Chico has been writing ghost stories since 1979 under the name of A F Kidd, a choice influenced by classic writers such as M R James, E F Benson, and others. They have been published in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and continental Europe. Most first saw the light of day in small press: GHOSTS & SCHOLARS, DARK DREAMS, PEEPING TOM, ENIGMATIC TALES, ALL HALLOWS, and Chico’s own series of chapbooks (click for more details). Chico’s Chapbooks
Almost all the short stories were finally collected together in one volume by Ash-Tree Press: SUMMONING KNELLS and Other Inventions (2000) review & taster
Chico also writes in collaboration with Rick Kennett in Australia. The Ghost Story Society printed a collection of four ‘Carnacki the Ghost-Finder’ stories in 1992. Chico and Rick added substantially to these for the Ash-Tree anthology, NUMBER 472 CHEYNE WALK: taster
Ash-Tree also published a new paperback edition of William Hope Hodgson’s classic chiller THE GHOST PIRATES, with an introduction by Chico. Visit Ash-Tree Press for details.

Weird Noir: The Da Silva Tales
NEWS!The Captain is Back!

OUT NOW – the fourth collection of Da Silva Tales: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS contains four tales, two never published before. Find out how the Captain first met the Russian witch Tatiana, what woke in Lisbon when too much magic was in the air, and the separate challenges the Captain and his son had to face in Egypt. Ancient sorceresses, goddesses, hunters, a phoenix (or is it?), walking statues and the walking dead.... Click on the CAPTAIN DA SILVA button at the top of the page for details and how to order.

Last year, Lisbon publisher Saída de Emergência has snapped up the first novel, DEMON WEATHER and it will be published (in Portuguese) as O LIVRO DAS ALMAS (The Book of Souls)

VISIONS & VOYAGES contains two Da Silva Tales and two other stories of the fantastic.
THE VENGEANCE JAR contains three long Da Silva Tales
SECOND SIGHT contains four Da Silva Tales. Click on the covers for details.
“Rousing supernatural adventures introducing readers to turn-of-the-century sea captain Luís da Silva, who has the power to see ghosts after losing his left eye to a demon... an impressive showcase for one of the genre's most interesting and genuinely original new characters.”
— Stephen Jones, 'Horror in 2001', MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR 13

Some other appearances:

ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT from Ash-Tree contains a Da Silva Tale, 'Salvage' – see Ash-Tree Press

POE'S PROGENY from Gary Fry features another, 'Unfinished Business'. See the Fusing Horizons website for more details.

This series grew out of a character suddenly appearing, fully-formed with a past and a personality, in the middle of a short story called ‘Cats & Architecture’. He then took centre stage and demanded that I tell the rest of his stories. As they’re still continuing I don’t know what the conclusion, if any, will be!
The second collection, THE VENGEANCE JAR, is sold out, but I can make Xeroxes on request. The first, SECOND SIGHT, is still available. Click a bookcover or this link for more details and a review.
Two of the stories top and tail THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR 13...
And a previously unpublished story, ‘Handwriting of the God’, appears in DARK TERRORS 6.
The fourth novel in the Da Silva Tales sequence, SINNED AGAINST, is finished (and the short stories continue...). The first three books in the series are DEMON WEATHER, THE WEREWOLF OF LISBON, and RESURRECTION.Click here for a taster...
The first tale made its debut in the excellent magazine SUPERNATURAL TALES, issue #2. Another kicked off issue#4. And a further story in issue#6. Check the link for details — and then subscribe!
(Thanks to Rick Kennett for coining the term "Weird Noir".)

Chico’s first novel THE PRINTER’S DEVIL was published in 1995 by Baen Books. It came 12th in LOCUS magazine’s poll of Best First Novels of the year. I’ve now put the whole novel on the website in PDF form.
reviews and PDF or download the text of chapter 1

Another short story (not in the sequence) appeared in SECRETS OF SHADOWS, Volume 3 of DARKNESS RISING.
And uncollected since their first publication are four SF stories.

Something of myself
Chico Kidd likes learning new things.
Before the age of eighteen she learnt sailing, canoeing, fencing, judo, Russian, Latin, French and German (as well as the rest of the school curriculum), and climbed Snowdon several times— once with a sprained ankle.
Before the age of twenty-five she joined a football team, gained a law degree, saw her first story published, and discovered what unemployment was like.
Before the age of thirty she made a success in advertising, learnt to ride a horse and to ring church bells (badly). She got married on her thirtieth birthday.
During the next twenty-five years she learnt to scuba dive, studied Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, had three books published, travelled to over thirty countries, rode elephants and camels, and ran the London Marathon (three times) to raise money for Lifeboats.
There are still a lot more things she wants to do, and she still can’t ride a bicycle.
Chico was born in 1953 in Nottingham, though her parents met and married in postwar Germany, father an army sergeant from Nottingham (who spent the war in the Navy, on minesweepers), WAAF mother born in India to a Welsh father and mother whose nationality changed every time the tale was told. So she likes to think of herself as a mongrel, because everyone knows mongrels are smarter.
She can’t write without music: fado, opera, baroque, folk-rock. When it comes to art she will actively seek out Miró, Gauguin, Paula Rego, the Renaissance and some of the Pre-Raphaelites. She loves Gaudì’s architecture but her favourite city is Lisbon. Her reading pile has in it Ursula Le Guin, José Saramago, Terry Pratchett, Michael Chabon, Haruki Murakami, Conrad, Kipling, and Tolkien (and that’s just the fiction). Writing influences that she can identify also include M R James of course, Raymond Chandler, C S Forester, William Hope Hodgson, Rider Haggard, John Buchan, and Joss Whedon.

Chico’s Day Job
View some work for PBA and articles for YOGA magazine: Sri Lanka and Singapore food, Yoga and marathons, the indefatigable Pinky Lilani, glorious St Lucia, eating raw, regulating yoga, the controversial guru Osho (and in Italian), the inspirational teachers Shiva Rea and Jonny Kest, Valentine's Day traditions, and the Self-Realization Fellowship.

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Note: this website is under reconstruction, so if any of the links don't work please be patient. Or better still, email me and let me know!