Yesterday Radnor Street Cemetery resembled something straight out of a Victorian novel. Gravestones crouched half hidden among the grasses as wild flowers sprung out of once lovingly tended plots where far flung families seldom visit. It was wild, beautiful and with an air of abandonment, and for a moment I was lost in the world of Essie Fox , writer of dark haunting Gothic stories. Her debut novel, The Somnambulist, takes it's title from a painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais and was chosen by Channel 4's TV Book Club as one of the best reads of 2012. Essie followed this with Elijah's Mermaid, a sinister tale that begins with the story of Pearl - a web-toed child who is found half drowned and floating in the Thames one night. Her third novel, The Goddess and the Thief, is an exotic and sensual tale of theft, obsession and 'other worlds' Visit The Virtual Victorian , and read about Essie's inspiration for her work, which is what...