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Post by ropardoe on Dec 7, 2020 9:48:47 GMT
Inevitably one wonders if the Curious staff became aware of Dare thanks to the Vault--I certainly did. I think they mostly rely on the James Gang list to source the stories they cover; they mention this all the time, along with Ghosts and Scholars. I'll have to recommend they stop by the Vault, if they haven't done so already. I first encountered Unholy Relics in the Andromeda bookshop in Birmingham. I picked up Relics and about half a dozen other Ash Tree Press titles, which at the time were dirt cheap. I wonder if anyone else remembers this wonderful bookshop? Before the internet it was largely responsible for my horror education. I pine for it every time I go into the city. I hope lots of people remember Andromeda! Run by the great and legendary (in Brum SF circles) Rog Peyton.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 7, 2020 9:46:30 GMT
The new Swan River Press book Ghosts of the Chit Chat Club will, I'm sure, get some coverage in the next issue of Ghosts & Scholars. The discussion of that new book starts around the one hour 7 minute mark. H. I must admit it’s nice to read something like this and think - well, yes, I agree, but I’m not responsible for the content of G&S any more! I’m sure the book will be covered though. Possibly not in the next issue as Helen Kemp (guest editor for this issue) is having trouble fitting everything in already. But certainly in the one after.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 4, 2020 19:00:57 GMT
It’s an intriguing choice for what I assume is a full-length film (not the first dramatic adaptation though - it was the theme of part of a theatrical MRJ drama many years ago). I wouldn’t have thought there would be enough material there. On the other hand I absolutely disagree that the story is feeble. It’s one of those, like “An Evening’s Entertainment”, which retains its fascination and mystery long after the charms of the more famous stories pall.
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Post by ropardoe on Oct 26, 2020 9:30:23 GMT
Opening with a Duffy-Oliver one-two punch?! Not to mention the dazzling cover. "Must-have" suddenly sounds like an understatement! Make of endorsement what you will, but in the great Dem scheme of things, stories 1-4 are decidedly "must-read." Gail-Nina Anderson – The Old, Cold Clay: Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes (I think!). Chris Robson's return home to the village coincides with the discovery of the corpse of missing schoolboy, Tim ("At least it was simply an accident? ... Well yes - you have to consider that. No adults involved."). Robson is now a reporter on the local TV news, and Miss Val Lowell is grateful for her ex-pupil's quick thinking when Tim's parents throw a fit at the Autumn Fayre. Val really should have given more thought to the way one particular doll's costume ... Even so, she can't help but wonder at Robson's fixation with burial, cremation and death stuff in general. Late that evening, Miss Robson drops by to deliver his purchase at the charity fund-raiser. Much to her surprise, she walks in on a tea party .... The Buckland Shag: Ghosts of Surrey's answer to Romeo and Juliet, the hairy haunter of the brook, and the Bleeding stone of Dorking. Sam Dawson – Between: New money Metro tossers, Nigel and Esme (don't ask what they've named their twins), buy a remote woodland cottage near Hawkesview intent on using it as a weekend centre of operations for his boorish lycra-monster city pals. Unlike predecessors the Smiths, the couple have no regard for local sensibilities - on the contrary, good old Nige makes a virtue of being unpleasant to all comers. Not that the villagers expect them to be around much longer, before they put in an appearance. It seems several generations of foresters were none too particular ... You'll have to read it for yourself! Three More for the Hangman: Witch-swimming and attendant torture in Tring; the Denham tool-case massacre, and Amelia Dyer, the Reading Baby farmer. Book to date also contains more Pop Culture references than even superb Denim on Ice album. Kate Bush/ Never for Ever, Blondie/ Eat To The Beat, Three Men In A Boat, News of the World, Magical Mystery Tour, I Am The Walrus, Lewis Carroll, Spindisc, Midsomer Murders (of course), Stars In Their Eyes, Alice Cooper, Sister Sledge/ Lost in Music, Anita Ward/ Ring My Bell, Country Life, Vogue ... The stand-out story for me is Tom Johnstone’s “The Topsy-Turvy Ones” which will definitely stay with me. I may be biased as it revolves around the (17th century) Diggers, and Gerard Winstanley is my great hero. Also one of my favourite books is Christopher Hill’s The World Turned Upside Down, which features in the story (and, like Tom, I too am intrigued by Everard the Magician). Runners-up are the stories by Steve Duffy and Helen Grant.
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Post by ropardoe on Oct 8, 2020 11:07:25 GMT
Had to look up "champing" too - now I'm thinking there's a potentially brilliant anthology of ghost stories to be had from the theme. Agree it's another splendid issue. Have particularly enjoyed both of Benjamin Harris's articles on John Gordon - his enthusiasm for the author's work glares through - and Lurkio's review of England's Screaming has convinced me I need to think about copping a copy in the new year (atypical optimism). As with previous issue's column, Lady Wardrops Notes would slip seamlessly into The Black Pilgrimage. I’ve got several pieces written for The Everlasting Club which would also fit in nicely, but it’s going to be a very long time before I have enough for The Black Pilgrimage Volume Two!
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Post by ropardoe on Oct 6, 2020 16:22:00 GMT
The only odd thing is the timing as the news item relates to the documentary “Wits in Felixstowe” which Robert Lloyd Parry made to accompany his “Oh, Whistle” enactment on a DVD released in 2018. It’s good publicity for him (I believe the docu will be available on Amazon Prime soon) and well deserved, as this is actually a great film. When I reviewed it in G&S I said it was the best MRJ documentary I’d ever seen and I stick by that statement. The link between JK Stephen and a possible inspiration for “Oh, Whistle” is tenuous but tenable.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 26, 2020 8:25:39 GMT
Thanks all! Very interesting. I neglected to check the original dates; of course there are quite a few years between Lost Hearts and the essay.
