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Post by dem bones on Jan 5, 2011 21:08:06 GMT
Dem, have you read "In Due Course", in the Wordsworth Andrew Caldecott collection? I can guarantee that that one has actual giant praying mantises in. Well worth checking out. In Due Course: "Magnify that mantis a dozen times and you'll have some idea of what's in the willows." Alec Judeson returns to England from the Tropics after malaria and dysentery combine to terminate his career in the rubber plant industry. He moves in to stay with his uncle Matthew at 'Saintsend' at Tillingford, a property Alec will inherit "in due course", i.e., when the old fool is dead, but Matthew Judeson proves infuriatingly durable. Unlikely help is at hand in the comely shape of Miss Adeline Scettall, a Mona Lisa-lookalike and capable Medium, who is also out to land the estate. To this end, she's lured Uncle Matt into her Spiritualist club, and with the assistance of a conniving brother is slowly scaring him to death. It transpires that Matthew Judeson rejected her proposal of marriage last leap year, and a woman scorned ... The old man is so terrified of Miss Scettall's witchy ways that he's built a high wall to shut off his view of the riverbank where he believes the mantis-like "willow Things" are lying in wait for him (shortly before he came home to Blighty, Alec had his own nasty encounter with a praying mantis). Alec decides to help things along by means of his shadow puppet theatre. Fortunately, he arrived at Saintsend with an impressive haul of "oriental paraphernalia" including a case of dried and mounted creepy crawlies. He sets up his equipment to project the required image at his Uncle on his return from tonight's séance. as ever, the synopsis is a waste of cyberspace, and i can but hope it comes across what fun i had reading the story!
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Post by clarence on Jan 20, 2013 16:51:30 GMT
My first post,
I was a great fan of the 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' series of the BBC in the 1970's and obtained the DVD set put out last year. I can't remember how I linked these with Sir Andrew Caldecott other than he was supposedly a Jamesian type author, but I was not disappointed with the collection. I have always been a fan of this type of literature and look forward to reading a great deal more now that I am coming up to retirement.
What a great site this is.
Clarence
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Post by dem bones on Jan 20, 2013 20:32:45 GMT
Hello Clarence, thank you for registering. Not Exactly Ghosts may not be a particularly Jamesian collection, but personally, from stories read to date, I enjoy it above the works of a number of his more slavish devotees, likewise the much maligned M. P. Dare.
Hope you enjoy many hours of spooky reading during your retirement.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 26, 2013 18:17:03 GMT
I haven't found much that's scary in the stories, but they're certainly hugely entertaining, and I've found myself laughing aloud quite frequently, in particular at the haunted trousers in "Quintet"., but at many other funny turns of phrase and little character moments. A Victim of Medusa: Herbert Siddon, 43, is knocked down by a train as he stands transfixed on the line at the Haddenham crossing. Recovered from the scene of the accident: a squashed jellyfish. The narrator inherits £5000 and his late cousin's library. Two notebooks and a scrapbook offer clues as to why Herbert should have come to such a tragic end. A borderline 'When Seafood Attacks' entry in that, while the jellyfish didn't murder Mr. Siddon, it unwittingly played a part in his death. I greatly enjoyed "A Victim of Medusa" (I might say that I "adored" it, but according to the narrator of Caldecott's "Branch Line to Beceston" that word "is woman's property"). Just one little line that made me laugh, in the part where the narrator is describing Siddon's notebooks of jellyfish-themed poetry: "In the Juvenilia, for instance, there is a painful parody of Shelley's 'Skylark' beginning, 'Hail to thee, blithe jelly, Fish thou never wert'; and, even worse, a travesty of an Easter hymn in which the terminal Hallelujahs are replaced by 'Jellyhoohahs'."
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 7, 2013 16:49:50 GMT
For me, the Caldecott collection has definitely been one of the highlights of the Wordsworth series. I particularly enjoyed "A Victim of Medusa" and "Grey Brothers," with their jellyfish- and spider-obsessed subjects; "Autoepitaphy," with its spirit that dictates wry epitaphs; and "Light in the Darkness" and "Fits of the Blues," with their vengeful Kongean deities. And then there's "Quintet," a clever assemblage of tales-within-a-tale that features an ending I found simultaneously surprising, inevitable, and hilarious.
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Post by mcannon on Dec 8, 2013 6:55:08 GMT
For me, the Caldecott collection has definitely been one of the highlights of the Wordsworth series. I particularly enjoyed "A Victim of Medusa" and "Grey Brothers," with their jellyfish- and spider-obsessed subjects; "Autoepitaphy," with its spirit that dictates wry epitaphs; and "Light in the Darkness" and "Fits of the Blues," with their vengeful Kongean deities. And then there's "Quintet," a clever assemblage of tales-within-a-tale that features an ending I found simultaneously surprising, inevitable, and hilarious. It's one of the books that I've been gradually working through while laid up the last week (back to work tomorrow, feeling much better - at least until I arrive in the office.....), and I've been enjoying it a lot. I've particularly liked the use of the contrasting settings of Kongea and middle-class England; much as I enjoy such tales, yet another collection solely composed of antiquarians poking around old churches can get a bit repetitive. Mark
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 29, 2021 1:26:07 GMT
Dem, have you read "In Due Course", in the Wordsworth Andrew Caldecott collection? I can guarantee that that one has actual giant praying mantises in. Well worth checking out. In Due Course: "Magnify that mantis a dozen times and you'll have some idea of what's in the willows." Alec Judeson returns to England from the Tropics after malaria and dysentery combine to terminate his career in the rubber plant industry. He moves in to stay with his uncle Matthew at 'Saintsend' at Tillingford, a property Alec will inherit "in due course", i.e., when the old fool is dead, but Matthew Judeson proves infuriatingly durable. Unlikely help is at hand in the comely shape of Miss Adeline Scettall, a Mona Lisa-lookalike and capable Medium, who is also out to land the estate. To this end, she's lured Uncle Matt into her Spiritualist club, and with the assistance of a conniving brother is slowly scaring him to death. It transpires that Matthew Judeson rejected her proposal of marriage last leap year, and a woman scorned ... The old man is so terrified of Miss Scettall's witchy ways that he's built a high wall to shut off his view of the riverbank where he believes the mantis-like "willow Things" are lying in wait for him (shortly before he came home to Blighty, Alec had his own nasty encounter with a praying mantis). Alec decides to help things along by means of his shadow puppet theatre. Fortunately, he arrived at Saintsend with an impressive haul of "oriental paraphernalia" including a case of dried and mounted creepy crawlies. He sets up his equipment to project the required image at his Uncle on his return from tonight's séance. as ever, the synopsis is a waste of cyberspace, and i can but hope it comes across what fun i had reading the story! I just finished "In Due Course" and it's my favorite by far, so far. One of the remaining stories might impress me as much, I'll have to see. For those who want to read the collection for themselves, it (and Fires Burn Blue) can be found at:
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