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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 22:22:34 GMT
A selection of short tales, bookended by a longer tale, 'The Cancer Cowboy Rides', and a novella, 'The Reflecting Eye', which features his most famous character, the detective Charlie Parker. The short stories, which have a definite MR James flavour, started out as radio stories, read as a BBC Radio 4 Late Book. This is where I first encountered them. They were read, quite superbly, by the late Tony Doyle. His precise, Irish delivery made the tales even more chilling. [They are available on CD, but last time I checked they were horrendously expensive]. The subject matter varies, from demons, to ghosts, witches, and a particularly charming female vampire [Miss Froom, Vampire], which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at a later date, and was read, with great relish, by Jacqueline Pearce. The whole collection is of a uniformly high standard, and once read, will lurk in your mind forever. The title story is one of the most disturbing tales I have ever read, and the book is worth it for that story alone. Another reason to get this book is that if you were not familiar with Connolly's 'Charlie Parker' novels, this will make you want to find out what lurks in the darkness of Parker's world.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 21:48:04 GMT
''Eight One!'' ''Eight bloody One!'' '' 'Ow's the wife?'' ''Still farting'' ''I got a job as captain of the Greasy Bastard'' ''Come round next week, and I'll show you my bubo's'' ''He contracted Dinge and Blackleg...'' ''...This is Eddie...'' A relentlessly funny show. The intro to 'Whinfrey's Last Case' always makes me laugh until I cry - the little dance to camera the butcher does is the icing on the cake.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 21:34:34 GMT
I've wasted a few hours of my time with this dreck - can anyone please tell me what the threat was, please? A wimpy Frenchman stopping water in a localised area is not much of a threat - our council do it most summers. What next? A megalomaniac who cancels dustbin collections? For the record, I think Craig is fine, but the material he's been given is shite. Matthieu Almaric was great in 'The Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec', though.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 21:11:00 GMT
Ian Marter's novelisations were always worth reading - he did so much more than just 'He said/She said'. His books are far more grown-up in content than the other books, save possibly Malcolm Hulke's. Ian Marter [who played the early Tom Baker companion Harry Sullivan, RN] wrote the novelisation of 'The Ark In Space', in which a character called Noah is infected by larvae of the alien lifeform the Wirrn. On the TV, Noah is seen briefly, as he metamorphoses, agonizingly, into a mature Wirrn. [at one point, he begs another crewmember to kill him, but this scene was cut due to the director feeling it too horrific]. In the book, each disgusting detail of Noah's change is detailed, and the effect is nightmarish. He also wrote the novelisations for: 'The Ribos Operation'; 'The Enemy Of The World'; 'Earthshock'; The Dominators'; The Invasion'; 'The Reign Of Terror', and 'The Rescue'. Sadly, he died in 1986 at the far too young age of 42.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 20:40:40 GMT
Got a superb condition copy of this from a local car-boot sale. Cost? £1. A really beautiful work. Highly recommended, as is it's follow-up, 'Hammer Glamour' [had to pay full whack for this], but it's worth it, if you're of a certain age, for the cover shot of the lovely Madeleine Smith, looking, well, for want of a better word, Yummy.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 20:02:42 GMT
I'm sure that I have this book somewhere, but with a different cover which is of a shadowed face with a pair of terrifying staring, evil eyes looking straight at you. The copy I have starts with a tale of a traveller resting at a monastery, and aquiring a key which lets him go through a door to a beautiful land, where everything is just dandy, and his ideal woman just happens to be living there. Only it isn't. It's an illusion, and his ideal woman is a Lamia [Disturbingly, I know a young woman whose daughter is called Lamia], and is sucking his blood. Anyone know the name of this story, please?
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 19:47:21 GMT
R. Thurston Hopkins was a real-life ghost hunter/writer. He came from Bury St Edmunds, where his father worked at the prison. In later life, he travelled the country, picking up weird tales, and taking part in psychical research. He went on a ghost hunt at Burwash or Gladwish wood not far from Batemans, the home of Rudyard Kipling, where a particularly unpleasant spectre was said to roam. Hopkin's tale of the thing they encountered is one of the most terrifying things I have ever read. The calm, unhurried way it is told, makes it even more appalling.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 19:29:30 GMT
I made Christmas cards with the 'Boiling Oil' picture, and there's another great picture in the book, of Morticia dressing an obviously dead Christmas tree, with Wednesday passing the 'decorations' which, if memory serves, are bats, tiny coffins, and gallows. Of course I used this as well. The recipients were delighted [apart from one, who suggested I go to a specialist]. I no longer have the book, which I gave to a friend of mine [now sadly deceased], who had a son with Downs Syndrome, and who adored The Addams Family.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 19:14:25 GMT
The talk of 'The Clangers' makes me think of another 'Smallfilms' title, viz. 'Pogles Wood'. An episode of this, featuring a particularly malignant witch, was removed from TV after one showing, and a lot of complaints. I have seen it, and it sets the ideas of 'What were they thinking of?' running through your mind. It's really dark. Another 'Smallfilms' offering was the deliciously dark 'Noggin The Nog', beautifully made and executed, but way, way too grim for the tinies.[Beowulf for beginners?]. My brother, who is over 40, still doesn't like it. It scared the bejesus out of him when he was a kid. 'Captain Pugwash' I always found strangely creepy, as was the generally sweet 'Mary, Mungo & Midge'. Creepiest of all, though, was the generally forgotten 'Sir Prancealot', another cardmation show. One episode had the Germanic bad guy with an anachronistic atomic reactor, I seem to recall. I think it was the shifty eyes of the characters. And don't get me started on 'The Hemulin' from Moomintroll, or the weird 'Twiggy' character from the 1970's 'Rupert The Bear' programme - both of which kept me looking under my brother's bed for years to reassure him that they weren't hiding there!
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Post by valdemar on Apr 4, 2012 0:01:11 GMT
I love Wordsworth editions - I've lost a few, and it costs next to nowt to replace them. I do wish, though, that they'd publish works by Arthur Machen, and Lord Dunsany. Also, as they have republished works by HP Lovecraft, it would be nice to see some Clark Ashton Smith, and Frank Belknap Long, two writers of great imagination who need a new audience.
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Post by valdemar on Apr 3, 2012 23:29:17 GMT
I have had the pleasure of reading the Pan Horror series many times, and without question, the goriest story was basically, a reportage of a factual event. I don't have any of the books now, but recall reading 'The Execution Of Damiens' when I was about 14, and it did it's job of horrifying. It's one of those stories, which, if you show it to someone, they invariably read it, and then give you the book back in silence - or cannot finish it. I don't remember the author, or in which book [possibly 12?] it appeared; but I have never forgotten it. France in the 17th Century? The Enlightenment? Not a good time to be a failed regicide...
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