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Post by ropardoe on Mar 2, 2022 15:30:08 GMT
You're very welcome! In case anyone needs it, Ro's email address is dandrpardoe at gmail. cheers, Hel @gmail.com, that is!
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Post by ropardoe on Jan 14, 2022 10:49:14 GMT
Really, most Brits find Morris dancers terrifying? I had no idea. I always get such a sweet feeling when I come across a Morris side doing their thing here in the Boston area. Not all that often but if I'm lucky, sometimes in May or June. I've also heard a lot of people find clowns really scary which seems curious. But there you are. H. Morris Dancing is very much an English, as opposed to British, thing. And no, folk don't find it terrifying. Weird, definitely... I think there is a lot of love for Morris dancers in the UK (and a lot of sneering - it's so easy to sneer). The much darker Border Morris features in a number of genre stories, not to mention in novels by Phil Rickman and Terry Pratchett. It's not just a UK thing either - it's very popular in Australia. My brother-in-law was a member of a team in Victoria for some time. Oh, and there's one Border team, the Mythago Morris, which is named after possibly the best fantasy novel ever written: Rob Holdstock's Mythago Wood (actually not the best - that's the follow-up novel Lavondyss - which does feature a terrifying Morris scene!).
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 13, 2021 21:38:42 GMT
Mixed. I've just been dipping in and out of it while reading other things, and I'm also skipping the ones in it that I've read before (Machen, MRJ, KEW, HPL, Blackwood). Of the new stories, so far, I have liked those by Alison Littlewood ( Jenny Greenteeth) and Mike Chinn ( All I Ever See). But, as often seems to happen to me with "modern" horror, there's been a couple that I either didn't get or which (IMHO) weren't really horror at all. Yes, I would say “Mixed” too. I really liked the two you mention (I've just read her Cottingley Cuckoo too). Of the others, I really enjoyed Kim Newman’s and that was after nearly giving up on it to start with.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 20:33:32 GMT
What’s the date of this, by the way? Darned if I can remember. Here you go - 25 years ago: Ah thanks. I’d never have remembered, though I suspected that it was around then.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:31:36 GMT
Just as an aside, the Uffington White Horse features in some scenes in the third series of the brilliance that is Britannia. (I suspect mocked up or CGI rather than the real place, but I could be wrong). Also we see the creation of a new (honestly not too convincing) hill figure.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:23:27 GMT
Mike Chinn - All I Ever See ( The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror; ed. Stephen Jones, 2021). Bryan has been suffering from a mysterious illness for the last few years, and this has put a considerable strain on his marriage to Jen. The squabbling couple visit the Uffington White Horse, and something follows them back down the hill. It’s a good one - my favourite in the book.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:15:19 GMT
Isn't the Uffington White Horse wonderful. Because it is so old it sits on its hill outside of recorded time itself. All those people down through the ages scouring it so it survived them, doing it for over 3,000 years, isn't that incredible? What stories do you know that involve hill figures? Perhaps they are real, like the White Horse, or imagined. Why don't you share with us these strange tales. There are several novels which feature them - the one I've read most recently is The Green Man’s Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna. it’s the fourth in her series of books with “Green Man” in the title. I very much enjoyed it. Another good one is John Gordon’s The Giant Under the Snow. But at the moment (and I’m worried that you’ve been reading my mind - I was planning to ask your question myself here at some point!), I’m on the hunt for short genre stories involving them - for a possible future project. So far I’ve only got three: M.R. James’s “An Evening’s Entertainment” (the figure in that is based on the Cerne Giant), Mike Chinn’s “All I Ever See” in the recent Mammoth Book of Folk Horror (centred around the Uffington White Horse), and Steve Duffy’s wonderful “Figures on a Hillside” in The Night Comes On (inspired by Lethbridge’s work in the Gogmagog Hills). Steve’s story has long been a favourite of mine and I’m quite surprised that it’s never been reprinted. By the way, some of my ancestors lived in the Vale of the White Horse, so hill figures are kind of in my blood!
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 15:48:06 GMT
ropadoe the cover of the collection A Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror that you edited looks like one of the alleged hill figures that T. C. Lethbridge claimed to have found at the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge.
