|
Post by noose on Feb 9, 2011 8:57:58 GMT
Abelard (1975)Terence Greer CONTENTSThe Hand From Haunted Hollow - Tim Stout TA/9/73 - Chris Parr The Chemical Man - Francis Stephens Jelly Baby - Tim Stout The Shepherd's Dog - Joyce Marsh Ghost's Look Like People - Elizabeth Fancett The Judge's House - Bram Stoker The Tall Woman - Rosemary Timperley A Matter of Timing - Gladys Greenaway
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 9, 2011 9:56:31 GMT
Victoria, whose Martyr's Window was among the stand-out stories in the debut Filthy Creations, is a big fan of the series and gave us the following rundown re: Spectre 2 on Vault Mk. 1
Summary Of Spectre 2
Okay guys, here goes:
The Hand From Haunted Hollow
By Tim Stout
Disillusioned schoolmaster breaks down (carwise) in the midst of Savernake forest- his rescuer, a woman "ninety at least" makes him a gift of a hand painted jigsaw version of the idyll in which he's lost.
Later, at home, bad weather leaves him without electricity, so for amusement he turns to gaslight and the forgotten puzzle. However, the picture which forms beneath his increasingly unwilling fingers doesn't resemble that on the box:
"The cemetery's image buckled and crumbled, wrenched apart by something that was tearing it's way up from within"....
TA/9/73
By Chris Parr
A grumpy old man and joke shop employee (oxymoron of the century, or dramatic device- you decide!) gets more than he bargained for when he decides to plant TA/9/73 (a toy tarantula) on the arm of a womanising banker type in the midst of a busy London pub during the Xmas Eve frivolities. Said BT promptly runs screaming from the pub into the oncoming traffic- next time Grumpy sees him in the shop he wonders:
"Why there was no elastic holding the mask round the back of his head?"
(BTW guys, have to share one of Mr. G's wonderfully PC thoughts:
"I don't like women. Never have. Bother and demands is what they're about and I can do without that."
Pankhurst eat your heart out.)
Jelly Baby
By Tim Stout
Dr. Ian Reynolds engages a conjourer to entertain his daugter and her friends at her 10th birthday party, but while travelling home accidentally bumps into the magician's van. Due to his resulting injury the magician recommends a rival company, with the grudging warning; "I don't want to be within a hundred miles of your place tonight."
Reynolds is "lucky" enough to engage the sevices of the "Director", who ensures that havoc and panic reign during little Valerie's party. His coup de grace literally belittles Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, and made me realise why I've always had an aversion to blackcurrant flavoured jelly.
The Shepherd's Dog
By Joyce Marsh
If you can read this without shedding a tear then you must be made of stone. A "Grayfriers Bobby" type tale, written with Marsh's usual accuarate sense of place and person- an absolute heat breaker.
Ghosts Look Like People
By Elizabeth Fawcett
I wasn't keen on this one- it's a bit Scooby Do. Although that's me reading it as an adult- it's not really fair to comment as the books were meant for kids.
The Tall Woman
By Rosemary Timperly
Elsewhere on this site Demonik writes about F. Paul Wilson's "Buckets" as an abortion revenge story. This is an infanticide revenge story, and no less poweful for it's lack of gore. The child of an woman she thought she'd left behind when:
"She had pressed snow over it's eyes, then snow in it's mouth."
has come looking for her...
Can you believe these books were compiled for kids?!
A Matter Of Timing
By Gladys Greenaway
...reminds me of "The Woman In The Green Dress" by Joyce Marsh.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Dec 23, 2019 21:09:21 GMT
Richard Davis [ed.] - Spectre 2 (Abelard-Schuman, 1975) Terence Greer Richard Davis - Introduction
Tim Stout - The Hand From Haunted Hollow Chris Parr - TA/9/73 Francis Stephens - The Chemical Man Tim Stout - Jelly Baby Joyce Marsh - The Shepherd's Dog Elizabeth Fancett - Ghost's Look Like People Bram Stoker - The Judge's House Rosemary Timperley - The Tall Woman Gladys Greenaway - A Matter of Timing Blurb: SPECTRE 2 Edited by Richard Davis A New Collection of Stories of the Supernatural
Spectre 2 is the second in a new series of collected stories of the supernatural. In the first collection, Spectre 1, the stories were mainly by well established writers and the tone was perhaps a little tongue in cheek. In this volume, apart from the tale by Bram Stoker — a classic chiller — the contributions are all new stories by up and coming writers. And this time the accent is very definitely on horror and terror!
