'Paris Letters: An Anthology December 1935-July 1940'

Paris Letters: An Anthology December 1935-July 1940 edited by Chris Harte collects columns by the journalist and bohemian David Arkell. I knew of him previously because of his enjoyable Looking for Laforgue: An Informal Biography (1979), a Quest for Corvo style book about the French symbolist poet who influenced the Imagists, Eliot and others, and his Alain Fournier: A Brief Life 1886-1914 (1986). These reveal his interest not only in French literary classics but in the elusive and transient. 

Chris Harte provides a helpful and interesting introduction which explains Arkell’s fluency in French due to family links and a literary background. He entered journalism, starting with local papers, but was spotted and recruited by the Rothermere empire and was sent to Paris as a correspondent and editor.

The columns are lively, bubbling with information about the byways of the French capital, including hotels, bars, revues, theatres and night-life. The tone is hectic, brisk and practical (giving, for example, prices and routes) but also lets the reader feel they are in on the modish high life. There are some good Parisian jokes and stories, some tips about handling taxi drivers, waiters and porters, and brief character sketches both of the notable and the unknown. He notes the number of Russian exiles in the city, and also the American style jazz clubs. I was reminded of the contemporary journals of Mary Butts in her swirling Parisian days and of the way Paris features in the fiction of the Roaring Twenties as a glittering cosmopolitan capital spinning like a roulette wheel. 

The selection gives a vivid background for those interested in the literary and artistic circles of interwar Paris, but is also a swiftly moving, cinematic portrayal of a legendary time, when the high-spirited young and the fashionable cognoscenti danced, drank, drugged and loved from midnight to dawn, until the lights went out all over the continent. The editor provides an afterword about Arkell’s internment in Occupied Paris and his later career after the Liberation. The book, ISBN 978-1-898010-22-7,  is available from the usual outlets.

(Mark Valentine) 

Announcing a New Journal: A Weird Occasional

 cover art by Johnny Mains

A Weird Occasional is just what it sounds like it should be. An occasional publication devoted to the weird, particularly the older and unknown stuff. Edited by Douglas A. Anderson and Christopher Tompkins, the first issue is now available. It includes three essays, and five obscure short stories. The contents are:

2 * Editorial * Douglas A. Anderson and Christopher Tompkins * ed 
5 * M.P. Dare: Beyond the Veil * Johnny Mains * ar 
19 * The Man Who Shot Cassius Crisp * Christopher Tompkins * ar
29 * Ballantine's Chamber of Horrors: A History and Bibliography * Douglas A. Anderson * ar
43 * Introduction to The Crooked Man * Christopher Tompkins * in
43 * The Crooked Man * A. M. Burrage * ss, 1919
49 * Introduction to Our Lost "Others" * Douglas A. Anderson * in
49 * Our Lost "Others":  Toltec Legend * Kenneth Morris * ss, 1933 
55 * Introduction to As a Fly in Amber * Christopher Tompkins * in
55 * As a Fly in Amber * Bernard Capes * ss, 1905
63 * Introduction to The Hut * Johnny Mains * in
63 * The Hut * Elim Henry D'Avigdor * ss, Whims (1889)
87 * Introduction to A Were-Wolf * Christopher Tompkins * in
87 * A Were-Wolf * Arlo Bates * ss, 1882

This oversize issue is about one hundred pages, and is solely available at Lulu (link here for issue one). It is done in color, which looks great, especially for my article on the  "Ballantine's Chamber of Horrors: A History and Bibliography," which includes full cover scans of all the titles in the series. The price is around $8--this is set at the cost of printing.

Comments and submission queries are welcome at aweirdoccasional@gmail.com 

The journal has a new website here.    

'B-Movie: Serial of Seven Stars' by Andrew Duncan

B-Movie: Serial of Seven Stars by Andrew Duncan, published recently, is a booklet text sequence inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel of Egyptian magic, The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), or more exactly by a B-movie version of it. The poet explains: 'B- Movie: Serial of Seven Stars is an attempt to recapture the feverish and irrational mythology of the B-movie, initially based on the classic Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb . . .’

In the narrative, he goes on, ‘a cast of methodologically suspect occult scholars pursue seven figurines, the polychrome minstrels, said to contain matter which had leaked through from another universe, detected by subtle and eerie distortions of geology and building fabrics. This quest re-enacts the Storage Wars series, in which junk dealers bid on sealed, abandoned storage lockers.’

Some section titles of the sequence will give a flavour of its themes: ‘Lud’s Gateway’; ‘Pharaoh, Your kindgom will be shook down’; ‘Demon Beast Invasion’; ‘Shape Memory Terror’; ‘Act for the Dissolution of Monsters’.

I greatly enjoyed this rich, allusive and strange text, which has affinities to the literary form and style of T.S. Eliot, David Jones and Iain Sinclair, uniting high modernism with demotic and pulp elements, as well as to the occult thrillers of Charles Williams, Mary Butts and others. It is the sort of work where the cavalcade of images offers new resonances on each reading, and the approach is both stimulating and adventurous. 

When I last looked, I couldn’t see the title listed at the website of the publisher, Equipage, but orders for similar booklets are typically £4.50 post free in the UK, and are to be sent to menghamr (at) gmail.com or c/o Rod Mengham, Jesus College, Cambridge, CB5 8BL, U.K. Payment is by cheque made payable to Rod Mengham. It would probably be best to ask about any overseas orders.

. . .

Three Short Absurdities

At dadakuku edited by petro c.k.,'An Error in De-Extinction'. 

At Ubu 6 edited by Rowan Beckett Minor, 'The Dice Deserts'.

At The Other Bunny edited by Johannes S.H. Berg, 'through the window'.

. . .

(Mark Valentine)

'Qx and other pieces' in paperback

  

Zagava have recently issued a paperback edition of Qx and other pieces, a selection of fiction and non-fiction. This was first issued in a limited edition in 2024 and is now newly available. It includes over twenty pieces, among them the short stories 'Hark to the Rooks', 'The Man Who Made the Yellow God', the title piece and 'Stained Medium'. Only available here is 'Sivori Levey & His Masks', an experimental tribute to an Edwardian songwriter, Shakespearean, mime artist and Great War soldier. 

Also recently issued, Beasts with Five Fingers: Strange Tales of Disembodied Hands edited by Brian J. Showers in the British Library Tales of the Weird series, which includes my story 'The Late Post', about a most unusual copy of the W.F. Harvey book alluded to in the title. The anthology is dedicated to Richard Dalby, and it was a catalogue of Richard's that inspired my yarn. I had forgotten how many awful puns I included. The selection and editorial matter by Brian are excellent. 

Meanwhile, available online are Three Fictions, 'Mannequin', 'Mosaic' and 'There You Go' at The Fortnightly Review edited by Paige Blackburn and colleagues (20 May 2026), brief vignettes of images that caught my attention. 

(Mark Valentine)