Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings. John Murray, 2018 (2017). Compiled from four serial ebook novellas appearing between 2014 and 2016, Codename Villanelle was the first of a trilogy (which was to include the sequels No Tomorrow and Die for Me) before being adapted and expanded to four seasons for BBC television under the blanket heading … Continue reading Tosca’s kisses: #RIPxx| Calmgrove Books
Transformation by Mary Shelley. ‘Transformation’, ‘The Invisible Girl’ and ‘The Mortal Immortal’. Penguin Archive, 2025 (1831-4). These three Gothic romances by the author of Frankenstein – ‘Gothick’ I should rather call them – simultaneously attract and repulse me; they are ‘horrid’ in the antique sense of a heightened awareness of the supernatural and the workings of … Continue reading Matter most horrid: #RIPxx #ShortStorySeptember| Calmgrove Books
© C A Lovegrove. Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler. Introduction by James Fenton. Penguin Modern Classics, 2009 (1938). The village of St Gatien sprawls decoratively in the lee of the small headland…| Calmgrove Books
‘The Spectre Bridegroom’ and ‘The Pride of the Village’ by Washington Irving, from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–20), in ‘Rip van Winkle’, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ & Other Stories. Wordsworth Classics, 2009. Two tales about true love, yet one’s a tragedy and the other a comedy; one is set in rural England, another … Continue reading Death and the maiden: #ShortStorySeptember| Calmgrove Books
