New Chapbook

In the sudden and egregious disillusionment that has overtaken us we revolt against the current order of things, so arduously and so proudly built up, because it reveals itself now as illogical and incompetent, as fostering injustice rather than equity, as tending towards selfishness, oppression, the destruction of liberty, the exaltation of ignorance, vulgarity and venality, and because it has engendered fear, jealousy, cruelty and hatred instead of love, fellowship and compassion. . . .

Beauty must be linked again with life, and art given back its true service.

Darkly Bright Press is pleased to present a new limited chapbook edition of Ralph Adam Cram’s Ordeal by Beauty, a challenging indictment of modernity, which describes the antidote to its sterility and decadence. As the recovery of beauty remains a vital concern for the twenty-first century, an era of re-enchantment, this needful essay is now being offered to the modern reader.

Available for purchase on October 6, 2025.

NEW POETRY

Because Love, Too by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Gossip About Books and Authors: It is to be noted that these meaningless strings of words are supposed to be complete sentences. And as similar meaningless string of words are to be found in every other page of the book, we must assume that the author has written them down deliberately and in protest against the outworn dogmas of the grammarians.

A Fairy Tale for the Seasons

A NEW FAIRY TALE

Pamela Bruns returns with a new fairy tale: Ice Lilies, A Story About the Seasons.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Huns in Holy Places: It is not a matter that can be argued. It is a question of decency, of respect for holy things, for a religious place, that in a sense, is to be named with Canterbury and Glastonbury, to be reckoned amongst the noble founts and wells whence the stream that is England has flowed forth. Stratford-on-Avon stands for things that make England glorious and precious.

Today’s Scenes at the Haunted House

NEW POETRY

A Sidereal Catechism by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Rackety Ghost Still Busy: The mystery of the bewitched house in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, is to be investigated immediately by the Society for Psychical Research. Within a few hours of the first publication of the facts in The Evening News, a prominent member of the society placed himself in communication with the distracted household and his services have been gratefully accepted.

A House of Nightmares

POETRY NEWS

The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler has been featured in Autumn Sky Poetry.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Hornsey House of Nightmares: If we say, briefly, that all Poltergeists are frauds, we are confronted by the questions: “But how on earth is it done?” If we accept the theory of an unknown force, then we have to admit the utter want of purpose or meaning in the manifestations. But this lack of meaning may well be an argument in favour of their genuineness.

Sea Haiku

NEW POETRY

Seven Sea Haiku by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Shirt: The men who wore the lace ruffles and the grave wigs and the bloom-coloured silks and satins had got so tired of wig and lace and silk that they were ready to believe that happiness was to be found by getting rid of all those things and of all the institutions symbolised by them. That was Rousseau’s doctrine of the bliss of savagery, that was the French Revolution in a nutshell.