Mark Ronson – Beaver Book Of Horror Stories

Mark Ronson (ed.) – The Beaver Book Of Horror Stories (Beaver, 1981, 1984)

Cover photograph: John Knights

Introduction: ‘Not Of This World’ – Mark Ronson

Ray Bradbury – The Man Upstairs
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice In The Night
Joan Aiken – Who Goes Down This Dark Road?
John Buchan – The Wind In The Portico
R. E. Alexander – The Aerophobes
H. P. Lovecraft – Pickman’s Model
Paul Ernst – The Thing In The Pond
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
Clark Ashton Smith – The Seed From The Sepulchre
Mark Ronson – Changeling

What is the creeping grey horror that lurks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

How can golden specks of dust turn men and women into ruthless killers?

Whose are the invisible bony hands that lock around a man’s throat as he lies in bed?

The Beaver imprint was aimed at children. This horror collection probably was too, although it says “for older readers” on the back. The pulps are well represented with the most pleasant surprise being a revival of Paul “Dr. Satan” Ernst’s slime-oozing classic, The Thing In The Pond.

Ronson, as we only recently discovered, is also Marc Alexander, author of several non-fiction ghost gazetteers.