Joined: May 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 244 Location: Essex
This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Thread Started on Sept 16, 2009, 2:43pm »
This Fell Sergeant - David Garner (NEL 1974)
A short Nel at 111 pages, but it's a bloody good one. It reads like nel's version of the kray twins. plenty of brutality, including a portable fire thrown at a naked victim & a bollock battering (ouch). The Summers brothers don't spare women either, everyone is a target. Brilliantly un-pc & well worth a read.
Not sure if that blurb is still readable enough, let me know if it isn't & I'll type it up.
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #1 on Sept 16, 2009, 3:20pm »
Sheer genius, HP. That Rat/Kray cover is worth the price of admission alone. What with Dem apparently finding a mint condition Jackboot Girls as well...
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #2 on Oct 13, 2009, 8:43pm »
Ever since HP put this cover up, I've been fascinated by it. Curiously, Des started the 'book or cover' thread just after and I thought, in this case, it's a triumph for the NEL art and marketing department. The book was published in September 1974, presumably after James Herbert's debut novel. The name David Garner means nothing to me and googling has just led to this novel. 'This Fell Sergeant' is a bit weird too. Apparently it's from William Shakespeare's Hamlet - during the massacre at the end, as he is dying himself, Hamlet sayeth 'This fell sergeant, death, is strict in his arrest.' Appropriate in that there is quite lot of death in this book. The cover illustration is credited to Lucinda Cowell, and I'm really glad about that, because I've often moaned about her cover for Guy (N) Smith's Werewolf By Moonlight, another example of a combination photograph and drawing. Lucinda hits the nail on the head here, even if her source material is fairly obvious.
"Gordon Summers ran a very respectable security form - or so it seemed. In reality he was the toughest hood in London. Intelligent, capable and highly sexed he manipulated people as he pleased - his price for betrayal was death. And Summers liked to kill. But his organization had one weak link, his slow-witted brother Maurice. And because Maurice made one small, very stupid mistake, Summers was able to do all the killing he liked - only this time it was in order to save his own skin."
Excellent come-on blurb - promising slightly more than it delivers but, hey, this is NEL.
Any book featuring human bodies with giant rats heads might be expected to be horror, or at least bloody SF, but this is crime. Two criminal brothers. Not twins, but London Gangsters.
Check out the eyes. It's the Krays. But not just any old picture, either.
Taken by David Bailey circa 1964 and included in his first collection. Not just any old photo album, but the Box Of Pin Ups - a set of 36 photographs that you could literally pin up on your wall. Expensive ephemera - and a record of the nascent Swinging London. Mick Jagger, Michael Caine, Lord Snowdon (who allegedly objected to the Twins presence and cocked up hopes of the Box being released in the US, or getting a second edition). After their arrest and imprisonment (1968-9) the Twins began to enter popular culture, via such conduits as James Barlow's novel The Burden Of Proof, filmed as Villain with Richard Burton as sadistic homosexual East End gang boss Vic Dakin, and Monty Python's Flying Circus' magnificent parody The Piranha Brothers. Bailey's photograph would soon adorn John Pearson's The Profession Of Violence - a Twins biography.
The book? It's classic NEL. HP has covered the salient details. It's a brisk slice of thick ear, with some interesting writing, and a classic downbeat 1970s ending.
demonik Janitor Of Lunacy Hail Horrors, Hail member is offline
Thirsty Dog
Joined: Oct 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,942 Location: Loughville
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #3 on Oct 14, 2009, 5:47am »
We really should have a Lucinda Cowell thread. She was onto a particularly good thing with her disturbing masks. It's been mentioned before, but any old excuse to highlight this gem from 1973.
Lucinda Cowell
can't comment on This Fell Sergeant as i'd never heard of it before Dave's post but, yes, one of the most fascinating items to appear in this section for ages.
From the first, I set myself against "literature"; the story was the thing, and no amount of style could persuade me to select a story that lacked genuine, unadulterated horror. For those who wanted something high-brow there was plenty.
Joined: Mar 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 929 Location: Ipswich, UK
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #5 on Oct 15, 2009, 7:23am »
I tried earlier on this year with no joy Franklin, as I was wanting her to say a piece for the van Thal bio I've done. Got through to Terry Gilliam's office and was told twice that my email had been passed on - so at least that means that she is hopefully still alive - but didn't hear anything back. If you do manage to score a hit, please pass on my details!
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #6 on Oct 15, 2009, 8:52am »
Will do, Johnny. I seem to remember you mentioning that she was involved with Animations Of Mortality - and worked on Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Thanks to Dem's timely post above, I mentioned the Van Thal book, and sent the part cover of This Fell Sergeant to hopefully strike a chord. She seems to have led quite a life in the early 70s, and I'm sure would be a really interesting character. She knew Barney Bubbles (Hawkwind!) and designed album covers. If I don't get anywhere, I was tempted to get Justin on the case. He did the business with Mark Howell.
« Last Edit: Oct 15, 2009, 8:53am by franklinmarsh »
Hee! I'm hoping to contact Linda. Not holding my breath, but this is like the early days.
