It doesn't seem long ago that George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series was being promoted as fantasy for non-fantasy readers as a way of attracting those who imagined "fantasy" was twee escapism involving fairies. (That was before the TV version of Game of Thrones changed everything.) My own novel The Silver Bough, about the inhabitants of a remote town at risk of being overwhelmed by Scotland's mythological past, was once criticised by a disgruntled fan as "fantasy for people who don't read fantasy". Whether used as inducement or warning, that sort of labelling implies there's a strong consensus view of what fantasy literature is, both among those who read it and those who wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

In his introduction to The Best British Fantasy 2013, editor Steve Haynes warns: "British fantasy is not what you think it is." He argues that in the short stories he's collected, writers were able to take more risks, be more experimental, and generally offer darker, more dangerous visions than are to be found in most popular novels.

Maybe. But there have always been fantasy novels that break the mould, and it's these more distinctive, individual explorations of the fantastic that are my favourites. So, if you think you don't like fantasy – or even if you do – check these out. They don't have dragons or sexy vampires, but they're filled with real magic.

1. The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll

When an author has written more than a dozen books, and is still writing, he might be annoyed to have his first novel cited as his best, so let me say that all Carroll's books are worth seeking out, and any one of them will give you the brilliant, heady taste of his sinister and charming storytelling. But The Land of Laughs was the first I read, and will always be the closest to my heart. It's an astonishing tale, funny and scary by turn, about two people who go in pursuit of the author whose books for children have shaped their lives, only to discover that they were not the fantasies they seemed.

2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Set in a magical Britain during the Napoleonic wars, this is a deeply strange and satisfying creation, elegantly written, an alternative history filled with treasures and reflections of other works of literature and historical events, real and imagined. For all its length, I wished it would never end.

3. Ægypt by John Crowley

A fantasy of history, concerned with occult practices, memory palaces, John Dee, etc, yet utterly grounded in real places and times in our world. Pierce Moffett, a child of the 60s in New York, investigates his suspicion that the world might have split at some point in the past, creating more than one true history.

4. The Magus by John Fowles

Not usually classed as a fantasy, but I've always thought it must be. How else could even the most eccentric, wealthy old man play his "god-game" and interfere in the life of a young Englishman without recourse to magic? I read it first at an impressionable age and it became my ideal of a great novel. Still loved it when I was old enough to know better, and look forward to reading it again soon.

5. Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand

Pre-Raphaelite painters, fairy lore, a narrative that spans the Victorian age to the present, with settings in England and America, intriguing characters, tricks with time, vivid writing … I was smitten, and as the plot – including so many of my own obsessions – unwound, I began to suspect the author must be my secret twin. Which twin was spirited away?

6. The Course of the Heart by M John Harrison

A strange ritual enacted by Cambridge students blights their lives for ever, until it seems there's hope to be found in a search for the legendary, long-vanished country known as the Coeur. This dark romance involving magic, art and history feels like a modern take on Arthur Machen, but the incisive pen portraits and quiet elegance of the prose are Harrison's own.

7. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Best haunted-house story ever. It's not about special effects, gore or monsters – and try to forget the film remake. This beautifully written, creepy and disturbing book is a perfect blend of psychology and the supernatural, human nature and unnatural weirdness.

8. The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

I could easily add three different titles by Graham Joyce to this list, but decided on this one because it is the kind of deceptively simple story that's very hard to get right, and he never drops a stitch. It's a love story about a married couple, and deeply moving without being sentimental or trite.

9. The City & the City by China Miéville

Is this a detective story, a work of science fiction, a philosophical puzzle or a Kafkaesque work of magical realism? It's all those things, and a fantastically enjoyable, thought-provoking read.

10. A Traveller in Time by Allison Uttley

First published in 1939, this is the story of young Penelope who, while staying in an old farmhouse in Derbyshire, finds herself able to move through time, slipping between her own 20th century and the 16th as easily as walking from one room to another. It was based on the author's vivid memories of her own country childhood, where people still spoke of a local plot to save Mary Queen of Scots as of something recent, and she had "a dream within a dream … moving through a life parallel to my own existence".

• The Best British Fantasy 2013, edited by Steve Haynes and including work by Lisa Tuttle, is published by Salt. The Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle is published by Jo Fletcher Books