alansjf
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 107
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Post by alansjf on May 29, 2008 11:47:40 GMT
Stories of Haunted Inns (William Kimber, 1983) i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm7/AstuartJ/ValBakerHauntedInnsSmall.jpg(cover: Ionicus) J.C. Trewin - The Jolly Waterman W.B. Maxwell - The Last Man In M.R. James - Number 13 Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn A.L. Rowse - The Guest House Rosemary Timperley - The Artist’s Model Denys Val Baker - The Anniversary Richard Selmer - The Terrible Stone of Chalcombe Manor Fred Urquhart - Alice, the Baby and Bonnie Dundee A.L. Baker - The Dream of Fair Women Rosalind Wade - Carrot Quintet Derek Stanford - In Another Room Patricia Daly - In My Father’s House are Many Mansions |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 24, 2010 18:59:56 GMT
 ionicusHad a stroke of good fortune at Brick Lane market earlier. The amiable fellow who's knocking his books out at 4 for a £ on the bombsite has replenished his stock, the pick of which, a copy of Stories Of Haunted Inns which doesn't look as though it's been disturbed since the day it was remaindered. J. C. Trewin - The Jolly Waterman: A stormy night on the border of Devon and Cornwall, 1932. When their car breaks down on a desolate road, John and Priscilla make for the nearest gloomy building, The Jolly Waterman, whose sepulchral landlord offers them a disgusting meal and a room. John wakes to find mein host rifling through their bags. Discovered, the landlord goes for him with a penknife. Husband and wife make a dash for it through the ruined churchyard, finally emerging on the road. Next day they learn that they'd spent the most memorable part of the night in a pub that hasn't existed for over two centuries. The village it belonged to was abandoned and left to rot after an outbreak of the plague. W. B. Maxwell - The Last Man In: "I like a good secret murder as much as anything in the paper but not this sort - to be butchered in the street. It makes my flesh creep to think about it. If that's London ways, I say you can 'ave London. Give me Bratford."That's Mrs Judd, landlady of The Stag Public house, alluding to a terrible crime committed on the Commercial Road, Whitechapel Pulp City, which saw the victim left without a face. Still, no need to concern herself with such morbid thoughts. Her son is returning home via Montevideo after eleven years at sea, and it's rumoured he's filthy rich. Her husband, however, isn't quite in the mood to celebrate, preoccupied as he is with the silent, bearded stranger giving off vibes from a corner seat. If Judd thinks the unwanted customer is putting a damper on things now, wait until he hears him raving in his sleep about Chickeeta the tamb'rine girl and some surly, bullying bastard who used to call him "Monkey-face" but won't be doing that again in a hurry. Denys Val Baker - The Anniversary: I'm sure I've seen a comic strip adaptation of this in Sinister Tales. Penzance: Holidaying in Cornwall, the narrator spends a delightful evening at The Silver Wings Club. He's struck by the number of youngsters in uniform, and the music is a throwback to World War II. The following day his friends are astonished to hear of his adventures as the Club has been a derelict ruin for years. Once popular with RAF pilots and WAAF's, it was destroyed by German bombers following a raid on Plymouth. |
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Post by dem bones on Oct 26, 2010 18:13:59 GMT
Rosemary Timperley - The Artist’s Model: Alan visits Madrid to copy Velazquez's painting, Las Meninas. He books a room at a village inn where the great artist reputedly once had lodgings and sets to work. Once he's done, Alan can't resist adding a personal touch and replaces the original's tiny painted mirror with a real one so that whenever he studies the canvas his own face is reflected back at him. A gypsy woman staying at the same inn warns him that he's playing with forces he doesn't understand.
From my experience, this is typical of the vast majority of Kimber ghost stories. Beautifully written, supremely professional, entirely bereft of any scares. You simply read it and move onto the next hoping it will have more clout.
which it won't if it's;
A.L. Rowse - The Guest House: A teaching couple holidaying in Cornwall on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Although it's clearly visible from the top of the hill, they can't find the Guest House recommended them by a friend. Now they see it, Now they don't. Eventually we catch a glimpse of the ghostly landlady, but she's nothing special.
