The Spoons That Are My Ears!

More than fifteen years after it appeared in hardback, my very first book, Worming the Harpy, is finally about to be reissued! Unlike the limited edition original, this second edition is a mass-market paperback. More details are available from the Tartarus Press website. Needless to say, I am delighted by this development. The book has been out of print far too long! This second edition is the definite version of Worming the Harpy. It contains an extra story from the same era ('The Forest Chapel Bell') and the 'lost' subchapter from the title story has been restored, plus a few typographical errors that slipped through the net have been rectified. Also, it features an afterword by the late great E.F. Bleiler.

The stories in Worming the Harpy are rather more Gothic in flavour and intention than the fiction I write now: they were composed in the early '90s, when I was more under the spell of writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Isidore Ducasse than I am now (though I still hold those authors in high regard). They also display a strong 'Yellow Book' influence; and indeed, Max Beerbohm, is still one of my main literary heroes from that long gone era.

Worming the Harpy is at the printer's right now. It's available for pre-ordering immediately and is expected to be published in early March or sooner.