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British Library

Publishing New titles 2026

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Agatha Christie A World of Mystery The Book of the British Library Exhibition Edited by Martin Edwards and Lucy Rowland, with a Foreword by Kenneth Branagh

Agatha Christie is the undisputed Queen of Crime; her popularity has remained undiminished since her death 50 years ago. Granted unprecedented access to the Christie Archive, and drawing on the perspectives, experiences and knowledge of a cast of characters from stage, screen and theatre production, writers of crime fiction and Christie experts, this book presents a once-in-ageneration opportunity to delve into the author’s life and work.

Hardback £40 ISBN 978 0 7123 6966 4 368 pages, 264 x 206 mm 200+ colour illustrations Publishing October 2026

Martin Edwards is series consultant for British Library Crime Classics. He is a CWA Diamond Dagger Awardwinning crime writer and president of the Detection Club. Lucy Rowland works in the Eccles Centre of the British Library and is the Lead Curator for the Agatha Christie Exhibition.

From the houses in which she lived to her friends and family, her work in a dispensary in the First World War to her travels in the Middle East, and from real-life events to famous literary icons, the book and the exhibition it accompanies will provide an eclectic tour of Christie’s influences to reveal what inspired her and how she, in turn, inspired a literary movement. Comprehensively illustrated throughout, the book includes images of first editions of the novels, original notebooks, scripts, and letters to publishers and agents; family photographs, and personal objects such as her typewriter, passports and travel itineraries. Notable contributors include Lucy Foley, Kate Mosse, G T Karber, John Curran, Zoe Wannamaker, Brian Fenty and Caroline Crampton.

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Final design TBC

Wuthering Heights A Novel in Two Volumes The British Library First Edition Facsimile Emily Brontë

Two-volume facsimile in a presentation box with a facsimile of Emily’s personal copy of Poems, and two loose-leaf poems reproduced from her personal notebooks £125 ISBN 978 0 7123 6901 5 Approx. 900 pages, (box) 266 x 167 mm Colour facsimile reproduction Publishing September 2026

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) wrote just the single novel Wuthering Heights, which was accepted for joint publication with her sister’s novel, Agnes Grey, by Thomas Newby. Critics were initially hostile, describing it as too savage and clumsy in construction. Since then it has gained recognition as one of the finest novels in English.

Emily Brontë’s disturbing tale of obsessive love and revenge has haunted readers since its first publication in 1847. To commemorate the enduring appeal of, and fascination with, this classic novel, the British Library is presenting a facsimile of the first edition copy held in its archives. Two volumes are combined in a sumptuous cloth-bound clamshell box with a facsimile of a particularly special item from the collections. This is Emily’s own copy of Poems, a collection she published with her sisters in 1846, prior to the success of Wuthering Heights. The unique quality of this copy is revealed in the author’s handwritten notes throughout. It is signed and dated by her on the title page. Brontë fans will now be able to own facsimile first editions of the two creative works Emily published during her short life – essentially her complete works – faithfully reproduced and presented together in a gorgeous box with gold foil details. The collection is rounded off with facsimiles of looseleaf pages from her two manuscript poetry notebooks (also held in the Library collections) that show earlier versions of a couple of poems that were selected to appear in Poems.

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Mapping Britain’s Railways The Design History of a Nation on Track Mark Ovenden and Andrew Smithers Railway diagrams have been at the forefront of mapping Britain’s railways since they first began operating 200 years ago – a journey from A to B has always needed to be easily and quickly understood.

Hardback £25 ISBN 978 0 7123 5589 6 176 pages, 240 x 220 mm 200+ colour maps and artworks Publishing August 2026

Mark Ovenden is a world-famous, and bestselling, authority on transport mapping. Mark has a broadcast career spanning 40 years and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

This book reveals the surprising history of how British railway cartographers have led the way in designing clear passenger information, even predating the iconic London Underground diagram, which itself has expanded to encompass overground routes around the capital and beyond. Written and designed by bestselling author Mark Ovenden and National Rail mapmaker Andrew Smithers, this intriguing and lively history is illustrated with over 300 colourful maps from around the country, showing the evolution of schematics from simple line drawings to complex diagrams that incorporate ever more information.

Andrew Smithers has been the designer of Britain’s National Rail map in its multiple forms since 2009 as well as other maps for Network Rail. Andrew runs the popular website Project Mapping.

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A History of Roads in 100 Maps Jeremy Black

The major form of travel throughout history has been roadways. And while humanity has traversed these roadways on foot, by horse or in mechanical vehicles, there is the common theme of a particular route; a right of way differentiating the roadway from adjoining countryside. This book provides the first unique survey of the mapping of roads, exploring the development of these most essential of societies’ arteries.

Hardback £40 ISBN 978 0 7123 6936 7 288 pages, 280 x 220 mm 140 colour and b/w illustrations Publishing October 2026

Jeremy Black is an internationally acclaimed historian and Professor of History at Exeter University. He is the author of some 200 books, including most recently for the British Library, The History of Railways in 100 Maps (2024).

