The Retros you don’t have to go back in time to read: Julia Roseingrave by Marjorie
Julia Roseingrave by Marjorie Bowen (British Library £9.99, 240pp)
Late one night, the Devil arrives at the deserted Holcot Grange. Next morning, he is revealed as the absentee owner, Sir William Notley, dressed in carnival costume.
Fleeing a drunken brawl, he becomes obsessed with the beautiful but disdainful Julia Roseingrave, trapped living with her dying mother and ‘imbecile’ sister.
Egged on by Mother Cloke, rumoured to be a witch, he watches her bathe by full moon then begs her to live with him – but dismissive Julia demands marriage and a life abroad.
When a stranger turns up to ruin her escape, Julia’s revenge is ruthless. A creepy Gothic novella with six short stories on similar themes.
A Gothic tale of devilry and witchcraft
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (Virago £10.99, 514pp)
Rumer Godden researched this novel with the help of nuns at Stanbrook Abbey so it exudes authenticity. Career high-flyer Philippa, a widow whose son has died, quits her job to train at Benedictine Brede Abbey, shocking colleagues.
Not universally popular (look out for Agnes!), she gradually wins support and, after a financial scandal, we learn of her tragic past but also the back stories of the other nuns.
Beautifully written, it exposes jealousies, insecurities, sacrifices and suppressed passions but also extraordinary humanity. The Sound Of Music will never seem the same again.
ICE by Anna Kavan (Pushkin Classic £9.99, 192pp)
The hallucinatory quality of this disturbing dystopian novel has sometimes been attributed to Kavan’s psychiatric problems and heroin habit but nothing detracts from its hypnotic intensity.
Against a backdrop of post-nuclear disaster, the world is at war. Our unnamed narrator is searching for a girl he once loved, who is seemingly controlled and abused by the violent Warden.
As our man chases her across bleak landscapes and freezing seas, the ice starts to close in and we ask:
‘Is he her saviour or her tormentor – or both? Or is this all a nightmare in his tortured mind?’
Environmentally prescient, it will give you the shivers.