Remember your training!
still can't get near my books to check for more, but as far as i can make out, here's what we've got to date:
Christopher Hodder-Williams - Panic O'Clock (NEL, 1973) Herbert Van Thal - The Bedside Book Of Horror (Arthur Baker, 1973) David Garner - The Fell Sergeant (NEL, 1974)
Guy N. Smith - Werewolf By Moonlight (NEL, 1974) Richard Allen - Dragon Skins (NEL, 1975) Christopher Priest - Inverted World (NEL, 1975)
From the first, I set myself against "literature"; the story was the thing, and no amount of style could persuade me to select a story that lacked genuine, unadulterated horror. For those who wanted something high-brow there was plenty.
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #8 on Oct 15, 2009, 11:24am »
Brilliant! And I forgot Dragon Skins! *red face*
And well deserved as I've always thought DS and Werewolf By Moonlight were among my least fave covers of all time. Bet there's a story behind WBM though - just who is behind that hirsute facial?
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #9 on Oct 19, 2009, 9:28pm »
Here's some stuff from Lucinda - there may be more...
"Ron Michaelson (incidentally, it seems Ron is the guy on the cover of Werewolf By Moonlight) and I moved to London in 1970, he was just out of college and I, 3 years older, had already begun working as a designer in NYC after graduating from art school in Philadelphia. My first job in London was designing and illustrating in SPARE RIB the first English feminist mag. 15 pounds a week cash was not great but it was something. There I met Kate Hepburn, the-sister-in-law to Terry Jones of the Pythons. Shortly after, She and I left S.R. to go design THE BOK; the Python's 3rd book with Eyre Methuen, the Python's publisher. I have worked with the Pythons ever since, mostly Terry Gilliam, in one capacity or another.
When the Python Book was finished, I started up a studio on Goswell Road with the pen and ink Illustrator Peter Brooks and graphic designer Pierce Marchbank. Pierce was buddies with Tony Elliot who had started TIME OUT mag. and the 3 of us did alot of Time Out work. Pierce commissioned me to do 3 or 4 illustrated T.O. covers, one of a set of 2-headed twins in reference to a plethora of charities at the time for dubious causes. I also painted a da Vinci styled Madonna holding T.O. Mag, checking out what was happening in town for the holidays.
It was about that time I took my portfolio around to N.E.L., this was probably 1972. Seeing the somewhat twisted point of view already in my work, the Art Director there (whose name I wish I knew "Roger?") was very kind to me and after the first job, "Destiny Doll", always sent me away with a new manuscript as soon as I brought in another painting. I was introduced to Bruce Pennington one time when I was in the N.E.L. offices, he was kind as well "older, tweedy and more established). He connected me to an illustrator's rep that he knew. I never did have a rep because I really enjoyed getting in to see the art directors on my own and in those days it wasn't so tight a field and one could expect to get an appointment with pretty much anybody. Peter Haining and a few others sound very familiar but I'm so sorry that I wasn't more involved with that scene. I always ogled any other artist's work that the N.E.L. guys showed me like Chris Foss who I think was king of SiFi art for that period. I do have copies of a magazine that NEL published at the time that showcased various of their artists, I have 2 different issues at the studio and will send you more details.
I did not know about the other Richard Allen book covers being straight photographic. I always used my own polaroids as figure reference and often collaged pieces together so my work took on a more photo realistic look, I airbrushed my color and paint-brushed the details. Yes, the cover for This Fell Sergeant was based on a David Bailey print I found at Black Star Stock photo house and the rat facial features definitely seemed to go with the novel. Panic O'clock was a straight lemming sensibility, which was what I felt the panic emulated (using the Fairburn Figure Reference Catalogue) . Bedside Book of Horror, was pretty much an airbrushed and painted over collage based on photos Ron and I took of ourselves and 2 friends in our backyard in NW10. I found the carnival heads at a rental place in town and thought they looked pretty fabulous. we all took turns holding our one kitchen knife. Our neighbors got a bit creeped out, it was the fire that attracted their attention."
demonik Janitor Of Lunacy Hail Horrors, Hail member is offline
Thirsty Dog
Joined: Oct 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,942 Location: Loughville
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #10 on Oct 19, 2009, 11:03pm »
"What a lovely lady!" is right. Thanks ever so for sharing, Franklin. It's even better than your Donald Glut one! How kind that Ms Cowell has clearly taken time over your questions. Adore the final paragraph pertaining to the covers, especially the lowdown on the neighbour frightening Bedside Book Of Horror shoot. Imagine innocently peering through the window and seeing pigface, mr. toad and doghead coming at you with a bread-knife!
From the first, I set myself against "literature"; the story was the thing, and no amount of style could persuade me to select a story that lacked genuine, unadulterated horror. For those who wanted something high-brow there was plenty.
Re: This Fell Sergeant - David Garner « Reply #12 on Oct 20, 2009, 2:15am »
Thanks very much for sharing that FM.There's something a bit quirkey about Lucinda's work that has always appealed. Whilst I'm generally a painted cover fan - collage and experimental stuff like this is a nice change and so emblematic of when horror books weren't gurly...
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