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Post by dem bones on Feb 9, 2009 12:25:07 GMT
Grafton Horror in the 'seventies The truth is, I've only managed to turn up two so far - surely that can't be right? Anyway, what an extraordinary pair! I got into terrible trouble when attempting to review - from memory - Mendal Johnson's nasty tale of what happened to Barbara the babysitter in Let's Go Play At The Adams' (1974) on Vault Mk. 1 so am taking no chances this time. Stephen Knight's notorious Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution (1977) is, of course, cheekily marketed as 'non-fiction' but, although it contains upsetting factual accounts of the murders, it's arguably best enjoyed as a truly exciting horror novel. The late Mr. Knight's research has since been discredited by a succession of smarmy Ripper 'experts' including Colin Wilson and Martin Fido who point out that the author wasn't adverse to ever-so-slightly warping the accepted facts out of all proportion to fit his right Royal conspiracy theory. Also, his chief source, Joseph 'Hobo' Sickert, confessed to selling Knight a pile of fibs once the book saw publication, but that's kind of par for the course (think of the amusing behind-the-scenes shenanigans surrounding the publication of The Diary Of Jack the Ripper). Macabre fantasist or otherwise, Knight's book captured the public imagination in a way no other Ripper book has ever quite matched. Both of these come highly recommended.
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Post by Steve on Feb 9, 2009 16:44:49 GMT
The truth is, i've only managed to turn up two so far - surely that can't be right? Going out on a bit of a limb here but is one possible explanation for the lack of Grafton horror prior to 1980 that Grafton didn't exist much before then? I don't know, I'm just having a bit of a surmise. Grafton, like Mayflower and Panther, was an imprint of Granada. Don't have a copy of Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution but I've got a Let's Go Play at the Adams' and it just says Granada on the spine. Inside it says, "First published in Great Britain by Hart-Davis, MacGibbon Ltd 1974 (I'm guessing that was hardback?). Published by Granada Publishing Ltd in 1976" (then goes on to list several reprints). Then the title page reckons it's "A Panther Book". No mention of Grafton. Maybe some of the later reprints were Graftons, were they? Anyway, I think you might well find that Grafton was more of an 80s onwards thing. |
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Feb 9, 2009 17:20:08 GMT
Dem, would you class Ray Bradbury's The October Country as horror?
as Grafton published it in 1976 (I have an '86 re-print & they class it as fantasy & horror on the back).
I'll do a cover scan if you want one, as it's a re-print I have, do you want it in the 80s Grafton thread?.
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Post by Steve on Feb 9, 2009 18:09:32 GMT
I just know I'm going to end up hating myself but anyway... I've got a 1976 Granada paperback of The October Country and it's a Panther, not a Grafton. D'you know what I really need? A hobby.
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Post by pulphack on Feb 9, 2009 18:37:38 GMT
you don't need a hobby, steve, you need a life. just like i do. 'cos i'm reckoning you're pretty spot on here. the Granada group didn't actually have a publishing arm to begin with, but they acquired first Mayflower and then Panther, which is why there's an overlap, and many of the same authors turned up there. i'm thinking Mike Morrcock specifically, but that's just my personal fetish at the time (i was a BIG Moorcock fan when i was a kid, and still am, just a bit more selective about the titles i can re-read).
when Granada started hiving off their non-TV entertainment and leisure businesses, such as the service stations and the publishing, they sold the latter to Collins (had they been acquired by Harper at the time? not sure about that) which is why later H/C Lovecrafts are identical to the Grafton volumes.
a bit off-track, but i'm sure Granada's leisure arm at this time was somehow connected with Brent Walker, whose boss was the 'little-bit-whoo-little-bit-whey but we don't mention it because of the bodies in the flyovers' George Walker, brother of ex-Britsh and World (? certainly a challenger) boxing champ Billy Walker. i think he may have bought the service station arm off them.
anyway, back in the world of books, that Stephen Knight Ripper book is my fave Ripper volume (apart from From Hell, which blew me away the other week, as i may have mentioned elsewhere). i don't care if it's true or not - the Ripper is a giant myth of relatively modern times. who he was, even if there was one perpetrator or many who were lumped together or copycats, is something we'll never know. but it makes for great stories. and this is one of 'em. you also featured the Barlow & Watt Ripper books elsewhere. i loved their post-Softly Softly series of 'true crimes' re-examined, which also featured the Reichstag fire - over thirty years later i can still remember that one! Elwyn Jones' Barlow and Softly Softly books are worth picking up if you see them, as they're a cut above a lot of novelisations from that period.
