Nigel Tourneur

Nigel Tourneur was the pseudonym of a fin de siecle writer who is best known for his work Hidden Witchery, a collection of seven short stories and a short prose drama. Set in the indeterminate past, these sensually charged stories are concerned with obsessive love, often given a macabre or supernatural twist. In an "advertisement" the author writes: ". . . Throughout the following stories and sketches — scantily in part, and, it is feared, obscurely, through symbolism — there may be traced the inception, growth, strength, awaywardness and maturity of its physical manhood, culminating in self-knowledge and abnegation. . . " Hidden Witchery was published in 1898 an edition of 450 copies by Leonard Smithers, with illustrations by Will G. Mein.

A review in The Outlook commented:

"'Nigel Tourneur,' the author of 'Hidden Witchery' (Smithers), the latest contribution to symbolistic literature, is a Scot, and a literary critic of advanced and independent views. He calls 'Hidden Witchery' a 'tentative' book, and there seems little doubt that the writer's undoubted power will sooner or later find a very different artistic outlet. But the present volume, curious mixture that it is, has touches of exceptionally happy artistry."[1]

As well as short stories, Nigel Tourneur wrote travel and historical articles and his work was published in British and American magazines including the Overland Monthly, Westward Ho!, Scottish Art & Letters, The Gentleman's Magazine, the Commonweal, Child's Own Magazine, and the Catholic World.