A new anthology highlights the Welsh roots of an American giant of horror literature who has had a huge influence over the last 100 years.

The book, Cthulhu Cymraeg: The Night Country, features Abergavenny-born award-winning author John Llewellyn Probert, alongside five other authors from Wales, who have written stories inspired by Rhode Island writer H.P. Lovecraft.

“When he died in 1937, Lovecraft was virtually unknown outside the readers of a few pulp magazines, including Weird Tales,” said the book’s editor, Mark Howard Jones.

“Since then his influence has expanded exponentially until now every year sees dozens if not hundreds of books, films and games issued that are inspired by his stories. 

“Next year marks the centenary of his most famous story The Call Of Cthulhu, which is where the new anthology takes its name from.”

The American writer drew inspiration from three British authors - Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany and, most importantly, Caerleon-born Arthur Machen.

“It’s still not widely known inside Wales that Machen was such a huge impact on this increasingly influential author,“ said Jones.

Machen wrote dozens of bizarre tales and the novels The Great God Pan (1894), The Novel Of The Black Seal (1895) and The Hill Of Dreams (1907), often featuring the Welsh legend of the Tylwyth Teg (The Fair Family).

Jones said, “Several experts have said that without Machen, Lovecraft would not have been the writer we know today and maybe his work wouldn’t have been so successful.

“In a 1927 essay, Lovecraft said, ‘Of living creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few if any can hope to equal the versatile Arthur Machen.’ You can’t get higher praise than that!

“Because of Machen’s enormous impact on Lovecraft’s writing, it could be argued that Lovecraftian horror, as it’s known, is one of the few areas of world literature that Wales can claim to have had a hand in helping to inspire.”

The new anthology gives six authors from Wales the chance to showcase stories influenced by Lovecraft’s stories, bringing that inspiration back home.