Taking as its principal research source one of the world’s greatest historical map collections at the British Library, this volume commences with Konrad Peutinger’s celebrated map of 4th Century Roman roads but, as the print revolution develops, we are soon transported along pilgrim routes, across conqueror’s maps, along early Modern post-roads and via the beautiful cartography of Japan’s 1666 Tōkaidō map. A History of Roads in 100 Maps also explores the early maps of Automobile Clubs, heralding the dramatic revolution motorised transport brought to roads, and concludes with a similarly seismic shift, a century later, as the birth of the information superhighway reinvented the road map for ever.

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Tara of the Kings Ancient Irish Myths and Legends Retold Gerry Smyth

TARA BRITISH LIBRARY

of the

KINGS Ancient Irish Myths and Legends Retold GERRY SMYTH

Hardback £30 ISBN 978 0 7123 6951 0 320 pages, 234 x 156 mm 150+ colour illustrations Publishing October 2026

Gerry Smyth is originally from Dublin but is now a resident of Hoylake in the north west of England, acting as Professor of Irish Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. He has published widely on various aspects of Irish music and literature. He is the author of Serpent, Siren, Maelstrom & Myth: Sea Stories and Folktales from Around the World, a mythology collection published by the British Library in 2023. Gerry is also a playwright, actor, composer and musician.

Here we visit an island of mortals and immortals, warriors and giants, druids and shapeshifters; of rolling hills echoing with the sound of hunting horns, and dark forests through which mad monarchs roam; of boggy plains where battles are fought, and mystic lakes where swan-children reside. It is across these storied landscapes that the canon of Irish mythology unfurls. Ancient tales – once preserved in memory and passed down through oral tradition, later recorded by scholars and poets – are here retold, accompanied by thoughtful commentaries and enchanting illustrations. From the Tuatha Dé Danann to the Children of Lir, and from legendary heroes Cuchulain and Finn mac Cool to the Mad King Sweeney, Tara of the Kings takes readers through the four story cycles of Irish mythology, beginning with the first settlers in Ireland and concluding as legend and history collide at the Battle of Clontarf.

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Hotcockles and Twittletwattle Forgotten Words from Dr Johnson’s Dictionary Edited by Liz Drury, with an Introduction by Joseph Drury Have you ever loaned a bedpresser (a heavy lazy fellow) a muckender (handkerchief)? Or felt your mind skimbleskamble (wander) in the company of an abecedarian (one who teaches the alphabet)?

Hardback £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6916 9 144 pages, 198 x 129 mm 70 engravings Publishing September 2026

Liz Drury is an experienced editor, mainly working for Yale University. Joseph Drury is Associate Professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and a literary scholar of 18th century Britain.

First published in two mighty volumes in 1755, Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language was the exhaustive result of seven years’ research culminating in the first true lexicon of the English language. Perusing the pages of this famous Dictionary reveals an eclectic profusion of words that are either completely unfamiliar to a twenty-first-century reader or have acquired different meanings in modern usage. Elizabeth Drury has combed through Johnson’s magnum opus to compile a new dictionary of forgotten, curious, hilarious and – occasionally – quite useful words. So don’t be a wantwit and learn your arse foot from your emunctories to impress your potcompanions at the next symposiack.

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Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms Art, Word, War Edited with a new Afterword by Claire Breay and Joanna Story In 2018, the British Library staged a landmark exhibition, the largest ever to deal exclusively with Anglo-Saxon England. Presenting over 180 objects, the exhibition and its book were a critical and commercial success and led the way for a reappraisal of AngloSaxon culture. This expanded edition of the bestselling exhibition book includes new retrospective material on the influence of this exhibition and subsequent discoveries in the field.

Hardback £35 ISBN 978 0 7123 6965 7 432 pages, 280 x 220 mm 140 colour illustrations Publishing October 2026

New Edition

Claire Breay is Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library. In 2018 she curated the blockbuster Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition. Joanna Story is Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester.

The Anglo-Saxon period stretches from the arrival of Germanic groups on British shores in the early 5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. During these centuries, the English language was used and written down for the first time, pagan populations were converted to Christianity, and the foundations of the kingdom of England were laid. This richly illustrated book presents Anglo-Saxon England as the home of a highly sophisticated artistic and political culture, deeply connected with its continental neighbours. Leading specialists in early medieval history, literature and culture engage with the unique, original evidence from which we can piece together the story of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

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The Little Book of Fairies Carolyne Larrington

In our modern age fairies are diminutive, winged spirits associated with the innocence of childhood or the brooding heroes of popular romantasy novels. But fairies have taken many guises. To the early Britons they were fallen angels or relegated pagan gods, denizens of a strange world parallel to our own. In whispered tales, they can be found orchestrating shipwrecks, kidnapping musicians for their secret revels, and luring human lovers into the greenwood with their seductive beauty and beguiling promises.

