Horror & Gothic

London, New English Library, 1983.

First edition, first impression. Signed by the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

An attractive signed copy of Herbert's religious-horror novel: the deaf-mute Alice, the miraculous cures, the shrine beneath the oak, and the centuries-old corruption underneath it all, later loosely filmed as The Unholy (2021).

London, New English Library, 1976.

First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original dark grey boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.

A signed first edition of Herbert's third novel, sitting between The Fog and Fluke and marking Herbert's turn from catastrophe to the supernatural: a 747 comes down in flames outside Eton, killing over three hundred people, all except the co-pilot, David Keller, who walks from the wreckage without a scratch and without memory, while around the crash site the town begins to fester with something the dead have not finished.

A key early Herbert: copies with seemingly contemporary inscriptions becoming particularly sought-after.

London, New English Library, 1975.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

The second novel, following The Rats (1974). Here an earthquake releases a sentient yellowish fog that drives everyone it touches homicidally or suicidally insane, culminating in scenes of mass carnage... the Bournemouth beach sequence remains genuinely notorious... Rendered with the working-class settings and recognisably ordinary England that were Herbert's whole point: horror in the bus queue, not the Carpathians.

London, New English Library, 1977.

First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

Herbert's fourth novel and his great curveball: after making his name drenching London in rats and fog, he wrote a book narrated by a dog, a stray mongrel who gradually realises he was once a man, with a wife and daughter, and sets out to find them. Reincarnation, a murder to unravel, and a surprising amount of canine philosophy...his publishers must have been thrilled... A doomed '90s film version relocated to the US however proved less commercially viable.

Near fine copies of '70s NEL Herberts are getting harder to find easily, the paper stock often lending itself to toning.

London, New English Library, 1983.

First edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.

Inscribed intriguingly by the author, 'To David / See you on the day! / Jim Herbert', indicative perhaps of a close connection with the recipient. The inscription is also dated by the author, '27 Jan '83 [?]8:40', suggesting close to point of publication, marking it out from the more often found examples with later signatures or inscriptions.

In this work, Herbert takes on Catholicism: Alice Pagett, a deaf-mute child, is suddenly cured beneath an oak tree behind her village church, claims visions of the Virgin, and begins performing miracle cures — whereupon the village becomes an English Lourdes, complete with pilgrims, press circus, and the slowly dawning realisation that whatever is working through Alice is neither immaculate nor benign.

London, New English Library, 1976.

First edition. 8vo. Original dark grey boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

The third novel, sitting between The Fog and Fluke and marking Herbert's turn from catastrophe to the supernatural: a 747 comes down in flames outside Eton, killing over three hundred people, all except the co-pilot, David Keller, who walks from the wreckage without a scratch and without memory, while around the crash site the town begins to fester with something the dead have not finished.

A key early Herbert: near fine jackets are getting properly difficult.