"The Hand from Haunted Hollow" by Tim Stout sets the gruesome scene and “A Matter of Timing" by Gladys Greenway ends the book on a really disturbing note. In between there is something for every taste, from the quite unsentimental but moving story of “The Shepherd's Dog" to the macabre jokes of “TA/9/73" — which turn out to be not at all funny. Altogether, Richard Davis has selected a feast of fearful tales for all enthusiasts of the spine-chilling and the terrifying.Tim Stout - The Hand From Haunted Hollow: Ghastly fate of Schoolmaster Leonard Ferris, who calls for assistance at a remote woodland cottage after his car breaks down in Savenake Forest. Ferris is invited indoors by Mrs. Green, a disconcerting crone bleeding heavily from a severed finger, who insists on gifting him a home made jigsaw. Safely back home, Ferris pieces together the puzzle, growing increasingly uneasy as a macabre picture takes shape. Try as he might, he is no more able to shake apart the jigsaw, than he is to leave it unfinished. Chris Parr - TA/9/73: A snide, misanthropic employee at Mr. Burrage's Tottenham Court Road joke emporium, gets his kicks from playing nasty tricks on the public. One Christmas Eve he spots a particularly despised customer chatting up a girl in The Marquis of Granby (handy for the much-missed Lovejoys) and drops a fearsome rubber tarantula on his arm. The victim runs screaming out of the pub and into onrushing traffic .... On the anniversary of the tragedy, a man who appears to be wearing the popular car crash mask, shambles into the joke shop ... Rosemary Timperley - The Tall Woman: A sixty-year old widow is stalked by the ghost of the unwanted baby she murdered, which has now reached womanhood.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 11, 2020 9:04:56 GMT
Tim Stout - Jelly Baby: Dr. Reynolds hires a conjurer to perform a kiddies magic show at daughter Valerie's tenth birthday party. When, partly thanks to the doctor's reckless driving, the Great Mephisto cries off with a sprained wrist, Reynolds demands he provide a substitute. Mephisto reluctantly provides him with the card of a rival magician with a terrible reputation. Stand-in he may be, but Uncle Marvel, ably supported by Gobbles the Dragon and the most magnificently macabre and sepulchral birthday cake in history, does not disappoint. Francis Stephens - The Chemical Man: John Lister, a tour guide at Merton Hall, is prescribed an experimental drug to treat his rare blood disorder. He soon learns that Novatrax has unpleasant side effects, not the least of which is exposing him to the secret hateful thoughts of all around him. Joyce Marsh - The Shepherd's Dog: Another from the author's 'rivals of Greyfriar's Bobby' litter, also to be found in Armada Ghost 7. Gladys Greenaway - A Matter of Time: Narrator Anne, proprietor of the family antique shop, acquires a wooden mask in a job lot at auction. The carving depicts the face of an old man who, she is late informed, may have been an African witch doctor. Recurrent premonitions of a fatal car accident ensue.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 12, 2020 16:54:49 GMT
Elizabeth Fancett - Ghost's Look Like People: Sam Dooley, the loner kid of Whitegates school, insist that ghosts are for real, and he should know because he is one, having been murdered during the hols. David, Drew and his twin sister, Denny (on whom Sam has a crush) dismiss him as a kook, while Wiggy, minor league school bully, is spiteful as ever. Only one thing for it, and that is for Sam to lure the Three D's to the gravel pit in the forest where his corpse lies. Far the longest story at the book at 34 pages. Particularly recommended to those who like their Ghost-hunters prepubescent, toffy-nosed and sucking up to 'Big Sir.'
|
|