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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 27, 2011 9:29:35 GMT
What did I get for Christmas? I'm about half way through this and it's a cracking good read. Phil Baker maintains a gently mocking tone throughout - Wheatley is clearly a prat. Some of the events are amazing, like the murder of his best mate, Wilde disciple, con artist and petty criminal, Eric Tombe, and the portraits of Crowley and Montague Summers, particularly Summers, are fascinating. I've got this Blackwell's catalogue of Wheatley's library, which went to them after his death: On the back is Wheatley's book plate showing Tombe as a satyr. The catalogue came out in 1979, but even for then some of the prices seem really low - nine volumes of William Hope Hodgson 1st editions for 110 quid, inscribed Cowles Horror of Abbot's Grange for 10 quid and The Night Wind Howls for 8 quid, both fine in dust jacket(!) etc etc
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Post by andydecker on Dec 27, 2011 10:40:11 GMT
hi andy, have you tried Anthony Horowitz's recently published The House Of Silk, the first posthumous Sherlock Holmes adventure ever to be endorsed by the Conan-Doyle estate? I have it on the list. The Kindle edition has the same price as the trade, which in my book belongs to the category "you got to be kidding me". Out of principle I don´t pay the same amount for an Ebook. So I guess it will be printversion some day if they do not a better price like they did with Rickman´s Bones of Avalon. The problem with Holmes stories that there is a veritable flood of them. At least here in Germany. Every small-press and his pals are publishing Holmes novels or anthologys. Some are translations, a lot are originals. SH in Leipizig; SH and the Cannibal; SH and the Club of Hellfire. And most of these have a gimmick, the narrator is a new character, no, its Moriarty, no its Mycroft. Life is too short and so on ... Gaslight Arcanaum is a decidedly mixed bag so far. I will do a recap when I am through.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 27, 2011 10:44:14 GMT
What did I get for Christmas? This looks nice! Did Wheatly really work for Churchill in the war, or is this some exaggeration? (In reality he fetched coffee or something like that)
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Post by noose on Dec 27, 2011 18:43:12 GMT
got this lovely M.R. James letter for my xmas... and this lovely book which I have been after for ages.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 27, 2011 19:56:05 GMT
I find James's handwriting a bit challenging, I must say.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 27, 2011 23:51:16 GMT
This looks nice! Did Wheatly really work for Churchill in the war, or is this some exaggeration? (In reality he fetched coffee or something like that) Andy, I haven't quite made it to WWII yet.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 28, 2011 0:24:59 GMT
I find James's handwriting a bit challenging, I must say. Notoriously bad handwriting! The first few sentences aren't too bad, something like: My dear Mr Clapham many many thanks for Perpelna (?). It is charmingly done. I shall certainly take advantage of your kind offer upon a subsequent occasion. I would I had more time to write but I haven't. Here for JHC. I go from the 29th to Dublin to take a ??... Then it starts looking like he's had a few too many after dinner ports. Terrific Chrissy present - the great man himself!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 28, 2011 13:32:58 GMT
I find James's handwriting a bit challenging, I must say. Funny, first thing I thought when I tried to read the first line.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 29, 2011 5:32:36 GMT
Did Wheatly really work for Churchill in the war, or is this some exaggeration? (In reality he fetched coffee or something like that) He didn't have any personal contact with Churchill, but he was made a member of Churchill's Joint Planning Staff on the basis of a couple of reports he wrote. He was in the team that devised deceptions to trick the Nazis, which did some quite important work - though his first boss caused a diplomatic incident in Spain, fraternising with Nazi agents while in drag. Wheatley seems to have spent most of the war lunching heavily and sleeping it off in the afternoon. Nevertheless he reached the rank of acting Wing Commander...
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Post by vulgardisplay on Dec 29, 2011 7:26:38 GMT
I'm pleasurably ploughing through an old hard-cover anthology I inherited from my maternal grandfather, The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries - published in the mid '30s, I believe. It has The Mezzotint in it, and one of my absolute favourites, E. F. Benson's The Confession of Charles Linkworth. I particularly like the occasional illustrations, and the fact that each story is headed by a delightful line drawing of the author, and a brief biography. Not everything in it is, as the title indicates, strictly a horror or ghost story, but there are more than enough chills to be found within its pages, nonetheless.
The cover has a bat on it, which I love.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Jan 11, 2012 11:42:35 GMT
Just finished Mammoth Best New Horror 22. Really enjoyed it, with only 1 story that left me thinking what was that about? (I think we all know what one).
Just started Gary McMahon - The Concrete Grove. Quite Promising - 100 pages straight off, so that's the sign of a good one.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jan 13, 2012 10:43:47 GMT
Just started on the Guy Adams adaptation of Kronos for Hammer Books - just had to be done after I noticed it on JLP's best of 2011 list. Only a few (very short) chapters in, but it's shaping up to being a lot of fun.
ONE WEEK LATER: Ah well... actually didn't think much of this in the end. The jokey style (complete with ridiculous anachronisms) is in keeping with the film, I guess, but here it just wrecks any possibility of a sense of suspense or threat. That's the second Guy Adams book that has ended up disappointing me (the other being his recent take on Sherlock Holmes, The Breath of God) so maybe he's just not my cup of tea.
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Post by Aaron M on Jan 14, 2012 15:43:11 GMT
Just finished the first "Drive-In" novel by Joe R Landsdale (not nearly as funny as I'd expected but actually quite dark and depressing - still a great read though for any fan of the sleazy horror movie boom of the late seventies and eighties) and starting on Brian Keene's "Ghoul".
It's not too bad so far. Strange to read Keene writing children rather than the sickos he usually does. I'm sure we'll get to that soon enough though.
- Aaron
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Jan 23, 2012 0:08:41 GMT
Ray Bradbury - We'll Always Have Paris, short story collection from 2009. I'm already 3 quarters of the way through, he's still very readable.
I've tried to start, but abandoned, Kim Newman - Professor Moriarty: The Hound Of The D'urbervilles. Just can't get into it, long winded already & I can't face nearly 500 pages of that, it's going back to the library.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jan 23, 2012 20:37:27 GMT
I find James's handwriting a bit challenging, I must say. Notoriously bad handwriting! The first few sentences aren't too bad, something like: My dear Mr Clapham many many thanks for Perpelna (?). It is charmingly done. I shall certainly take advantage of your kind offer upon a subsequent occasion. I would I had more time to write but I haven't. Here for JHC. I go from the 29th to Dublin to take a ??... Then it starts looking like he's had a few too many after dinner ports. Terrific Chrissy present - the great man himself! OK, here goes, this is my take on it:- My dear Mrs Clapham, Many many thanks for Perpetua*. It is charmingly done & I shall certainly take advantage of your kind offer upon a subsequent occasion. I would I had more time to write, but I haven't. Love to JAC**. I go from Uni 29th to Dublin to take a degree. But wonderful he will be there here when I get back. ...(?)... truly, M R James. *The Martyrdom of Perpetua is a writing in Ancient Greek hexameters, part of "The Apocryphal New Testament", translated by M R James & published in 1924. **I assume JAC to be a Clapham family member.
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