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Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2008 8:23:36 GMT
Mary Danby (ed.) - The 8th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories (Fontana, 1973) "A Clutch of Chillers by 13 Masters of the Macabre"Bernard Taylor - The Godsend
T. H. White - The Troll
Charles Birkin - Havelock's Farm
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Peculiar Case Of Mrs. Grimmond
Gwyn Jones - The Pit
Roald Dahl - Royal Jelly
Lennox Robinson - A Pair Of Muddy Shoes
Leo Tolstoy - The Porcelain Doll
Elizabeth Walter - The Tibetan Box
Pamela Vincent - Mr. Priapos
Manuel Komroff - So You Won't Talk
Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart
Mary Danby - Harvest HomeCharles Birkin - Havelock's Farm: Typical Birkin, which probably constitutes a plot spoiler in itself. Due to a mix-up over accommodation, young Faith Harrison, the new schoolmistress, has to look for a room in the village, and the only place she can find one is at the farm of the shunned, inbred Havelock family. They're actually a far more decent clan than their neighbours give them credit for ... except, that is, for the insane son they hide away from the outside world on account of his predilection for rape. One night, the thatched roof catches fire .... Bernard Taylor - The Godsend: I'd not read this for years and had come to think of it as a dry-run for Taylor's novel of the same name, which just goes to show how wrong you can be. Very strange variation on the vampire theme, and the protagonist is a were-grasshopper. Nine year old Caro narrates the story of what happened to she and little brother Rick when her author mum took on a Nanny. The little ones loved Janie, a plump, jolly Northern lass fresh back from a stint in Africa who doted on them and, with the pressure lifted off their mother, life was sweet. Then Rick fell ill: there were tiny bite marks all over his body and all he could give the doctor to go on was that he was being attacked by two inch high grass-hoppers. Then he died. The medical profession put it down to anaemia. Caro has begun to notice stuff: how come Janie never eats and yet she's so fat? And what was that about the two kids she looked after in Africa dying? T. H. White - The Troll: Lapland: A man hears noises coming from the adjoining hotel room and, peering through the keyhole, watches horrified as an eight foot tall Smurf devours a woman. After prying into the business of who booked the room, he finds he's set himself up as the blue ogre's next meal ... Gwyn Jones - The Pit: Ystrad, Wales. Akerman, boarding with the Bendles at their charming cottage, has designs on his hostess, a fact that her husband seems unaware of. After what's left of him finally emerges from the derelict mine he's stubbornly insisted on investigating, it's a fair bet that Mrs. Bendle won't be the only woman to give him a wide berth from now on. Manuel Komroff - So You Won’t Talk: Being a cop killer, Handsome Dan has little chance of escaping the death sentence but, as he points out to Captain Quill who is grilling him for the name of his accomplice, they can only kill him. Meanwhile Russian scientists are experimenting with a dog’s severed head and an artificial heart … Roald Dahl - Royal Jelly: Albert and Mabel Taylor’s new born daughter isn’t doing well. She’s lost two pounds since birth and won’t take her bottle. Albert is a beekeeper by vocation and flicking through one of the trade magazines he hits on the solution: if he were to lace baby’s milk with Royal Jelly … The baby thrives to the point that within a few days and several hefty doses she is twice the weight of a normal tot although her body is taking on an odd shape. Funnily enough, now Mabel comes to think about it, her husband has a bee-like quality about him too … Leo Tolstoy - The Porcelain Doll: Sonya has become a porcelain doll. It’s all a bit nervy as she’s very fragile and the dog nearly broke her in two. She’s also been knocked off the table. Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart: The narrator, at pains to assure us of his sanity, commits premeditated murder on an old neighbour with whom he has no quarrel whatsoever: he just can’t abide one of his eyes. After spying on the old fellow for several nights and revelling in his discomfort, the murderer flattens him under his own bed, dismembers the body and conceals it beneath the floorboards. There’s nothing to connect him to the crime so when he’s visited by police investigating a shriek in the night it should be a formality to convince them of his complete innocence, what with his superior brain and all. The more often I read Poe, the more I realise he had a flair for comic genius, and the pitch dark melodrama of the likes of this, ... M. Valdemar and The Black Cat is so overwrought and doom-laden it's ultimately hilarious. Either that, or I'm just a sick bastard. Dorothy K. Haynes - The Peculiar Case Of Mrs. Grimmond: One day the cat drags something in - a poodle-cum-devil that feeds on blood from the lonely widow’s wrist. Needless to say, babysitting such a ‘pet’ isn’t advisable. Mary Danby - Harvest Home: The inhabitants of Marna are the most beautiful, healthy and friendly race on earth. So what’s their dark and deadly secret? Much of it has to do with their drink of choice, Risoc. The rest … Tessa is about to discover the rest …  John Holmes
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Post by carolinec on Mar 11, 2008 12:23:57 GMT
Roald Dahl - Royal Jelly: Albert and Mabel Taylor’s new born daughter isn’t doing well. She’s lost two pounds since birth and won’t take her bottle. Albert is a beekeeper by vocation and flicking through one of the trade magazines he hits on the solution: if he were to lace baby’s milk with Royal Jelly … The baby thrives to the point that within a few days and several hefty doses she is twice the weight of a normal tot although her body is taking on an odd shape. Funnily enough, now Mabel comes to think about it, her husband has a bee-like quality about him too … I remember seeing this one on Tales of the Unexpected. One of the really good ones that stays in the memory. Timothy West was suitably sinister as the husband ... ;D |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 11, 2008 16:38:47 GMT
The bottom cover image is one of those that used to scare the shit out of me in Woolworths when I was a lad (along with teh spider on the severed hand of Volume 2)
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 30, 2010 21:57:03 GMT
Right - I've just dug out my paperback of this after Dem mentioned that there's a Charles Birkin story in here that needs reading and first off there's a debate between myself and Lady P as to what that insect is on the cover - she thinks it's a real grasshopper and a tiny doll, I think it's a model (the insect's head looks like it's been made out of a potato) but Lady P has a point when she says the bristles covering the insect are too realistic for it to be a Blue Peter job.
Anyone care to contribute to this incredibly important issue?
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Post by dem bones on Jul 30, 2010 22:13:47 GMT
Sorry to let the side down your worship, but i'm with Lady P., although if you've ever feasted on an Iceland potato i can see how any confusion may have arisen. I take it the doll isn't a bone of contention? The illustrated cover is the work of John Holmes, as celebrated in a Paperback Fanatic interview by Mr. Mains. And the equivalent of The 8th Fontana Book Of Horror Stories is exactly the kind of anthology i wish was around in 2010. |
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Post by marksamuels on Jul 30, 2010 22:38:22 GMT
I thought it was a still from the film Inseminoid
Mark S.
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Post by monker on Aug 11, 2010 1:51:56 GMT
Yeah, it was at least once alive but I'd go for it being a cricket (or a New Zealand 'weta') rather than a grasshopper.
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