Arthur Machen’s Stoke Newington

Siegfried Sassoon wrote in Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, published in 1930, of a rambling discussion with fellow officers about things one noticed and places one knew: 'Durley ... put in a mild plea for Stoke Newington in London England, which was where he lived; it contained several quaint old corners if you knew where to look for them.' It is quite possible that this remark had an influence on fantasy writer Arthur Machen's choice of Stoke Newington as the supposed location of the visionary Canon's Park in his short story 'N', published in 1936.