The Room Opposite & Other Tales By Flora M Mayor

The Room Opposite & Other Tales by Flora M Mayor: A Horror Book Review by Mario Guslandi

Solar Press 2023

Reprinted for the first time since 1935 ( when it was posthumously released) this is considered the only short story collection published by Flora M Mayor ( 1872-1932) a novelist nowadays largely forgotten. Truth be told Mayor had published an earlier collection entitled Mrs Hammond’s Children (1901) under the pen name of Mary Strafford, but apparently any trace of that book got lost.

Endorsed by no less than the great MR James The Room Opposite has now be made available again by Solar Press as an attractive volume graced by a wonderful cover picture.

The title story is an engrossing, quite dark tale, taking place mostly in a disreputable inn during a stormy night. Featuring a dying man, two doctors and a lost traveller who had taken refuge from the bad weather. A very atmospheric piece ( no pun intended) which will entertain in a disquieting way also today’s readers.

Among the other stories, the ones I’ve found more accomplished are the following:

“Fifteen Charlotte Street” is a puzzling yet fascinating piece depicting the strange events taking place in a long-gone London and addressing the secrets and the power of the human mind.

“The Dead Lady”is a very entertaining Gothic tale featuring various elements. A precious ring, a revenant, some unfaithful servants and a cheating husband.

“ Le Spectre de la Rose” is yet another excellent yarn, a moving and sad love story with a distinctive supernatural taste and a tragic ending.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

From devastating tales of show business corrupting the innocent, to macabre tales of Christian curses, the sixteen tales that comprise The Room Opposite & Other Tales show a writer at the peak of her abilities.

Bringing a dramatist’s edge to her tales of terror, and a horror writer’s cruelty to her dramatic pieces, F.M. Mayor’s work won her admirers as wide ranging as Bertrand Russell, M.R. James, and Virginia Woolf.

The stories within this collection, written across Mayor’s lifetime, reflect her conflicted attitudes toward the changing world around her.

Stories such as A Season At The Sceptre recall Flora’s earlier life acting in both Hastings and the London Lyric Theatre, and the sordid lives of her co-stars. Other stories reflect Mayor’s conflicted attitudes toward social progressivism, the innate paganism of rural folk, and the growing numbers of spinsters she saw appearing all around her.

While F.M. Mayor was far from alone in covering these topics, her work stands as unique due to the her brutal honesty, acute perceptiveness, and a more critical, reactionary worldview than many of her friends and contemporaries.

Reprinted for the first time since 1935, in a new restored edition, Solar Press are proud to present The Room Opposite & Other Tales by F.M. Mayor.