British Invasion

British Invasion
edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore

cover artwork by: Les Edwards

Featuring an Introduction by Stephen Volk and an Afterword by Kim Newman

All New Dark Fiction by Allen Ashley, Kealan Patrick Burke, Ramsey Campbell, Mark Chadbourn, Peter Crowther, Paul Finch, Gary Fry, Joel Lane, Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis, James Lovegrove, Paul Meloy, Mark Morris, Adam Nevill, Philip Nutman, Sarah Pinborough, Tony Richards, Gord Rollo, Nicholas Royle, John Travis, Conrad Williams, and "Anonymous."

About the Book:
They've invaded before, sending their best and brightest to transform popular music for all time. This time, they're leaving the music behind and focusing on words. The British Invasion has begun again, in a collection of twenty-one unforgettable stories of horror and the dark fantastic.

From the birthplace of horror fiction, the land where writers first dreamed up the icons that shaped the field we know today — Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, the vile Mr. Hyde and more. You think you know desperation? Discover a literary tradition born from centuries of violence, pain, and suffering, distilled through the veneer of civility, and twisted by the reign of tyrants and kings.

You think you know fear?

From creeping dread to hideous humor, from quiet terror to brutal horror, from mad speculation to unspeakable truth, the twenty-one tales here represent the best that the U.K. has to offer. The rising stars and the masters of British horror have joined together.

The British Invasion has begun.

"From Gord Rollo's transcendentally eerie tale of a comatose young boy's revenge ("Lost in a Field of Paper Flowers") to Mark Morris's cautionary tale about a pair of unorthodox vampires ("Puppies for Sale"), the 21 original stories in this anthology establish the strength of British horror writers. Contributors include Ramsey Campbell, Sarah Pinborough, Conrad Williams, Peter Crowther, and other veterans and new authors. A strong collection of contemporary horror from across the pond..."
— Library Journal

"The British may not have invented the modern horror story, as the editors of this all-original anthology claim, but the 21 stories they've selected prove that contemporary U.K. writers are infiltrating American publishing markets with some of the most provocative horror fiction written today. Refreshingly devoid of genre clichés, these subtle tales offer ambiguously supernatural horrors from the dramas and traumas of everyday life. Nicholas Royle, in The Goldfinch, gives chronic illness an unsettling spin by objectifying a man's cancer as a relentless shadowy stalker. Mark Morris's Puppies for Sale presents a nuclear family's gradual implosion as a consequence of a malignant supernatural influence that may be a complete figment of the distraught father's mind. In Conrad Williams's Slitten Gorge, the disconnect between the unpolluted natural world and the protagonist's industrially despoiled environment achieves an aura of otherworldly horror. The book's title notwithstanding, there's nothing peculiarly British about these stories, but their authors are exceptionally articulate in the universal language of horror."
— Publishers Weekly

"The title of Invasion suggests a new or recent influx of Brits, where in reality, as Stephen Volk notes in his introduction, they were there first. The UK invented horror. Witness Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, M.R. James and so on — British one and all. This collection focuses on the current crop, however, and while its member may not achieve the heights of their forefathers, there’s no mistaking there’s talent here... In my opinion, the best story is right up front, with Gord Rollo’s 'Lost in a Field of Paper Flowers,' in which a teenage boy is abused so roughly by his father that it puts him in a coma. With the help of someone the kid meets in his catatonic state, revenge on not-so-dear old Dad is rightly achieved, in a twist end that chills."
— Rod Lott, bookgasm.com

About the Editors:
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning, bestselling author of such novels as The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, Of Saints and Shadows, and (with Tim Lebbon) Mind the Gap. Golden co-wrote the lavishly illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire with Mike Mignola, which they are currently scripting as a feature film for New Regency. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

TIM LEBBON’s books include the British Fantasy Award-winning Dusk and its sequel Dawn, Fallen, Mind The Gap (co-written with Christopher Golden), Berserk, The Everlasting, Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, 30 Days of Night and Desolation, as well as many others.  Future publications include The Island (Bantam Spectra), The Map of Moments (with Christopher Golden), the YA series The Secret Journeys of Jack London (also with Golden), Bar None from Night Shade Books, The Reach of Children from Humdrumming, and more.  He has won three British Fantasy Awards, as well as Bram Stoker, Scribe, Shocker and Tombstone Awards, and has been a finalist for International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards.  His novella White is soon to be a major Hollywood movie, and several other novels and novellas are currently under option in the USA and the UK.  Find out more about Tim at his websites: http://www.timlebbon.net and http://www.noreela.com

JAMES A. MOORE is the author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, The Haunted Forest Tour, with Jeff Strand and Deeper.  He has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award and spent three years as an officer in the Horror Writers Association, first as Secretary and later as Vice President. The author cut his teeth in the industry writing for Marvel Comics and authoring over twenty role-playing supplements for White Wolf Games, including Berlin by Night, Land of 1,000,000 Dreams and The Get of Fenris tribe book for Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, among others. He also penned the White Wolf novels Vampire: House of Secrets and Werewolf: Hellstorm. Moore’s first short story collection, Slices, sold out before ever seeing print.  He recently finished his latest novel, Smile No More, a story of Rufo the Clown and is currently working on his first apocalyptic novel, Dark Gods, and a mystery entitled Storm Season.  His latest Jonathan Crowley novel, Cherry Hill, is slated for release early in 2009. He's lived all over the country and currently resides in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Bonnie, and their menagerie, which includes one dog, four cats, eight ducks, many fish, and a parrot named Dos.  Please drop by his website http://www.jimshorror.com/ or leave him a note at his bulletin board at http://www.horrorworld.org/.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Stephen Volk
"Lost in a Field of Paper Flowers" by Gord Rollo
"Respects" by Ramsey Campbell
"Farewell to the 21st Century Girl" by Mark Chadbourn
"At One" by James Lovegrove
"The Nowhere Man" by Sarah Pinborough
"The Spaces in Our Lives" by Allen Ashley
"The Crazy Helmets" by Paul Finch
"Slitten Gorge" by Conrad Williams
"Birchiam Pier" by Tony Richards
"Beth's Law" by Joel Lane
"Black Dogs" by Gary Fry
"The Misadventure of Fat Man and Little Boy, Or, How I Made a Monster" by Philip Nutman
"The Goldfinch" by Nicholas Royle
"Never Go Back" by Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis
"Mutiny" by Kealan Patrick Burke
"British Horror Weekend" by Anonymous
"King of the Maggots" by John Travis
"Leaves" by Peter Crowther
"Puppies For Sale" by Mark Morris
"Yellow Teeth" by Adam Nevill
"The Vague" by Paul Meloy
Afterword by Kim Newman

Published in two states:
• Limited Edition of 1,000 copies signed by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore ($40)
• Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed (by all of the contributors and the editors) and lettered copies bound in leather with additional artwork and a satin ribbon page marker ($200)

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