The Pleasures of Reading Uneasy Tales – The British Library’s ‘Tales of the Weird’ series

I don’t read much modern fiction these days. The last few contemporary novels I’ve read have included Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver and Per Petterson’s Men in My Situation. You’ll notice those are by Japanese, Finnish-Swedish and Norwegian authors. The truth is that most British modern fiction doesn’t appeal to me. I’m also a fan of the short story form, finding that novels often fail to hold their initial attraction after a while. Many novels either lose momentum for me – or I lose the plot. I often get the impression the author is spinning things out, simply because a modern novel has to be 80,000-100,000 words.

I’m pleased to say, though, that The British Library has come to my rescue. Since 2018, they have been curating and publishing classic strange fiction in their Tales of the Weird series. There are now more than seventy of these handsomely-produced paperbacks and you can take out a subscription to receive a new one each month. So far, I’ve received – and enjoyed reading – a wonderful selection of novels and short story collections.

Weird fiction is hard to define. It’s usually set in a recognisably realistic world but one where supernatural things happen. It can be seen as a subgenre of speculative fiction that began to appear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a kind of fiction that has elements of other genres (science fiction, horror and fantasy) but doesn’t necessarily conform to the usual tropes of those genres. This might explain why – although I don’t read sci-fi, fantasy or horror – I really enjoy weird fiction!

Edgar Allan Poe might be considered a founding father of the genre, and H.P. Lovecraft is often cited as a key figure (both have stories featured in the Tales of the Weird collection Spores of Doom – Dank Tales of the Fungal Weird.) But far from drawing on purely American writers, many of the books in the series feature stories from the heyday of British weird fiction, often by writers who might now be considered old-fashioned and quintessentially English. For example, stories by E.F. Benson, Walter de la Mare, Daphne du Maurier and Edith Nesbit are included in the short story collections Phantoms of Kernow – Classic Tales of Haunted Cornwall and The Wayfarer’s Weird – Wild Tales of Uncanny Rambles. I enjoyed these immensely but my favourite book in the series so far has been a novel – The Lost Stradivarius by J. Meade Falkner. First published in 1895, this is a compelling tale involving a bewitching piece of a music and a violin with a sinister history. It sounds like a bizarre premise for a plot but, unlike so many modern novels, it carried me with it right through to the end and I was struck by the originality of the idea and the confidence of the author’s voice. Falkner is best known today for Moonfleet (a tale of smugglers that’s become a children’s classic) but were it not for Tales of the Weird I’m sure I would never have discovered The Lost Stradivarius.

Of course, not every book in the series is to my taste. I admit I struggled with the stylistic quirkiness of Violet Hunt’s The Tiger Skin and Other Tales of the Uneasy. That said, ‘Tales of the Uneasy’ is another helpful way of thinking about weird fiction. Unease is a pervading mood in weird fiction (and is often all the more effective for it.)

I didn’t get on too well with Bird of Ill Omen – The Gothic Tales of Catherine Crowe, though the introduction tells an interesting and sad story about how Crowe seems to have suffered a psychotic episode in which she was found naked in the streets of Edinburgh, believing that spirits had rendered her invisible. It being 1854, this damaged her considerable literary reputation and, shamefully, even her contemporary Charles Dickens weighed in to make fun of her ‘madness.’

I did manage to finish E.H.Visiak’s novel Medusa, but it left me a bit baffled. It’s said to combine Conradian sea adventure with Atlantean mythology ...but I got a bit lost! Still, who can resist the book’s subtitle – ‘a novel of mystery, ecstasy and strange horror’? Surely we need more novels of mystery, ecstasy and strange horror and, thankfully, it looks like there is no shortage of them in the archives of the British Library.

The full range of The British Library's Tales of the Weird series can be found here. 

'A Passenger in Time' out of print

 

Back in 2009, I self-published a novel for children called A Passenger in Time. The story was set in 2005 and involved a young teenager – Jessica Martyn – who inadvertently travels back in time to 1955 in an adventure that involves a heritage railway. Almost as soon as it was published this book (which centred on the vagaries of time) became a victim of the real-life passage of time. In 2005, the central character Jessica did not have access to a smart phone but only a basic ‘flip phone’ while her younger brother, (with Spotify a decade away,) listened to his iTunes music on an MP3 player. Both devices play a role in the plot so, sixteen years post-publication, Jessica’s ‘present day’ of the 2000s would seem as odd and antiquated to today's children as the 1950s seemed to Jessica.

