{"title":"Non-fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eSome insightful reads if you are fascinated by the history of gothic literature and culture, or the familiars and folklore that sit alongside  \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"gothic-an-illustrated-history","title":"Gothic: An Illustrated History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCrumbling ruins, undead fiends, dark alleys and forests teeming with horrors seen and unseen: the tendrils of the Gothic have crept out of the architecture of churches, mosques and grand houses and into suburban malls, overcrowded cities, the deserted corners of the world and beyond, taking the shape of monsters from Beowulf to Gojira, Cthulhu or the wendigo to our own terrifying, warped reflections. Across time, form and media, this book traces the weaving path of the Gothic from the shadows of history to the very heart of popular culture today. With over 350 illustrations.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Roger Luckhurst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510565392723,"sku":"9780500252512","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9780500252512.jpg?v=1788106693"},{"product_id":"the-gothic-a-very-short-introduction","title":"The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Gothic is wildly diverse. It can refer to ecclesiastical architecture, supernatural fiction, cult horror films, and a distinctive style of rock music. It has influenced political theorists and social reformers, as well as Victorian home décor and contemporary fashion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNick Groom shows how the Gothic has come to encompass so many meanings by telling the story of the Gothic from the ancient tribe who sacked Rome to the alternative subculture of the present day. This unique Very Short Introduction reveals that the Gothic has predominantly been a way of understanding and responding to the past. Time after time, the Gothic has been invoked in order to reveal what lies behind conventional history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is a way of disclosing secrets, whether in the constitutional politics of seventeenth-century England or the racial politics of the United States. While contexts change, the Gothic perpetually regards the past with fascination, both yearning and horrified. It reminds us that neither societies nor individuals can escape the consequences of their actions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe anatomy of the Gothic is richly complex and perversely contradictory, and so the thirteen chapters here range deliberately widely. This is the first time that the entire story of the Gothic has been written as a continuous history: from the historians of late antiquity to the gardens of Georgian England, from the mediaeval cult of the macabre to German Expressionist cinema, from Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy to American consumer society, from folk ballads to vampires, from the past to the present. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nick Groom","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510565458259,"sku":"9780199586790","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9780199586790.jpg?v=1788106980"},{"product_id":"the-cambridge-companion-to-world-gothic-literature","title":"The Cambridge Companion to World-Gothic Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMonsters have always swarmed around the frontiers of colonialism and capitalism, from Europe's invasion and occupation of the Americas to the planetary emergency of the present day. In this volume, we discover how the early British Gothic – far from a progenitor – is in fact a belated cultural response to capitalist modernity, one anticipated by myriad spectres haunting the plantations of the 'New World'. Gothic did not begin in Britain, and then become global over time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRather, as the volume reveals, gothic has always been world-gothic: a way of dealing with the alienation and anxiety that erupt with capitalist modernisation, when- and wherever this is taking place. Essays in the volume chart the new links and comparisons enabled by this insight, renovating established gothic concepts and outlining groundbreaking new theoretical infrastructure. Together, chapters provincialise the 'western' gothic tradition, in order to open up new possibilities for world-gothic reading.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rebecca Duncan and Rebekah Cumpsty (eds)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510565687635,"sku":"9781009382564","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781009382564.jpg?v=1788108349"},{"product_id":"the-lure-of-the-unknown","title":"The Lure of the Unknown: Essays on the Strange","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Every thing possible to be believ’d is an image of truth.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e– William Blake\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lure of the Unknown\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a collection of Algernon Blackwood’s essays, talks, reviews and anecdotes exploring encounters with the strange and unusual or, in Blackwood’s preferred word, the “odd”. They include his first attempts to investigate alleged haunted houses, his association with such luminaries as W. B. Yeats, “A.E.”, and Gurdjieff; his thoughts on telepathy, reincarnation, elemental spirits, other dimensions, and his beliefs in what lies beyond our normal perceptions. These writings reveal not only Blackwood’s diverse experiences, but his depth of reading and analysis of the unexplained. They provide another dimension to an understanding of one of the great writers of the supernatural. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew of these essays have been reprinted beyond their first publication or their broadcast on radio and television. Selected and introduced by Mike Ashley.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algernon Blackwood","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510569587027,"sku":"9781783807666","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781783807666.jpg?v=1786375193"},{"product_id":"the-art-of-darkness","title":"The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the first comprehensive history of goth music and culture. John Robb explores the origins and legacy of this enduring scene, which has its roots in the post-punk era. Drawing on his own experience as a musician and journalist, Robb covers the style, the music and the clubs that spawned goth culture, alongside political and social conditions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReaching back further into history, he examines key events and movements that frame the ideas of goth, from the fall of Rome to Lord Byron and the Romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic art and the occult. Finally, he considers the current mainstream goth of Instagram influencers, film, literature and music. The art of darkness features interviews with Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einstürzende Neubauten, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many more.