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Arthur Machen

The weird fiction of Arthur Machen (1863–1947) has influenced generations of horror writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King, with other admirers including Rowan Williams, Aleister Crowley and The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. Born in Caerleon in south-east Wales, Machen moved to London in his late teens. He joined the 1880s precariat as a journalist, private tutor, publisher’s clerk and cataloguer of occult books, spending much of his time exploring the city on foot. His 1894 fantasy novella The Great God Pan scandalised the press with its Aubrey Beardsley cover and febrile visions of pagan sexuality, and has since been praised by King as “one of the best horror stories ever written”.

Machen was both horrified and enchanted by London’s labyrinthine suburbs, exploring “the strange things which may have been done behind the weariest, dreariest walls” in his 1924 psychogeographical manifesto The London Adventure: or, The Art of Wandering . Central to his work is “the sense of the eternal mysteries… hidden beneath the crust of common and commonplace things”, with many of his most effective tales beginning in unremarkable London streets. Whether uncovering occult societies in Clerkenwell or stumbling across sinister rituals in Green Park, Machen’s stories peel away the skin of the most ordinary-seeming places to reveal the weirdness thrumming beneath.

His late short story “N”, written when Machen was in his 70s and first published in his 1936 collection The Cosy Room and Other Stories , explores the magical potential of the “wild no-man’s land of the north”, Stoke Newington. As old friends Arnold, Perrott and Harliss gather one winter’s night to reminisce about long-vanished London landmarks, the conversation turns to a mysterious park hidden in a north London suburb, which is “like finding yourself in another country”. Despite the scepticism of his friends, Arnold is determined to investigate.