This problem (of the present dating as much as the past) was less of an issue for authors of earlier time travel books. Philippa Pearce’s classic Tom's Midnight Garden, for example, was published in the 1950s and involved time travel back to the 1880s but the technology is broadly the same in the book’s 'past' as it is in the book’s 'present.' Whether it's 1885 or 1955, railways use steam locomotives, telephones are not portable.

In 2010, I created this blog – Passengers in Time – partly to promote my book (and other books) and also to explore my other interest of music. That’s why the blog has the semi-serious ‘strapline’ adventures with books, music and time travel. Over the past fifteen years I’ve continued to blog about music and books that I like books and, less often, ‘time travel’ (by which I mean real-life travel often combined with a feeling of nostalgia, rather than – sorry to disappoint – actual time travel.) The blog moved on while the book that started it became more and more forgotten (by me, as much as by any potential readers.) The longevity of the book wasn’t helped by the publisher going out of business in 2016. As it was only ever available on print-on-demand, the publisher’s demise meant the handful of printed copies I held were the only ones available (apart from those that could be borrowed from public libraries and the copy held in the good old British Library.) A few kind friends and readers had suggested I republish it but, for all the reasons above, I felt it was something that had dated and was best left as a thing of the past.

I had all but forgotten about A Passenger in Time. And then, a few weeks ago, I performed at a folk club and was surprised when the host introduced me as ‘Tony Gillam – a singer-songwriter and writer,’ and went on to announce, ‘Tony is the author of a time travel novel involving steam railways...’ I’ve never had A Passenger in Time referred to at any of my musical performances and I wasn’t sure what the audience would make of it. I wasn’t sure what I made of it, to be honest.

The upshot of this mention of the book to the folk club audience was that, the following day, I received two enquiries from people who wanted to buy a copy. And the upshot of this unexpected level of interest was that, after sixteen years, no more copies of the book remain. A Passenger in Time is now, well and truly, out of print. The end of an era.

And what does this all tell me? First, that it might be possible to find a readership for my books in the audiences at my gigs. Second, it’s high time I got on and wrote another book.

Radiating thoughtful beauty - Yosef Gutman’s 'Resisei Lyla' reviewed

I’ve been an enthusiastic follower of Yosef Gutman’s music since I reviewed his album Soul Song in 2023 (a collaboration with his friend, guitarist Lionel Loueke.) Gutman has an impressive stream of releases to his name – a dozen albums over the past seven years.

For those unfamiliar with Gutman, he was born in South Africa and grew up listening to American jazz fusion. Inspired by the music of Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius he put down his skateboard and took up bass guitar, winning a scholarship to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He relocated to New York where, for many years, he was part of the city’s jazz scene and then, in 2009, he emigrated to Israel, taking a long hiatus from music.

By 2018 he had returned to music, using his five-string acoustic bass guitar to become both a prolific recording artist and the curator of Soul Song Records, a label Gutman founded to promote "modest, soulful music that radiates a thoughtful beauty." According to his website, the label “focuses on encouraging artists to create honest, improvised, and inspired music, regardless of religious background.” In some ways, for me, Soul Song Records fills the space once occupied by Wyndham Hill Records – an amazing community of musicians releasing instrumental music which is hard to classify but always life-enhancing. Some of Gutman’s albums are largely improvisational, others more composed - but they are always played exquisitely, with originality and verve, by a trusted team of musical collaborators.

As expected – based on Gutman’s previous albums – the latest release, Resisei Lyla, is a thing of great beauty, with Omri Mor (piano), Yoed Nir (cello), Itamar Doari (percussion) and Tal Yahalom (guitar) blending with Gutman’s acoustic bass guitar and double bass. Levitt sometimes plays surprising melody lines high on the extra top string of his bass, while Doari’s percussion is always subtle but perfectly judged. The simple act of putting this record on the turntable brings a big smile to my face but it’s also rewarding and fascinating to watch the videos of the studio recordings as a masterclass in how a group of musicians can play so instinctively and sympathetically together.

The music shifts effortlessly between traditional folk-like themes to jazzier excursions, often settling into a meditative mood. Most of the tracks are original Gutman compositions, and the album ends with an unplanned solo version of a traditional Moroccan tune from pianist Mor. Resisei Lyla is a deeply soulful, transformative and restorative journey. This album provides much-needed balm in a troubled world and Gutman has certainly succeeded in his mission to  create “soulful music that radiates a thoughtful beauty.”   

