Let a Sleeping Witch Lie — Welsh Gothic Stories by Elizabeth Walter

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Between 1965 and 1975, Elizabeth Walter published five collections of supernatural stories. Often inspired by her Welsh heritage, 'Let a Sleeping Witch Lie' brings together nine of her stories set in Wales. Mixing folklore, history, and ancient traditions, they are the perfect way to discover Walter's chillingly remarkable talent.

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Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Elizabeth Walter (1927-2006) was a British novelist, short story writer and editor of the Collins Crime Club for over thirty years. As an author she penned many stories in the field of supernatural and ghostly fiction as well as of ‘quiet’ horror. Walter’s uncanny tales have appeared in famous anthologies such as The Pan Books of Horror Stories and The Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories . She published five collections of short stories: Snowfall & Other Chilling Events (1965), The Sin-Eater & Other Scientific Impossibilities (1967), Davy Jones’s Tale & Other Supernatural Stories ( 1971), Come And Get Me & Other Uncanny Invitations (1973), Dead Woman & Other Haunting Experiences (1975). Editor Nick Freeman is Reader in English at Loughborough University who recently edited the ghost stories of A.M. Burrage for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

Publication by this book marks a return to public attention for a writer whose name has to some extent fallen from the page. It also reaffirms – with tales set in Wales and its borderlands – the longstanding connection that Cymru and the Marches have with fiction, and in particular short fiction, in the fields of horror and the supernatural. Elizabeth Walter (1927–2006) was born in London but grew up in Welsh Border country. A London-based editor for publisher Collins, she was drawn to the likes of the Wye Valley and the Black Mountains throughout her life. She authored four novels and six story collections in the genres of horror and fantasy, contributing to anthologies including the popular Pan horror and Fontana ghost series. It would be wrong to say Walter has received no attention in recent years. A collection of thirty-one of her stories was published by Shadow in 2017. However, the lack of awareness of her name in Wales and the Marches is surprising. I’ve found myself wondering why Walter, though featuring in high-profile genre anthologies and acclaimed by several commentators, seems not to have appeared with matching prominence in ostensibly canonical collections that have had Wales and the Borders as their backdrop. Elizabeth Walter’s are 20th century tales (attitudes and turns of phrase idiomatic of her day) interwoven with history, tragedy, folklore (‘Old ways die hard on the Welsh Border,’ one of her characters asserts), eccentricity, comedy and even – in one Breconshire-situated story – the exotica of voodoo. The nine stories collected here have settings in coastal south-west Wales, the Brecon Beacons, Radnorshire, the Marches generally, including Herefordshire and its lightly disguised cathedral city: cumulatively ‘Walter Country’, the introduction suggests. Cardiff, Swansea, Haverfordwest, Tenby, Milford Haven, Fishguard, Merthyr, Brecon and Shrewsbury receive namechecks. The author’s interest, though, is in (mainly rural) worlds that lie off the beaten track. Although not exclusively the case (one protagonist is a somewhat laddish sales rep, another story features fishermen and weavers), Walter’s characters tend to the middle and upper middle-class: Army officers (serving or retired), an anthropologist, an architectural draughtsman, a former civil servant, West End actors (both resting and active), a suburban accountant, a window dresser, new and expectant mothers in families that seem secure financially. It would be a mistake, though, to dismiss Walter as a writer of mere “twee” tales. Without pummelling the reader, her stories reference change (as in the decline of the traditional fishing industry) and politically charged issues such as the flooding of valleys to create reservoirs. Snobbery, cowardice, marital and business failure all feature. This collection will have particular appeal for those who like tales told in the “traditional” way. The stories are of the rounded, plotted, full-bodied kind, with beginnings, middles and ends. Moral dilemmas are at the heart of many. Not infrequently, there are stings in the tail. The stories are significantly longer than many publishers and competition organisers nowadays seek. Some might be classed as novelettes. Walter’s strengths include a crisp yet elegant narrative style, deftness with dialogue, an ability to draw minor characters with economy and effect, and, where called for, passages of vivid – and immersive – description. She is, in my view, a high-end horror writer, adept at conjuring atmosphere and suspense, and is a storywriter who seems at home whether writing male or female characters. In his introduction to the collection editor Nick Freeman theorises that Walter – left-handed as a child but ambidextrous as an adult – had (figuratively) a right hand which enabled a successful career as a London editor, and a left which – rebelliously aligning in some way with her own leanings towards Wales and the ‘darkly enchanted’ border country – produced her supernatural fiction. He attributes Walter’s eclipse to a late 20th century surge in violent horror mostly written by men. I found this a very readable collection, as will others. Notwithstanding her story of a village’s hostility to an incoming retiree in the witch-themed ‘Dead Woman’, it seems that Wales and the Marches, especially, held a lifelong fascination for Elizabeth Walter. This collection could be said to represent recognition “on her own doorstep”. Overdue, many may feel. In my book, the lady was – and is – a cut above. Matthew G. Rees t is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Books Council of Wales.