Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)

Cover: Luis Rey

Introduction – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
Chet Williamson – … To Feel Another’s Woe
Stephen Gallagher – The Horn
Peter Straub – A Short Guide To The City
Robert Westall – The Last Days Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Cherry Wilder – Alive In Venice
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats
Thomas Ligotti – The Last Feast Of Harlequin
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
J. W. Jeter – True Love
J. L. Comeau – Firebird
Karl E. Wagner – Cedar Lane
D. F. Lewis – Mort Au Monde
Nicholas Royle – Negatives
Richard Laymon – Bad News
Elizabeth Hand – On The Town Route
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
David J. Schow – Incident On A Rainy Night In Beverly Hills
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Ian MacLeod – 1/72nd Scale
Ramsey Campbell – The Same In Any Language
Poppy Z. Brite – His Mouth Will Taste Of Wormwood
Charles L. Grant – Our Life In An Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
David Sutton – Those Of Rhenea
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Harlan Ellison – Jane Doe
F. Paul Wilson – Pelts
Jean-Daniel Breque – On The Wing
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Garry Kilworth – Inside The Walled City
Jonathan Carroll – The Dead Love You
S. P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
Gene Wolfe – Lord Of The Land
Gahan Wilson – Mister Ice Cold
Kim Newman – The Original Dr. Shade

600+ page compilation derived from the first two Best New Horror collections. The customary lengthy introduction and Necrology are missed, but this all-story Best New Horror is possibly my favourite of the entire series to date.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3 (Robinson, 1992)

Luis Rey

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Introduction:  Horror in 1991

K.W. Jeter – True Love
Ramsey Campbell – The Same in Any Language
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
Robert R. McCammon – The Miracle Mile
Steve Rasnic Tem – Taking Down the Tree
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Roger Johnson – Love, Death and the Maiden
S.P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Kim Newman – The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu
Edward Bryant – Colder Than Hell
Nancy A. Collins – Raymond
Charles L. Grant – One Life, in an Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Hand – The Bacchae
David J. Scow – Busted in Buttown
Russell Flinn – Subway Story
Thomas Ligotti – The Medusa
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Nicholas Royle – Moving Out
Norman Partridge – Guignoir
William F. Nolan – Blood Sky
David Starkey – Ready
Karl Edward Wagner – The Slug
Michael Marshall Smith – The Dark Land
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
J.L. Comeau – Taking Care of Michael
Thomas Tessier – The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank
Nina Kiriki Hoffman – Zits

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology: 1991

Thanks to Alan J. Frackelton for the cover scan and contents!

Stephen Jones – Dancing With The Dark

Stephen Jones (ed.) – Dancing With The Dark: True Encounters With The Paranormal By Masters Of The Macabre (Vista, 1997)

Cover by Splash: Photography by Simon Marsden

Stephen Jones – Introduction: Dancing with the Dark

Joan Aiken – My Feeling about Ghosts
Sarah Ash – Timeswitch
Mike Ashley – The Rustle in the Grass
Peter Atkins – Take Care of Grandma
Clive Barker – Life After Death
Stephen Baxter – The Cartographer
Robert Bloch – Not Quite So Pragmatic .
Ramsey Campbell – The Nearest to a Ghost
Hugh B. Cave – Haitian Mystères
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – One-Way Trip
A. E. Coppard – The Shock of the Macabre
Basil Copper – The Haunted Hotel
Peter Crowther – Safe Arrival
Jack Dann – A Gift of Eagles
Charles de Lint – The House on Spadina
Terry Dowling – Sharing with Strangers
Lionel Fanthorpe – Hands on the Wheel
Esther M. Friesner – That Old School Spirit
Gregory Frost – Twice Encountered
Neil Gaiman – The Flints of Memory Lane
Stephen Gallagher – In There
Ray Garton – Haunted in the Head
John Gordon – The House on the Brink
Ed Gorman – Riding the Nightwinds
Elizabeth Goudge – ESP
Simon R. Green – Death is a Lady
Peter Haining – The Smoke Ghost
Joe Haldeman – Never Say Die
James Herbert – Not Very Psychic
Brian Hodge – Confessions of a Born-Again Heathen
Nancy Holder – To Pine with Fear and Sorrow
M. R. James – A Ghostly Cry
Peter James – One Extra for Dinner
Mike Jefferies – A Face in the Crowd
Nancy Kilpatrick – Raggedy Ann
Stephen King – Uncle Clayton
Hugh Lamb – Go On, Open Your Eyes…
Terry Lamsley – Moving Houses
John Landis – Inspiration
Stephen Laws – Norfolk Nightmare
Samantha Lee – Not Funny
Barry B. Longyear – The Gray Ghost
H. P. Lovecraft – Witch House
Brian Lumley – The Challenge
Arthur Machen – World of the Senses
Graham Masterton – My Grandfather’s House
Richard Matheson – More Than We Appear To Be
Richard Christian Matheson – Visit to a Psychic Surgeon
Paul J. McAuley – The Fall of the Wires
Anne McCaffrey – Unto the Third Generation
Thomas F. Monteleone – Talkin’ Them Marble Orchard Blues
Mark Morris – A Shadow of Tomorrow
Yvonne Navarro – The House on Chadwell Drive
William F. Nolan – The Floating Table and the Jumping Violet
Edgar Allan Poe – Mesmeric Revelation
Vincent Price – In the Clouds
Alan Rodgers – Clinic-Modern
Nicholas Royle – Magical Thinking
Jay Russell – De Cold, Cold Décolletage
Adam Simon – The Darkness Between the Frames
Guy N. Smith – The Mist People
Michael Marshall Smith – Mr Cat
S. P. Somtow – In the Realm of the Spirits
Brian Stableford – Chacun sa Goule
Laurence Staig – The Spirit of M. R. James
Peter Tremayne – The Family Curse
H. R. Wakefield – The Red Lodge
Lawrence Watt-Evans – My Haunted Home
Cherry Wilder – The Ghost Hunters
Chet Williamson – A Place Where a Head Would Rest
Paul F. Wilson – The Glowing Hand
Douglas E. Winter – Finding My Religion
Gene Wolfe – Kid Sister

A Spectral vision …. The sound of phantom footsteps … An experiment in astral projection ….. A childhood premonition of disaster …. Possession by a voodoo god ….
An Ouija board that predicted death … A body kept alive by force of will ….. A cursed family name …

Such tales as these are more usually associated with horror books and movies. However, these anecdotes are absolutely true! They are ,just a sample of the real-life experiences recounted by some of the world’s most famous frighteners, from such bestselling authors as Stephen King and James Herbert, to actor Vincent Price and director John Landis.

Collected together for the very first time, many or the most successful and well-known exponents, along with rising stars of the horror field, relate their fascinating encounters with the supernatural, revealing how such unique experiences have affected their lives and influenced their works.

Even for the experts, when it comes to Unexplained phenomena, fact can be much more frightening than fiction …

See also Dancing With the Dark thread on Vault Of Evil

Thanks to Nightreader!