alansjf
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 107
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Post by alansjf on May 28, 2008 21:19:53 GMT
The Second Book of After Midnight Stories (William Kimber, 1986)  (cover: Ionicus) Frances Stephens - Doctor Gabriel Alma Priestley - The Old Elm Ramsey Campbell - Seeing the World Derek Stanford - Ancient Lights Kelvin I. Jones - Rebecca Brian Lumley - Necros J.C. Trewin - Night Ferry Patricia Daly - Hesperios Margaret Chilvers Cooper - Napoleon to Josephine Patrick Biggie - French Lessons Rosalind Wade - Skimmer’s Leap Lanyon Jones - A Dickensian Christmas |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 29, 2016 17:04:08 GMT
The Second Book of After Midnight Stories (William Kimber, 1986) (cover: Ionicus) Frances Stephens - Doctor Gabriel Alma Priestley - The Old Elm Ramsey Campbell - Seeing the World Derek Stanford - Ancient Lights Kelvin I. Jones - Rebecca Brian Lumley - Necros J.C. Trewin - Night Ferry Patricia Daly - Hesperios Margaret Chilvers Cooper - Napoleon to Josephine Patrick Biggie - French Lessons Rosalind Wade - Skimmer’s Leap Lanyon Jones - A Dickensian Christmas The 2nd Book is so far as good as the first: Frances Stephens - Doctor Gabriel - Nurse Susan Lovell returns to the area she grew up in to keep an eye on an elderly aunt and work at Grimside Edge mental hospital. The place terrified her as a child and she finds it not much different now. Only the presence of attractive Dr. David Armstrong makes things bearable. Enjoyable, but not what I'd call a ghost story. Alma Priestly - The Old Elm - Farm worker Matt Whitson can't sleep during the night of the big storm in March 1916. He believes the fall of the Old Elm tree has predicted the death of his friend Ned stationed in France. A fine story with great atmosphere. Ramsey Campbell - Seeing the World - I have very faint but horrible childhood memories of having to sit and watch slides of relatives holiday trips projected onto their living room wall. Angela and Richard have it even worse, thanks to their obnoxious and quite scary neighbours the Hodges'. Derek Stanford - Ancient Lights - Literary journalist and author Julian Henry becomes captivated by Rosemary Cottage, "a detached late-Victorian or Edwardian villa" The title of the story is painted above one side window. The name Maurice Hughes and the image of Julian's 1890s literary creation appears to him in a dream, standing underneath a yew in the garden of Rosemary Cottage. Maurice almost takes on a life of his own. A sweet and gentle story. Kelvin I. Jones - Rebecca - Young Rebecca has to move to York when her father accepts the position of assistant curator at York City Museum. Her mother, sister and brother have been dead for two years, how is not explained. Exploring her new garden, she finds an old pendant with the Hebrew word for "Life" on it. Then a strange boy give her a message to meet "David" at the castle museum gardens. Could this be her late brother? It's all connected to the Clifford's Tower Massacre of 1190. Brian Lumley - Necros - Peter Collins is vacationing in Italy and meets Adrienne, a young and very attractive woman and her much older, less attractive husband Nichos. He's been told the legend of Necros, a vampiric creature that sucks the youth from his/her host. This couldn't be an example of that, could it? I knew I'd read it before, but it's worth re-reading. J. C. Trewin - Night Ferry - Anna travels from North Norfolk to "an odd, cold house by a Cornish river" to spend time with her fiance and his mother. One night they go to see a play and catch a ferry home. But who is the ferryman? It's not hard to guess, at least for us "Vaulters". Patricia Daly - Hesperios - Pregnant Laura Page feels a strange connection to the about-to-be-demolished old house called "Hesperios". Margaret Chilvers Cooper - Napoleon to Josephine. It's about time for an unnamed (teenage) female narrator. She and her mom live on Cape Cod, and her Aunt Josephine has just died. If you're looking for scares, you won't find them here. But the writing is good, so read it anyway. Patrick Biggie - French Lessons - A 17 year old is sent to Paris to learn French. Mlle Dubois looks ancient but is an excellent tutor. One day, an attractive young woman appears in her place. Rosalind Wade - Skimmer's Leap - Cue 2nd unnnamed female narrator, who agrees to convalesce at the home of a fellow