This is his first short story collection for five years and offers twelve previously uncollected stories and an unpublished journal of story ideas and reading notes. His fiction ranges from the Triple Headed King of Sancreed, Cornwall to the unknown god of Palmyra, from a Venusian commodore to the lost composer of Stonehenge, and takes us on a search for the cockatrice and a quest for books not found in any library.
All of the stories suggest that other dimensions may be encountered in the most unexpected ways, whether through the hymn-singing of an old tramp, or as part of a Shakespeare play. And in the previously unpublished ‘Notes on the Border’, Valentine explores bookshops, old churches, folklore and the uncanny, with insights into stories as yet unwritten…
“To the Eternal One”
“The Key to Jerusalem”
“Listening to Stonehenge”
“Goat Songs”
“Zabulo”
“In Cypress Shades”
“The Mask of the Dead Mammilius”
“Yes, I Knew the Venusian Commodore”
“The Scarlet Door”
“Vain Shadows Flee”
“The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things”
“as blank as the days yet to be”
“Notes on the Border”
The lettered edition is signed by Mark Valentine.