Search Worlds Without End

Philip and Margaret Waverton and their friend Roger Penderel are driving through the mountains of Wales when a torrential downpour washes away the road and forces them to seek shelter for the night. They take refuge in an ancient, crumbling mansion inhabited by the strange and sinister Femm family and their brutish servant Morgan. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, the benighted travellers drink, talk, and play games to pass the time while the storm rages outside. But as the night progresses and tensions rise, dangerous and unexpected secrets emerge. On the house's top floor are two locked doors; behind one of them lies the mysterious, unseen Sir Roderick Femm, and behind the other lurks an unspeakable terror. Which is more deadly: the apocalyptic storm outside the house or the unknown horrors that await within? And will any of them survive the night?

Once passionate about the theater, playwright Martin Cheveril is now disillusioned and contemplating a change of career. His new play, a bitter and cynical piece, is about to premiere when something strange happens. After stumbling upon an old pamphlet about a talented young actress named Jenny Villiers who died in 1846, Cheveril dozes off and finds himself somehow transported back to the theater of her day. By some mysterious means, he will find himself a spectator of the tragedy of Jenny's life and death--a tragedy whose effects will echo strangely into the present day.

Tim Bedford, a young English painter, has made a promise to his dying cousin to find her husband, a scientist who vanished while working on a top-secret project in South America. The only clue is a scrap of paper with a scribbled list of words and a curious symbol resembling a figure 8 over a wavy line. As he follows the trail from Cambridge to New York to the sultry streets of Lima, the remote Peruvian desert, and the volcanic coast of southern Chile, Bedford finds himself facing danger at every turn. The action and suspense build towards a thrilling climax in the mountains of Australia, where Bedford will uncover the truth behind a sinister conspiracy that threatens the entire world... but can it be stopped, or is it already too late?

One of the most popular and critically successful of J.B. Priestley's later novels, Saturn Over the Water (1961) is a fast-paced and clever mix of adventure, mystery, and science fiction that remains, as David Collard writes in the new introduction to this edition, 'an entertaining and marvellously eccentric jeu d'esprit.'

Three strangers, each on a separate mission, converge in the California desert. Jimmy Edlin is hot on the trail of a religious cult he believes is responsible for his brother's murder; George Hooker is a physicist in search of a missing colleague; and Malcolm Darbyshire is an Englishman looking for a beautiful heiress who has vanished without a trace. When the three men come together and discover that their situations are intertwined, they join forces to try to unravel these mysteries. Braving danger and death at every turn, they follow a trail of clues that leads to an explosive conclusion, as they uncover a sinister group whose insane philosophy calls for the destruction of all life on earth and who possess the awesome power to bring about doomsday!

Written against the backdrop of the rise of Hitler and Mussolini and with the threat of the Second World War looming, The Doomsday Men (1938) is one of J. B. Priestley's most thrilling novels and a story with frightening implications.

Sir Charles Ravenstreet, in his mid-fifties, is unmarried and childless and lives only for his work in the fast-paced world of business. When he is forced out of his job to make room for someone younger, Sir Charles finds himself at a loose end and facing the dismal prospect of an empty future. Believing he can make use of Sir Charles, the sinister Lord Mervil seeks to enlist his aid in a scheme to earn a fortune by manufacturing a new drug that relieves its users of all anxiety and will reduce the masses to a state of docility and mindless euphoria. But a plane crash and an encounter with three strange old men determined to thwart Lord Mervil's plans will lead Sir Charles to the exciting discovery that when he suspected his life might be over, it had really only just begun.

One of the most enjoyable novels by the prolific J.B. Priestley (1894-1984), The Magicians (1954) is both a whimsical story of the strange and fantastic and a sharply satirical fable of modern life. This 60th anniversary edition features a new introduction by Lee Hanson and the original jacket art by Val Biro.

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) was a versatile and prolific novelist and playwright, but in The Other Place (1953) he shows an unexpected talent, proving himself a master of the weird tale.

In "The Grey Ones," a man visits a psychiatrist after he becomes convinced that a group of demons masquerading as people are plotting the overthrow of the human race .?.?. but what if he's not insane?

In "Guest of Honour," a banquet speech becomes a horrifying affair when the keynote speaker realizes his audience is made up of monstrous and menacing creatures.

"The Leadington Incident" recounts the disturbing experience of a Cabinet minister who suddenly perceives that though the people around him move and talk as though alive, they are all actually just animated corpses or sleepwalking zombies.

The nine tales in this collection are strange, fantastic, and often unsettling, and they represent Priestley at his best.

Table of Contents:

• Guest of Honour - (1953) - short story
• Look After the Strange Girl - (1953) - short story
• Mr. Strenberry's Tale - (1930) - short story
• Night Sequence - (1953) - novelette
• The Grey Ones - (1953) - short story
• The Leadington Incident - (1953) - short story
• The Other Place - (1953) - novelette
• The Statues - (1953) - short story
• Uncle Phil on TV - (1953) - short story

In the land of Peradore, Princess Melicent gazes into a magic mirror given to her by the sorcerer Malgrim and is immediately enraptured with the man she sees, Sam Penty, a London ad designer who at that same moment is thinking of using an illustration of an Arthurian damsel in his new marketing campaign. When Malgrim and his rival enchanter Marlagram decide to meddle in the lives of the princess and her would-be lover, Melicent finds herself transported to the 1960s for a hilarious appearance on a daytime television program, while is Sam whisked away to Peradore to fight a battle with the gigantic Red Knight and a ravening, fire-breathing dragon. Can Melicent and Sam survive their wild time-travelling adventures and be united to live happily ever after?