The temptation to just use quotes or commentary instead of reading the original is counter-productive. I searched for Lovecrafts recommendation of Rohmer's Brood of the Witch-Queen in his essay Supernatural Horror for a project. I was quite astonished that in this instance it is indeed not more than a passing remark.I would have imagined it was at least a paragraph or something. No such luck.
And I have to read some more James :-) (Even if I think his opinion that sex has no place in stories and novels is just repressed nonsense )
His opinion that sex has no place in stories isn’t “repressed nonsense”. What it is, is a general misunderstanding of what he actually meant by “sex” - it’s pretty clear from his own stories and from what he enjoyed in other people’s stories that he actually meant soppy romantic stuff.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 25, 2020 15:24:22 GMT
Dear Ro and others,
I stumbled upon James' remark how "reticence" in stories is advisable, which seems to be a contrast to a few of his stories. I am not very knowlegdeable in his work, but I re-read "Lost Hearts" and was a bit surprised about the blood and the violence in this. Of course it isn't "Hannibal", but it is pretty graphic for its time.
Is it a exception from the rule in the James work or does he often go that far?
“There was a long table in the room, more than the length of a man, and on it lay the body of Mr Davis. The eyes were bound over with a linen band and the arms were tied across the back, and the feet were bound together with another band. But the fearful thing was the breast being quite bare, the bone of it was split through the top downwards with an axe! Oh, it was a terrible sight; not one there but turned faint and ill with it, and had to go out into the fresh air." From one of my favourite M.R. James stories, “An Evening’s Entertainment”. So yes, MRJ could be pretty OTT at times!
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 21, 2020 15:42:10 GMT
My envelope was completely open down the long edge too! Contents still in-place fortunately. Perhaps someone up there suspects that Ghosts & Scolars is a frtont for some sort of nefarious organisation... Anyway, I have now ordered my copy and hope it arrives intact! It’s a fair cop, guv.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 18, 2020 12:35:37 GMT
As mentioned in the new Ghosts & Scholars (currently wending its way to folk), I think I can officially confirm that my next Sarob book will be The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes. I won’t be actively soliciting new and previously unpublished stories till the start of next year, as the book won’t be published till 2022, but at this stage what I’m looking for is suggestions for the reprint section. As with the Sarob Mazes book, these should be stories (featuring follies or grottoes, obviously!) specifically and only published in the small press - books and magazines. I already have five or six in mind (stories by Mark Valentine, David Longhorn, Chico Kidd, Mary Ann Allen, Clive Ward and Tina Rath), but I need a few more.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 18, 2020 9:57:45 GMT
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 18, 2020 9:19:24 GMT
There's a couple of different versions of Herne - one is associated with the horned Celtic god of the Wild Hunt, the other (specifically linked to Windsor and mentioned by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor) is supposed to be the ghost of a man who committed suicide by hanging himself from an oak tree in Windsor Forest in medieval times... ... and kills Teddy-boys. The Screaming Skull & Other True MysteriesI think the name Herne has only been associated with the Wild Hunt in relatively recent years. Herne as such first appeared in Shakespeare. It’s true, though, that the leader of the Wild Hunt sometimes has a similar name - Herla, Hella and suchlike. The “Horned Celtic God of the Wild Hunt” is another recent invention, although of course the legend of Wild Hunt itself is ancient (and fascinating).
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 17, 2020 8:03:41 GMT
While I thought the same when I saw this reprinted in an issue of Ghosts & Scholars, I think that James McBryde's less formal illustrations have more life in them. I thought that one of those pictures from Peter Haining's The Irish Leprechaun's Kingdom looked familiar. Henry J. Ford (to give him his full name) also drew the chap above. H.J. Ford deserves to be much more recognised than he is. He’s up there with Rackham, Dulac and Nielsen in my opinion. He illustrated many of Andrew Lang’s coloured Fairy Books. And also, by the by, was one of the major inspirations for Daisy Makeig-Jones’s Wedgwood Fairyland Lustreware.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 10, 2020 15:45:22 GMT
I just came across this on social media; Roger Clarke ("A Natural History of Ghosts" and a few excellent stories in the Pan series) wrote: "'Admirers of Munby, Baker and of course the master M.R. James should spring faster than an occult guardian to embrace these treasures, these vignettes of the mind and genre...'
This was news to me. Francis Young is the folklorist who was responsible for reprinting Bogie Tales of East Anglia, by M.R. James’s cousin. I think Yellow Glass could be a very nice collection.
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Post by ropardoe on Sept 5, 2020 15:39:34 GMT
From Weird Woods - EF Benson - The Man Who Went Too Far ( Pall Mall, June 1904). Another one I've read before - oddly, I seemed to remember not liking it at all but mostly enjoyed it this time around. The paganism/Pan theme is unusual for Benson (as far as I remember), but the warning about the dangers of going "too far" (rather than saying don't go there at all) was interesting, I thought - though I was still a little put out by Frank's apparent volte-face at the end. Entirely set in the depths of the New Forest, yet still manages to get in a passing mention of golf. A great story but one of the ones I don’t think belong in the book. It’s set in the New Forest but a lot of the New Forest isn’t woodland, and most of the major events in the story, including the climax, don’t take place in the wood. The first couple of pages certainly make one think its going to fit right in, but mostly it’s meadows, rivers and villages with no weird wood vibe at all.
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