Some dreams are too good to be true. Others are just waiting to turn into a nightmare.
When musician Mike and children's illustrator Midge move into Gramarye, a secluded cottage in the New Forest, it feels like destiny. The property exudes a strange, vibrant vitality that heals wild animals, revitalizes the land, and unleashes a flood of raw artistic inspiration.
But everything has its opposite.
Gramarye sits atop an ancient conduit of pure earthly power, drawing the attention of the Synergist Temple - a predatory local cult led by the enigmatic Eldrich P. Mycroft. Under the guise of neighborly goodwill, Mycroft begins to isolate the couple, exploiting Midge's deepest psychological grief to claim the cottage's energy.
As a terrifying, supernatural plague descends upon their sanctuary, Mike must shed his city cynicism and unlock a dormant power within himself before the dark forces completely consume their home. The Magic Cottage is an explosive supernatural horror novel that transforms a whimsical rural idyll into a claustrophobic, slow-burn battle of wills against a predatory cult. James Herbert was not only Britain's number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction – a position he held ever since the publication of his first novel – but was also one of our greatest popular novelists. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his twenty-three novels have sold more than 54 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty languages. In 2010, he was made the Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention and was also awarded an OBE by the Queen for services to literature. His final novel was Ash. James Herbert died in March 2013. "Beautifully orchestrated crescendo of suspense... Herbert had brought the shivers back to the genre" -Washington Post
"Lean, mean, and nasty as punk" -Grady Hendrix on The Rats
"A one-off; a true horror original" -Peter James on The Rats