British Library Publishing

British Library Publishing Publishing original, unpublished or neglected content from extensive holdings in British Library Crime Classics

28/08/2026

Visit an island of mortals and immortals, warriors and giants, druids and shapeshifters; of rolling hills echoing with the sound of hunting horns and dark forests and mystic lakes where swan-children reside. It is across these storied landscapes that the canon of Irish mythology unfurls.

Using the four story cycles – the Mythological Cycle, Ulster Cycle, Finn Cycle and the Cycle of the Kings – to structure his narrative, Gerry Smyth brings his experience of growing up in the historical, physical and mythological landscapes of Ireland to give these age-old tales a new life.

Publishing 15th October 2026. Available for pre-order now.

Was it reality, this scene, or a form of nightmare? In the 1930s, when a string of pearls is stolen from a wealthy guest...
20/08/2026

Was it reality, this scene, or a form of nightmare?

In the 1930s, when a string of pearls is stolen from a wealthy guest at the Wheatsheaf hotel in Derriford, suspicion quickly falls on Ann Bacon, an 18-year-old maid. Though she protests her innocence, she is arrested and hauled up in front of the county court. In 1752, a rich traveller stays at the C**k Inn just outside the town, where she, too, is relieved of her pearls. Everyone is convinced of the guilt of Patience Passey, an 18-year-old serving girl at the inn, and she too is arrested and tried at the local assizes.

Linking the two eras is a marshal of the court who starts to realise he may be the only person able to witness both cases first-hand.

Railway diagrams have been at the forefront of mapping Britain’s railways since they first began operating 200 years ago...
18/08/2026

Railway diagrams have been at the forefront of mapping Britain’s railways since they first began operating 200 years ago – a journey from A to B has always needed to be easily and quickly understood.

This book reveals the surprising history of how British railway cartographers have led the way in designing clear passenger information, even predating the iconic London Underground diagram, which itself has expanded to encompass overground routes around the capital and beyond.

Written and designed by bestselling author Mark Ovenden and National Rail mapmaker Andrew Smithers, this intriguing and lively history is illustrated with over 300 colourful maps from around the country, showing the evolution of schematics from simple line drawings to complex diagrams that incorporate ever more information.

Available online and in-store today.

Calling all map enthusiasts! A History of Roads in 100 Maps is now available for pre-order. Publishing 8th October 2026....
15/08/2026

Calling all map enthusiasts! A History of Roads in 100 Maps is now available for pre-order. Publishing 8th October 2026.

🗺️The major form of travel throughout history has been roadways. And while humanity has traversed these roadways on foot, by horse or in mechanical vehicles, there is the common theme of a particular route; a right of way differentiating the roadway from adjoining countryside. This book provides the first unique survey of the mapping of roads, exploring the development of these most essential of societies’ arteries. 🗺️

13/07/2026

🔍 Do you know your Marple from your Maigret, your Christie from your Chandler? We’re excited to announce our curiously quizzical new book The Golden Age of Crime Classic Quiz Book. Featuring over 500 questions, puzzles and mysteries , its perfect for the die-hard armchair detectives. Will you be able to solve them all? Publishing 20 October 2026. Available to pre-order now. 🔍

Yorkshire: a land entwined with a distinctive tradition of uncanny literature and folklore, home to twilit towns throngi...
18/06/2026

Yorkshire: a land entwined with a distinctive tradition of uncanny literature and folklore, home to twilit towns thronging with restless ghosts, woods alive with the whispers of fairies and vast moorlands stalked by boggarts and barghests after dark.

Exploring Yorkshire’s position as a heartland of British supernatural fiction, the stories and poems gathered here trace its weird literary heritage from medieval tales of shapeshifting spirits to the Gothic worlds of the Brontë sisters, and from wartime hauntings to modern folk horror. Including local legends from rare sources and unsettling stories, this collection, edited by , offers glimpses of a stranger England hidden among the shadows of the dales.

Haunted Yorkshire: Ghostly Tales from God's Own County is available online and in store today.

Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad!' But how great, when that form is an exquisite version of Wuthering Height...
13/06/2026

Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad!' But how great, when that form is an exquisite version of Wuthering Heights? 📕

Presenting our two-volume first edition facsimile of Wuthering Heights (1847), with covers typical of the era. It also includes a first edition facsimile of Emily Brontë’s own copy of Poems (1846), the ground-breaking poetry collection she published alongside her sisters Charlotte and Anne, faithfully reproduced with handwritten notes.

Available for pre-order now.

A pernicious parson outwits the thieves of a priceless chalice from the parish treasury. A beloved vicar contemplates a ...
10/06/2026

A pernicious parson outwits the thieves of a priceless chalice from the parish treasury. A beloved vicar contemplates a perfect crime when a blackmailer comes knocking. Poisoned pen letters lead to a fall from grace for a rector’s wife, and a suspicious fall from the second storey for the rector.

Gathered here in this new collection are some of the greatest mystery tales in which the tendrils of crime steal into the churchyard, featuring clergymen and nuns as victims, amateur sleuths and villainous perpetrators of the devil’s work. This anthology delivers cosy brainteasers and fiendishly-fashioned stories with a sting in the tail, from a congregation of writers including Joyce Porter, H. C. Bailey, Cyril Hare and Edmund Crispin.

Puzzles of the Parish is out now. Available online today.

I looked down and saw the pure white mist tracking the outline of the river like a shroud… I saw under a grey sky a coun...
26/05/2026

I looked down and saw the pure white mist tracking the outline of the river like a shroud… I saw under a grey sky a country that was still all mystery.

From the peaks of Eryri to hidden valleys and haunted mines, the storied landscapes of Wales have inspired centuries of myth and folklore. Over time, these tales of the unexplained and the Otherworld have formed a unique strain of weird fiction.
Delving into this rich vein of uncanny literature, Aaron Worth returns with twenty tales telling of eerie encounters with ghosts, dragons, fairies, sin-eaters, Mabinogion-inspired sorcerers and primeval gods.

With classics by Dylan Thomas and Arthur Machen alongside rarities from Margiad Evans, Christianna Brand and many more, this volume invites you to tread the paths of a Cymru overcast by the shadow of the strange.

Available online and in store now.

“He looked up at the picture rail… and there was the hand.” ✋📖Tales of the ghostly, possessed and disembodied hands cree...
21/05/2026

“He looked up at the picture rail… and there was the hand.” ✋📖

Tales of the ghostly, possessed and disembodied hands creeping through the history of weird fiction. Prepare to enter a world of nightmares with Beasts with Five Fingers. Gothic dread, uncanny horror and the slow tightening grip of terror in every story: perfect for readers who like their fiction strange, sinister and impossible to shake.

Available online and in store today

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