Resisei Lyla is released January 2026, available on LP/CD/DL from Soul Song Records.

My top ten albums of 2025

Summers & Silvova's
How To Raise the Wind

As the new year begins it’s a good time to reflect back on all the great new music that appeared in 2025. The past twelve months saw the release of a cavalcade of stunning new albums, from the driving Zamrock of WITCH’s Sogolo to the meditative songwriting of Robin Adam’s The Beggar, through to innovative debuts like Kyson Point’s Underwater Sky and Anna Ling’s Light.

From Scandinavia came two vastly different offerings. The Norway-based Scottish/Finnish pairing of Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvova released How To Raise the Wind. This constantly-evolving duo take elements of Scottish and Norwegian folk, jazz and even a touch of Stravinsky to create a kind of groovy chamber music. Meanwhile, a darker side of Scandinavia is represented by the dark-folk of Wardruna. Their sound has become more expansive since 2021’s Kvitravn and, with Birna, we were taken on a journey into the world of the Old Norse she-bear. The result, which includes an all-female choir and the sound of ‘singing ice’ is immersive and remarkable.

(You can read my interview with Warduna’s Einar Selvik about the making of Birna here.)

Filkin's Drift's Glan

For sheer, gorgeous musicianship, we had Flook’s Sanju (a beautiful blending of flutes, guitar and bodhran.) Flook celebrated thirty years of music-making in 2025. With a similarly pristine sound – and using just fiddle and guitar – the duo Filkin’s Drift brought us Glan, a delicate album of Welsh folk songs and traditional English dance tunes. 

On the singer-songwriter front, 2025 brought us Gabriel Moreno’s consummate Nights in the Belly of Bohemia – a poetic marvel of an album, with songs that haunt and enthral. 

(You can read my full review of Gabriel Moreno's Nights in the Belly of Bohemia here.)

Anna Ling's Light

While I’ve long been an admirer of Gabriel Moreno, Scottish singer-songwriter Robin Adams was a new name to me. I was intrigued to learn Robin is the son of Chris and Pauline Adams (of one of my favourite 1970s folk-rock bands String Driven Thing.) Unlike his parents’ band, Robin’s music is quiet and reflective – unsurprisingly, since it deals with themes of bereavement and a slow recovery from a chronic illness. Robin’s vocal evokes something of John Martyn and other singer-songwriters of the 1970s. The beautiful songs on The Beggar reward repeated listening and deserve a wider audience.

Other corners of the UK produced some unexpected gems: from Devon we had singer-composer Anna Ling’s highly imaginative Light while, from Suffolk, the duo Kyson Point’s debut Underwater Sky featured accessible and memorable songs providing solace and hope.

WITCH's Sogolo

Veteran purveyors of Zambia’s Zamrock sound WITCH surprised us with another joyful and varied mix of psych-rock and afrobeat (with occasional echoes of Giorgio Moroder.) WITCH’s album Sogolo made most contemporary rock music sound tired and unimaginative. Finally, traditional Guinean music and Mandingo jazz were blended wonderfully in the music of Kaabi Kouyaté – an epic voice against a background of virtuosic musicians, fusing griotic tradition with contemporary music in Tribute to Kandia. 

I admit this is a very eclectic and subjective selection of my personal top ten albums of 2025 but I hope it introduces you to something you might have overlooked. For those of you who haven’t fallen out completely with Spotify I’ve even compiled an accompanying Spotify playlist that you can listen to here. 

So, in summary, here’s my Top Ten, with thanks and deep gratitude to all the amazing artists involved. Please support them by buying their music and seeing them live if you get the chance.

Okay, cue ‘Pick of the Pops’ music...

1. Gabriel Moreno – Nights in the Belly of Bohemia
2. WITCH – Sogolo
3. Wardruna – Birna
4. Kaabi Kouyaté – Tribute to Kandia 
5. Kyson Point – Underwater Sky
6. Anna Ling – Light
7. Robin Adams – The Beggar
8. Filkin’s Drift – Glan
9. Flook – Sanju
10. Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola – How to Raise the Wind

Jack Frost and a Darkling Thrush – fresh wintry and festive music

New Agent Starling single Jokul Frosti & Winter WonderBand’s new album Joy Illimited

As the year draws to a close I like to reflect back on some of the best music that’s been released over the past twelve months. I’m working on a special ‘Best of 2025’ blog post and may even do a personal Top Ten. But, as it’s only a week until Christmas, I thought I’d take a moment to highlight a couple of seasonal goodies.

