Welcome to the website of author A. N. Donaldson

My new novel, The Devil's Atlas: Dark Tales from a Scholar's Study, is available to buy HERE

Baroque Killings in a Soviet city of murderers on the shores of Lake Baikal. Suspected vampirism in the lost cemetries of Calcutta. The terrible secret of the mosque of Al-Shirazi in the Karakum desert. Re-animated corpses in Cairo, Hittite curses in London, hungry Chinese ghosts, and the Japanese art of murder and suicide. This book contains a Devilish, labyrinthine collection of antiquarian horror.

'Abomination takes many forms, in beasts as in men.'

'Absolutely brilliant... I can't recommend it enough. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich meets Call of Cthulhu'
Mike Taylor, A Podcast to the Curious

My first novel, Prospero's Mirror, is available to buy HERE

But be warned: "what is read cannot be unread..."

The great supernatural writer M R James visits Oxford to solve an ancient mystery. But he is soon plagued by nightmares of the First World War, visions of the war to come, and the dreadful consequences of his own guilty secret.

"They live in two places, I suppose: in fever dreams and mirrors... What is it? This unutterable thing. An abomination!"

“Necromancy, witchcraft and gruesome goings on among the dreaming spires. This historically based, well researched and beautifully written blood chiller will have you looking over your shoulder for nameless horrors. Beware of the ending, particularly if you suffer from bad dreams." Stella Rimington

My first travel book, France and the French, is available to buy HERE

‘I find the French are a disgusting race.’

The First installment of my Travels at the End of History is so disgraceful that it had to be published under the pseudonym 'Patrick Byron' A.K.A. 'The Reluctant Traveller'. It is part action-packed exploration of the most depraved nation on Earth, part serious examination of a question that has dogged Englishmen since they first ‘discovered’ it 300 years ago: what is the hell wrong with France?

‘I buried my face in it, tongue out, with a fascinated moan.’

"Brilliantly funny and insightful." Holly Kinsella, best-selling author of 'Uptown Girl'

About me: I studied Philosophy at New College, Oxford, before working as a barrister in London. I am now a writer, editor and policy advisor at the British Council. I have travelled widely across around 80 countries. On this site you can find a selection of my writing, including my antiquarian horror novels Prospero's Mirror and The Devil's Atlas: Dark Tales from a Scholar's Study, my Travel writing, and my 'Parallel Lives' mini-biographies project with Thomas Munby. Visit my Amazon profile HERE.