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt offers a first-hand account of being there at the gigs and clubs that made the scene happen.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Robb","offers":[{"title":"Signed by the author","offer_id":55427665658195,"sku":"9781526176769Sig","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Regular unsigned copy","offer_id":55427665690963,"sku":"9781526176769","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781526176769.jpg?v=1786208042"},{"product_id":"the-book-of-the-raven","title":"The Book of the Raven: Corvids in Art and Legend","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCorvids play an outsize role in the human imagination. We keep ravens in towers, emblazon rooks on banners, find crows in the constellations and make sure to salute solitary magpies. We also see our own behaviour mirrored in this diverse family of birds, who are tricksters and thieves as well as problem-solvers and gift-givers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis beautifully designed book showcases the visual and literary life of the corvid, from Norse legends to \u003cem\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/em\u003e. It includes beautiful and darkly seductive photographs and paintings as well as texts and poems in which they play a starring role and information about the traits that make them so intriguing to us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Angus Hyland and Caroline Roberts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54510571848019,"sku":"9781786277015","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781786277015.jpg?v=1786049820"},{"product_id":"witchcraft-a-history-in-thirteen-trials","title":"Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"These stories of witchcraft, true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous. Together they comprise not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale.\", Malcolm Gaskill, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Ruin of All Witches\u003c\/em\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eWitchcraft\u003c\/em\u003e,  Professor Marion Gibson uses thirteen significant trials to tell the global history of witchcraft and witch-hunts. As well as exploring the origins of witch-hunts through some of the most famous trials from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, it takes us in new and surprising directions. T\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehree women were prosecuted under a version of the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 2018.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eProfessor Gibson also tells the stories of the ‘witches’ – mostly women like Helena Scheuberin, Anny Sampson and Joan Wright, whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James I and ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them. Once a tool invented by demonologists to hurt and silence their enemies, witch trials have been twisted and transformed over the course of history and the lines between witch and witch-hunter blurred. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor the fortunate, a witch-hunt is just a metaphor, but, as this book makes clear, witches are truly still on trial. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marion Gibson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54581163327827,"sku":"9781398508538","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781398508538.jpg?v=1786633934"},{"product_id":"darkness-becomes-bright","title":"Darkness Becomes Bright: The Haunted Life (and Afterlife) of Edgar Allan Poe","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"A wonderfully engaging account of Poe’s troubled life and work... \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNimble, generous, brimming with insight\", Sarah Waters\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eDarkness Becomes Bright\u003c\/em\u003e is an unflinching exploration of horror, the human condition, and how Edgar Allan Poe's haunted legacy might keep us company in moments of darkness.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAre you brave enough to step into the darkness? Edgar Allan Poe did not truly die. In the years since his mysterious demise, his works have captivated millions and spawned the genres of horror and the detective story.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis masterpieces — filled with talking ravens and buried women, haunted houses and beating hearts — live on in our imaginations and our nightmares. They are endlessly adapted, parodied and obsessed over. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eBut who was Edgar Allan Poe? And why does he haunt us still?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFollowing the course of Poe’s fascinating, short and tragic life — from his fame as the poet of 'The Raven' to his tortured romances and literary feuds — Emily Ogden dives deep into the mind of a man whose darkness has shaped our world, and interweaves his story with those of the devoted readers who have found solace in his work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Spellbinding... \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis portrait of Poe will haunt you to the grave and beyond\", Christine Smallwood\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Emily Ogden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54785398309203,"sku":"9781037408267","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781037408267.jpg?v=1789927306"},{"product_id":"things-i-took-from-the-dark-the-museum-of-me","title":"Things I Took from the Dark: The Museum of Me","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Reece is a brilliant, funny tour guide into the world of arcane, strange phantasmagoria. I absolutely loved it!\", Jon Ronson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor decades, Reece Shearsmith has been collecting terrible things, from our world and beyond, from the coffin of a vampire to pickled hands used in witchcraft, haunted paintings and mummified mermaids.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSome of them he found. Some of them found him. But they all reside here in his museum, carefully stored and waiting for their stories to be told.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThrough the lens of these items, Reece tells his own story, from a terrifying nighttime visitation on a council estate in Hull, via haunted inns and uncanny creatures that hovered around the edges of the \u003cem\u003eLeague of Gentlemen\u003c\/em\u003e, to the benevolent teaspoon poltergeist of the \u003cem\u003eInside No. 9\u003c\/em\u003e tour. Beautifully illustrated throughout by Reece himself, \u003cem\u003eThings I Took From the Dark\u003c\/em\u003e is a memoir like no other.