First up, is a delightfully wintry concoction from Agent Starling. Readers of this blog will know that Agent Starling is a pleasingly eccentric collaboration between hurdy-gurdy player Quentin Budworth and bassist/vocalist Lou Duffy-Howard, joined by Dexter Duffy-Howard on violin and cello. In 2021 Agent Starling released their Northern Lights Trilogy and there’s something about the band’s sound which, like Sigur Ros and Cocteau Twins, perfectly conjures up winter. Now, Agent Starling have released Jokul Frosti, a preview track from their forthcoming album (due for release in spring 2026.) With its spoken-word lyrics, droning hurdy-gurdy, church bells and snow-swirls of violin, the song evokes the titular Jokul Frosti - the Norse mythological character who we know as Jack Frost, the embodiment of chilly weather. Lou has also devised a video for the single by artfully editing  a 1957 public domain Soviet animated version of The Snow Queen (see link below.)

The words, music and images create a delightfully chilling effect so typical of Agent Starling’s quirky (not to say slightly unhinged) output, and I can’t wait to hear the new album in 2026.

But, if a wintry single doesn’t satisfy your seasonal appetite, how about Joy Illimited – a fifteen-track album by Winter WonderBand. In fact, if fifteen tracks isn’t enough, the CD and vinyl release come with a bonus disc recorded live at Chapel Arts in Bath. Winter WonderBand features the astonishingly assured hammered dulcimer of Maclaine Colston, Jennifer Crook on lever harp and guitar, Beth Porter (cello, recorders) and Saul Rose (button accordions.) All four members share vocals. Jennifer is also credited with setting Thomas Hardy’s extraordinary poem The Darkling Thrush to music. This track opens the album and is the finest setting of poetry to music that you could wish to find. It also gives the band their name: “At once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead / In full-hearted evensong of joy illimited...”

Joy Illimited also includes splendid versions of The Coventry Carol, and some unexpected covers – George Michael’s Last Christmas gets the English folk treatment and there’s a rollicking rendition of Fairytale of New York. It all make a refreshing change from all the festive pop you’ll hear as you push your trolley around the supermarket this December.

You can watch the YouTube video of Agent Starling ‘s Jokul Frosti here: https://youtu.be/gYclRuVdUlc

For info and latest news on Winter WonderBand visit: https://winterwonderbandfolk.com/

After Red Guitars come... Undead Guitars

Back in 2022, I reported on this blog that I’d seen Red Guitars play at Birmingham’s O2 Institute. One of my favourite indie bands of the 1980s, I never imagined I’d have the chance to see them play live and I was hoping that the then recently-reformed band were due for a renaissance. But history repeated itself when lead singer Jeremy Kidd left the band for a second time in 2024.

The rest of the band’s solution was for guitarist Hallam Lewison to take on lead vocals, with the continued support of John Rowley (guitar), Lou Duffy-Howard (bass and backing vocals) and Matt Higgins (drums and percussion.) More radically, (and rather ingeniously,) they decided to rename themselves Undead Guitars – so it’s absolutely fitting that they should release a single in time for Halloween called Blazing Zombies.

Former Red Guitars fans won’t be disappointed as Blazing Zombies is, as you’d expect, a perfectly-crafted slice of guitar-driven rock, with intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics. Aren’t we all at risk, it seems to suggest, of becoming, metaphorically speaking,  the Blazing Zombies of the title?

While it’s all good end-of-October fun, the video is really rather terrifying (with band members and audience dressed in Halloween costumes and bassist Lou appearing to be gamely stabbing some nondescript thing towards the end of the song!) The record ends in a rather nice coda which hints at a more optimistic future or, at least, at survival after a zombie apocalypse.

I’m pleased to say Undead Guitars are working on an album and also planning a tour. Meanwhile, Blazing Zombies is available now on all the usual digital outlets and here, for your Halloween enjoyment, is the official video. 

