Joel Lane & Tom Johnstone (eds.) – Horror Uncut

Joel Lane & Tom Johnstone (eds.) – Horror Uncut  (Grey Friar Press, Sept. 2014)

Cover illustration: Neil Williams

Tom Johnsone – Foreword

Joel Lane – A Cry for Help
Simon Bestwick – The Battering Stone
Priya Sharma – The Ballad of Boomtown
John Llewellyn Probert – The Lucky Ones
Stephen Hampton – The Sun Trap
Gary McMahon – Only Bleeding
Anna Taborska – The Lemmy / Trump Test
John Howard – Falling into Stone
Laura Lauro – Ptichka
Stephen Bacon – The Devil’s Only Friend
David Williams – The Procedure
Rosanne Rabinowitz – Pieces of Ourselves
John Forth – A Simple Matter of Space
David Turnbell – The Privilege Card
Alison Littlewood – The Ghost at the Feast
Andrew Hook – The Opaque District
Thana Niveau – No History of Violence

Tom Johnstone – Afterword

Blurb
‘We’ve all heard rumour: that the austerity measures will be over by Christmas. That there will be a Christmas…’ ” But now the prime minister, in the opulent surroundings of a banqueting hall, has publicly called for permanent austerity.

The Con Dem Coalition government’s policies have brought real life horror stories: cancer patients bullied by the DWP, bereaved parents forced out of homes by the bedroom tax, pregnant migrants endangered by avoiding medical help in fear of hospital bills.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, Gray Friar Press presents macabre tales from the frontline of aus-terror-ty. We asked fine writers of horror to bring dark visions of a society blighted by poverty, debt and privatisation, exploring what ghosts, private madness and afterlife such a world might bring.

The anthology counters a culture encouraging ordinary people to scapegoat benefit claimants and migrant workers, show-casing fiction that examines the real roots of a crisis that causes hardship for many and lining the pockets of few.

Here you will encounter the…
…terrible price exacted for treatment in a private hospital…
…ancient curse on an abandoned housing development…
…torture gang of wealthy thugs who hunt the poor…
…suicidal apparitions encountered by a healthcare P.R. man…

Such acclaimed talents as Alison Littlewood, John Llewellyn Probert, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Gary McMahon, Anna Taborska, Joel Lane, Simon Bestwick, Andrew Hook, and Priya Sharma invoke a world where you queue to join the queues, personal space is strictly rationed, and sadistic game-shows control the population.

 

Allyson Bird & Joel Lane – Never Again

Allyson Bird & Joel Lane (eds.) – Never Again (Gray Friar Press, September 2010)

cover by Daniele Serra

Nina Allen – Feet of Clay
R.J. Krijnen-Kemp – Volk
Lisa Tuttle – In the Arcade
John Howard – A Flowering Wound
Tony Richards – Sense
Alison Littlewood – In On The Tide
R.B. Russell – Decision
Mat Joiner – South of Autumn
Rosanne Rabinowitz – Survivor’s Guilt
Rhys Hughes – Rediffusion
Simon Kurt Unsworth – A Place For Feeding
Joe R. Lansdale – The Night They Missed the Horror Show
Kaaron Warren – Ghost Jail
Steve Duffy – The Torturer
Gary McMahon – Methods of Confinement
Rob Shearman – Damned If You Don’t
Carole Johnstone – Machine
Stephen Volk – After the Ape
David Sutton – Zulu’s War
Thana Niveau – Death of Dreams
Andrew Hook – Beyond Each Blue Horizon
Ramsey Campbell – The Depths
Simon Bestwick – Malachi

From Press Release:

Never Again is an attempt to voice the collective revulsion of writers in the weird fiction genre against political attitudes that stifle compassion and deny our collective human inheritance. The imagination is crucial to an understanding both of human diversity and of common ground. Weird fiction is often stigmatised as a reactionary and ignorant genre – we know better. The anthology will be published by Gray Friar Press in September 2010, and edited by Allyson Bird and Joel Lane.

It will be a mixture of original stories and reprints from Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle and Joe R. Lansdale amongst others. Never Again is a non-profit initiative aimed at promoting awareness of these issues among readers and writers of weird fiction. The editors, authors/artist and publisher will receive no fees for this work. Any profits made from sales will be donated to anti-racist or human rights organizations, e.g. The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

PREORDERS NOW BEING TAKEN

UK, £10 + £2 P&P
USA, $18 + $6 P&P (airmail)

Gray Friar Press