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYou'll come away knowing the author far better - but the exhibits are quite keen to meet you, too...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reece Shearsmith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54785407582547,"sku":"9781529453133","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781529453133.jpg?v=1789840904"},{"product_id":"shirley-jackson-a-rather-haunted-life","title":"Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinner, 2016 Bram Stoker Award - Nonfiction; Winner, 2017 Edgar Award - Critical\/Biographical\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA genius of literary suspense, known to millions as the author of the “The Lottery” and \u003cem\u003eThe Haunting of Hill House\u003c\/em\u003e, Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of interviews, \u003cem\u003eShirley Jackson\u003c\/em\u003e reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author, firmly placing Jackson within the American Gothic tradition. In this “remarkable act of reclamation” (Neil Gaiman), Ruth Franklin demonstrates how Jackson's unique contribution to the canon “so uncannily channeled women’s nightmares and contradictions that it is ‘nothing less than the secret history of American women of her era’ ” (\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\"Franklin’s biography takes us beyond the chilling stories that made Shirley Jackson’s name into the dilemmas of a woman writer in the 1950s and ’60s, struggling to make a career between the pressures of childcare, domesticity, and her own demons. It’s a very modern story, and a terrific read.\", Mary Beard\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e","brand":"Ruth Franklin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54912006324563,"sku":"9781631493416","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781631493416.jpg?v=1789053741"},{"product_id":"gothic-cinema","title":"Gothic Cinema","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArguing for the need to understand Gothic cinema as an aesthetic mode, this book explores its long history, from its transitional origins in phantasmagoria shows and the first ‘trick’ films to its postmodern fragmentation in the Gothic pastiches of Tim Burton. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut what is Gothic cinema? Is the iconography of the Gothic film equivalent to that of the horror genre? Are the literary origins of the Gothic what solidified its aesthetics? And exactly what cultural roles does the Gothic continue to perform for us today? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eGothic Cinema\u003c\/em\u003e covers topics such as the chiaroscuro experiments of early German cinema, the monster cinema of the 1930s, the explained supernatural of the old dark house mystery films of the 1920s and the Female Gothics of the 1940s, the use of vibrant colours in the period Gothics of the late 1950s, the European exploitation booms of the 1960s and 1970s, and the animated films and Gothic superheroes that dominate present times. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThroughout, Aldana Reyes makes a strong case for a medium-specific and more intuitive approach to the Gothic on screen that acknowledges its position within wider film industries with their own sets of financial pressures and priorities. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis ground-breaking book in the Routledge Film Guidebooks series is the first thorough chronological, transhistorical and transnational study of Gothic cinema, ideal for both new and seasoned scholars, as well as those with a wider interest in the Gothic.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Xavier Aldana Reyes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54912125632851,"sku":"9781138227569","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781138227569.jpg?v=1789055130"},{"product_id":"gothic-revival-architecture","title":"Gothic Revival Architecture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the Houses of Parliament to the Midland Hotel at St Pancras and Strawberry Hill House, Gothic Revival buildings are some of the most distinctive structures found in Britain. Far from a copy of medieval buildings, it was a style full of colour and invention, in which its exponents created a daring new approach to design. Throwing out the old Classical rule book, Gothic Revival architects like Pugin and George Gilbert Scott designed buildings which were asymmetrical in form and visually expressive of their function.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe movement went beyond just bricks and mortar and had a strong moral code, the influence of which was still felt into the 20th century. In this slim volume illustrated book, Trevor Yorke tells the story of the Gothic Revival from its origins in the whimsical fancies of the Georgian Period through to its High Victorian climax.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Trevor Yorke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54912133235027,"sku":"9781784422288","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781784422288.jpg?v=1789055558"},{"product_id":"haunted-air","title":"Haunted Air","description":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA collection of anonymous Hallowe'en Photographs from America, c.1875 - 1955, with Foreword by David Lynch\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe roots of Hallowe'en lie in the ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, a feast to mark the death of the old year and the birth of the new. It was believed that on this night the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead grew thin and ruptured, allowing spirits to pass through and walk unseen but not unheard amongst men. The advent of Christianity saw the pagan festival subsumed in All Souls' Day, when across Europe the dead were mourned and venerated.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChildren and the poor, often masked or in outlandish costume, wandered the night begging 'soul cakes' in exchange for prayers, and fires burned to keep malevolent phantoms at bay. The photographs in \u003cem\u003eHaunted Air\u003c\/em\u003e provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementos of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTorn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ossian Brown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55277456982355,"sku":"9781787334243","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1071\/6997\/2563\/files\/9781787334243.jpg?v=1791550393"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.vanitaspress.co.uk\/collections\/non-fiction.oembed","provider":"Vanitas Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}