Randolph C. Bull – Perturbed Spirits

Randolph C. Bull – Perturbed Spirits (Arthur Baker, 1954)

Grant Allen – Wolverden Tower
Rhoda Broughton – The Man With The Nose
R. W. Chambers – The Demoiselle D’y’s
Ralph Adams Cram – The Dead Valley
Dick Donovan – The Corpse Light
William Hope Hodgson – The Derelict
Erckmann-Chatrian – The Invisible Eye
H. B. Marriott Watson – The Devil On The Marsh
John Metcalfe – Mortmain
Pamela Hansford Johnson – Ghost Of Honour
Hume Nisbet – The Haunted Station
Fitz-James O’Brien – The Lost Room
Villiers De L’Isle Adam – Vera
Henry S. Whitehead – The Fireplace
Mrs H. D. Everett – The Death Mask
F. M. Mayor – The Unquiet Grave

A major influence on the Victorian ghost and horror collections of the excellent Hugh Lamb.

Thanks to Marijke van Duyn for the delightful cover scans!

Richard Davis – Jon Pertee Book Of Monsters

Richard Davis (ed.) – The Jon Pertee Book Of Monsters (Methuen, 1978: Magnet, 1979)

Cover art by George Underwood, with illustrations by Nicholas Hockley

Introduction and Epilogue by Jon Pertwee

George Evans – The Samala Plant
Tim Stout – Night of the Sand Wolf
Philip Welby – The Nondescript
David Campton – Spawn
Guy Weiner – The Glendale Monster
Catherine Gleason – Ming
Glenn Chandler – The Intruders
Roger Malisson – The Lambton Worm
John Halkin – The Eyes Have It

Thanks to Steve Goodwin of Vault for providing the contents and cover scan.

Richard Davis – Orbit Book Horror Stories

Richard Davis (ed.) – The First Orbit Book Of Horror Stories Ed. (Orbit, 1976) *

Richard Davis – Introduction

Harlan Ellison – The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs
J. Ramsey Campbell – The Man in The Underpass
T. E. D. Klein – S.F.
Clive Sinclair – Uncle Vlad
Brian M. Stableford – Judas Story
Brian Lumley – The House Of Cthulhu
Allan Weiss – Satanesque
Steve Chapman – Burger Creature
Tim Stout – Wake Up Dead
Bernard Taylor – Forget-Me-Not
Gregory Fitz Gerald – Halloween Story
Charles E. Fritch – Big, Wide, Wonderful World
Eddy C. Bertin – The Taste Of Your Love

* Published in the USA as The Years Best Horror Stories Series III

I’d imagine this one was considered cutting edge when first published and 30 years haven’t diminished the power of these stories. More-so than David Sutton, Davis introduces SF into the mix, not my thing but there are enough out-and-out horrors to keep the likes of me happy.

Taylor’s history of Dr. Crippen’s wallpaper and the prog rock nightmare, “Judas Story”, have been commented upon elsewhere. Ellison’s opener is horror with a social conscience, the authors angry response to the big city, broad daylight murder of Kitty Genovese while people stood around and watched. Campbell locates a demon in a subway, and has a child narrate the nasty things that ensue. Ellison aside (nothing is scarier than reality), Weiss’s black magic outing, “Satanesque”, is maybe the most frightening and gory of the bunch – a statue comes to violent life and it’s none too choosy about who it kills …

Bernard Taylor – Forget-Me-Not: New Yorker Sandra, 26, arrives in London on a one year teacher exchange programme. On the tube she meets a helpful young man who, by way of chit-chat indicates the former 10 Rillington Place, once home to mass-murderer Reginald Christie. Before long Sandra is obsessing over the killer, reading all she can find about him and even hanging his photo on the wall of her new flat. When she learns that his house is due for demolition, Sandra pays it a final visit and peels a small strip of wallpaper from above the fireplace as a souvenir which she later pastes next to his image. Gradually it spreads across the flat, draining her of all vitality as it does so. Maybe as innovative a variation on the hoary vampire theme as I’ve read.

Tim Stout – Wake Up Dead: Camber Fell Prison for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Kellin invites select colleagues along to witness the unveiling of his new invention, a machine that transmits dreams as though they were regular TV shows. His volunteer is mass-murderer John Vanner who has always maintained that he committed his crimes while asleep. Vanner endured the most traumatic childhood – his father killed his mother and then came looking for him – and has been a martyr to his nightmares ever since. Should be fun getting to see what so terrorises him then …

Eddy C. Bertin – The Taste Of Your Love: Riccione, near Rimini. A serial-killer with a long history of torture-murders behind him picks up his latest intended victim at a disco and takes her back to his lodgings for a night of passion. But the girl with ‘the finely drawn features and dark lonely eyes’ is every bit his match. Soon she has him pinned to the bed in a grip of steel. And then she flicks her hair aside to show him the left side of her face, deformed by what looks like something one of Marilyn Manson’s cheerleaders would paint on her cheek ….