Busking is a funny old business - Damian Clarke's 'Busking Business' reviewed

In my youth, I used to go busking quite a lot. A favourite spot in my home town of Shrewsbury was outside the public toilets in Butcher Row, on the corner opposite the Prince Rupert Hotel. This sounds a bit dodgy now that I come to write it down, but it really was all quite innocent  - and resulted in being invited to play in a pizzeria where, appropriately, I was paid in ...pizza. Less successful was my attempt to busk underneath the Magistrates' Court... while the court was in session. The bemused police officer accepted my apologies and I luckily avoided being charged with disturbing the peace, not to mention, contempt of court. 

In the early 1980s, my friend Jerry and I used to busk in Bangor High Street and took this to a new level when we joined in the street protest/party campaigning to save the local Theatr Gwynedd from closure. We must have done something right as the theatre remained open for a further twenty-five years. Footage of us busking outside Woolworths appeared on the local TV news and a grainy black and white photo of us, mid-song, was plastered over the front page of the North Wales Chronicle. 

It's only in the last few years that I've tried my hand at busking again, this time playing the mountain dulcimer rather than an acoustic guitar. With the encouragement of my friend Damian Clarke, I've busked in Dorchester and in Wimborne, as part of Wimborne Minster Folk Festival, (see previous posts on this blog.) I've also tried my hand in Bridgnorth, Shropshire and in Herefordshire, as part of Ledbury Fringe Festival.

If anyone is interested in trying out busking (or simply wants to know more about the life of a busker) you could do no better than to get a copy of Damian's new book, Busking Business (Vox Pop Publishing.) Damian, who plays the other type of dulcimer, is widely recognised for his indefatigable touring, accompanying his singing with both the hammered dulcimer and the hurdy-gurdy, in folk clubs, village halls and festivals – not only in the UK but across Europe. From medieval festivals and markets to the esplanades of seaside towns he's a familiar figure and a major proponent of the gentle art of busking. Damian has been busking for many years now, since he made the switch from art teacher to full-time musician. 

First published as an e-Book, Busking Business is now available for the first time in a handsome paperback edition. Part memoir, part handbook, the book distils Damian’s insightful and authoritative thoughts on busking. His skills as both an entertainer and a teacher make the book an enjoyable and instructive read. 

The book provides invaluable advice on finding suitable spots, avoiding being a nuisance to shopkeepers and interacting with the public, (what Damian calls ‘busking etiquette.’) He has clearly become adept at making it a worthwhile activity while avoiding some of the pitfalls. 

Damian discusses the stigma associated with ‘soliciting alms’ and the differences between busking and begging. He explores the historical origins of busking as well as his own personal journey, from the security of a teaching career to the vagaries of being a professional musician, and from being a guitarist in a band to being a solo player of more unusual instruments.

One of Damian’s helpful tips is that being something other than just another busker with a guitar is actually advantageous. He makes use of some amusing acronyms, one of which is BAGPUSSES (or Balding Acoustic Guitar-playing Performers Using Shiney Special Electro-acousticS.) He makes a virtue of offering something different from this ubiquitous type of busker. Passers-by are often intrigued and drawn towards unusual instruments in a way that they just aren’t to yet another guitarist on the street. 

The book discusses the pros and cons of busking amplification. Damian makes a good argument that singing and playing without amplification draws people closer and doesn’t intrude, although he concedes that quieter instruments (like my mountain dulcimer, for example,) might need some amplification.         

Readers may be surprised that the book deals with the business aspects of an activity that could be seen as alternative and non-mainstream, even, perhaps, subversive. I found parallels with Tom Hodgkinson’s book Business for Bohemians in the way both books balance idealism and pragmatism, making a living whilst living a good life.

There’s an enlightening chapter about Damian’s instruments – playfully titled ‘Summe Historie of the Hurdy Gurdy and Hammered Dulcimer,’ but the book is essential reading for buskers of any instrument and this is borne out by a chapter in which the author interviews other members of the busking community. 

Damian is a modest philanthropist – his Covered4Cancer CD continues to raise funds for Worldwide Cancer Research. Similarly, a percentage of the sales from Busking Business supports the homeless charity Shelter. Damian writes with empathy about people “living out in the open in our towns and cities,” many of whom he has met while busking.  

You can order a copy of the book directly from Damian or buy a copy from him in person, whenever you see him out busking! 

(A somewhat shorter version of this piece appeared as a book review in the Autumn 2025 issue of Nonsuch News - The Nonsuch Dulcimer Club Newsletter.)