Anthologies don't get much better than this masterful assembly of 23 horror shorts, first published between 1872 and 1964. And yes some of the stories where indeed good, but these where all stories I had read before so this anthology was not bringing me anything new and exciting. The only two stories I really liked were "The Summer People" (which I had already read) and "The Lady on the Grey.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I went in with such high expectations; I saw it on the shelf in Waterstones (yes brought new which makes it even more disappointing) and did a wee happy jiggy dance.I was reminded how gorgeously unsettling Shirley Jackson's 'The Summer People' is and how much I adore MR James when I read his 'The Ash-Tree'. Dear reader do yourself a favour and just read the collected works of the master of Folk Horror, Arthur Machen. I believe this is generally subjective on the part of the reader, and not always because a bad selection is made. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Unholy rites, witches’ curses, sinister village traditions and ancient horrors that lurk within the landscape all combine to remind us that the shiny modern, urban world might not have all the answers… Wicked witches, bad fairies, and the restless dead be damned, for those who are looking to fill up their folk horror fiction shelves, Damnable Tales is a must-have. However, I particularly enjoyed ‘Man-size in Marble’ and ‘The Lady On the Grey’, while Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Withered Arm’ is a well constructed piece of writing.

Outside of his television work, he makes and sells his own darkly folkloric artwork, often lino cut and hand-printed. Some used it really heavily/ almost exclusively to the point where the story was difficult to be immersed in because you had to re-read every other line to understand what was happening. Da schlummern alte dämonische Kräfte, die ihren Ursprung weit vor dem Christentum haben, da mögen die Dorfbewohner keine Fremdlinge und "Dazugereisten". There's a bit of everything in here from great demonic figures, to ominous brooding buildings, to strange and twisted village rituals.

The stories included in this anthology are not very famous, even when the authors are well known in the horror and mystery genres.

These are the settings of our ancestors, and therefore are still carried somewhere deep within us now: remote villages and darkened lanes, lonely woodlands, obscure country houses and crumbling cemeteries. He is also the creator of the Folk Horror Revival and Urban Wyrd Projects and the associated publishing arm Wyrd Harvest Press.