer Solstice. Tales of these fated days and nights, and their riotous rituals and feasts, have rung down the centuries, and yet in today's world those that observe their ancient ways are few.Setting out on a mission to re-weird this lost stretch of the ritual year, Johnny Mains returns with...HardbackSold Out -
The Strange Stories of John Buchan
To mark the 150th anniversary of Scottish author John Buchan's birth, strange fiction expert James Machin presents a new selection of the writer's best uncanny fiction, including stories from The Runagates Club.Though best known today as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, this new volume aims to foreground his contribution to the early weird tale, including some of his most...HardbackSold Out
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780712355933
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 16 October 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: British Library Publishing
Contributors:
- Edited by Johnny Mains
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 190.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 188
About the Author
Johnny Mains is an eminent horror anthologist renowned for recovering lost stories from the archives. His books edited for the British Library include Celtic Weird (2022), Scotland the Strange (2023), Halloweird (2024) and The Dead of Summer (2025). His latest books are Bound in Blood (Titan, 2024), The Anthologist's Folly (Ramble House, 2024) and His Beautiful Hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook (Ramble House, 2025).
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