Fiction
ISBN: 9781781727799
Publication date: October 1, 2024
Price: £12.99
Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month October 2024
Books Council of Wales Book of the Month October 2024
“A fascinating and compelling blend of crime fiction, gothic terror and horror, with twists in the tale that whip round and catch you at the last moment. Sublime!” – Katherine Stansfield
‘Old ways die hard on the Welsh border…’
In these haunting tales, nothing is as it seems. A tormented voice calls from the barred windows of an empty room. A dusty museum exhibit possesses sinister powers. A glass of blackberry wine links the living with the sins of the dead.
Between 1965 and 1975, Elizabeth Walter published five collections of supernatural stories. But whilst the names of her contemporaries such as Robert Aickman are now widely recognised, Walter is relatively unknown to modern readers. Mixing folklore, history, and ancient traditions, these gothic stories draw on Walter’s Welsh heritage and the rich inspiration of South Wales and the border country.
Including the mysterious ritual of ‘The Sin-Eater’, the folk horror of ‘Dead Woman’ and the poignant ‘Come and Get Me’, Let a Sleeping Witch Lie is the perfect way to rediscover Elizabeth Walter’s chillingly remarkable talent.
Elizabeth Walter
Elizabeth Walter (1927-2006) was a British novelist, short story writer and editor of the Collins Crime Club for over thirty years. As an author she penned many stories in the field of supernatural and ghostly fiction as well as of ‘quiet’ horror. Walter’s uncanny tales have appeared in famous anthologies such as The Pan Books of Horror Stories and The Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories. She published five collections of short stories: Snowfall & Other Chilling Events (1965), The Sin-Eater & Other Scientific Impossibilities (1967), Davy Jones’s Tale & Other Supernatural Stories (1971), Come And Get Me & Other Uncanny Invitations (1973), Dead Woman & Other Haunting Experiences (1975).
Nick Freeman
Nick Freeman is a Reader in English at Loughborough University who edited the ghost stories of A.M. Burrage for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series.
“This book is indeed an awful indulgence not to be partaken of too quickly. One tale at a time, each enjoyed with a single chocolate. A book to be ritually read by a fire into which the reader can gaze, perhaps while sipping something mildly intoxicating from a glass which reflects the flames.”
Julie Brominicks, Nation.Cymru
Katherine Stansfield