More Babycham. Somebody please die horribly soon!
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Post by dem bones on Mar 23, 2018 13:06:08 GMT
Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn: (Giles Gordon [ed.] Prevailing Spirits, Hamish Hamilton, 1976). Jackie Caskie, millionaire bad boy of Scottish sport, quits his famous Glasgow club after another bust-up with the manager and heads for England where, he boasts, people will appreciate his genius. Arriving in Dalwhinnie, he pulls up in a hotel car park, only to be told that the premises have just shut down due to unpaid bills. Caskie, never one to accept 'No' for an answer, prevails upon the manager, Mr. McIver, to give him a room for the night and open the bar while he's about it. Mr. McIver has an ulterior motive in agreeing to do so. The unpleasant superstar once did him a "dirty turn" which he's keen to repay.
McIver joins Caskie for a drink. He tells him the hotel was built on the site of The Horseshoe Inn, a pub reputedly haunted by the ghost of a religious dissenter who, when sentenced to death, betrayed five friends to save his own neck. The villagers duly rounded on this James 'Judas' McCaskie and stoned him to death. McIver casually asks if, in similar circumstances, the sportsman would have behaved like his near namesake?
"Sure I would! Look out for number one, that's the rule" is the wrong answer as far as the vengeful dead are concerned ....
The controversial superstar can only be a footballer - what other sportsmen were making that kind of money in the 'seventies? Speaking to Jim O'Brien in Paperback Fanatic #38 (Dec. 2017), the author explained that he isn't keen for The Bornless Keeper to be regarded as a horror story, preferring to call it "a story of terror. I was quite taken with the idea of writing stories with an element of the terrifying or supernatural." Hence The Horseshoe Inn, a classy, traditional ghost story, "although I think it was a bit overdone in the end."
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 23, 2018 16:31:18 GMT
Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn: (Giles Gordon [ed.] Prevailing Spirits, Hamish Hamilton, 1976). Jackie Caskie, millionaire bad boy of Scottish sport, quits his famous Glasgow club after another bust-up with the manager and heads for England where, he boasts, people will appreciate his genius. Arriving in Dalwhinnie, he pulls up in a hotel car park, only to be told that the premises have just shut down due to unpaid bills.... ....Hence The Horseshoe Inn, a classy, traditional ghost story, "although I think it was a bit overdone in the end." Can't see this one going down too well north of the Border, Dem - sounds like it was written by someone who's never actually been to Scotland. If the protagonist was leaving Glasgow and heading for England he'd be going southwards, right? But Dalwhinnie is well over 100 miles due north of Glasgow. But maybe he was going the long way round... |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 23, 2018 18:42:25 GMT
But maybe he was going the long way round... .... or the bust-up happened after an away game? The inference is that Caskie plays for either Celtic or Rangers (on the strength of his collaboration with Terry Venables, They Uses To Play On Grass, Gordon Williams, himself A Scot, was a Rangers fan). |
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Post by Mike Brough on Mar 23, 2018 18:55:17 GMT
Gordon Williams - The Horseshoe Inn: (Giles Gordon [ed.] Prevailing Spirits, Hamish Hamilton, 1976). Jackie Caskie, millionaire bad boy of Scottish sport, quits his famous Glasgow club after another bust-up with the manager and heads for England where, he boasts, people will appreciate his genius. Arriving in Dalwhinnie, he pulls up in a hotel car park, only to be told that the premises have just shut down due to unpaid bills.... ....Hence The Horseshoe Inn, a classy, traditional ghost story, "although I think it was a bit overdone in the end." Can't see this one going down too well north of the Border, Dem - sounds like it was written by someone who's never actually been to Scotland. If the protagonist was leaving Glasgow and heading for England he'd be going southwards, right? But Dalwhinnie is well over 100 miles due north of Glasgow. But maybe he was going the long way round... Taking the scenic route and avoiding the dreaded border crossing as long as possible?  |
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