|
|
Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2013 17:44:38 GMT
Harry Ludlam - The Coming Of Jonathan Smith (Arrow, 1965) Blurb: THE COMING OF JONATHAN SMITH. Based on material discovered during research for his much praised Biography of Dracula, Harry Ludlam's first novel is a startling and flesh-creeping story of the supernatural.
Did Marcia Scott choose to die or did some evil force hurl her to a pitiful death? Alan Tarrant, called by his cousin to investigate the family tragedy, finds himself an intruder in a county of suspicion where the sins of the witch-purges of the Middle Ages linger on. He traces a bizarre pattern embracing the deaths of several girls, and uncovers a bitter episode of the dark years which cries over the centuries for revenge.
And to a woman whose mind is taken with yesterday's glories there appears the starkest horror from beyond the grave ...At the request of his favourite cousin, Susan Beecher, Alan Tarrant travels from Cornwall to the Midlands to present himself at the inquest into the death of her sister. The broken body of Marcia Ellen Scott, 26, was found at the bottom of Tuckers Quarry near Frondesbury. Marcia, widowed when her husband Philip died in a car accident, had visited a friend, Farley Daneham, earlier that evening and the pathologist estimates she drank five Whiskey's before driving home. There are also traces on 'pep pills' in her blood. Local gossip has it that Marcia took her own life, but the Coroner can find nothing to substantiate these idle rumours and records an open verdict. Susan confides to Alan that, in the days leading up to her death, Marcia was plagued by nightmares in which an unearthly pursuer attempted to throttle her. Surely, Alan reasons, a strong-willed girl like Marcia would not be driven to suicide by fancies? he agrees to stay at Rufford a few days and see if he can find out more about the circumstances surrounding her death but "I'm no amateur detective. Sugar is my business. Body and soul in sugar cubes of it and grains of it, pots and packets and cases of it." Somehow, this is enough to placate Susan. She explains that she's come to detest the spacious and gloomy house the family moved into five years ago. This is "witch country" and the evil emanates centuries after the persecution of innocent old crones and non-conformists. Her mother died shortly after they arrived here. Her father, Gideon, was crippled in the same accident in which Marcia's husband was killed. Gideon Beecher has been an embittered, wheelchair-bound misery-guts ever since, blaming himself for Philip's death and wishing he'd been taken instead. And now this sad business with Marcia. Tarrant visits the Quarry and finds a strange item of cheap jewellery close to the cross marking the spot where Marcia's corpse was found. "It was a necklace fashioned in metal - something like pewter, he guessed - with an arrangement of several repeated groups of five 'stones' or diamond-shaped pieces of metal, each group connected by a piece resembling a shield. Each shield bore three over-pressed, indecipherable initials." Tarrant doesn't even know if it belonged to his cousin but quickly pockets it when a nosey village bobby pulls up on his bicycle. Back at the house, he discovers Marcia's diary in her knicker drawer. There are several vivid entries regarding her recurring nightmare. He takes his approximately 200 a day chain-smoking habit to The Swan in Rufford for a change of scenery (it's another of those sixties-seventies novels in which anyone who doesn't drive drunk is either a nancy boy or a lesbian). An old duffer in a tweed jacket is holding forth on the spate of suicides in the district which cheers Tarrant up no end, but he learns that weeks prior to Marcia's death, youth club worker Mary Jewel threw herself in the river at Barminster. According to her best pal, she suffered from nightmares very similar to his cousin's. "She was out walking in the woods, when she saw something horrible coming at her. She tried to run away but her legs wouldn't let her, life as if she was walking in treacle. All she could do was walk backwards, while this ting, whatever it was, came closer ..." Miss Jewel also experienced the choking sensation as recorded by Marcia in her secret diary. What can it all mean? A thoroughly captivating read to date (p. 41 of 184) and far more interesting than I'm making it sound. Tarrant's just met Mannington-Passmore, the (non-mad) Rector of St. Dunstan's, so will let you know what he has to say about it all shortly. Thank You for the booster pack, Mr. Diog!
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Apr 24, 2013 9:45:46 GMT
Harry Ludlam – A Biography Of Bram Stoker: Creator Of Dracula (New English Library, 1977) Blurb: DRACULA … the most terrifying and macabre character ever to be fictionalised in the field of the supernatural,has been the subject of innumerable books, plays and films and even now, nearly a century after Bram Stoker wrote his book Dracula, the legend continues to horrify and frighten people: the world over.
BUT what of Bram Stoker, the author of this sinister masterpiece? Had he never written his tale, his name would still be remembered as a newspaper editor, scholar, theatre critic and close associate of the actor, Henry Irving. A man of enormous physical stature, he was also a man of enormous and powerful imagination. In this book, Harry Ludlam has with painstaking research and dedication drawn a fascinating picture of Stoker – a man whose name is almost as legendary as Dracula himself. in 2005, Ash Tree Press reissued The Coming Of Jonathan Smith with an introduction by David G. Rowlands as part of their Classics Macabre series. I'm not sure of its current availability, but here are the details. Harry Ludham's best known work in the genre is likely A Biography Of Bram Stoker: Creator Of Dracula (Foulsham, 1962: Nel 1977), but, from Steve's review, the one to look out for is Oh Jimmy You've Gone (Nel, 1974). ******************** Back to the novel .... The encounter with Mannington-Passmore didn't amount to very much, but we are given the strong impression that the cleric knows more about recent events than he's prepared to let on just yet. Tarrant returns to The Swan but before he can order another double scotch, he's summoned to the snug by Superintendent John Merton. Word gets around fast in this part of the country and Merton takes a dim view of the stranger masquerading as a Doctor to obtain information from the late Miss Jewel's parents and her girl pal, Patsy Chandler. The Superintendent warns him against further impostures. Back in the bar, the local womenfolk settle down to the evening's entertainment, a talk by famed Egyptologist Milton Kark who has brought along his much admired mummified cat for the occasion. "He knows more about Egyptian weirdies than outr own ghosts" explains Leonard Harris, the non-scandalmongering chief reporter on The North Country Express. That night Tarrant is awoken by a terrible scream. It's Susan, and she's in a terrible state, having just endured the same nightmare that proved fatal to Marcia and the Jewel girl. Tarrant spots a discarded necklace by her bed. It's identical to that he found in the quarry. Susan explains that Marcia bought them one each from Prossitters jewellers in Rufford. The following morning, Tarrant pays a visit to the jewellers where the proprietor explains that the Pentadyne necklaces were hand-crafted by a local man, since dead. There were a dozen in all, and a bribe of £2 secures the addresses of those who purchased them. Some went to American tourists, but, just as he suspected, Mary Jewel had one, and another was bought by a Cathy Tilling, twenty, in nearby Fretwell. Cathy, he learns, is recently deceased of a heart attack. Tarrant stops off at the library to look up Pentadyne in the local records. The entry on Sir Nicholas Thurston Pentadyne (d. 1596) is brief, but it's mentioned that he built Girton Grange and participated in the Rufford and Dallow witch trials, "notably that of Sarah Whychett." A stuffy librarian informs him that Girton Grange is a private residence, and the current owner does not encourage visitors. Who might that be? Milton Kark, the celebrity Egyptologist. Tarrant takes a copy of Nathan Cleghorn's Sarah Whychett & Others to the reading room for a crash course on the local witch persecutions, and is soon engrossed in the tale of "Mother Lambert of Dallow and her two lusty daughters ..."
|
|
