Fiends - Lionel Fanthorpe (technically "R.L. Fanthorpe")

[kooshmeister]

So this one looks like a hoot. From the back cover:

"R. Lionel Fanthorpe was educated at at Barnard Castle Public School, and Hamond's Grammar School, Swaffham. He has been a member of the British Interplanetary Society since 1952.

After a widely varied career, and extensive travels in the British Isles and the Continent, he is now happily married and settled down as a school teacher in his native County of Norfolk. He has since been writing Science Fiction and Ghost Stories for nearly ten years.

'Fiends' is the story of man's early attempts at Space Travel. Attempts that are interfered with by invaders from the depths of inter-galactic space - a sinister race of huge monster ants... who have been observing our planet for centuries. The details of flying saucer observations, are completely authentic, as are the facts behind the strange mystery of the Mary Celeste, which plays a brilliantly-plotted integral part in the story."

I somehow doubt almost all of that. But look forward to the book anyway.

[bluetomb]

I was led to believe that the sailors of the Marie Celeste were fleeing Daleks. But am willing to be persuaded otherwise. 

I've yet to read any Badger Books (were they entirely Fanthorpe) or Fanthorpe at large, and he does seem... mixed, but from all I've read about him and them their existence pleases me at something like a fundamental level.

[ropardoe]

Apr 22, 2020 12:16:36 GMT bluetomb said:

I was led to believe that the sailors of the Marie Celeste were fleeing Daleks. But am willing to be persuaded otherwise. 

I've yet to read any Badger Books (were they entirely Fanthorpe) or Fanthorpe at large, and he does seem... mixed, but from all I've read about him and them their existence pleases me at something like a fundamental level.

Mary Celeste, not Marie (the blurb had it right).  But I didn't come here just to be pedantic!   To answer your question, no they weren't entirely written by (the great) Fanthorpe, although he wrote many of them under pseudonyms.  Another author who did several was John Glasby.  Also, in Fanthorpe's Badger Books magazine, Supernatural Stories, he featured some of the antiquarian ghost stories of his friend Noel Boston.  These have since been reprinted (by Ash-Tree Press) and are reasonably well thought of in Jamesian circles.  One of them was actually the first antiquarian ghost story I ever read (long before I discovered M.R. James).

[jamesdoig]

Fiends has a terrific cover! The other lot of Badgers must have come from Australia looking at the stickers.

[kooshmeister]

Apr 22, 2020 21:45:38 GMT jamesdoig said:

The other lot of Badgers must have come from Australia looking at the stickers.

They most certainly did!

[bluetomb]

Apr 22, 2020 12:38:16 GMT ropardoe said:

Apr 22, 2020 12:16:36 GMT bluetomb said:

I was led to believe that the sailors of the Marie Celeste were fleeing Daleks. But am willing to be persuaded otherwise. 

I've yet to read any Badger Books (were they entirely Fanthorpe) or Fanthorpe at large, and he does seem... mixed, but from all I've read about him and them their existence pleases me at something like a fundamental level.

Mary Celeste, not Marie (the blurb had it right).  But I didn't come here just to be pedantic!   To answer your question, no they weren't entirely written by (the great) Fanthorpe, although he wrote many of them under pseudonyms.  Another author who did several was John Glasby.  Also, in Fanthorpe's Badger Books magazine, Supernatural Stories, he featured some of the antiquarian ghost stories of his friend Noel Boston.  These have since been reprinted (by Ash-Tree Press) and are reasonably well thought of in Jamesian circles.  One of them was actually the first antiquarian ghost story I ever read (long before I discovered M.R. James).

Ah, interesting. Thanks for the info. And correction

[andydecker]

Personally I find the stories about Fanthorpe and how Badger Books worked more interesting than the more often then not poor tales. I remember the novel The Macabre Ones, which is kind of unbelievable. Its one of his occult detectives story with Val Steadman, the reporter with the .45 and silver bullets and his wife La Noire, where the hero is introduced finally in chapter 11 - of 16. There are some outreageous ideas, he just isn't able to develop them properly or dramatically.

[ropardoe]

Apr 23, 2020 10:33:14 GMT andydecker said:

Personally I find the stories about Fanthorpe and how Badger Books worked more interesting than the more often then not poor tales. I remember the novel The Macabre Ones, which is kind of unbelievable. Its one of his occult detectives story with Val Steadman, the reporter with the .45 and silver bullets and his wife La Noire, where the hero is introduced finally in chapter 11 - of 16. There are some outreageous ideas, he just isn't able to develop them properly or dramatically.

You're not wrong.  Fanthorpe is a much-loved, much-admired legend, but not for the quality of his writing!

[kooshmeister]

Apr 23, 2020 10:33:14 GMT andydecker said:

I remember the novel The Macabre Ones, which is kind of unbelievable. Its one of his occult detectives story with Val Steadman, the reporter with the .45 and silver bullets and his wife La Noire, where the hero is introduced finally in chapter 11 - of 16.

Steadman, La Noire and the trusty .45 also turn up in The Intruders.

[Dr Strange]

Apr 22, 2020 4:17:25 GMT kooshmeister said:

the facts behind the strange mystery of the Mary Celeste, which plays a brilliantly-plotted integral part in the story.

Here he is giving a TEDx talk in Cardiff in 2012 where he covers Arthur Conan Doyle and the Mary Celeste, and Augustus Hare and the Croglin Grange Vampire. Very entertaining.