Update – Claire Amias has won the Hamilton Deane award for her performance in “Haunted Shadows: The Gothic Tales of Edith Nesbit”

“Sometimes our nighttime imaginings merely hint at the real horrors…”

An expert at chilling the spine and curdling the blood, Edith Nesbit relates three of her best Gothic tales while recalling her own childhood terrors. In The Shadow, a repressed housekeeper encounters an abominable entity, while in The Pavilion the shadow of a long-dead necromancer envelops a social gathering. Finally, a deranged young woman harbours a deadly secret in a rediscovered story called A Strange Experience.

★★★★  ‘A dazzling display of versatility … a must-see.’ West End Best Friend
★★★★  ‘Frightening … Amias plays Nesbit brilliantly.’ Reviews Hub
★★★★ ‘Deliciously creepy … Highly recommended.’ London Theatre 1

Claire Amias has worked extensively on stage and screen, including No 1 tours, Paul Taylor-Mills rep seasons, Southwark Playhouse, plus the feature films Borley Rectory and Provoked.

Q & A with actor Claire Louise Amias and publisher Raymond Russell
After the show Claire will talk with Raymond Russell of Tartarus Press about Nesbit’s weird tales, their importance in Gothic literature, and why both of them felt the need to bring them to light again – creating a stage show in Claire’s case and republishing Nesbit’s short stories, some of them for the first time since the 19th century, in Raymond’s. From the Dead: Dark Tales – a new anthology of Nesbit’s horror stories – was published by Tartarus early in 2025.

Tartarus have also provided the prizes for the short story competition organised by Claire’s company A Monkey With Cymbals, which you can find out about here:
https://www.amonkeywithcymbals.co.uk/writing-competition

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Trailer Below…