Hardback £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5574 2 96 pages, 190 x 150 mm 40+ colour illustrations Publishing March 2026

Carolyne Larrington is emerita professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Trolls and Dragons in the Little Books series. Other recent books include All Men Must Die: Power and Passion in Game of Thrones and The Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think.

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Their changeability has made them mainstays of the fantasy genre: at once capricious and ethereal, wielding arcane laws to reward and exploit human nature, and doling out blessings and curses in equal measure. From protective fairy godmothers to uncanny fairy changelings, and from Tam Lin to Tinker Bell, this shimmering guide unravels the plentiful tales of the faerie folk.

The Little Book of Unicorns Juliette Wood

The unicorn was an elusive creature originally thought to exist at the edge of the known world. Classical scripts, travellers’ tales and theological speculation created fanciful descriptions of its appearance and behaviour, but the graceful white horse with a single spiral horn remains its most enduring and beloved form.

Hardback £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5579 7 96 pages, 190 x 150 mm 40+ colour illustrations Publishing April 2026

Juliette Wood is a professional folklorist and Celtic scholar. She has been President of The Folklore Society and currently teaches at Cardiff University. In addition to TV and radio work on folklore topics and popular medievalism, she has written about Celtic fairy tradition, mythical beasts and the Holy Grail.

Rare and precious, the unicorn grew in cultural significance. To the Western medieval world, it became a sacred symbol of religious and courtly love; its horn acquired powerful healing qualities. Elsewhere in the world, the unicorn legend reappears in tales of similar mythical creatures, embodied in the auspicious Chinese qilin and the karkadann of Islamic poetry. In the 21st century we have created our own unicorns – in fantasy literature and gaming – with their own lore, and the ‘animal that never was’ shows no sign of disappearing.

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The Philosophy of Perfume Alice du Parcq “A perfect pocked-sized olfactory guide to all things perfume – inhaled at a single sitting!” – Richard E. Grant Perfume is intoxicating: a wearable scent journey, a cultural touchpoint, a piece of art and design, and a deep expression of individuality. From its ancient, ceremonial roots to the starry allure of modern celebrity fragrances, perfumes have defined what an era’s personality, mood and concept of luxury smell like, while even the lingering trail of someone’s signature scent can be enough to send our minds reeling back through our memories. Hardback £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6931 2 112 pages, 200 x 130 mm 30+ colour illustrations Publishing October 2026

Alice du Parcq is a multi-awardwinning fragrance writer and journalist published in leading media titles, including Vogue, Glamour, Sunday Times Style and The Telegraph. She also works as a perfume presenter, public speaker and host. She has built a loyal following of 30,000 perfume lovers across Instagram and Substack, sharing fragrance knowledge and insight. Since 2021 she has run ‘Desert Island Sprit’, an Instagram Live Show discussing favourite perfumes with guest experts and celebrities.

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From chronicling perfume’s hazy beginnings and profiling the figures who have acted as aromatic muses, to covering olfactory psychology and how to find your signature scent, Alice du Parcq takes us on an opulent adventure through the mysterious world of perfume.

The Philosophy of Sheds

The Philosophy of Vinyl

Alex Johnson

Travis Elborough

Whether static or rotating, on wheels or afloat, sheds remain a beacon of ergonomic simplicity. Maybe it’s nostalgia for the ancient huts from which humanity evolved, or the sense of calm produced by shutting yourself away in one, but we have always found contentment in our sheds. They are repositories for our inner lives: cheap, multifunctional spaces ready to be filled with our passions, tools and ideas.

This book celebrates all the rituals of records: the sleeves, all the rites of needles, fluff and cleaning cloths. There are enough nuggets of technical information to satisfy hi-fi enthusiasts and plenty of quirky trivia on classic records, labels, recording studios, pressing plants and cover artwork to delight the novice and anyone filled with the nostalgia of a youth spent carefully turning the disc to play the other side.

Proud shedworker Alex Johnson takes us on a tour of such microarchitecture and details some of the big ideas these huts have birthed, from inventions and philosophies to literature and art.

It will send readers back to their records with renewed love and affection, and find fresh ways to revel in their 45s, EPs, 12-inches and LPs.

Hardback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5584 1 112 pages, 200 x 130 mm 30+ mono illustrations Publishing May 2026

Hardback £12.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6980 0 112 pages, 200 x 130 mm 30+ mono illustrations Publishing September 2026

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The Golden Age of Classic Crime Quiz Book Over 500 Questions, Puzzles and Mysteries Inspired by the Best of Detective Fiction Kate Jackson You may know your Marple from your Maigret, your Christie from your Chandler and your Wimsey from your Wexford, but just how much of a real classic crime expert are you?

Flexibound £14.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6921 3 224 pages, 216 x 143 mm 40+ colour illustrations Publishing October 2026

Kate Jackson is the creator and expert behind crossexaminingcrime.com. She is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and her book How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel was shortlisted for the H R F Keating award for Best Biographical or Critical Book Related to Crime Fiction 2023.

