Merry Gentlemen

“In stories as festive and chilling as sudden snow on a dark night, David Hartley has eviscerated Christmas and stuffed it full of his own trademark mixture of weird horror, humanity and twisted wit. Gorge yourself.” ~ Tom Fletcher, author of The Ravenglass EyeThe holidays are coming and midwinter’s getting bleak. We all need a little comfort and joy, comfort and joy to get us through the dying year. So here it is, this thing called Christmas; a great, sticky web of tinsel to tickle us to sleep and keep us warm.But Christmas is cold. Christmas is unforgiving. Christmas has a dark side. Anti-Santas stalk naughty children, spirits lurk at Pantomimes, forgotten people find their own twisted ways to celebrate. Here are fourteen stories of a different yuletide. Vengeful trees, hypnotic carollers, one angry innkeeper, and a partridge no longer in its pear tree. These are the whispers in Santa’s nightmares. This is Silent Night played backwards, the black hole of Bethlehem. Manger danger. Christmas with a capital X.And a box. A box wrapped in shiny paper with a bow on top. An empty box. Come, ye faithful, and put your heads inside. And be good. Be good, for goodness' sake...Originally published as two separate collections: God Rest Ye (2012) and Merry Gentlemen (2013). This new edition contains all the original stories from both collections and two new tales.

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