Screams of Nightmare

Today's episode takes us into the spaces between sounds - where silence isn't empty, but hungry. These two stories explore the creatures that mirror us so perfectly they might not be creatures at all, but reflections of what we keep buried beneath our civilized surfaces.

Featuring:

'No Strings' by Ramsey Campbell (01.52), narrated by Nathan Chatelier. A contemporary horror story that follows radio host Phil Linford as he encounters a street musician whose performance proves more dangerous than it first appears. This tale examines the thin line between reality and performance, between the self we present and the impulses we suppress.

'Nyarlathotep' by H.P. Lovecraft (24.46), narrated by Shilpa Varma, our Writer in Residence. Selected from our ‘Endless Apocalypse’ collection, this classic work of cosmic horror introduces the crawling chaos that emerges when familiar boundaries dissolve. 

Biographies:

Ramsey Campbell has spent sixty years crafting horror fiction that brings cosmic terror into everyday settings. Last year, Flame Tree Publishing celebrated his extraordinary career with 'Serving Horror for 60 Years' - recognizing six decades of influential work in the genre. His latest novel ‘An Echo of Children’ will be published by Flame Tree Press in September 2025.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American writer whose cosmic horror fiction has influenced generations of authors. His work explores themes of cosmicism and humanity's insignificance when faced with incomprehensible forces. 

Nathan Chatelier is a British voiceover artist with almost fifty audiobooks recorded alongside thousands of other projects, from videogames to the Mean Girls West End trailer. Check out his demos.

Learn more about Shilpa Varma and her role at Flame Tree here. 

This episode is hosted by Olivia.

'No Strings' is ©2024 Ramsey Campbell and appears courtesy of the author.

'Nyarlathotep' by H.P. Lovecraft was first published in The United Amateur in 1920 and appeared in Endless Apocalypse (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024)

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.