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This beautifully illustrated and painstakingly researched book will tax your grey cells to the limit with 50 quizzes made up of questions all about the writers, detectives and – of course – the victims from over 100 years of literature and on big and small screens. Rounds include Unusual Murder Methods (boiling, jellyfish, ice!), Agatha Christie’s Deadliest Rooms (you’ll be dying to find out) and European Crime Fiction (featuring Wallander, Wahlöö and Warsaw). There are multiple-choice quizzes, picture rounds and enough bonus questions to keep even the most rabid reader and sofa sleuth challenged and entertained.

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The Classic Crime Companion Martin Edwards

Drawing on 125 key works of classic fiction, acclaimed author and editor Martin Edwards tells the story of how crime developed as a literary genre in Britain, the USA and the rest of the world in the early years of the twentieth century, through the ‘Golden Age’ and beyond.

New Edition Hardback £25 ISBN 978 0 7123 6995 4 320 pages, 234 x 156 mm 45+ colour illustrations Publishing September 2026

Martin Edwards is series consultant for British Library Crime Classics. He is a CWA Diamond Dagger Awardwinning crime writer and president of the Detection Club.

From early mysteries by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton, through seminal novels by Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr and Dorothy L. Sayers to boundary-pushing works by Patricia Highsmith, Dashiell Hammett and Julian Symons, the range and quality of classic crime writing discussed in this book is breathtaking and includes a wide variety of famous, infamous and not-so-famous tales of murder, mystery and intrigue. The Classic Crime Companion provides a launch point for readers to embark on their own voyage of discovery. Those who already enjoy the genre will find plenty of inspiration for new reading material while anyone taking their first, tentative steps into this world of locked rooms, closed circles and dogged sleuths (both professional and amateur) will be expertly led through the bookshelves.

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British Library Crime Classics

The Santa Klaus Murder Mavis Doriel Hay

Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come from a large family gathering—and this Christmas she’s right. At Sir Osmond Melbury’s country house, Flaxmere, the formidable patriarch is found dead in his study, just as Santa Klaus is handing out the Christmas presents. As private accusations and gossip run amok, the Chief Constable of Haulmshire, a long-standing family friend, begins his investigation. Special Edition Hardback Hardback £14.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6946 6 282 pages, 216 x 138 mm Publishing October 2026

Mavis Doriel Hay (1894–1979) was a novelist of the golden age of British crime fiction. Her three detective novels were published in the 1930s and are now rare and highly collectable books. She was an expert on rural handicraft and wrote several books on the subject.

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Crime Classics

Ruefully observing that he knows the family too well for the case’s good, almost everyone has something to gain from Sir Osmond’s death; except the Santa Klaus, who appears the only one who could’ve done it. Amid mistrust, hatred, and half-hidden truths, the secret of Santa Klaus is revealed. First republished by the British Library in 2013, this golden special edition has a new introduction by award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards.

Sky High

The Double Turn

For the villagers of Brimberley, the worst thing looming on the horizon is the chance of being outshone by the rival village choir – that is, until Brimberley’s lead tenor is blown up in his home by an explosion that rocks the whole community. The motorcycling choir leader Liz enlists her son and a retired general to help investigate the shocking murder.

At the reclusive painter Adrian Delafield’s home, tension has been simmering away and two tenants have been found sprawled at either end of the staircase – one seriously injured, the other dead. The windows and doors were all secured from the inside, and yet Inspector Julian Rivers suspects a murder – a seemingly impossible crime.

First published in 1955, this classic village mystery showcases Gilbert’s clever plotting, sharp humour, and ability to blow the reader’s expectations sky high.

Exploring art-world secrets, religious mania and family ties, this rare mystery novel by one of the great writers of classic British detective fiction makes its longawaited return to print.

Michael Gilbert

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5594 0 256 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing January 2026

Carol Carnac

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6900 8 240 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing February 2026

Crime Classics

Airing in a Closed Carriage

Jack on the Gallows Tree

Joseph Shearing

Leo Bruce

When Tyler meets his end from an overdose of arsenic – the drug which he prescribed himself as a kind of panacea – his wife May is dragged into a trial coloured by the public’s hunger to paint her as a beguiling murderess.

Senior History Master Carolus Deene has a troubling hobby as a criminologist and sometime sleuth. Even more troublingly, he has jaundice. But with the papers shouting of a crimewave sweeping the seaside resorts of England, sending him to the coast to recover is too risky for the Headmaster – he will be far away from trouble in the inland spa resort of Buddington.

Based on the real-life trial of Florence Maybrick in 1899, this novel unfolds the gripping tale of a case clouded by sensation, its unsolved mysteries and the untold story of the human being at its heart. First published in 1943 and filmed as The Mark of Cain in 1947, this edition marks the return of a classic. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6910 7 496 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing March 2026

Crime Classics

But before long Buddington is rocked when two elderly women are found dead on the same night, each with a white lily by their side. Perhaps things are looking up for the curious Deene? Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6920 6 256 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing April 2026

The Unicorn Murders

Puzzles of the Parish

A legendary thief and his arch-rival in the Sûreté Nationale compete to take ownership of the mysterious ‘unicorn’. When a storm forces an emergency landing, they take refuge at the Chateau de l’Ile, where ex-spy Kenwood Blake and Henry Merrivale get caught up in events. Cut off by floodwaters, the guests are drawn into a deadly battle of wits, as an apparently impossible murder reveals the true secret of the unicorn.

