John Burke - What and Where they are

[Calenture]

Jun 27, 2008 7:17:02 GMT @allthingshorror said:

Maybe we should have a John Burke section on the site if there isn't one already, this place can get too bloody big at times! What do you think Dem?

Of course, there's no telling what Dem will think of having a John Burke section, you know what he's like, so we'll just have to sneak this in quietly.

Film tie-ins:

The Hammer Horror Omnibus
The Gorgon
The Curse of Frankenstein
The Revenge of Frankenstein
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

Second Hammer Horror Omnibus
The Reptile
Dracula - Prince of Darkness
Rasputin - The Mad Monk
Plague of the Zombies

The Man Who Finally Died
Dr Terror's House of Horrors
Dad's Army
Strange Report

Short stories:

Party Games Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories
False Harmonic The Ninth Ghost Book
And cannot come again New Tales of Unease (Editor)
A Comedy of Terrors Ninth Pan Book of Horror Stories
Leave of Absence The Bumper Book of Ghost Stories
The Custodian The Bumper Book of Ghost Stories
Flitting Tenant The Seventh Ghost Book
Incubus For Hire My Blood Ran Cold
Don't You Dare 65 Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural

[dem]

There's plenty of John Burke scattered about on here, most likely more to come - for example, his collection We've Been Waiting For You and Other Tales of Unease (Ash Tree, 2000) looks well tasty. You could even drag in loads of non-genre novelisations of crap TV shows like Angels, The Bill, East**ders too. I'm loath to add any more sections as we've miles too many already, so it would have to be a sub-board in 'favourite authors' and, of course, not everyone likes sub-boards. Robert Bloch's another author who turns up in all sorts of crooks and cranny's and I've also been wondering about lumping together all the threads relating to him.

Any ideas ....?

[allthingshorror]

Calenture - brilliant.

And as much as I love John to bits - I just couldnt bring myself to scan in my copy of a Londons Burning novel by him that I found for 5p.

[Johnlprobert]

Well here's my review of John Burke's Ash-Tree collection, written a few years ago now:

John Burke is probably best known for the film novelisations he wrote in the 1960s including the Hammer Horror Film Omnibus (Volumes 1 & 2) and Dr Terror's House of Horrors. He was also the European story editor for Twentieth Century-Fox and wrote the screenplay for the 1967 Boris Karloff film "The Sorcerers". During his long career he has also written a number of short stories, 22 of which are collected here. Subtitled `Tales of Unease', this is one of the latest collections by small press publisher Ash Tree, who have been responsible for reprinting some excellent collections over the past few years. There are quite a few gems to be discovered (or rediscovered) here. `A Comedy of Terrors' is a snappy sick little satire of the 1960s British horror movie industry. `For You, the Possessed' is the ultimate paranoia tale, and `Collaboration' is a lovely story about a lady becoming a best-selling author with the help of her ghost-in-residence. The book is rounded off by `And Cannot Come Again', written by Burke one clear sunny day in Prague. Like a couple of other stories in this collection, political machinations have a part to play in the themes of unease and desperation which develop as the story progresses. Another highly recommended collection from this particular publishing house.

[dem]

Thanks for that, Lord P.! I'm afraid I don't have a decent cover scan, but here's the full contents.

John Burke - We've Been Waiting For You and Other Tales of Unease (Ash Tree Press, 2000)

Introduction - Nicholas Royle
Foreword - John Burke

The Loiterers (8th Ghost Book)
The Lost Child (Lie Ten Nights Awake)
Party Games (Pan Horror #6)
Don't You Dare (Splinters)
Casualty (6th Ghost Book)
Lucille Would Have Known (New Terrors #2)
Flitting Tenant (7th Ghost Book)
Handfast
Calculated Nightmare Collaboration'
Leave of Absence (10th Ghost Book)
The Right Ending
False Harmonic (9th Ghost Book)
One Day You'll Learn (Darklands #2)
The Tourists (Tandem Horror #3)
Be Our Guest (More Tales Of Unease)
For You, The Possessed
A Game of Consequences (Scaremongers)
A Comedy of Terrors (Pan Horror #9)
The Custodian (11th Ghost Book)
We've Been Waiting For You
And Cannot Come Again (New Tales Of Unease)

Limited edition of 500 copies

[carolinec]

Jun 27, 2008 13:33:09 GMT dem said:

You could even drag in loads of non-genre novelisations of crap TV shows like Angels, The Bill, East**ders too.

Hey, I'll have you know I'm a fan of The Bill (think it's the police uniforms! )

[pulphack]

well, strictly speaking he wrote the story on which The Sorcerors is based - Tom Baker (not that one) wrote the screenplay with Michael Reeves' input (as they did with Witchfinder General. for years i thought it was a novel rather than a short.

his The Weekend Girls is a novel published by Pan in the mid-sixties, and an original at that. a great psychological thriller that would have been a natural for a jimmy sangster screenplay or a touch of the bunny lakes.

and let us not forget that as robert miall he also wrote two UFO tie-ins (which are ok) and the two Jason King books, which take the great-character-but-poor series and makes the script conversions into a readable novel. craft, mate, that's what it is...