The British Library Tales of the Weird: The Complete List
Tales of the Weird is a monthly series of classic strange fiction that the British Library have been publishing since 2018. Recently they’ve launched a subscription service, but if you only dip in and out or stock up occasionally it can be quite difficult to keep track of the entire collection. There isn’t a dedicated subsection on the BL’s own bookshop page, for example. Amazon numbers the series but other outlets — including the BL — do not. There are some lists on Goodreads but they’re a bit all over the place and not regularly updated. So as much for my own reference as anyone else’s, here is the complete list to date, which I’ll revisit as and when there are new volumes to add. You’d think the BL might do this themselves, but in the meantime…
- From the Depths and Other Strange Tales of the Sea (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- Haunted Houses: Two Novels by Charlotte Riddell ✓
- Glimpses of the Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- Mortal Echoes: Encounters With the End (Editor — Greg Buzwell) ✓
- Spirits of the Season: Christmas Hauntings (Editor — Tanya Kirk) ✓
- The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- The Face in the Glass and Other Gothic Tales by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ✓
- The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson ✓
- Doorway to Dilemma: Bewildering Tales of Dark Fantasy (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic (Editor — Daisy Butcher) ✓
- Promethean Horrors: Classic Stories of Mad Science (Editor — Xavier Aldana Reyes) ✓
- Roarings from Further Out: Four Weird Novellas by Algernon Blackwood ✓
- Tales of the Tattooed: An Anthology of Ink (Editor — John Miller) ✓
- The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson ✓
- A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee ✓
- Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City (Editor — Elizabeth Dearnley) ✓
- Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain (Editor — John Miller) ✓
- Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- Chill Tidings: Dark Tales of the Christmas Season (Editor — Tanya Kirk) ✓
- Dangerous Dimensions: Mind-Bending Tales of the Mathematical Weird (Editor — Henry Bartholomew) ✓
- Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales of Stranger Climes (Editor — Kevin Manwaring) ✓
- Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth (Editor — Jen Baker) ✓
- Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird (Editor — Daisy Butcher) ✓
- Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End (Editor — Joan Passey) ✓
- I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist ✓
- Randalls Round: Nine Nightmares by Eleanor Scott ✓
- Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights (Editor — Tanya Kirk) ✓
- The Shadows on the Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman ✓
- The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales of Occult Detection (Editor — Mike Ashley) ✓
- The Night Wire and Other Tales of Weird Media (Editor — Aaron Worth) ✓
- Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles (Editor — Emily Alder) ✓
- The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan (Editor — Michael Wheatley) ✓
- Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird (Editor — Manon Burz-Labrande) ✓
- Haunters of the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights (Editor — Tanya Kirk) ✓
- Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World’s Ends (Editor — John Miller) ✓
- The Flaw in the Crystal and Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair
- The Ways of Ghosts and Other Dark Tales by Ambrose Bierce
- Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny (Editor — Fiona Snailham)
- The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird (Editor — Zara-Louise Stubbs)
- The Lure of Atlantis: Strange Tales from the Sunken Continent (Editor — Michael Wheatley)
- Dead Drunk: Tales of Intoxication and Demon Drinks (Editor — Pam Lock)
- The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
- Roads of Destiny and Other Stories of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms (Editor — Alasdair Richmond)
- Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites (Editor — Katy Soar)
- Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love (Editor — Joanna Ella Parsons)
- The Undying Monster: A Tale of the Fifth Dimension by Jessie Douglas Kerruish
- Fear in the Blood: Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird (Editor — Mike Ashley)
- Out of the Past: Tales of Haunting History (Editor — Aaron Worth)
- The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
- Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings (Editor — Elizabeth Dearnley
- The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood (forthcoming July 2024)
- Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen (Editor — Edward Parnell)
- The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird (Editor — Weird Walk) (forthcoming September 2024)
- The Weird Tales of Dorothy K. Haynes (forthcoming October 2024)
- The Haunted Vintage by Marjorie Bowen (forthcoming November 2024)
- Summoned to the Séance: Spirit tales from Beyond the Veil (Editor — Emily Vincent) (forthcoming December 2024)
See also…
As I said below, Tales of the Weird began as a series in 2018, but there were a handful of similar volumes from the British Library that pre-dated the main range and perhaps proved popular enough to pave the way for a more formal collection. Published in 2016 and 2017, they are:
The Haunted Library: Classic Ghost Stories (Editor — Tanya Kirk)
Lost in a Pyramid and Other Classic Mummy Stories (Editor — Andrew Smith)
Out of the Deep and Other Supernatural Tales by Walter De La Mare
Silver Bullets: Classic Werewolf Stories (Editor — Eleanor Dobson)
And also…
This British Library series of more expensive hardback volumes is similarly not part of the Tales of the Weird, but sort of… adjacent:
The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James
The Gothic Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
The Gothic Tales of Sheridan Le Fanu
Visions of the Vampire: Two Centuries of Immortal Tales (Editors — Sorcha Ní Fhlainn & Xavier Aldana Reyes)
The Open Door and Other Stories of the Seen and Unseen by Margaret Oliphant
Playing With Fire: The Weird Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle
Fearsome Fairies: Haunting Tales of the Fae (Editor — Elizabeth Dearnley)
The Whisperers and Other Stories: A Lifetime of the Supernatural by Algernon Blackwood
The Little Blue Flames and Other Uncanny Tales by A.M. Burrage
Celtic Weird: Tales of Wicked Folklore and Dark Mythology (Editor — Johnny Mains)
Penny Bloods: Gothic Tales of Dangerous Women (Editor — Nicole C. Dittmer)
Scotland the Strange: Weird Tales from Storied Lands (Editor — Johnny Mains)
The Burial of the Rats and Other Tales of the Macabre by Bram Stoker