A pernicious parson outwits the thieves of a priceless chalice from the parish treasury. A beloved vicar contemplates a perfect crime when a blackmailer comes knocking.

Carter Dickson

Carter Dickson’s brilliantly intricate mystery remains a testament to his unique talent for wrangling audacious levels of devilishness into a masterpiece. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6930 5 256 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing May 2026

Short Tales of Ministers, Murder and Mystery Edited by Martin Edwards

Gathered here in this new collection are some of the greatest mystery tales in which the tendrils of crime steal into the churchyard, featuring clergymen and nuns as victims, amateur sleuths and perpetrators of the devil’s work. This anthology delivers cosy brainteasers and fiendishly fashioned stories with a sting in the tail. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6940 4 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing June 2026

Crime Classics

The Magic-Lantern Murders

The Party at No. 5

A fiendish, twisty-turny serving of ‘impossible crime’ that sees the return of characters Kenwood Blake, Evelyn Cheyne and Sir Henry Merrivale from The Unicorn Murders, this novel finds exsecret agent Blake’s wedding plans interrupted as he is summoned by spymaster Merrivale to Devon to take part in an undercover operation – the starting point for a breathtaking chase around the West Country. Ideal for those who love John Dickson Carr and Christianna Brand, Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo.

A tense, chilling story of two women trapped in a toxic, interdependent relationship that culminates in murder. This is the first novel by Shelley Smith, one of the great ‘lost’ authors of the 1940s and 1950s, in the series. Her writing stands out for its vivid yet nuanced characterisation, her mastery of plotting and her evocation of English suburban life. It’s perfect for those who love a mix of crime and psychological suspense, such as Josephine Tey’s To Love and Be Wise and Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone as well as None of This is True by Lisa Jewell and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.

Shelley Smith

Carter Dickson

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6955 8 272 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing July 2026

Crime Classics

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6970 1 192 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing August 2026

Eat, Drink and Be Murdered

Call a Hearse

This mouth-watering feast of short stories includes tales of mushroom murders, brown bread spread with bacillus botulinus, and tales in which the identity of killers is proved by a purchase of fillet steak or an inexpert knowledge of fine wines. This new collection, which includes an introduction by Martin Edwards, features some of the greatest mystery tales from the golden age of detective fiction to be based around food and drink. It includes stories from the likes of Dorothy L Sayers, Michael Gilbert and E C Bentley, and is sure to leave readers hungry and wanting more.

There are just a few days to go till Christmas in snowy upstate New York and Dr Hugh Westlake is looking forward to enjoying the festive season with his daughter when a young woman arrives at his surgery. Asking for sleeping pills, she recounts that she’s being stalked by a New York City taxi – the same car that drove two of her friends to their deaths. And so begins the ultimate Christmas murder mystery, ideal for those who love festive crime stories such as Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie.

A Feast of Fatal Fare Edited by Martin Edwards

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6985 5 272 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing September 2026

A Lost Christmas Murder Mystery Jonathan Stagge

Final cover TBC Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6941 1 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing October 2026

Crime Classics

Sweet Revenge Susan Gilruth

When the Devil Was Sick Carol Carnac

From the moment that Liane Crauford and her husband arrive in the Cornish fishing village of Poltruan, it’s obvious something is wrong. And when Sandra Cazalet, the beautiful but spoilt stepdaughter of Liane’s friend, is found dead, everyone in Poltruan is a suspect. Thankfully, detective Hugh Gordon, who’s on holiday in the village, is on hand to start asking questions – aided by Liane. Can the unlikely duo unravel the mystery – or will their growing feelings for each other get in the way? Sweet Revenge is the first novel by Death in Ambush author Susan Gilruth. Final cover TBC Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6971 8 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing November 2026

Crime Classics

Clere House is a place rife with superstition, and every Lammas Night a meal is laid out there for a ghostly monk, thought to haunt the building. But this year at Lammastide, the phantom’s repast is accompanied by Mrs Saint Claire, owner of the property, falling to her death. Then another corpse is discovered at Clere House – that of a man in monk’s costume. The gripping, page-turning story draws on superstition and the supernatural, and is ideal for those who love country-house murder mysteries. Final cover TBC Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6986 2 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing December 2026

British Library Tales of the Weird

Chill Tidings Dark Tales of the Christmas Season Edited by Tanya Kirk In this glittering new clothbound edition of the beloved Christmas chiller, the gifts are unwrapped, the feast has been consumed and the fire is well fed – but the ghosts are still hungry.