Steve Chapman – Burger Creature: Trudy and Maureen find him lurking around the burger joint where they work as waitresses. He’s an animated mass of hamburger, fries, onion and ketchup with pickles for eyes. Otherwise he looks like a regular guy. Trudy, the looker of the pair, falls for him – she’s suddenly very keen for Maureen to knock off early – and keeps him hidden away in the freezer. Everything’s going nicely until their appalling manager discovers the Happy meal on legs and tries to kill him …

Clive Sinclair – Uncle Vlad: Wait a minute. The Clive Sinclair? Anyhow … A descendant of the infamous impaler – with all the family niceties off pat – initiates the far-from-unwilling Madelaine into the clan.

Charles E. Fritch – Big, Wide Wonderful World: Following the nuclear holocaust, everybody is on state prescribed hallucinogenic drugs to keep them from seeing just how ugly their world really is. Thrill-seekers Chuck, Bill and Len get their kicks from sharing a “nightmare” – deliberately not taking their fix at the appointed time and resisting from doing so for as long as they can endure it. Within a few minutes they’ve all gone to pieces and there’s even a fatality. The publication details given for this story are Magazine of Fantasy & SF, 1968, but it was written at least ten years earlier and appears in the Charles Beaumont edited The Fiend In You (Ballantine, 1962).

Peter Haining : 1940 – 2007

In Memory of Peter Haining

 

2 April 1940 – 19 November 2007

 

A Legend

Rest in Peace

Joan Kahn – Some Things Strange & Sinister

Joan Kahn (ed.) – Some Things Strange And Sinister (Coronet, 1976)

Gordon Crabb

Agatha Christie – The Lamp
Guy de Maupassant – Nerves
John Collier – Thus I Refute Beelzy
Algernon Blackwood – Keeping His Promise
Andre Maurois – The House
Louis Golding – The Call of the Hand
W. Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
H. G. Wells –  The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham
Neil Bell – The Strange Occurrences Connected with Captain John Russell
Margaret Irwin – The Book
Bram Stoker – Dracula’s Guest
John B. L. Goodwin – The Cocoon
Pamela Hansford Johnson – The Empty Schoolroom

Mike Jarvis & John Spencer – Echoes Of Terror

Mike Jarvis & John Spencer – Echoes Of Terror (Hamlyn, 1980)

Gordon Crabb

Charles Dickens – A Madman’s Manuscript
Lord Halifax – Three In A Bed
Edgar Allan Poe – Masque Of The Red Death
Bram Stoker – Dracula (Extract)
O. Henry – The Furnished Room
William Mudford – The Forsaken Of God
Frederick Marryat – The Werewolf
Matthew Lewis – The Midnight Embrace (Extract from “The Monk”)
William Makepeace Thackery – The Devil’s Wager
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Saki – The Seventh Pullet

As ade has pointed out elsewhere, this over-sized collection isn’t about the largely over-familiar written content, but the marvellous illo’s, many of which would go on to become cover paintings themselves.

For the record, the artists showcased are Jim Burns, Gordon Crabb, Les Edwards, Bob Fowke, Peter Goodfellow, Stuart Hughes, Terry Oakes and George Smith.

Charles Fowkes – The Best Ghost Stories

Anonymous – The Best Ghost Stories (Hamlyn, 1977)

Introduction – Charles Fowkes

Edward Bulwer-Lytton – The House And The Brain
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque Of The Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe – Ligeia
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Carmilla
Guy de Maupassant – The Horla
Guy de Maupassant – Was It a Dream?
M. R. James – Count Magnus
M.R. James – An Episode Of Cathedral History
M. R. James – Casting the Runes
M.R. James – The Diary Of Mr. Poynter
O. Henry – The Furnished Room
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Arthur Machen – The Novel Of The White Powder
Arthur Machen – The Great God Pan
Arthur Machen – The Novel Of The Black Seal
Robert Hichens – How Love Came to Professor Guildea
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo
E. F. Benson – The Man Who Went Too Far
E. F. Benson – Negotium Perambulans ….
Algernon Blackwood – The Willows
Algernon Blackwood – The Glamour Of The Snow
Algernon Blackwood – The Decoy
Algernon Blackwood – Ancient Sorceries
Saki – Gabriel-Ernst
Saki – The Music On The Hall
Walter de la Mare – All Hallows
Walter de la Mare – Mr. Kempe
Oliver Onions – The Beckoning Fair One
E. M. Forster – The Story Of A Panic
E. M. Forster – The Story Of The Siren
Karen Blixen – The Sailor-Boy’s Tale
H. P. Lovecraft – Pickman’s Model
H. P. Lovecraft – The Music Of Erich Zann
H. P. Lovecraft – The Rats in the Walls
H. P. Lovecraft – The Dunwich Horror
Robert Graves – The Shout
John Collier – Are You Too Late Or Was I Too Early?
William Sansom – A Woman Seldom Found

I rate this as one of the finest introductions to the classic ghost story ever compiled, even if it does borrow heavily from the Herbert A. Wise & Herbert A. Wise & Phyllis Fraser selection, Great Tales of Terror & the Supernatural from 1949. This collection gave me my first exposure to Lovecraft (I never enjoyed him as much again), Machen’s The Great God Pan and Walter de la Mare’s Mr. Kempe, the nearest thing to a pure horror story I’ve read of his and by far my favourite. And then there’s the little matter of The Beckoning Fair One ….

