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Post by dem bones on Mar 29, 2015 11:20:24 GMT
Rosemary Pardoe (ed.) - Ghosts & Scholars 16 (Haunted Library, 1993)  Dallas Goffin ( The Rose Garden) Fiction: M. R. James - John Humphreys
C. E. Ward - The Spinney
Anonymous - An Old Manuscript
A. F. Kidd - CampanalogiaArticles: C. Derek Robinson - John Dickson Carr
Rosemary Pardoe, David Rowlands & John Alfred Taylor - "The Haunted Dolls House"
James Gang UpdateLetters Marco Frenschkowski, Ron Weighell, Edward Lauterbach, Hugh Lamb, Robert N. Bloch, Barbara RodenReviews Andy Sawyer - Ingulphus (Arthur Gray), Tedius Brief Tales Of Granta And Gramarye, (Ghost Story Press, 1993)
Richard Dalby - Edward Wagenknecht, Seven Masters Of The Supernatural Fiction, (Greenwood Press, 1991)
Christopher Roden - Theresa Whistler, Imagination Of The Heart: The Life Of Walter De La Mare, (Duckworth , 1993)
Maureen Speller - John Gordon, Ordinary Seaman, (Walker Books, 1992): L.T.C. Rolt, Landscape With Figures, (Alan Sutton, 1992): Laurence Staig, Smokestack Lightening, (Walker Books, 1992).
Rosemary Pardoe - J. S Le Fanu, In A Glass Darkly, (Oxford World Classics, 1993)
Mike Ashley - S. T. Joshi (ed.), The Count Of Thirty: A Tribute To Ramsey Campbell (Necronicom Press, 1993): Ramsey Campbell, Two Obscure Tales, (Necronicom Press, 1993): Ramsey Campbell, Alone With The Horrors, (Arkham House, 1993).Artwork Dallas Goffin, Alan Hunter, Nick Maloret, Douglas WaltersM. R. James - John Humphreys: is our hero the victim of an improbably convoluted conspiracy to drive him mad or are supernatural forces at work against him? In the space of 24 hours he's plagued by a spectral tree, a black pillar that isn't, a mystery woman visible to all but him, and a nasty face in an old book. Perhaps the voodoo effigy in the old tin box has something to do with it. A suspenseful and ultimately frustrating unfinished story which terminates upon reaching its (we suspect) grim conclusion. William I.I. Read had a crack at completing John Humphreys in the following issue. C. E. Ward - The Spinney: The narrator's car inexplicably (and, as we later learn, only temporarily) breaks down in the desolate Derbyshire hillside. He's pursued to a dilapidated cottage by a silent, grim-faced man in a tweed jacket brandishing a rabbit-snare. A woman, similarly armed, appears as if from nowhere to corner the luckless motorist. Lower the gamekeeper and his wife achieved notoriety shortly before the Great War for their robust clampdown on poachers ..... Anon - An Old Manuscript: ( Cambridge Review, June 1911). Old Beale the miser insisted that his coin be buried with him in Colton Churchyard. a one-eyed sailor is stupid enough to attempt a midnight disinterment. A. F. Kidd - Campanalogia: A vicious demon is driven from the bell-tower of the church at Fenwick-St.-Giles thanks to the efforts of Fabian Stedman, a seventeenth century forerunner of the occult detective, who devises a suitable peal for the occasion. None of which would be known had Stedman not thought to pen an account of the adventure and slip it inside a lethally dull tome for A.F. K. to discover hundreds of years later! The Spinney, my favourite of the issue, is perhaps the most immediate story but, as ever, the rest reward patience!
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Post by ripper on Mar 30, 2015 8:48:54 GMT
Clive Ward's 'The Spinney' is one of his best stories imo. It's well set up and rather tense as the protagonist gradually realises that he is being pursued across those fields.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 30, 2015 16:05:49 GMT
Clive Ward's 'The Spinney' is one of his best stories imo. It's well set up and rather tense as the protagonist gradually realises that he is being pursued across those fields. Have only read The Spinney (his first published story?) and the equally impressive Gunpowder Plot in G&S 18, but just noticed Mr. Ward's The Doorway of St Stephen's, ( G&S 28, 1999) is available to read online thanks to the Pardoe's excellent site. Here's the direct link: The Doorway of St Stephen's |
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Post by ripper on Mar 30, 2015 16:42:32 GMT
I think that I particularly like 'The Spinney' as, to me, it isn't slavishly Jamesian. There is no antiquarian messing about with things that should be left alone. It is just a bloke whose car has conked out walking across some fields and coming to the realisation that he is being hunted. Don't get me wrong; I like very much the 'traditional' Jamesian pastiche, but 'The Spinney' just stood out as being a bit different. Having said that, I do also like Ward's more traditional tales, 'The Doorway of St. Stephen's' being a prime example. In fact, it was reading that story on the G & S site that led me to seek out his Sarob collection, 'Vengeful Ghosts,' which I recommend wholeheartedly.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 1, 2015 9:36:27 GMT
Has anyone else read C.E. Ward's most recent story, "11334" in THE GHOSTS & SCHOLARS BOOK OF SHADOWS VOLUME 2? As the title indicates, it is a sequel to and an improvement on "The Tractate Middoth", one of M.R. James's lesser stories.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 1, 2015 18:38:25 GMT
I think that I particularly like 'The Spinney' as, to me, it isn't slavishly Jamesian. There is no antiquarian messing about with things that should be left alone. It is just a bloke whose car has conked out walking across some fields and coming to the realisation that he is being hunted. Don't get me wrong; I like very much the 'traditional' Jamesian pastiche, but 'The Spinney' just stood out as being a bit different. "Sleep No More" is a fine collection. I really like the way Rolt managed to move the Jamesian tale out of its previous environment. If a deserted cathedral can be spooky, why not an abandoned factory, a mine or a railway tunnel? Nothing wrong with James' settings but Rolt definitely broadened it out. Alan W. Lear's "A Little, Little Grave" in Ghosts & Scholars 14 is a great story, but he overdoes the mannerisms to the point of irritation. It's too self-consciously 'Jamesian' for my tastes, though I'm sure others disagree. On the other hand, Ramsey Campbell's The Burning ( Ghosts & Scholars 3/ The Best Of Ghosts & Scholars) apparently drew some mild stick from the readers for not being overtly Jamesian, but works fine for me. Agree with Dr. Proof. They don't have to be set in a Cathedral or medieval church to work. |
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Post by ripper on Apr 7, 2015 19:14:01 GMT
The only C.E. Ward tales I have read are those in 'Vengeful Ghosts' plus 'The Doorway of St. Stephen's' on the G & S site. I don't know if he has had any more collections published, but I haven't come across any.
About the Jamesian pastiches. I agree that sometimes you can come upon a story that tries too hard to be Jamesian, in that it apes James' style to such a degree that the author's own voice is lost. I think I read somewhere that the best pastiches use an artists' brush whereas the worst use a trowel.
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