"All the stories you've heard. All the little secrets. Burn them all. Because they're coming for you. And you won't know it until they do."

Six tales of terror and mayhem from and inspired by Channel 5's anthology horror series Urban Gothic, created by Tom de Ville and Steve Matthews.

Telos Publishing Ltd. in association with the British Fantasy Society are proud to present an anthology combining the talents of some of today's best British horror authors to bring readers an experience they'll never forget.

Featuring the work of:

Graham Masterton, Christopher Fowler, Simon Clark, Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis, Paul Finch, Debbie Bennett and Edited by David J Howe.

Also featuring:

An introduction by actor and writer Richard O'Brien, and interviews with series creators Tom deVille and Steve Matthews by David Miller, editor of SHIVERS magazine and author of the recent biography of Peter Cushing.

Background

The City is alive...

Behind the facades of London's shiny dockside developments, its designer boutiques and coffee bars lie long-forgotten dark corners and darker secrets. It's a city where anything can happen and being young and pretty won't always save you.

Written by 23-year-old newcomer Tom de Ville, Urban Gothic is a series of thirteen half hour contemporary urban horror tales. Tales from the Crypt meets The Blair Witch Project. Lean, sexy, fast and furious. Buffy gone bad. Slick, funny, but always scary. It's dragging British horror kicking and screaming out of the museum and back to the city.

"I've always been a big fan of horror," explains David J Howe, publisher for Telos Publishing Ltd., "and when I saw the first few episodes of Urban Gothic, I knew this was something special. A UK produced, written and made horror anthology series airing on a terrestrial television channel ... when was the last time that happened? I quickly got in touch with the show's production company, and arranged to meet them to discuss the possibility of doing a book based on the series."

"British screen horror has fallen prey to something that has happened throughout the history of the genre," says Urban Gothic's Executive Producer Steve Matthews, "which is that everyone looks down on it. Quite rightly. It's a junk genre. It's down and dirty. It's at its best when it's subversive, and that's what it's been about for a thousand years. We're telling campfire stories, no more no less, and that's why I always knew that Urban Gothic could expand beyond its television roots. So I was delighted when David Howe approached me with a proposal to present some of the ideas in the form of an anthology book series."

"I approached writers who I believed could deliver the goods," explains Howe. "Christopher Fowler is one of the greatest ever writers of urban horror. Anyone who lives or works in a large city will see aspects of their own experiences reflected in his work: but he manages to make his world far scarier and edgier than we would ever hope real life to be. Graham Masterton is one of the most influential writers of horror that this country has ever produced. His work is slick, sexy, horrific and yet at the same time great fun: I've been a massive fan of Graham's work for years. Completing the trio of original tales in this first book is Simon Clark. Simon's work is hard to categorise, but it contains a flair for the horrific second to none. I still have visions of his barnacle-encrusted zombie killers emerging from the seas in Nailed by the Heart, or the hoards of silent vampires bathing in the blood pouring from a slaughterhouse in Vampyrrhic ... I'm very excited by the stories that these writers are developing for this new Urban Gothic anthology: original, scary, sexy, and thought provoking."

To handle the novelisations, Howe approached several of the UK's most talented small press authors; writers whose work stands head and shoulders above the rest. "I wanted people with the talent to be able to take one of Tom de Ville's excellent pre-production scripts and to turn it into an entertaining short story in its own right. I did not want an unimaginative re-telling of something you saw on television, but a piece of writing that stood on its own merits. The writers I have chosen for this first book are all people whose work has entertained me over the last few years. And that's the key: entertainment. We want people who read this book to come away having had the time of their lives."

The second series of Urban Gothic was aired on Channel 5 in Spring 2001, and videos of some of the episodes from the first series released by Visual Entertainment are available from all high-street retailers.

What they said about the series...

"... genuinely scary. Think Tales of the Unexpected without the cosy glow" The Times

"Injecting new blood into the horror vein" Dreamwatch

"It will give you nightmares" The Sun

"Hyperslick, with a knowing awareness of it's cultural lineage and a crooked wit" SFX

"Engagingly critic-proof ... It does what it does extremely well, and with an infections enthusiasm for the genre" Science Fiction World

"Series creators Tom de Ville and Steve Matthews really have come up with something very slick and very cool" Metro

"Funny, fast and totally hip ... the result is a darkly sparkling drama that manages to wittily subvert the conventions" The Independent

"There are only two words to describe Urban Gothic ... Gore Blimey!" Daily Mirror