patient after their operations. (Sooner her than me) The home is Lys Praze house in Cornwall. It's home to the Barettis, a noble family, and the ghost of their ancestor, Sir Gervase Baretti, who drowned in Skimmer's Cove in 1926. To top it off, there's a family curse that the heir will die on an anniversary of Gervase's drowning. Lanyon Jones - A Dickensian Christmas - Elderly Miss Siddlesham drives through bad weather to spend New Years at Doods Edge Hall. They provide a very Dickensian atmosphere, seeming to focus on Miss Havisham, who lies in a glass coffin in the family vault below. |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 27, 2023 18:08:41 GMT
Amy Myers (ed.) – The Second Book of After Midnight Stories (William Kimber, 1986) Frances Stephens – Doctor Gabriel
Alma Priestley – The Old Elm
Ramsey Campbell – Seeing the World
Derek Stanford – Ancient Lights
Kelvin I. Jones – Rebecca
Brian Lumley – Necros
J.C. Trewin – Night Ferry
Patricia Daly – Hesperios
Margaret Chilvers Cooper – Napoleon to Josephine
Patrick Biggie – French Lessons
Rosalind Wade – Skimmer’s Leap
Lanyon Jones – A Dickensian ChristmasBlurb: They should have pulled down the old infirmary at Grimside Edge years ago. And so she went to work there — despite nightmares, despite the tales — and despite Dr. Gabriel.
This is one of the settings in this outstanding new collection of ghost tales, all but one published here for the first time, and which range from a Dickensian Christmas to the summer holidays chillingly evoked by Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley. Frances Stephens – Doctor Gabriel: In childhood, Susan Lovell and friends would scare one another witless with (pretty good) horror stories of what went on behind the walls of Grimside Edge Infirmary. Now, aged 25, Susan is employed there as a nurse, and already the screams in the night are getting to her. Can there be some truth to the story of the doctor who couldn't bear to let go the corpse of his lover? Alma Priestley – The Old Elm: March 1916. A gale fells the ancient elm in Four Acre at the exact moment a young volunteer, Ned Mitchell, is killed in action. His ghost returns to ask a favour of the guilt-stricken friend who stayed behind to tend the farm. Patrick Biggie – French Lessons: At seventeen, his parents send him to Paris to learn French. The aged tutor, Mlle Dubois, is a frightfully strict task-mistress, which makes it the more alarming when, one afternoon, she bursts into tears while reading aloud de Maupassant's The Widow, the story of an attractive schoolteacher whose ill-judged flirtation with a thirteen-year-old pupil drives him to suicide. Soon afterward, the youth arrives for a lesson to be told Mlle Dubois is indisposed, but never fear, she's arranged for a replacement; A cruelly beautiful young woman fresh from training school ... Derek Stanford – Ancient Lights: Author Julian Henry derives inspiration from a dream of a handsome young man, 'Maurice Hughes' cruelly hunched, stood outside Rosary Cottage (formerly "Rosemary Cottage"). So begins his novel of a minor 'nineties decadent poet torn between Roman Catholicism on the one side, chorus girls and opium on the other. It's only when Julian pays a visit to the cottage that he learns his "novel" is a near flawless biography of the real Hughes, a tragic contemporary of Beardsley, Stenbock, Wilde and The Yellow Book.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 27, 2023 20:00:41 GMT
I love these books, and I REALLY love the Ionicus covers, all of which have a clock showing past midnight on them somewhere. I never found volume 5, which was when Kimber was no more and Robert Hale had taken the series over.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 28, 2023 11:51:28 GMT
I love these books, and I REALLY love the Ionicus covers, all of which have a clock showing past midnight on them somewhere. I never found volume 5, which was when Kimber was no more and Robert Hale had taken the series over. I've come to appreciate the Ionicus wraparounds - this one is very busy! - which certainly wasn't always the case. For me, the After Midnight's are natural successors to The Ghost Book, a bit staid for my dubious tastes, though never without interest.  Rick Reason ( Seeing the World, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, June 1986) : (Charles L. Grant [ed.], Shadows 7, 1984). "Ooh, he's a one, isn't he?" No sooner have they arrived home from Italy than the ghastly Hodges — Harry, Deirdre and her invalid mother — invite the next door neighbours in to view their holiday slides. Harry Hodge is no photographer, but he sure captured something down there in the catacombs. A terrific horror story, utterly incongruous in this company. Margaret Chilvers Cooper – Napoleon to Josephine: While our fourteen-year-old narrator and her widowed mum mourn the death of nice aunt Josephine, other relatives ransack her home for a will and anything else worth pocketing. The ghost waits until they've pissed off in a furious huff before guiding our heroine to a precious locket. |
