Valancourt Books discussion

For Sunday Mourning Horror we share a title from our back catalogue that you may have missed. This week's title isn't exactly from our back catalogue since we just released it last year, but with all of the new followers recently, I wanted to bring it back into the deadlight!

The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory is one of my favorite titles that we've reissued and I cannot personally recommend the book enough. Both of us here at Valancourt Books are huge Stephen Gregory fans, so we were very excited to have the chance to introduce this to new readers and that the author was on board and contributed a brand new introduction to our edition.



The Cormorant (1986) by Stephen Gregory with a new introduction by the Author

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and filmed by BBC as part of the Screen Two series. The Cormorant adaptation starred a young Ralph Fiennes in the leading role as John Talbot.



Plot

A young family receives a surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian’s nephew and his wife Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their life in the city for a newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There’s just one catch. Uncle Ian’s will has an unusual condition: the couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest. The will’s provision seems harmless enough at first, but when their young son Harry develops a strange fascination for the increasingly sinister and malevolent bird, they soon find that Uncle Ian’s gift may not be a blessing, but a curse.

The Cormorant (1986), Stephen Gregory’s first novel, received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Somerset Maugham Award and earning comparisons to the works of Poe. This edition includes a new introduction by the author, in which he reveals the inspirations for this bleak and haunting tale.

For more information on the book and Stephen Gregory, visit our website below:

http://www.valancourtbooks.com/stephe...

I've planned for this to be my holiday reading as we will be staying in Snowdonia, North Wales for a week in July.

This looks like a blast! I wish listed it for now. :)

Ross wrote: "I've planned for this to be my holiday reading as we will be staying in Snowdonia, North Wales for a week in July."

That sounds like a nice vacation! Hope you enjoy the book.