A Book of Short Stories

De: Tabitha Potts

Narrado por: Tabitha Potts

This short story collection, narrated by the author Tabitha Potts, is a showcase for some of the dark short fiction she has had published in literary magazines and online. She is inspired by nature, folklore, myths, local history, and her interest in how women survive in a patriarchal society.

Various stories by her have been short-listed in the Booker at Birkbeck creative writing award, the MIR Folktale Festival and the Royal Academy Pindrop Award. Her new short story recently received an honorable mention from the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize.

You will find supernatural stories in this short collection, as well as realist fiction. The themes which link these short stories are transformation and transfiguration. The author is interested in liminal spaces and thresholds between worlds—there are other influences on her work such as folklore, murder ballads, the Gothic, and local history.

Some of these stories fit into the folk horror genre, such as The Djinn and The Bells of London Town set in East London, and Crow Girl and Hagstone set in rural England.

The Djinn tells the story of an exorcism in a British Bangladeshi household, while The Bells of London Town explores folklore about fairy bells and the famous nursery rhyme to create a story about a banker lured to his fate by the mysterious bells of the City.

Crow Girl tells a story of an outsider in a remote community who fights prejudice and abuse. Hagstone is set in Norfolk and tells the story of a female academic in the throes of a divorce who finds a witch bottle in her home. The Edge is a realist story told from the point of view of a young girl on holiday.

©2022 Tabitha Potts (P)2023 Tabitha Potts