Hardback £14.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6956 5 224 pages, 210 x 149 mm Publishing October 2026

Special Edition Hardback

Tanya Kirk is Librarian at St John’s College, Cambridge. She has edited four volumes of ghostly Christmas stories for the Tales of the Weird series, and co-curated both the Terror and Wonder and Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibitions at the British Library.

Chill Tidings ushers in a host of ghastly phantoms and otherworldly intruders bent on ruining, or partaking in, the most wonderful time of the year. With classic tales from Algernon Blackwood, Elizabeth Bowen, Charlotte Riddell and L P Hartley, jostling with rare pieces from the sleeping periodicals and literary magazines of the British Library collections, it’s time to open the door and let the real festivities begin. Welcome to this beautiful new edition of the beloved collection of Christmas nightmares that have been scaring readers since 2020. Celebrate the timeless tradition of cosying up during the cold winter nights whilst these dark tales send a chill down your spine.

Tales of the Weird

Bird of Ill Omen

The Black Fox

During the Victorian era, Catherine Crowe became a household name on par with Dickens for her innovative retellings of ‘true’ ghost stories, in which she treated readers to glimpses of the ‘night side of nature’ – until her reputation was tarnished following a public breakdown. Seeking to restore Crowe’s place in the canon of strange and ghostly fiction, Ruth Heholt presents some of her best tales of ‘real’ phenomena, alongside her darker Gothic stories. Together, they demonstrate Crowe’s singular gifts as a master storyteller.

When Canon Throcton is passed over for promotion to Dean of the Cathedral in favour of his rival, a faint knell of disorder rings out over the Close. Throcton nurses his pride with the invocation of a simple curse. A dark force answers the call – something bestial and immortal. Which drags pestilential vengeance and corruption to the very heart of the Cathedral.

The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe Edited by Ruth Heholt

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5599 5 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing January 2026

Tales of the Weird

A Novel of the Eighteen-Seventies Gerald Heard, with an introduction by Aaron Worth

First published in 1950, Heard’s classic novel of occult horror and religious turmoil in 1870s Britain remains a key text of midcentury weird fiction, a brooding masterpiece oozing with inexorable dread. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6905 3 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing February 2026

The New Flesh

The Luck of the Town

Tracing the quintessential horror concept of the strange transformation from the Victorian era through to the modern day, horror writer, expert and enthusiast Mark Morris presents a thrilling selection of metamorphic tales. Including stories of bestial shapeshifters such as the tigermen, fox spirits and werewolves of world folklore, this collection also presents some of the weirder shifts of the horror genre, where a flatworm masquerades as a boy, a girl becomes one with a bridge, and a babe-in-arms and her beekeeper father come to reflect the creatures of the hives.

Where a Roman settlement once sprawled along the banks of a river in northern England, a town of brick and steel now stands. Caught in a struggle between the growth of the university and industrial expansion, its fate veers towards the uncanny when a discovery is made beneath the old town hall. The skeleton of a woman buried with a tablet bearing a cryptic message is unearthed. And as the tension between the townspeople is compounded by an unseasonal heat and sightings of a shadowlike figure haunting the streets, the vengeful grip of a long-buried curse pushes the town towards a night of flames and carnage.

Tales of Shapeshifters and Strange Transformations Edited by Mark Morris

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6915 2 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing March 2026

Marion Fox, with an introduction by Douglas A Anderson

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6925 1 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing April 2026

Tales of the Weird

Beasts with Five Fingers

Haunted Yorkshire

Seeking to trace the origins of the haunted hand story and to showcase its influence on writers of weird fiction from the 1920s to the modern day, horror expert Brian J Showers presents a new collection of classics from the well-thumbed oeuvres of Sheridan Le Fanu and Guy de Maupassant through to miniature masterpieces from the hands of Jean Ray, Mark Valentine and many more. The collection features ghostly hands, hands possessed by demons and unexplained hands where no hands should be, so prepare to enter a world of nightmares run amok as the vice-grip of terror takes hold.

Along with its great swathes of natural moorland beauty and cities steeped in folklore and history, Yorkshire has a rich literary heritage, populated by innumerable phantoms, faeries and witches, as well as local legends like the barghest (a death-heralding ghostdog). Gathering the greatest stories of the weird and uncanny set among the breathtaking Dales, rugged coast and bustling towns of God’s Own County, Elizabeth Dearnley presents a new collection of chilling tales, with fresh research exploring examples of Yorkshire’s uniquely haunting influence on horror literature.

