Ramsey Campbell - The Companion & Other Stories

[andydecker]

Ramsey Campbell - The Companion & Other Phantasmagorical Stories (PS Publishing, 2019, hc, 471 pages)

Cover: James Hannah

Contents:

Introduction: Pulling Sixty
The Companion
The Render of the Veils
The Cellars
The Scar
The Guy
Call First
Napier Court
The End of a Summer's Day
The Words That Count
In the Bag
The Invocation
The Man in the Underpass
Baby
The Pattern
The Chimney
The Change
The Brood
Mackintosh Willy
Above the World
The Show Goes On
The Ferries
The Depths
Down There
Calling Card
The Fit
The Hands
Second Sight
Again
Just Waiting
Seeing the World
Apples
Where the Heart Is
The Guide
Welcomeland


This is the first of two large collections of Ramsey Campbell's stories through the decades of his career. The second volume collects material from 1998 to 2016; this one has stories from 1964 to 1989. The finely made hardcover by PS Publishing - I guess currently the premier British publisher of the genre of the phantastic - has a new foreword by Mr Campbell and many full page colour paintings by the artist of the cover, in the same style. Collected are a lot of well-known stories and quite a few not as often reprinted ones. Billed as a personal selection of Mr Campbell himself it has a lot to offer. One special treat is the inclusion of a tale called Bradmoor, printed as part of the introduction, a short story he wrote when he was 12 years old. "While I shudder to acknowledge its parentage, its essentially Dennis Wheatley in digest form", says the writer. What fun.

The only think I missed is the – for me - baffling omission of the stories original credits: neither are the years of their origin (and where they were published) acknowledged at the end of the entries nor in the small print. I know, in this day and age this information is only a click away, if you really want to know more about their genesis, still I think such things should be included in such a carefully done project celebrating a writers career.

[dem bones]

Apr 28, 2023 8:37:56 GMT andydecker said:

Collected are a lot of well-known stories and quite a few not as often reprinted ones. Billed as a personal selection of Mr Campbell himself it has a lot to offer. One special treat is the inclusion of a tale called Bradmoor, printed as part of the introduction, a short story he wrote when he was 12 years old. "While I shudder to acknowledge its parentage, its essentially Dennis Wheatley in digest form", says the writer. What fun.

Thought I recognised the title; Ghostly Tales. One book that should be granted full PS deluxe-vacuum-sealed-slipcased-signed-in-blood-numbered-alarmed-limited-edition treatment. From memory, Bradmoor is not the only story owes a debt to Dennis Wheatley. Ramsey very kindly allowed us to include The Oak Chest on our 2016 Vault Advent Calendar.