Mary L. Pendered's Garden Gate

I collect ephemera, or at least I go through phases of doing so. I have quite a few photographs of absolute strangers, generally Victorian, who look like they're plotting someone's murder. I'm on a letter kick at the moment, so I thought I'd share one of my little treasures. It's from Mary L. Pendered, author of The Uncanny House and The Forsaken House at Misty Vale.

It was sent from her home in Great Addington to W. Dexter & Son, ironmongers, who were situated in Wellingborough, 'opposite the Palace' (according to their advertisements in the local papers). Apparently, in 1937 Mary was in need of an 'automatic gate holder' for her garden gate.

Yes, I know, this has nothing to do with Mary's writing, and there was nothing creepy about her garden gate. But it is nice to remember, now and then, that human beings wrote the books we so admire, that they had lives (sometimes much like our own) and garden gate fixtures that didn't work properly.

Book News ~ The Thing from the Lake by Eleanor M. Ingram

I am very pleased to announce that the second Nezu Press title for 2025 will be The Thing from the Lake by Eleanor M. Ingram, first published in 1921 by J. B. Lippincott Company. It was Eleanor's only supernatural story: her last work in fact. She died when she was very young and didn't get the chance to write more.

I am particularly happy about this one; it's a classic of supernatural fiction—very atmospheric and creepy—and it really does deserve to be better known. It's one of my favourite supernatural novels. 'And why is that?' I hear you ask. Well, I did write a blog post about it a while back, so you can read my review by clicking here. And here's the blurb for this new edition:

Roger Locke is an accomplished composer from New York. In need of a summer residence that he can retreat to when New York becomes too hot to work in, he buys the old Michell place in Connecticut. But the house is haunted, and the entity haunting it is no mere ghost—no puny dead human that our hero has some hope of comprehending and conquering. The ‘Thing’ that haunts Roger is outside of his understanding, possesses power beyond his imagination, and is kept at bay solely by the resistance of his mind: a mind which, with each encounter with ‘It’, has the potential to weaken and fail.

This new edition of The Thing from the Lake includes a 21-page biographical essay by me, ‘From the Realm of Romance to the Borderland of Dread: The Life and Work of Eleanor M. Ingram’, which includes a wealth of new information about the author and her family background.

Published: 25 February 2025.
ISBH: 978-1-917113-07-6.
Hardback with dust jacket, 22.86mm x 15.24cm (6" x 9"), 240 pages.

The book is available to pre-order from the Nezu Press store (please click here). Alternatively, it will be available from the usual online retailers, and you can order it from bricks-and-mortar stores. It is already at Amazon UK (please click here) and US (please click here).

Book News ~ Out of the Ages by Devereux Pryce

I am very pleased to announce that the first Nezu Press title of 2025 will be Out of the Ages by Devereux Pryce, an extremely rare novel that hasn't been republished since it first appeared in 1923. Devereux Pryce was the nom de plume of Sir Gerard Albert Muntz, and Out of the Ages was his only published work of fiction.

I know, it's unusual for Nezu Press to publish a chap. But the first book of last year was by a fellow, and I think we may make January the month of exceptions.

So, shall I tell you what it's about then? Well, I did write a blog post about it a while back, so you can read my review by clicking here. And here's the blurb:

Thira Colquhoun is a rich, beautiful, married woman who is very used to having her way; Jack Winthrop is the man she wants to have her way with, and Janet Baxter is the woman unfortunate enough to stand in her way. When Jack takes a job in Purnam, on the other side of the world, Thira is determined to follow him. So she and her unsuspecting husband, along with a group of friends, embark on a long voyage east, heading across the Mediterranean to Egypt, then sailing down the Red Sea and along the African coast to Purnam. While cruising along the Nile, the Colquhouns encounter a French archaeologist who invites them to visit a recently excavated tomb. It contains the remains of King Amenhotep’s favourite, a priestess who was suffocated to death by a group of priests. And one of the Colquhoun party does exactly what you should never do when you visit the final resting place of a murdered Egyptian… she removes an ancient cylinder from the tomb as a keepsake… with inevitably disastrous results. 

This new edition includes a biographical essay by me: ‘Gerard Albert Muntz: The Renowned Metallurgist Who Had Never Been to Egypt’

Published: 25 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-917113-06-9.
Hardback with dust jacket, 22.86mm x 15.24cm (6" x 9"), 284 pages.

I have a thing for Egypt; I have had ever since I visited the Egyptian department of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (I must have been about nine years old at the time). I was fascinated by the museum's model of Abu Simbel and one of their sarcophagi (there was a little corner missing at the foot, and I was always trying to see inside). Anyway, I've gone off at a tangent there.  If you think the image on the cover seems familiar, that's because it probably is; it's by David Roberts.

The book is available to pre-order from the Nezu Press store (please click here). Alternatively, it will be available from the usual online retailers, and you can order it from bricks-and-mortar stores. It is already at Amazon UK (please click here) and US (please click here).

Vanity's Price ~ E. Yolland

I am pleased to announce that the final Nezu Press title of 2024 will be Vanity's Price by E. Yolland. This new edition of the novel—its first republication since it first appeared in 1900—includes the essay ‘In Search of E. Yolland’ (by me), which originally appeared in Mistress Bridget (Nezu Press, 2023).

So, what's it all about... Alfie?

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.

According to The Graphic (September 1900)...‘The novel contains many excellent morals, concerning the vanity of Vanity, the expediency of kindness to dumb animals, the inexpediency of joining murder-societies, the imprudence of trusting to quacks, and the folly of being born without brains.’

Published: 20 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-917113-05-2.
Case laminate hardback, 22.86mm x 15.24cm (6" x 9"), 176 pages.

The book is available to pre-order from the Nezu Press store (please click here). Alternatively, it will be available from the usual online retailers, and you can order it from bricks-and-mortar stores. It is already at Amazon UK (please click here) and US (please click here).

The new Nezu Press edition alongside the original first edition of 1900.