All the Fear of the Fair: Uncanny Tales of Circus and Sideshow

Step right up to the enchanted Ferris wheel whose magical gifts may cost you your life. Gaze upon the man-eating menagerie and the dreadful secrets of Satan's Circus. Enter, if you dare, Mrs. Groby's Chamber of Horrors.

Carnivals and sideshows have long been entwined with the history of horror cinema, but in literature their roots run even deeper. Across decades of uncanny fairground fiction, the Big Top becomes a liminal space where the supernatural collides with humanity's darkest desires. Conjurers, puppeteers, beast tamers, and bloodthirsty crowds gather in performance spaces that feel suspended between worlds.

In this collection of sixteen sensational short stories, Edward Parnell assembles a sinister parade of classic weird tales spanning from Edgar Allan Poe in the 1840s to Robert Aickman in the 1960s. Featuring writers such as Gerald Kersh, Ray Bradbury, and Margery Lawrence, this anthology offers a cavalcade of unsettling thrills from some of the finest voices in macabre fiction.

Enter the fairground at your own risk.

Author: Edward Parnell
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: British Library
Published: 09/01/2026
Series: Tales of the Weird
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.2lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.10w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780712355094