W F Howes scoops 40-year-old 'lost recordings'

W F Howes is to release new audiobook versions of a "cult series of horror-genre" books, using 40-year-old recordings made by their original publisher The Eden Book Society. 

The press will publish audiobook editions of L G Vey's Holt House, Shirley Longford's A Dedicated Friend and Judderman by D A Norions, using the recordings, recently uncovered by an academic researching the society. 

Craig Thomson, editor for W F Howes, said: “The discovery of these titles is a truly remarkable find, and we are delighted at the opportunity to bring this lost audio back. We have taken every care to ensure that we do not lose any of the character from the recordings and have undertaken a painstaking process to reconstruct the audio as it was originally recorded. We are extremely pleased with the result.”

Established in 1919, The Eden Book Society was a private publisher of horror stories for nearly 100 years. The publisher distributed short horror novellas published under pseudonyms, to a list of subscribers. Eden's books were not made available to the general public until the complete backlist of titles and archives was purchased by Dead Ink Books in 2018.

Nathan Connolly, publishing director for Dead Ink Books, said: “Having heard the remastered versions of these lost stories was chilling. Knowing that we are the first to listen to them in over 40 years — and now being able to bring them to a new audience — is very exciting.”

The first recording, Holt House, is set to be released on the 20th August, with Judderman and A Dedicated Friend expected to be available later this year.

A sample of the audio of Holt House is available to listen to