Description:
The stories in Lost Estates offer antiquarian mysteries, book-collecting adventures, and otherworldly encounters. Though drawing on the traditions of English supernatural fiction, these tales also strike out into unusual terrain.
Brief description: Mark Valentine is originally from Northampton but now lives in Yorkshire near the Leeds-Liverpool canal. He likes second-hand bookshops, vegan food, overgrown gardens, stationery shops and village hall flea markets. As well as his fiction, his other books include studies of Arthur Machen and Sarban, and four volumes of essays on book-collecting.
Review Quotes:
"If you have ever wondered about the boundaries between strange tales and even stranger realities, you will enjoy exploring [Valentine's] frequently familiar yet often unsettling world." - Supernatural Tales
"Valentine [interweaves] the numinous and mysterious into the tapestry of the English landscape and English tradition." - Ghosts & Scholars
"Lost Estates gathers stories by Valentine that share in common various aspects of folk horror . . . [he] paints a picture of a landscape redolent of mystery and linked via a thin veil to a heritage of ancient wisdom and arcane lore. Highly recommended." - John Kenny