|
Post by David A. Riley on Nov 14, 2013 23:54:35 GMT
As soon as I heard about this I put in an order for it.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Nov 18, 2013 21:33:52 GMT
I ordered this immedeatly. Wanted it in print, but choose the Ebook as it was listed avaiable only in a few weeks.
I liked the forword, Lord P. Good work.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Nov 18, 2013 22:27:19 GMT
I liked the forword, Lord P. Good work. Seconded, and am absolutely delighted that a man who has long had an understanding of and genuine fondness for the great man's work landed the gig. I sure hope Valencourt are planning to reissue a few more of the collections. Very well done to them, and, of course, straw boaters off to the Right Hon. Lord John Llewellyn Probert!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Dec 14, 2013 19:51:19 GMT
Charles Birkin - The Smell Of Evil (Valancourt, 2013: originally Tandem, 1965) Cover by M. S. Corley John Llewellyn Probert - A Very Elegant Cruelty: an introduction to Charles Birkin's The Smell Of Evil
The Smell Of Evil Text For Today The Godmothers Green Fingers Ballet Negre The Lesson "Is There Anybody There?" The Serum Of Dr. White "Dance, Little Lady" Little Boy Blue The Cornered Beast The Interloper The Cross.Blurb: "Never fails to shock and surprise you ... brimming with unexpected twists." - Sunday Express
A sinister baron and his wife inflict unimaginable tortures on their young niece to compel her to sign over her fortune. During World War II, a German woman's garden is lush and beautiful, for an appalling reason. Missionaries on a remote Pacific island get a gruesome surprise when their converts take a biblical text too literally. A child's fantasy becomes a deadly game with a macabre ending for his adult playmate.
These are the plots of just a few of the thirteen stories in The Smell of Evil (1965), a collection that reveals Sir Charles Birkin (1907-1985) at his diabolical best. A master of the Conte cruel, Birkin induced chills not with ghosts or the supernatural, but by describing in exquisite prose the sufferings of ordinary, decent people who encounter inexplicable cruelty and evil in their everyday lives. An important and neglected figure in 2oth-century British horror, Birkin returns to shock a new generation of readers in this edition, which features a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert.
"Not for the squeamish ... if you are at all sensitive, leave him well alone." - Hugh Lamb "More than a definite touch of the great master, Edgar Allan Poe." - Dennis Wheatley "Horror and fantasy stories ... engagingly told." - Publishers Weekly "Few writers of horror today approach the standards of Birkin." - Ulster StarChristmas arrived early at the domain of the doomed in the form of a discreetly packaged suspicious parcel from Probert Towers. Thank you ever so, your majesties! It gives me great pleasure to report that Valancourt have made a lovely job of reintroducing Sir Charles to the masses. Sadistic doctors, World War II atrocities, juvenile delinquents, circus freaks, zombies, misguided missionaries, infants in quicksand, fun with plastic bags .... many of the staples of pulp horror fiction are here, but nobody is ever likely to mistake Birkin's work with that of the Shudder/ Spicy crowd. In Sir Charles' world, the innocent suffer while the guilty prosper. Any wrong decision is punished with extreme prejudice. The Cavalry, if they arrive at all, are too late. God looks the other way. If this collection is your first taste of Charles Birkin, take comfort. A number of his other stories are far harder to take. Enjoy. Thank you to Lord John & Lady Thana, my dear friends and colleagues in properly horrid proper horror!
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Dec 15, 2013 16:39:32 GMT
I ordered this immedeatly. Wanted it in print, but choose the Ebook as it was listed avaiable only in a few weeks. I liked the forword, Lord P. Good work. Thank you very much! Sorry I hadn't spotted this until now!
|
|