Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories about Birds

Freud observed that birds ‘don’t seem to be submitted to the same laws of gravity as us’, although without gravity they would die, as they need it to swallow. Birds are all around us; they could not be more familiar. And yet at the same time they are alien, unheimlich – uncanny. Award-winning editor Nicholas Royle brings together previously published stories by Daphne du Maurier, Anna Kavan, Russell Hoban and others with brand-new tales by contemporary writers including Bill Broady, Adam Marek, Regi Claire, Mark Valentine, Reggie Oliver, R.B. Russel, and many more.With a foreword by Angelica Michelis, senior lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.Swallows Sleep in Winter – Adam Marek For the True Anatomy – Claire Massey Sliding off the World – Bruce Gilbert The Gannets – Anna Kavan Fight or Flight – Emma Jane Unsworth Birds of Prey – Joel Lane The Egg – Alison Moore The Raven – Russell Hoban The Rhododendron Canopy – Elizabeth Stott Huginn and Muninn – Tom Fletcher When the Red, Red Robin – Regi Claire A Nestling – Jack Trevor Story Barren Clough – Neil Campbell Shrike – David Rose The Candling – Deborah Kermode A Revelation of Cormorants – Mark Valentine The Brids – Bill Broady Rarely Visits Gardens – Juliet West All Our Dead Heavens – Conrad Williams Tsipporah – Adèle Geras Dead Bird – Socrates Adams-Florou The Beautiful Room – RB Russell Gulls – Nicholas Royle Snow – Marc Werner Flight of Fancy – GA Pickin The Wounded Bird – Michael Kelly Corbeaux Bay – Geeta Roopnarine Husks – Stephen Bacon Painful Hard Ectoplasm – Laura Ellen Joyce The Birds – Daphne du MaurierContributors’ royalties and editor’s fee to be donated to the RSPB.