Mary Danby - Fontana Horror 7

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Mary Danby (ed.) - The 7th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories (Fontana, 1972)

"More Malevolent Morsels From 13 Fiends of Fiction!"

Winston Graham - The Basket Chair
Gerald Kersh - Comrade Death
Robert Bloch - The Mannikin
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle - The Horror Of The Heights
Marjorie Bowen - Florence Flannery
M. R. James - A View From A Hill
Dennis Wheatley - The Snake
Celia Fremlin - Angel Face
Thomas Hood - A Tale Of Terror
Dylan Thomas - The Old Woman Upstairs
Sax Rohmer - Tcheriapin
C. S. Forester - The Turn Of The Tide
Mary Danby - The Secret Ones

Includes:

Winston Graham - The Basket Chair: Convalescing after a heart attack, the invalid war hero Julien Whiteleaf moves in with his niece Agatha and her genial husband Roy. Whiteleaf has a reputation as a fair-minded, level headed spokesman for various paranormal investigation societies "with long names and short membership lists" and finds much of interest in a chair Agatha purchased from a grand old house down Swindon way. Agatha dutifully finds out what she can about the seemingly haunted chair's origins and there is indeed a grim history. Captain Covent was hideously disfigured during the Battle of the Somme and, on learning of his wife's infidelity, he tied her to a chair and watched her starve to death before cutting his throat. Whiteleaf notes in his diary: "I wonder if this chair, this basket chair was the one Captain Covent sat in? Or was it hers?" He doesn't have long to wait to find out. But are things quite as they appear?

Robert Bloch - The Mannikin: Simon Maylore is born with the beginnings of a twin growing out of his back. As he attains manhood, so the hump becomes more pronounced - it has now grown a head, torso and arms: it can even speak (“More blood, Simon. I want more.”) The vampiric growth achieves domination over its host and Simon is manipulated into performing black magic rituals. The growth is intent on raising the Elder Gods versus mankind.

Sax Rohmer - Tcheriapin: A celebrated violinist, famed for his tortured composition The Black Mass gravitates toward Dr. Kreener ("a Don Juan of science") and his Soho bohemian set. Kreener has developed a process whereby he can reduce and preserve flowers and even animals to a gem-like state. As yet, he hasn't experimented on a human being but Tcheriapin's constant goading of fiery Scot Andrews provides a perfect opportunity.

Dylan Thomas - The Old Woman Upstairs: She's been dying ever since Martha can remember but still hangs on grimly. Martha knows the semi-mummified old relic keeps a fortune stashed beneath her mattress. Time to give nature a helping hand.

Thomas Hood - A Tale Of Terror: An aeronaut takes a volunteer up in his hot air balloon only to discover that his passenger is an escaped lunatic. Three pages of hysterical gothic melodrama ensue.

Celia Fremlin - Angel Face: Never tell a bright, introverted seven year old boy that there really are such things as angels and they appear to good little boys. Otherwise, like Simon, they will let their imaginations dream up nightmarish vulture like beings climbing the stairs at night, and drive their step-mother's mad through sleep deprivation.

C. S. Forester - Turn Of The Tide: Lawyer Slade is facing disgrace and when his young colleague Spalding proves impervious to corruption, Slade kills him thuggee style then drags the weighted body across the beach and into the sea. So much for there being no such thing as the perfect murder. But ....

Mary Danby - The Secret Ones: Adventures of three resilient rats - husband, wife and wife's sister - who make home in the attic of a family mourning the death of their little daughter ...

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Marjorie Bowen - Florence Flannery: (The Regent, Dec 1924). A brilliant, properly horrible hate story spanning three centuries. When flighty Florence Flannery tired of her lover, she informed husband, John Shute, the captain of The Phoenix of her affair. Shute had the amorous fellow rowed to an island, bound to the stone idol of a fish God and left to rot. The doomed man called upon the deity to let him live until he is avenged on the treacherous Flo.

Three hundred years later, Daniel Shute returns to Devon and the long-neglected family home with recently acquired wife, former opera singer, Florence Flannery. It is clear from the off that they detest one another. Alcoholic, mindful of too many creditors discovering their whereabouts ("Better rot here than in the Fleet"), Shute refuses to leave the estate. Their lives are intolerable. Florence hates that, in the grounds, there is a gravestone bearing her name and "Borne 1500," no death date. Neither can she bear the groundsman, Paley, a former sailor, who spends his days beside the pond, holding vigil for a giant pike. There's just .... something of the dark about him ....