Stephen Jones – Mammoth Best New Horror 14

Stephen Jones (ed) – The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #14 (Robinson, 2003)

Cover: Les Edwards

Stephen Jones – Horror In 2002

Neil Gaiman – October In The Chair
China Mieville – Details
Don Tumasonis – The Wretched Thicket Of Thorns
David J. Schow – The Absolute Last Of The Ultra-Spooky, Super-Scary Hallowe’en Horror Nights
Nicholas Royle – Standard Gauge
Stephen Gallagher – Little Dead Girl Singing
Brian Hodge – Nesting Instincts
Glen Hirshberg – The Two Sams
Jay Russell – Hides
Ramsey Campbell – The Unbeheld
Basil Copper – Ill Met By Daylight
Kelly Link – Catskin
Joe Hill – 20th Century Ghost
Kim Newman – Egyptian Avenue
James Van Pelt – The Boy Behind The Gate
Caitlin  R. Kiernan – Nor The Demon Down Under The Sea
Graham Joyce – The Coventry Boy
Don Tumasonis – The Prospect Cards
Jeff Vandermeer – The Cage
Paul McAuley – Dr. Pretorius And The Lost Temple

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology: 2002

Wise & Fraser – Great Tales Of Terror

Herbert A. Wise & Phyllis Fraser (eds) – Great Tales of Terror & the Supernatural (Hammond, Hammond & Co., 1949: Book Club, 1982)

Tales of Terror

Honore de Balzac – La Grande Breteche
Edgar Allan Poe – The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Wilkie Collins – A Terribly Strange Bed
Ambrose Bierce – The Boarded Window
Thomas Hardy – The Three Strangers
W. W. Jacobs – The Interruption
H. G. Wells – Pollock and the Porroh Man
H.G. Wells – The Sea Raiders
Saki – Sredni Vashtar
Alexander Woollcott – Moonlight Sonata
Conrad Aiken – Silent Snow, Secret Snow
Dorothy L. Sayers – Suspicion
Richard Connell – The Most Dangerous Game
Carl Stephenson – Leiningen versus the Ants
Michael Arlen – The Gentleman from America
William Faulkner – A Rose for Emily
Ernest Hemingway – The Killers
John Collier – Back for Christmas
Geoffrey Household – Taboo

Tales of the Supernatural

Edward Bulwer-Lytton – The Haunted and the Haunters
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Rappaccini’s Daughter
Charles Collins & Charles Dickens – The Trial for Murder
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
Henry James – Sir Edmund Orme
Guy de Maupassant – The Horla
Guy de Maupassant – Was It a Dream?
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
O. Henry – The Furnished Room
M. R. James – Casting the Runes
M.R. James – Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad
Edith Wharton – Afterward
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Arthur Machen – The Great God Pan
Robert Hichens – How Love Came to Professor Guildea
Rudyard Kipling – The Return of Imray
Rudyard Kipling – “They”
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo
E. F. Benson – Caterpillars
E. F. Benson – Mrs. Amworth
Algernon Blackwood – Ancient Sorceries
Algernon Blackwood – Confession
Saki – The Open Window
Oliver Onions – The Beckoning Fair One
Walter de la Mare – Out of the Deep
A. E. Coppard – Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
E. M. Forster – The Celestial Omnibus
Richard Middleton – The Ghost Ship
Karen Blixen – The Sailor-Boy’s Tale
H. P. Lovecraft – The Rats in the Walls
H. P. Lovecraft – The Dunwich Horror

Thanks to Paisleycravat for typing out the contents.

Stephen Jones – Mammoth Best Horror 10

Stephen Jones (ed.) – The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 10 (Robinson, 1999)

Joe Roberts

Stephen Jones – Horror in 1998

Christopher Fowler – Learning To Let Go
Neil Gaiman – The Wedding Present
Peter Atkins – Adventures In Further Education
Kathe Koja – Bondage
Chaz Benchley – The Keys To D’Esperance
Stephen Laws -The Song My Sister Sang
Kim Newman – A Victorian Ghost Story
Bruce Holland Rogers – The Dead Boy At Your Window Ramsay Campbell – Ra*e
Lawrence Watt-Evans – Upstairs
Caitlin R. Kiernan – Postcard From The King Of Tides
Michael Marshall Smith – Everybody Goes
Tanith Lee – Yellow And Red
Steve Rasnic Tem – What Slips Away
Dennis Etchison – Inside The Cackle Factory
Kelly Link – The Specialist’s Hat
Avram Davidson & Grania Davis – The Boss In The Wall: A Treatise On The House Devil
Harlan Ellison – Objects Of Desire In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Peter Straub – Mr Clubb And Mr Cuff

Necrology: 1998 – Stephen Jones & Kim Newman