Hugh Lamb – Cold Fear

Hugh Lamb (ed.) – Cold Fear: New Tales Of Terror (W. H. Allen, 1981)

Foreword – Hugh Lamb
Marion Pitman – “Lullaby For A Baby Horror-story Writer”

Ramsey Campbell – In The Bag
Eleanor Inglefield – The Music In The House
Brian Lumley – In The Glow Zone
Ken Alden – The Papal Magician
Robert Aickman – Laura
Robert Haining – An Emissary For The Devil
David Sutton – A Little Bit Of Egypt
John Blackburn – Aunty Green
Kathleen Murray – All The Amenities
Adrian Cole – The Demon In The Stone
Charles Birkin – Dinner In A Private Room
Frederick Cowles – The House In The Forest
Arthur Porges – The Man Who Wouldn’t Eat
Rosemary Timperley – The Darkhouse Keeper
Ramsey Campbell – After The Queen

Adrian Cole – The Demon In The Stone: Dartmoor. Alan Steele and his wife Fiona invite journalist Ray Hammon to spend the weekend at the mansion they’re looking after for Sir Isaac Vilegarde, a man with a huge assortment of magical bric-a-brac. Hammon ruined Alan’s sister, jilting her when she fell pregnant, and thinks Steele is unaware of the fact. Not so. Steele tricks him into releasing the wind-demon by means of pumping up the stereo.

Charles Birkin – Dinner In A Private Room: Something of a departure for Birkin in what seems to have been his final story(?). The modern-day incarnations of some of the most notorious characters in history are invited to dine with Mr. Nasat. Nero, Judas Iscariot, Cesare Borgia and de Rais are commended on their past achievements, but are reminded they could all have done better. Natas has decided to move into the movie industry: “We’ll be showing the Nazarene as he really was, and that is as a failure and a two-bit agitator. He was a muddled and hysterical homosexual and those twelve disciples of his – well, we’ll slant them as a kind of Touring Company for Gay lib. The Magdalene’s a Pansy’s Moll. Get the idea?”

Kathleen Murray – All The Amenities: Martin Sower, self-confessed bastard and thief, takes his wife on holiday to a guest house on the advice of Jeremy, a partner he swindled whose brother hung himself rather than face bankruptcy. From the beginning of his stay, Sower is the victim of ‘accidents’ which see him scalded and stabbed through the hand. Are the females at the establishment merely clumsy, or is there a conspiracy afoot?

Brian Lumley – In The Glow Zone: After the bomb, two-headed mutants survive on a diet of rats, cats & co. In short, anything they can find that isn’t contaminated. Men come after them with shot-guns. The mutants fight back with axes but are eventually overcome as their mother had been before them.

Ken Alden – The Papal Magician: Medieval Rome: A crippled priest, sympathetic to the Borgia dynasty, summons forth an angel when taunted to do so by a cynic during a pub argument. Unfortunately, it’s of the fallen variety, and a decidedly unpleasant fucker to look at.

Eleanor Inglefield – The Music In The House: cornwall. Archaeologist Simon Kent unadvisedly steals a prehistoric disk in some way connected to Sun worship. Ancient forces duly punish him for his crime.