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Post by andydecker on Jan 28, 2023 13:53:09 GMT
I've come to appreciate the Ionicus wraparounds - this one is very busy! - which certainly wasn't always the case. For me, the After Midnight's are natural successors to The Ghost Book, a bit staid for my dubious tastes, though never without interest. I never even knew Kimber existed before discovering them here on the Vault. My first impression was actually no, I never would have bought this. A bit too much like Gahan Wilson. But after looking them up, Ionicus won me over. This one is indeed very busy, but its such fun to linger on it, discovering something new one missed. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jan 29, 2023 17:43:50 GMT
I love these books, and I REALLY love the Ionicus covers, all of which have a clock showing past midnight on them somewhere. I've found that, as a rule of thumb, any Kimber book with an Ionicus cover is worth checking out. |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 30, 2023 15:09:42 GMT
Brian Lumley – Necros: (Karl E. Wagner (ed.) , Years Best Horror Stories #15, 1987). Peter Collins, student doctor, books a holiday on the Italian coast to get over a "Dear John" from Linda. The young man can't believe his luck when Adrienne, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, slips him her room key, tells him to come up tomorrow while her rich, shrivelled husband is on business elsewhere. Peter gets to wondering if this is some kind of set up — nothing great ever happens to him. His concern is justified. The clue is in the insult an old woman spits after the mismatched husband and wife as they drive past in a limo. J.C. Trewin – Night Ferry: Returning from the theatre in a terrible storm, Anna and Edward are stranded among a crowd of lugubrious types on the wrong side of the river. Surely there'll be no ferry over to Cornwall in these conditions? This being an After Midnight, they've picked the one night of the year Charon performs a goodwill crossing for the living. Patricia Daly – Hesperios: Demolition of a Victorian nursing home reveals the skeleton in the Duval family wardrobe. Miss Emma Palmer, 19, governess to the Duval's little girl, died giving birth to the master's illegitimate son. Laura Page, newly moved in next door to the condemned building and pregnant with her first child, relives Emma's desperate final days in her dreams.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 31, 2023 11:59:08 GMT
Kelvin I. Jones – Rebecca: A Jewish schoolgirl, newly arrived in York from East London, finds a silver Hewbrew locket in the grounds of Clifford Tower, scene of a twelfth century anti-Semitic massacre. Rebecca brings peace to the restless spirit of a previous incarnation.
Rosalind Wade – Skimmer’s Leap: Cam Crows, Cornwall. A witch's curse on the house of Barretti sees a series of Baronets suffer accidental death on the anniversary of a double drowning. Our narrator, convalescing after a serious illness, picks the right year for a visit.
Lanyon Jones – A Dickensian Christmas: An elderly spinster, escapes to Doods Edge Hall on the Kent marshes to enjoy a "Christmas pilgrimage to the past." Miss Dorothy Siddlersham, the lone guest due a snow blizzard, certainly gets her money's worth. The host, Mr. Humbleby — wearing Pickwick drag for the occasion; Jolyon, his devilishly handsome son, is Pip — allocates her the Jacob Marley room, with a promise of three ghostly visitations by dawn. Meanwhile in the family vault, the perfectly preserved corpse of the original Miss Havisham stirs in her glass coffin ......
Three very strong stories to end on, with Rebecca providing perhaps the books most harrowing passages.
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