Tartarus Press
publishers
A Country Still All Mystery is a paperback of 306 pages.
Paperback: £17.95 inc free p&p worldwide
Please note that we can no longer post individual paperback orders to the EU.
Ebook: £7.99
(Please note that the ebook will be sent manually, so there may be a short delay in receiving it.)
alternatively, buy paperback from Amazon UK and Amazon.com
and the ebook direct from Amazon UK and Amazon.com
Paperbacks and ebooks available by Mark Valentine
Essays
Short Stories
The Peacock Escritoire with At Dusk
The Fig Garden and Other Stories
Secret Europe (with John Howard)
Inner Europe (with John Howard)
The Collected Connoisseur (with John
Biography
A Country Still All Mystery
by
Mark Valentine
‘The English landscape was made . . . not just for food and shelter and pleasure, but also for the journey of the soul. There is a field of supernatural stories set in this “other” country, the country of the spirit . . .’
In A Country Still All Mystery, Mark Valentine explores how certain writers have used their fiction to convey the idea of numinous terrain, places where we might at any moment stray into the realms of the unearthly and uncanny.
These essays continue similar literary and antiquarian themes to his well-received earlier volume, Haunted By Books (2015). When and where was the last wolf seen in England? Why were certain lonely houses left beyond parish boundaries? Is there a missing book by T.E. Lawrence? What was the secret history of Cope & Fenwick, liturgical publishers? What became of the original Tower of Moab?
A Country Still All Mystery will be read with pleasure by those who enjoy the out-of-the-way, the obscure, the eccentric and the outré. It will appeal to anyone who has ever strayed into remote country which seems to be not quite fully in this world.
Cover image taken from Tristram Hillier’s Shell Oil poster of Jezreel’s Temple, Gillingham, Kent.
Containing:
Introduction
‘A Country Still All Mystery’: Machen, Sarban and Otherworldly Landscapes
‘An Atlas of Unknown Worlds’: Mary Butts, John Metcalfe and Stories of Strange Regions
‘A Landscape of the End of the World’: The Supernatural Terrain of Francis and Eric Brett Young
Borderland Mysteries: The Thrillers of R.C. Ashby
The Islands Beyond: The Books of Robert Atkinson
Half- Seen Shadows: C.R.J. Carstairs and the Great
Crying For Elysium: The Pagan Fantasies of Forrest Reid
Courted by an Orchid: The Mystical Fantasies of Ronald Fraser
The Singer of Samarkand: James Elroy Flecker
The Third Alias: A T.E. Lawrence Mystery
The Roads to Shangri-La: James Hilton and the Mysteries of the East
The Ceremony at Arnsburg: Playing the Glass Bead Game
In an Unresting Land: Randolph Stow’s The Girl Green as Elderflower
Towards Tir-Nan-Og: Lord Dunsany’s The Curse of the Wise Woman
The Last Wolf in England
Beyond the Boundaries: Extra-Parochial Districts
The Wind in Their Faces: The After-Life of Becket’s Assassins
Inheritance of Shadows: John Meade Falkner’s Other Novels
Written in Smoke: Oliver Onions’ The Hand of Kornelius Voyt
Against the Abyss: Carnacki the Ghost-Finder
Gentleman Renegade: A.J. Raffles, Cricketer and Crook
Teaching Yourself to Think: Eric Ambler’s Spy Stories
Holy Treasures: Three Arthur Machen Mysteries
‘This Cackling Old Gander’: The New Age and Arthur Machen
Gentle Mephistopheles: The Fiction of Frank Baker
Cope & Fenwick: A Reminiscence, and a Checklist
The Amber Chapel
The Original Tower of Moab
‘Who Could Damn Hardest’: A Muggletonian Influence upon ‘Casting the Runes’?
The English Catalogue
Acknowledgements
Review:
'The four collections of essays by Mark Valentine published by Tartarus Press in Yorkshire contain some of the best writing on books of the last twenty years. It is unsurprising that his name is not cited alongside Basbanes, Dirda or Gekoski, for Valentine’s chosen subject is, more often than not, the rediscovery of a neglected author or lighting a candle at the shrine of an author who had no wide audience in life.' Peter Cooper, The Book Collector, Summer 2022
'Mark's easy, elegant and erudite style, and his vast knowledge of books, places, forgotten legends and folklore, ensure that every single essay is an enjoyable read.' Rosemary Pardoe, the Ghost and Scholars Newsletter 32
'A Country Still All Mystery is a delightful and fascinating collection of essays about books, landscapes, writers, publishers, and the pleasures derived therefrom. Mark Valentine introduces us to his passion for old books, and recounts some of the pleasurable zig-zags this has sent him on. Readers of Machen and Hodgson will find much of interest in each article.' Jay Rothermel, Easily Distracted
'A hugely recommended read for anyone with an interest in the roads less travelled and in the words spoken with a quieter resonance." Wyrd Britain
An interview with Mark Valentine
Copyright Tartarus Press 2026