coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Mar 28, 2008 21:25:47 GMT
Holidays, a tale from Willo The Wisp. Copyrighted 1981 by DN and PM Spargo and published by Windward, an imprint owned by WHSmith & SON Ltd. 1 of 12 titles in the series. In this story the witch, Evil Edna takes a seaside holiday determining to cast a spell so that it rains at home while she's gone, Arthur the caterpillar gets blasted into space on a toadstool, and Mavis Cruet buys a new bikini.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 28, 2008 22:18:55 GMT
Tove Jansson "Inside was warm and nice. A lamp stood on the window-sill and made the night coal-black. A clock was ticking away somewhere, and atop a large wardrobe a very small mymble was lying on her stomach, looking down at him. "'Hello,' said the whomper. 'I've saved myself at the last minute. From mud snakes and live fungi! You've no idea!'" Tove Jansson, A Tale of Horror, from Tales from Moominvalley
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 28, 2008 22:35:10 GMT
Willo The Wisp:
Now I really know what my childhood lacked.
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Post by Calenture on Mar 28, 2008 22:53:25 GMT
Tove Jansson "The fillyjonk could hear nothing but the gale and the rattle of loosening roof-tiles. If I were to go up to the attic the roof would blow off, she thought. And if I go down to the cellar the whole house comes down over me. It's going to anyway. "She got hold of a china kitten and pressed it hard in her paw. Then a window blew open and scattered its pane in small fragments over the floor. A gust of rain spattered the mahogany furniture, and the stately plaster hemulen threw himself from his pedestal and went to pieces." ..."She found herself sitting in the sand. She felt warm raindrops on her face, and her dress was fluttering and flapping about her like a sail. "She shut her eys very tight and knew that she was in the midst of danger, totally helpless." Tove Jansson, The Fillijonk Who Believed in Disasters, from Tales from MoominvalleyOf course I am cheating a little if this is terror for the REALLY small, as I still read these.
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Mar 29, 2008 22:02:31 GMT
Not cheating at all mr Rog, I recently had to buy myself a new copy of Finn Family Moomintroll as the old one had become to fragile to read any more! Also at a very young age I greatly enjoyed the books of Alan Garner. I'm not sure which age range they are actually aimed at, but I started reading them at 7-ish, so am placing this here. ELIDOR. "A street-map, a deserted demolition site, a football and a church in ruins are the four ordinary things on an ordinary grey day in Manchester that lead Roland, Helen, Nicholas and David into Elidor, 'the Green Isle of the Shadow of the Stars,' but a twilight world almost destroyed by fear and darkness. Now only the four children can save Elidor from total desolation by guarding four treasures which preserve in them the possibility of Elidor's salvation. But gradually the powers of evil start to invade the quiet Manchester suburbs. Is it only static electricity that makes the television howl? Why do damp patches appear on the attic wall-or are they men's shadows? And why do the children feel the relentless pull of a deep and numbing terror? "
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 29, 2008 23:42:51 GMT
I have the entire run of Willo the Wisp on VHS (cost me £1-00!).
I've read The Owl Service by Alan Garner, which I thought was splendid. It kind of fitted into that subgenre of 'not exactly kids books' that included Peter Dickinson's 'The Changes' and 'Watership Down' (well I think so anyway - lots of blood guts violence and death but with bunnies)
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Mar 30, 2008 20:29:04 GMT
John, you're a jammy so-and-so, where did you find it?
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 31, 2008 8:47:08 GMT
I picked it up back in the days when Virgin were clearing out all their VHS stock.
I got a 'Clangers' video as well.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 31, 2008 10:36:29 GMT
'The Clangers'! I used to have a brilll poster of them (also featuring the Froglets and the Soup Dragon)! It was a swap with the founder of They Must Be Russians. I gave him Lou Reed's Rock & Roll Animal in return so you can't say I got the worst of that deal. will see if the bride will let me loose on her moomin paperbacks
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 4, 2008 9:26:53 GMT
For some reason my father (far more bonkers than I) keeps giving me Clangers for Christmas. I have a number on a shelf now and they are the only things at Probert Towers that guests have expressed an interest in taking home with them. Never mind the signed PS edition of Joe Hill, they'd rather have something that makes silly whistling noise when you squeeze its tummy.
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Apr 4, 2008 22:32:02 GMT
I want a clanger, and I'm going to sulk until I get one...
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 5, 2008 0:46:44 GMT
Well Coral if we ever get to meet I'll bring one of them along. It'll have to be one of the smaller ones though as another young lady has dibs on Major Clanger
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Post by Calenture on Apr 5, 2008 12:30:39 GMT
Also at a very young age I greatly enjoyed the books of Alan Garner. I'm not sure which age range they are actually aimed at, but I started reading them at 7-ish, so am placing this here. Garner and the age of his intended readers always seems to be something publishers can't agree on. The Weirdstone of Bringamen Puffin edition is said to be "for boys and girls over eight"; its sequel The Moon of Gomrath "readers of nine and over". Elidor for "slightly older" readers. The Owl Service was taken seriously by reviewers from Irish Times and Observer... I've read that adult readers usually don't get on with Garner's books... Red Shift being cited as most difficult for adults. I've just found a web page where someone says he found it "too cryptic on first reading". Apparently, children - or those who cultivate their inner child - tend to just accept mysteries until they're resolved(?) I've also got Granny Reardun here somewhere, beautifully illustrated (by Maurice Sendak?) Garner also wrote a half-hour play for the BBC in the Seventies, To Kill a King. It's definitely not for children, being about a writer who's having a breakdown - suffering writers' block - who finds a weirdly carved stone in a stream, then becomes haunted by a woman who seems to be his elusive muse(?)
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Apr 7, 2008 22:31:33 GMT
From Finn Family Moomintroll : from chapter four : "In the middle of the night the Snork maiden woke with an awful feeling. Something had touched her face...she pulled the blanket over her head and called tremulously to Moomintroll...Moomintroll stared into the darkness. There WAS something! Little lights...Pale gleaming shapes that pattered to and fro between the sleepers. Moomintroll was terrifired and woke Snufkin. 'Look!' he gasped. 'Ghosts!' "
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 8, 2008 19:20:01 GMT
How on earth did I survive childhood without this Tove Jansson. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
I enjoyed the weirdstone by Garner but Tove - what a star
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