meanwhile - Grafton/Granada. LJ recalled their offices as being in the middle of bloody nowhere (aka an industrial estate outside St Albans) that was hell to get to and misery for the employeees. one of whom was Mark Howell. who, on one visit from LJ, alerted him to the fact that a skip out the back had just been loaded up with artwork originals. 'they're just being thrown out - go grab some. i have...' so he did, bemoaning years later the idiocy of the bean counters who did this. apologies if i've written this before, as i'm sure i have. and i'm not sure what he picked up, either.
anyway, Grafton: Granada did it at half-cock, and ruined what had been two excellent pb imprints in Mayflower and Panther. in truth, it was a good thing they were absorbed into H/C for the sake of the writers acquired, i think.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 9, 2009 18:38:31 GMT
I just double-checked on the Let's Go Play At The Adams' - it's a Grafton, alright ... from 1988. I put the 1st publication date.  Honestly, all the trouble that book's caused! The Stephen Knight book is currently around a mate's house, but i'm sure if i check it will be a similar story .... I just know I'm going to end up hating myself but anyway... I've got a 1976 Granada paperback of The October Country and it's a Panther, not a Grafton. D'you know what I really need? A hobby. Yeah right. You think you've got problems ..... Dem, would you class Ray Bradbury's The October Country as horror? as Grafton published it in 1976 (I have an '86 re-print & they class it as fantasy & horror on the back). I'll do a cover scan if you want one, as it's a re-print I have, do you want it in the 80s Grafton thread?. I've always considered The October Country to be as close to a Bradbury horror collection as we've seen in paperback so, yes, a cover scan would be much appreciated! |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 9, 2009 20:23:46 GMT
anyway, back in the world of books, that Stephen Knight Ripper book is my fave Ripper volume (apart from From Hell, which blew me away the other week, as i may have mentioned elsewhere). i don't care if it's true or not - the Ripper is a giant myth of relatively modern times. who he was, even if there was one perpetrator or many who were lumped together or copycats, is something we'll never know. but it makes for great stories. and this is one of 'em. Ha! That should get the Ripperologists onside! I know it's a bit mischievous, but i can't help but admire Knight for playing it a little cavalier with the 'facts'. As if anyone is going to positively identify the Ripper(s) to unanimous agreement at this late stage, and at least he gave us a blinding read. Peter Haining - another journalist turned author - likewise invents some truly 'outrageous' evidence in support of his Sweeney Todd theories, including a couple of non-existent entries in The Newgate Calendar! And as for his The Legend & Bizarre Crimes Of Spring-Heeled Jack which so upset Mike Donn of Fortean Times ....  Afraid I don't have a copy of the Barlow & Watt paperback, but if i only ever buy one more Ripper book it will be that one! And thanks for setting me straight about Grafton! |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 9, 2009 21:31:11 GMT
I must chip in here. The October Country is perhaps better termed 'macabre'. Read as a young boy this collection put me distinctly in the realm of unease and at times horrified. Remarkable how Bradbury could take something simple like: The Jar - where a poor farmer buys a jar with something floating in it for twelve dollars which soon becomes a conversation piece for the town. Sends a distinctly horrific shudder through the frame. But this is balanced with one of my big favourites: an utterly nostalgic piece which will make me cry if I get very old - The Lake - where a man finds his drowned childhood friend Not remotely horrific but an utter classic. And my all time favourite horror story which that damned Johnnie all things horror  won't change on his website because he's too busy - "The Emissary" where teacher comes home to visit the sick boy but she's not quite the same... These stories summarise the my belief that the compulsion of 'horror' is largely something to do with adolescence and Bradbury is the master of this rite of passage. |
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Feb 11, 2009 19:27:49 GMT
I've always considered The October Country to be as close to a Bradbury horror collection as we've seen in paperback so, yes, a cover scan would be much appreciated! Here it is (I know it's the reprint, so I'll move it to 80s grafton if it's a problem  ) : P.S. , Dem, how do you get those borders round your scans? is it through the board software or are you doing it externally? |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 17, 2009 10:59:51 GMT
P.S. , Dem, how do you get those borders round your scans? is it through the board software or are you doing it externally? Sorry it's taken a while (yet more joyous real life horror interventions ......  ). I use the following table. Just replace the bits where it says image with the p*hotobucket codes and you're away!
[center]
[table]
[tr]
[td][img]image[/img][/td][td][img]image[/img][/td][td][img]image[/img][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[/center]
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Feb 17, 2009 19:38:35 GMT
Thanks Dem, I'll be sure to give it go/make a monumental cock up soon  , hope the real life horror has settled down |
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Honestly, all the trouble that book's caused! The Stephen Knight book is currently around a mate's house, but i'm sure if i check it will be a similar story ....
won't change on his website because he's too busy - "The Emissary" where teacher comes home to visit the sick boy but she's not quite the same...
) : 
). I use the following table. Just replace the bits where it says image with the p*hotobucket codes and you're away!
, hope the real life horror has settled down