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Post by jonathan122 on Mar 6, 2009 0:20:44 GMT
The Smoking Leg - John Metcalfe (1926)
The Smoking Leg Picnic Nightmare Jack Paper Windmills Crowcastle Convalescent The Tunnel The Double Admiral The Grey House Tide-borne Hairsbreadth The Sister Speaks The Bad Lands Proxy The Glamour Hunter Lure The Flying Tower The Backslider
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Post by weirdmonger on Jul 24, 2023 16:03:47 GMT
THE BAD LANDS by John Metcalfe This story I thought I remembered well from first reading it – in the sixties or early seventies – a story with its clinging atmosphere of ‘bad lands’ along a ‘queer road’ from the Norfolk coast after you have walked past a strange tower to a large solitary house that, I am now reminded, is called Fennington with a spinning-wheel seen inside it … a story that has genuinely haunted me ever since! It is even more haunting than ‘Three Miles Up’ and it still is! Re-haunting me now by this re-reading for the meagre remainder of my journey upon this earth…. *** “He had seen him pass the tower, strike the fatal gate in the slanting morning sun, and then dwindle up the winding path till he was no more than an intense, pathetic dot along that way of mystery.” A man called OrmerOD — whose ‘dot’ is seen vanishing up the queer road from a township called Todd, past the tower to purge Fennington of evil — had been staying at a hotel in Todd, and now with his disappearing into a dot as the narrative Point-Of-View abruptly switches to a chap to whom Ormerod had spoken at the hotel and who stays behind at the hotel. Then Joan turns up. The rest of the plot you will need to read for yourself, and establish your own point of view upon how this story can thus infect you and/or re-infect you with a severe desolation of the spirit alongside a sense of the bad lands beyond Todd. “He saw Joan talking very quickly to the manager of the hotel. She seemed to be developing a Point-of-View,…” *** Further ongoing reviews of John Metcalfe: dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2023/07/22/the-bad-lands-john-metcalfe/======================================== An old photo of me (from the original time of reading it) that someone has coincidentally exhumed today! I can’t remember ever seeing it before…
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Post by PeterC on Jul 25, 2023 16:50:30 GMT
John Metcalfe's work is seriously under-rated. Oh for a new, reasonably-priced collection of his stories.
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Post by weirdmonger on Jul 25, 2023 17:19:52 GMT
John Metcalfe's work is seriously under-rated. Oh for a new, reasonably-priced collection of his stories. You might want to consider this new book of some of Metcalfe stories here: incunabulamedia.com/phantoms
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Post by helrunar on Jul 25, 2023 23:49:37 GMT
Thanks for this reference, Des, to that interesting new edition. Cool to see although I don't understand why the blurb insists on name-checking Ligotti.
My high school chum back in the Seventies had a keen admiration for The Smoking Leg. That friend was one of the most devil-may-care individualistic people I'd ever met back in those days. At the height of the disco era, we'd sit in his front room listening to old 78s by such artists as Rose Bampton, the Orpheus Glasgow Choir and Cyril Scott, sipping tea while Marc described some lurid, bizarre character he'd encountered in the pages of T. F. Powys. He was a memorable person to know.
Needless to say most in the area had no idea just what the hell he was about.
Hel.
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Post by PeterC on Jul 26, 2023 8:49:51 GMT
Yes, Helrunar, people like your friend make the world so interesting. And many thanks to Des for the tip-off about the book.
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Post by weirdmonger on Aug 1, 2023 18:34:41 GMT
Just reviewed Metcalfe’s THE FEASTING DEAD at above link. Wow!
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Post by PeterC on Aug 2, 2023 22:41:47 GMT
Des, have you reviewed ‘Time Fuse’ (terrific story)? If not please do.
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Post by humgoo on Aug 6, 2023 3:29:27 GMT
Hello Mr. Lewis. Do you have the TOC for the Metcalfe volume? The Lulu page just says it includes "'Mortmain', 'Nightmare Jack', The Bad Lands' and his brilliant novella 'The Feasting Dead'", but certainly there's more stories in it? Thanks!
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Post by PeterC on Aug 9, 2023 14:54:58 GMT
Humgoo, re The Badlands - I think the contents are:
The Funeral March of a Marionette The Bad Lands The Firing Chamber Beyondaril Mortmain Brenner's Boy Nightmare Jack The Grey House The Tunnel The Double Admiral The Flying Tower The Feasting Dead
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Post by humgoo on Aug 11, 2023 15:15:43 GMT
Thanks Peter. Agree with you that "Time Fuse" is a terrific story (gruesome), and a pity it's not included.
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