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Post by dem on Jan 6, 2008 12:49:46 GMT
Alex Hamilton - Beam Of Malice (Hutchinson, 1966; Corgi, 1968) The Baby-sitters
What's Your Problem?
The Jinx
The Words Of The Dumb
Only A Game
Dodensraum
Last Resource
A Glutton For Punishment
To Start A Hare
The Attic Express
Recall
Kiss Of Death
Breakaway
Many A Slip
SearchlightBack cover blurb: Alex Hamilton's stories are conspicuous for their imaginative power, and will provide deliciously unpleasant bedside reading. One at least of these stories, 'The Attic Express' (which the front cover illustration portrays) is a classic of the horror genre. John Burke dubbed his series of anthologies Tales Of Unease as opposed to 'horror stories' and no surprise to find Hamilton among the contributors as deceptively quiet, disturbing tales were something of a speciality of his. I'm not in any shape to do a 'review' just now, so you'll have to take my word for it that these are far more interesting than I make them sound  The Baby-sitters: Selwyn and Muriel Chievely are out partying for the night so they hire a pleasant young couple to mind the children. Both are charmers and have soon ensnared their respective Chievely in mild flirtation. They tell them to go and enjoy themselves while they pass the evening getting on with their work, "Correlating, linking, blending, cross-indexing, all that sort of stuff", and they're certainly industrious. While the Chievely's are off gallivanting they get very busy indeed .... Breakaway: Tom Harris is separated from the rest of the expedition when a huge chunk of polar ice cap breaks away from the parent body and sets him adrift in the Arctic. At first he's perfectly content with his lot: he has all the provisions and the boys back at the camp will soon have a rescue party organised. But, as the Wire fans among us are aware, "as the water gets warmer my iceberg gets smaller" and very soon it's a question of which will disintegrate first: "Old Tyrant" (as Tom calls his alternate mobile home) or his mind ... Only A Game: Under her mother's insistence, Jill reluctantly brings little sister Charlotte along to play with she and her friends at the chalk pits on the White Pig Downs. Char is a spoilt pain in the arse and, true to form, has soon annoyed the older kids. Then one of the boys suggests a game of hide and seek ... To be continued ....
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 20, 2008 16:43:25 GMT
From Ash-Tree Press this combines his 1966 collection Beam of Malice, the 1972 collection Flies on the Wall & two stories from The Christmas Pudding that Shook the World.
For someone who started his career in horror with the Pan series and had associations with Charles Birkin, these stories are..well...not very horrific. Some of them are certainly weird. I'll provide summaries as I go through:
The Baby Sitters - I'm about halfway through the book at the moment and this is one of the better entries. Couple go out leaving their kids with baby sitters and when they come back the locks have been changed and the sitters claim they've been living there for years.
What's Your Problem? Young Lorne is being taken literally for a ride by Terry-Thomas clone Mr Philip who shows her some lovely places where they might settle down before revealing his less than honourable intentions towards her
The Jinx - Polish man who is, well - see the title
The Words of the Dumb - This has been in a Pan book. Justin Thyme (oh God) impersonates animals on film for a living, spends his free time talking to his friends at the zoo and then goes a bit nuts, but not enough to provide a socking ending to this story
Only a Game - Little children play hide & seek that goes wrong
Dodensraum - Grave digger discovers there just isn't enough space for all the dead people around nowadays.
Last Resource - Couple shipwrecked on a desert island do Lord of the Flies. A bit.
Glutton for Punishment - Caspar Henry is looking for the perfect woman and eventually finds her in a story witha quite lovely ending.
To Start a Hare - Two boys plot to escape from public school but get rumbled by their colleagues. Little bastards.
The Attic Express - Model-train mad Hector Coley can't understand why his son isn't as enthusiastic as he about the massive model train set he has put together. When he find himself shrunk to tiny size and on the layout it's full steam ahead as his little boy takes hold of the controls
Recall - Bunch of people stuck in limbo
Kiss of Death - Lady waits for her husband. And waits. And waits.
Many a Slip - Peterkin Lock thinks he has met the girl of his dreams. just wait until she gets undressed...
More later
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Post by dem on Aug 20, 2008 17:10:37 GMT
I made a start on Beam Of Malice not so long ago but got distracted by Eat Them Alive and that was that. I think you're right: he can be a little too subtle for his own good, though the image of the odious bully Mr. Coley trying to escape from the speeding model train has stayed with me since way back when. From addled memory, Breakaway - diary of a man cast adrift on an iceberg - is excellent as is Not Enough Poison which has more than a sprinkle of Birkin about it. Is Dead Men Walk included? Could be wrong, but I seem to recall something about zombies in the Orkney's!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 7, 2008 12:00:09 GMT
Special Number: Number-plate collecting obsessive gets come-uppance from like-minded colleagues
Below the Shadow: Utterly bizarre dialogue-driven piece about a man whose life is seemingly ruined by his wife & he ends up strangling her. Or not. Or something else entirely
Not Enough Poison: From Pan 9, one of my least favourtite stories in one of my most favourite of volumes, despite some nudity. It's oh so hot, and the ants are being fumigated next door. Where will they go when it gets too much? Oh dear. Could have benefited from less chat and more ant massacre. Or am I just asking too much?
Flagging a bit with this one I must say
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Post by paulfinch on Nov 20, 2009 23:20:35 GMT
A fascinating situation has developed here, John.
I read A BEAM OF MALICE quite recently. Of all the stories in there, I only saw fit to add THE ATTIC EXPRESS to my now legendary (in my own mind that is) list of the best horror stories ever written (the list alone now runes to over 80s pages; that's how long I've been at it and how fucking sad I am). Yet the tasters you present in this thread make several of the stories sound interesting enough for me to have another crack at them. So I've got the book out again.
Do NOT disappoint me, dear boy!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 23, 2009 10:43:54 GMT
Well Paul I hope you'll take note of the fact that I was rather underwhelmed by this collection, and in fact it was a bit of a struggle for me to finish it!
If your reading of it suggests any stories I should revisit I'd love to know.
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Post by paulfinch on Nov 23, 2009 15:15:45 GMT
Well Paul I hope you'll take note of the fact that I was rather underwhelmed by this collection, and in fact it was a bit of a struggle for me to finish it! If your reading of it suggests any stories I should revisit I'd love to know. I did indeed note that John. Never fear. I really enjoyed THE ATTIC EXPRESS, but yes, the others didn't really strike me as full-on horror stories. Not a bad thing in itself of course, but that's what I was looking for when I first bought the book. |
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