The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata.'

'It was terrifying from my point of view to read this first short story that had so much assurance. It is not surprising that, when he first read one of Clarke's short stories, Neil Gaiman remarked:

There are no missteps here, everything is deliberate, and much of it masterful. How rare it is to find a book which is exactly what its author meant it to be. She lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland. Another, 'Mr Simonelli or The Fairy Widower,' was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001. One, 'The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse,' first appeared in a limited-edition, illustrated chapbook from Green Man Press.

She has published seven short stories and novellas in US anthologies. There she began working on her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.įrom 1993 to 2003, Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookery list. She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, in a house that looked out over the North Sea. The following year she taught English in Bilbao. In 1990, she left London and went to Turin to teach English to stressed-out executives of the Fiat motor company. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of non-fiction publishing, including Gordon Fraser and Quarto.

A nomadic childhood was spent in towns in Northern England and Scotland. Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959. Some of these stories have never before been published others have appeared in the 'New York Times' or in highly regarded anthologies.'' In this collection, they come together to expand the reach of Clarke's land of enchantment-and anticipate her next novel (Fall 2008). With appearances from beloved characters from her novel, including Jonathan Strange and Childermass, and an entirely new spin on certain historical figures, including Mary, Queen of Scots, this is a must-have for fans of Susanna Clarke's and an enticing introduction to her work for new readers. With Clarke's characteristic historical detail and diction, these dark, enchanting tales unfold in a slightly distorted version of our own world, where people are bedeviled by mischievous interventions from the fairies. Following the enormous success of 2004 bestseller and critics' favorite 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', Susanna Clarke delivers a delicious collection of ten stories set in the same fairy-crossed world of 19th-century England.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke