Ramsey Campbell - Uncanny Banquet

[dem bones]

Ramsey Campbell (ed.) - Uncanny Banquet (Warner, 1993: Little Brown, 1992)

Introduction - Ramsey Campbell

Russell Kirk - Behind The Stumps
Dorothy K. Haynes - A Horizon Of Obelisks
Alison Prince - The Loony
Henry Normanby - The First-Nighter
Fritz Leiber - The Hill And The Hole
Robert Aickman - Ravissante
Donald Wandrei - The Lady In Gray
Walter de la Mare - A Mote
Ramsey Campbell - McGonagall In The Head
Adrian Ross - The Hole Of The Pit

"This is a book for people who love tales of the supernatural rather than of gross gruesomeness, or who would like to find out if they do" writes RC in his - too brief - introduction, so it will be interesting to see how it goes down with someone who is partial to both. It's certainly an extremely eclectic selection. The Loony is from a 'children's' book (Mary Danby's Nightmares 2, Armada, 1984), The Hole Of The Pit is a 'lost', reputedly Jamesian novel first published in 1914, the Wandrei story is from Weird Tales and Campbell's own effort is bang up to date.

Includes:

Henry Normanby - The First-Nighter: "Let it be recorded, as evidence of my obsession, that I groped with my hands in that ghastly casket. The occupant had ceased to be definite and had become amorphous. It was no longer a cold, silent shape but a soft yielding mass ..."

Top nocturnal exhumation action as the narrator is compelled to retrieve the manuscript of a play buried alongside it's author, fifty years dead. Otherwise he'll never be free of the author's lugubrious ghost.

Ramsey Campbell - McGonagall In The Head; Don Drake, a young reporter on the local newspaper, is put in charge of the 'Births, Deaths & Marriages' announcements. When a wheezing man dictates his own epitaph over the 'phone, Drake thinks its a wind-up by a despised rival. It isn't, and when the old boy dies his son complains furiously to the editor. A bewildered Drake cracks up, seemingly unable to speak in anything other than dreadful rhyming couplets until the inevitable explosion of violence.

I first read this in a Best Horror annual of some kind and didn't think much of it. A few years on and I'd still not put this up there with the best of his work.

Alison Prince - The Loony: Cathy and her parents move into Blackstone Villa, once the home/ prison of a violent madwoman who starved to death when her carer, Mrs. Knarr, did a runner. Cathy is given the room where the wretched woman lived and died. Her recurring nightmares suggest that history is about to be repeated. Scary horror for young adults, the kind of story approved by Campbell in his intro to the magnificent The Gruesome Book. It certainly doesn't seem out of place in Uncanny Banquet.

Russell Kirk - Behind The Stumps: Cribben, an officious census taker, ignores all warning from the good people of Poltawattomie to forget all about the Gholson family and heads out for their farm. Old Mrs. G demonstrates that there is more to her witch reputation than local superstition.

Adrian Ross - The Hole Of The Pit:Christ, but to write a synopsis of The Hole Of The Pit is difficult! The pace is so s-l-o-w that it takes ages until the horror creeps in, but when it does and the slimebeast from the pit claims its first victim, everything takes a turn for the better. Be warned though: it requires patience. The cod-archaic prose style and very leisurely development might put off our out-and-out 'Give me Night Of The Crabs or give me death!" merchants. On its original publication it ran the dedication "Montague Rhodes James, Provost of Kings and Teller of Ghost Stories" but I've not seem much of his influence - yet. I'm gonna have to come back to it.

Thanks to Franklin Marsh, Master Of The Macabre!

[sean]

Looking forward to your thoughts on the Aickman story Dem! I found it to be one of those 'what the fuck?' tales that manage to make you uneasy without quite knowing why.

Leiber's 'The Hill and the Hole' is pretty good, although not the best story from 'Night's Black Agents'. Oh, and the Adrian Ross novel is worth sticking with - there are just enough creepy setpieces to make it worthwhile, although the style of writing does plod at times.

[dem bones]

It's lined up for a rematch once I'm through with Devil Daddy. You know, I've read Ravissante at least three times and "enjoyed" it, but as with most of Aickman's work, I find it beyond my meagre anti-literary powers to nail down my thoughts on just about any of his strange, beautiful and quietly despairing stories. It's like i'm trying to describe what Trout Mask Replica (or, indeed the splendid Giant Albino Penguin sampler - i'm playing A Quiet Moment VERY LOUD as I type) sounds like to my mum when I'm not armed with a copy or something. Anything more challenging than The Graveyard Rats and I'm knackered, basically.

I didn't really get into The Hole Of The Pit but I'm not so worried about that. It strikes me that it's one that will improve on a second and third read.

Fritz Leiber - The Hill And The Hole: Tom Digby of the state Geological Survey team is forced to revise his "the supernatural is bunkum" stance while attempting to map a stretch of hillside. A strange little girl warns him that they will crawl out of the pit and kill him just as they did the last fellow who came snooping around. Yeah, right! And who are they exactly? Walking skeletons, you say? Neat! Unfortunately for Tom's colleague Ben Shelley, she's telling the truth ....

Dorothy K. Haynes - A Horizon Of Obelisks: Incredibly gloomy account of a man's first hours after returning from the grave due to the freezing cold weather.

[jonathan122]

A great collection, although Campbell's own story seems a bit out of place, and Haynes's didn't really go anywhere particularly interesting. Never mind, the Ross, Normanby and Wandrei stories went straight to the top of my favourites list.