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6935 0 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing May 2026

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6945 9 256 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing June 2026

Strange Tales of Disembodied Hands Edited by Brian J Showers

Tales of the Weird

Ghostly Tales from God’s Own County Edited by Elizabeth Dearnley

Danse Macabre Strange Stories from France Edited by Mike Ashley

Spurned lovers return from the grave to haunt their partners, ghost ships materialise on the sea, a bird’s eerie cry lures the unsuspecting to their deaths in a marsh… Welcome to the unsettling world of the French weird. The first Tales of the Weird collection to focus on tales in translation, it features chilling short stories from the likes of Théophile Gautier, Guy de Maupassant, George Langelaan, Alain Dorémieux and Nathalie Henneberg, and is ideal for those who love our location-specific anthologies Phantoms of Kernow, Eerie East Anglia and Cornish Horrors. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6960 2 304 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing July 2026

The Black Mirror

Winifred Duke, with an introduction by Johnny Mains

An eerie, time-slip tale of identical crimes across two different centuries – and of one man who exists in both eras. When a string of pearls is stolen from a hotel guest, suspicion falls on Ann, an 18-yearold maid. Two hundred years previously, a rich traveller stays at an inn in the same town, where she, too, is relieved of her pearls. And Patience, an 18-year-old serving girl, is blamed. Neither woman is guilty, but it will take some very strange occurrences to prove their innocence. Ideal for fans of creepy, dual-timeline mysteries. Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6975 6 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing August 2026

Tales of the Weird

Fiendish Felines

Terror Australis

A mother cat takes revenge for the death of its kitten, a ferocious feline creeps into a princess’s bedchamber at night to drain her blood, a young woman grows whiskers beneath the light of a full moon and frolics on the lawn… Aloof and haughty, slinking and sometimes sinister, cats are a mainstay of weird fiction for good reason. They loom large in this collection that ranges from the sinister stories of Victorian greats such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu through to 20th century tales from renowned authors Dorothy L Sayers, E F Benson and Gans T Field.

Tales of the Weird takes a trip to the southern hemisphere to experience the horrors of the New World, where age-old elements of the weird tale are moulded afresh to a harsh new environment. The haunted house is no longer a rambling manor, but a rundown homestead; the ancient wood, the lair of creatures from folklore, becomes the hot, fly-infested bush; and the windswept moor is the endless outback with its blood-red sands. Featuring stories by authors of both European and Aboriginal heritage, this is ideal for those who love contemporary Australian horror fiction by Angela Slatter.

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6906 0 336 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing September 2026

Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6961 9 352 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing October 2026

Twisted Tales of Uncanny Cats Edited by Janette Leaf

Tales of the Weird

Dark Tales from Down Under Edited by James Doig

A Walk on the Weird Side

The Sinister Shorter Fiction of Robert Westall Edited by Fiona Cameron

The Unwelcome

Claude Seignolle, with an introduction by Lucie McNight Hardy

THE UNWELCOME

BY CLAUDE SEIGNOLLE

FULL COVER COMING SOON

BRITISH LIBRARY TALES OF THE WEIRD

Known to those who grew up in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s for his unsettling children’s novels such as The Scarecrows, The Creature in the Dark and The Machine Gunners, Robert Westall looms large over many a British childhood. But he was just as proficient and prolific when it came to short fiction – and sometimes a lot more terrifying. The new collection brings together several of his most chilling stories from long-forgotten collections such as The Haunting of Chas McGill, Ghosts and Journeys, and Demons and Shadows, ready to induce nightmares anew.

In France’s rural Sologne region a century ago, when witchcraft was just as acceptable to its people as any modern scientific advances, sixteen-year-old Jeanne is out of control – burning hayricks and playing her lovers off against each other with terrible consequences. But can she really be blamed when a sense of evil seems to linger around her family like mist over the local marsh? Might it be due to the statue her father unearthed while ploughing? Unpublished in English since the 1960s, this novel is perfect for lovers of Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley and Bluff by Francine Toon.

Final cover TBC Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6976 3 352 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing November 2026

Final cover TBC Paperback £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6981 7 288 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing December 2026

Tales of the Weird

British Library Gilded Nightmares

Shadows Over Cymru Uncanny Stories of the Welsh Weird Edited by Aaron Worth

“I looked down and saw the pure white mist tracking the outline of the river like a shroud… I saw under a grey sky a country that was still all mystery.” From the peaks of Eryri to hidden valleys and haunted mines, the storied landscapes of Wales have inspired centuries of myth and folklore. Over time, these tales of the unexplained and the Otherworld have formed a unique strain of weird fiction.

Hardback £16.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6950 3 288 pages, 210 x 149 mm Publishing May 2026

Aaron Worth is professor of Rhetoric at Boston University. He introduced and edited the Tales of the Weird anthologies Randalls Round, The Night Wire, Out of the Past and Spores of Doom and was the author of Imperial Media, a study of how advances in media and technology shaped the British literary imagination in the late 19th century.

Gilded Nightmares

Delving into this rich vein of uncanny literature, Aaron Worth returns with twenty tales that tell of eerie encounters with ghosts, dragons, fairies, sin-eaters, Mabinogion-inspired sorcerers and primeval gods. With classics by Dylan Thomas and Arthur Machen alongside rarities from Margiad Evans, Christianna Brand and many more, this volume invites you to tread the paths of a Cymru overcast by the shadow of the strange.

The Show Goes On Strange Stories of Ramsey Campbell Edited by Jeremy Dyson

“The circular booths, the long target galleries, the low roller coaster, the ark and the crazy house draped shadow over each other and merged with the dimness of the paths between. Even the merrygo-round was hooded by darkness hanging from its canopy… But between the silent machines and stalls one ride was faintly illuminated: the ghost train.”

