Gina R Collia

First published in 1882, 'Through the Night: Tales of Shades and Shadows' contains fourteen traditional Victorian supernatural stories. There are tales of vengeful ghosts, wraiths, premonitions, voodoo, curses, folklore and fairies. Isabella Banks, best remembered for her novel 'The Manchester Man', was known for her historical accuracy and meticulous attention to detail, and the appendix from the first edition, which outlines the historical background for the stories, is included in this current edition. Also included in this edition is an introductory essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks: The Lancashire Antiquarian'.

From Out of the Silence, originally published in 1920, is Bessie Kyffin-Taylor's only volume of short stories. It contains seven supernatural tales set around the time of the First World War, perfect for 'those who enjoy having their hair raised by tales of restless spirits' (Liverpool Daily Post, 13 January 1921). In addition to the seven tales, this new edition includes 'Afterwards ', Bessie's non-fiction piece about wartime unemployment, written for the Liverpool Evening Express in 1919. It also includes a 23-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia: 'Bessie Kyffin-Taylor: A Graceful Writer of Ghost Stories'.'Faces pressed against the window peering in upon me, but faces such as I never in life beheld. They were dark, almost black, with sunken, fiercely gleaming eyes, the cheekbones protruding, flesh sunken, looking almost like living skeletons, save for the skin which stretched tightly over the bones; anger, despair, ferocity, hunger, terror-all were depicted upon those awful faces.'

According to family legend, in every generation of the Ainslie family one child is born heartless, 'in sad and bitter memory of a beautiful ancestress' who 'played fast and loose with men's hearts' and so neglected her baby daughter that the poor infant died.Clarice Ainslie is utterly heartless; she cares for nobody but herself. She is also terrified of everything old and determined to remain young forever, so she agrees to become the guinea pig for Dr Head's 'Arrested Age' experimental treatment. Far from being put off by the extremely high financial cost of the treatment, the doctor's frank description of what she will have to endure-including the removal of all her teeth and virtual imprisonment within his home-or the length of time it will take to complete the process, Clarice forges ahead without giving any of it much thought. But there is a price to pay for such obsessive vanity... and it is a high one.This new edition of Vanity's Price-its first republication since it first appeared in 1900-includes the biographical essay 'In Search of E. Yolland' by Gina R. Collia, which originally appeared in Mistress Bridget (Nezu Press, 2023).

The first of two volumes containing stories by Keith Fleming (pseudonym of female author K. E. Fitz-Patrick). This volume contains the novellas 'By the Night Express', 'Dolores', and 'Love Stronger than Death', the novel "Can Such Things Be?", and the short stories 'So Innocent', 'The Transfiguration of Lettice Willoughby', and 'The Red Skirt'. Until now, next to nothing was known about the author. This volume contains a 21-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia revealing a large amount of new information about the writer's background and life-'Most Unassuming in Demeanour': The Life of K. E. Fitz-Patrick."Can Such Things Be?"-'There is enough horror to make a nervous person's hair stand on end, "like quills upon the fretful porpentine." ' Light, January 1890.

The second of two volumes containing stories by Keith Fleming (pseudonym of female author K. E. Fitz-Patrick). This volume contains two novels, At the Eleventh Hour and The Sins of the Fathers, and the short stories 'The Courage of Kathie', 'An Audacious Wager', and 'Garth Austin's Strategy'.Until now, next to nothing was known about the author. This volume contains a 21-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia revealing a large amount of new information about the writer's background and life-'Most Unassuming in Demeanour': The Life of K. E. Fitz-Patrick.'At the Eleventh Hour must be pronounced a novel of conspicuous power and deep interest... This is a novel that may be read with a great deal of pleasure.' The Scotsman, 22 June 1891.

Celia Grey, a fifty-year-old, unmarried writer who has longed for a home of her own for decades, thinks all her prayers have been answered when she inherits her uncle's house. But Clew Lodge is a property with an uncanny reputation. It is a grim and daunting place, desolate and derelict, having been left to the forces of corruption since Uncle Jerrold abandoned it a decade prior to his death-because he 'could not stand the whispering'. This new edition of The Forsaken House at Misty Vale, the first since its original publication in 1932, includes a twenty-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia: 'Mary L. Pendered: Author, Suffragist, Pacifist, and Thoroughly Good Woman'.

Old Mr Barker was a curmudgeon who underfed his dogs to make them vicious and kept his low-paid staff loyal with promises of legacies that never materialised. Following his death, his home is sold at auction for an absurdly cheap price to Peggy and Percy Dacre. But when the young couple move into their new home with their four children, Peggy soon discovers that The Beeches-commonly referred to as 'Hell Corner' by the locals-is already occupied. This new edition of The Uncanny House, the first since its original publication in 1927, includes a twenty-page biographical essay by Gina R. Collia: 'Mary L. Pendered: Author, Suffragist, Pacifist, and Thoroughly Good Woman'.

Charlotte Chanter is best known as the author of Ferny Combes, a guide to collecting and identifying the ferns of Devonshire. Her only fiction novel, Over the Cliffs, was first published in two volumes by Smith, Elder and Co. in the autumn of 1860. The story is set on the coast of Devon at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is a tale of murder, a stolen inheritance, smuggling, shipwrecks, blackmail, treachery, greed, plotting, counter-plotting... and love. There is even a hint of the supernatural in the form of a sighing ghost. Its fearless heroine is Gratiana Dawson, the daughter of a brutal bully who hates his children and is prone to violent paroxysms of passion. Motherless, forced to live under the roof of a tyrant, and the victim of one indignity after another, Gratiana refuses to surrender to the abusive men around her. Edward Mountjoy, the hero of the story, says of her, when speaking to Captain Douglas of the Royal Navy, 'She has done things in her day that required from her more nerve than would be required of you in attacking an enemy.' This edition includes a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Charlotte Chanter: Fearless Fern-Hunter of Devonshire'.

Gratiana Chanter's novel Trebetherick, a tale of shipwrecks, wreckers, hidden treasure, abducted maidens, murder and other evil doings, was first published in 1913 by Francesco Giannini & Figli of Naples. The story is told from the perspective of David Rounsevall of Trebetherick in the Parish of St. Enodoc, Cornwall, and begins the night he first hears ghostly Tregeagle howl during a ferocious storm. This edition includes a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Gratiana Chanter: A Typical Daughter of Devon'.

Gratiana Chanter's novella The Witch of Withyford: A Story of Exmoor, containing her own illustrations, was first published by J. M. Dent & Co. in May 1896. In it, Nance Darvel, a gruesome woman who lives in a hovel, is intent on punishing a slight by destroying the life of the local squire. It is an uncanny tale of witchcraft, superstition, child-theft and revenge, set in Gratiana's beloved Devonshire and told by an elderly servant of Withyford Grange. This current edition includes three other tales: 'The Appledore Boy', 'The Shadowy Hillside', and 'The Forty Thieves of Exmoor'. It also includes all of the author's illustrations for the first edition and a detailed biographical essay by Gina R. Collia, 'Gratiana Chanter: A Typical Daughter of Devon'.