Yes, I was pleased that Paul Lowe chose to produce a sort of pseudo-Gogmagog giant for his cover illustration. I love Lethbridge’s book - I don’t believe it, but I love it.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 11:58:28 GMT
Pop quiz: who's in the photo What’s the date of this, by the way? Darned if I can remember.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 9:44:51 GMT
I think that's Lisa Tuttle on the right. Is it Angela Carter on the left? Wow, me mistaken for Angela Carter - that’s made my day! Yes, it’s me (a very flattering pic), and the one with the short hair on Ramsey’s left must be Jan Arter.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 8, 2021 9:53:37 GMT
That’s what I was wondering too. Clearly that particular biography has never seen the light of day. It’s a rather lovely article overall, except for the mistake over Livermere, and the fact that Critchley doesn’t know why Herefordshire was so close to MRJ's heart. Could he have gotten his information confused? This man wrote a biography that came out in 1980: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_William_PfaffThere are two MRJ biographies, one published very shortly after the other. The first was by Pfaff, the second by Michael Cox. Neither were Cambridgeshire parsons
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 6, 2021 17:45:21 GMT
I've filched this from the M. R. James Facebook: Julian Critchley "The ghost stories of M. R. James", from The Illustrated London News, 3 December 1973. Who was the Cambridgeshire parson writing a biography of M. R. James mentioned on p.61? That’s what I was wondering too. Clearly that particular biography has never seen the light of day. It’s a rather lovely article overall, except for the mistake over Livermere, and the fact that Critchley doesn’t know why Herefordshire was so close to MRJ's heart.
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Post by ropardoe on Nov 10, 2021 9:12:40 GMT
Delighted to see that John Gordon's classic 'The House on the Brink' is set to be re-issued by Valancourt Books in 2022. I’m hoping they’ll do for John Gordon what they’ve been doing for Robert Westall - reprint lots more of his novels and short stories. There are so many good ones.
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Post by ropardoe on Nov 5, 2021 19:03:19 GMT
Thanks Kev. Just a very minor correction. The artwork on the front of the St Cubby booklet isn’t by Arlen Pardoe. It’s from the stained glass catalogue of Darroll's and Arlen’s Dad Bill, who was a professional stained glass artist. Bill being long gone, now Arlen has the copyright.
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Post by ropardoe on Oct 29, 2021 13:45:58 GMT
Dave Carson, The Gravedigger and Death, Ghosts & Scholars #5, 1983) "My name is Jane Bradshawe and I'm a church restorer." The Gravedigger and Death: Miss Bradshawe travels to South Tilford on the marshes to clean two seventeenth century wall-paintings in St. Peter's church. The mural, depicting a terrified sexton cowering before a particularly horrible skeleton, is best left begrimed. Hold Fast: The story is inspired by a genuine Commonwealth Coat of Arms discovered in Ramsey Church, Essex. This is very, very rare - they were commanded to be removed from all churches at the Restoration (it survived because it was recycled - there is a Charles II Coat of arms on the other side!). Joan: A dilemma for the Rev. Jonathan Pride, newly arrived to St. Peter's, Norton Hills. The rectory is haunted by the cadaverous ghost of a young girl, benign in herself, but so vile to look upon as liable to cause someone a heart attack. Haunting dates from the aftermath of the civil war when a Royalist's widow and infant daughter were evicted by a Puritan rector and left dependent on the charity of now staunchly Parliamentarian neighbours. Annie's Story: "I must say you've moved into a nice area. It seems to come equipped with a resident senile streaker." In this new version, it is Jane's aunt, uncle and their teenage daughter move into a new house built on the site of the old Infield Manor. Before they can unpack, cousin Annie is made uncomfortably aware of a ragged, emaciated old man, all hairy and sallow, malingering by the garden fence where once stood an eighteenth century folly ... “Annie’s Ghost” not “Story”, but either way, I think it’s a better title as the original one rather gave the game away! Thanks Kev for this brilliant running write-up. Incidentally, Mark Valentine has given the book a great write-up on the Wormwoodiana blog, where he accuses me of murdering Mary Ann Allen. I’m saying nothing!
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