A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946-1972 is a 1973 book written by David Pirie

David Pirie

David Pirie is a screenwriter, film producer, film critic, and novelist.As a screenwriter, Pirie has written numerous mysteries and horror-themed works, mostly for television, including recently the hit ITV series Murderland starring Robbie Coltrane . He was nominated for a BAFTA for his...

 analysing the horror films made by the British film industry and attempting to claim them as a legitimate expression of national culture.

It was the first book on British horror films, a genre which it identified as "the only staple cinematic myth which Britain can properly claim as its own". It was also the first major study of the films of Terence Fisher

Terence Fisher

Terence Fisher was a film director who worked for Hammer Films. He was born in Maida Vale, a district of London, England.Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century...

, who is the subject of an entire chapter.

Special emphasis is placed on the films of Hammer Studios, with additional sections covering Anglo-Amalgamated

Anglo-Amalgamated

Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy that operated from 1945 to the 1970s. Much of the output was low budget and often second features, many produced at Merton Park Studios...

's "sadean trilogy" (Horrors of the Black Museum

Horrors of the Black Museum

Horrors of the Black Museum is a British horror film starring Michael Gough and directed by Arthur Crabtree.It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" , with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence , in contrast to the supernatural...

, Circus of Horrors

Circus of Horrors

Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....

and Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom (film)

Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur...

), Amicus Productions

Amicus Productions

Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...

, Don Sharp

Don Sharp

Donald Sharp is a British film director.His most famous films were made for Hammer Studios in the sixties, and included The Kiss of the Vampire and Rasputin, the Mad Monk . Also in 1965 he directed The Face of Fu Manchu, based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, here played by Christopher Lee...

, John Gilling

John Gilling

John Gilling was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was chiefly known for his horror films, especially for Hammer Films, for whom he directed Shadow of the Cat , The Plague of the Zombies , The Reptile and The Mummy's Shroud, among others...

, Vernon Sewell

Vernon Sewell

Vernon Campbell Sewell was a British film director, screenwriter, producer writer and, briefly, an actor. Sewell was born in London, England in 1903. He was educated at Marlborough College. He directed over 30 films during his career, starting with Morgenrot in 1933...

, British science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 films, Michael Reeves

Michael Reeves

Michael Reeves was an English film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the 1968 American International Pictures/Tigon motion picture Witchfinder General...

, and Pirie's thoughts on the possible future of the genre.

A revised edition entitled A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema was published in 2008.