Hardback £16.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6911 4 384 pages, 210 x 149 mm Publishing October 2026

Jeremy Dyson is the co-creator and co-writer of multi-awardwinning comedy show The League of Gentlemen. He is also a novelist and co-writer of the Oliviernominated play Ghost Stories. Ramsey Campbell is one of the most prolific and honoured British horror writers, with forty novels and several hundred short stories to his name. The Washington Post sums up his work as “one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction.”

A child returns from the fire that consumed him on Guy Fawkes Night, two girls come face to face with an Aztec god in a graffiti-strewn underpass, malevolent witches stalk the streets of Liverpool and the fells of Cumbria, ancient folk rituals usher evil in to an English village… Welcome to the weird and unsettling world of Ramsey Campbell. In this chilling new collection, spanning Campbell’s entire career from the mid-1970s to the present day, novelist, playwright and The League of Gentlemen alumnus Jeremy Dyson hand-picks his favourite tales by one of Britain’s greatest living horror writers.

Gilded Nightmares

British Library Women Writers

Stories for the 12 Days of Christmas Jeanette Winterson, Patricia Highsmith, Sylvia Townsend Warner and many more, with a Foreword by Kate Mosse In medieval times, Christmas was not a single day but an extended festival incorporating saints’ days and feast days, beginning on 25 December and ending on 5 January. Stories for the 12 Days of Christmas seeks to revive this ritual period through a carefully curated selection of stories by female writers, which map these ancient celebrations onto their twentieth-century equivalents. With an original foreword by Kate Mosse, these are stories of feasting, misrule and epiphanies, served up alongside the perennial joys of the season: love, family, and embracing new beginnings. Paperback with flaps £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 6990 9 224 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing September 2026

This new anthology brings together the creative minds of: Patricia Highsmith Jeanette Winterson Sylvia Townsend Warner Lucy Maud Montgomery Eleanor Farjeon Ursula Bloom and more

Women Writers

From Patricia Highsmith, the lordly charity of Boxing Day becomes the ill-conceived festive whims of a socialite, while Jeanette Winterson revives the Dickensian orphan story for Childermas. Elsewhere, a group of hard-up artists host an unexpected Christmas feast for their Hampstead neighbourhood, a flapper in 1920s New York decides not to party on New Year’s Eve and a free-thinking family welcomes a mysterious Lord of Misrule into their snowed-in farmhouse.

The Spring House

Stories for Lovers

Cynthia Asquith, with a Foreword by Joanna Quinn

Margaret Atwood, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Taylor and many more

It is 1915, and Miranda Gray is spending the war on the other side of the Atlantic to her husband. Staying with her eccentric relatives and young son at her family’s stately home, she struggles to find her wartime role. Is she the stoic wife of a distant military man, the duty-bound nurse, the promiscuous society hostess, reluctant muse to a pacifist poet, a mother, a sister, a daughter, or some amalgamation of all? Gradually, as the war brings death and destruction to those closest to her, Miranda is offered a glimpse of something beyond these stilted roles – a chance at real love. The Spring House is a deftly written psychological portrait, artfully balancing humour and devastation.

Fall head over heels with this collection of unconventional and heartfelt romances. Women writers of the twentieth century had a complex relationship with romantic fiction, at once limited and legitimised by the oftendenigrated category of ‘love story’. From tentative first dates to honeymoon bliss and chance meetings on trains, the heady rush of falling in love infuses these stories. But there are few fairytale endings here: a woman shares the gothic tale of her first love, the rekindling of an old flame is complicated by the baggage of two lifetimes, and a musician conducts an extramarital affair with calculated precision.

Paperback with flaps £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5504 9 304 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing June 2026

Paperback with flaps £10.99 ISBN 978 0 7123 5553 7 224 pages, 190 x 130 mm Publishing January 2026

Women Writers

British Library Publishing creates high-quality books and eBooks for the UK and international book trade and co-editions markets. We publish some 50 books per year and nearly all are inspired by the desire to present original, previously unpublished or undeservedly neglected content from the superlative and extensive holdings of the Library. Alongside our range of award-winning exhibition catalogues, British Library Publishing has also pioneered a market-leading list of classic crime fiction and is developing fast-growing strands of women’s fiction and weird fiction. Our ever-increasing list of top-quality non-fiction encompasses history, literature, exploration, cartography, food and drink and, of course, books about books.

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Visit bl.uk for more detail and news about the British Library Front cover: A 1939 studio shot of Agatha Christie by Angus McBean (Print courtesy: The Christie Archive Trust) Specifications, prices and covers in this catalogue are subject to change prior to publication. Catalogues of backlist Non-fiction and fiction in the British Library Crime Classics, Tales of the Weird, Gilded Nightmares and Women Writers series may be viewed alongside this catalogue online at issuu.com/bl_publishing