Pan 15 - The Effervescing Skull!

[dem bones]

another bodge, hack & paste job from the old place to get us started.

Herbert Van Thal (ed.) - The 15th Pan Book Of Horror Stories ed. (1974)

David Case - Among the Wolves
Morag Greer - Under the Flagstone
Conrad Hill - Amanda Excrescens
Sally Franklin - Quieta Non Movere
Maggie Webb - Dark Reflections
John Keefauver - Scream!
Roger Dunkley - A Problem Called Albert
Harry Turner - Fingers
Alex White - On the Box
Charles Thornton - Sanctuary – For the Piped
Morag Greer - The Gates Were Locked
Conrad Hill - Wally


David Case - Among The Wolves: Another excellent Case novella, this one revived from the mighty Fengriffen And Other Stories: why wasn't he massive?

While researching the habits of wolves in the wild, ecologist Edward Claymore lost a leg in a bear trap. Prior to hacking it off, he spent hours surrounded by the pack, showing sufficient guts and will to live for them to leave him be. The incident has coloured his thinking as to how society should deal with its burdens, the infirm, the weak and retarded. Could Claymore be in some way connected with the recent spate of sadistic murders under investigation by Inspector Smart and his team, or is there some supernatural menace loose on the community?

Morag Greer - Under The Flagstones: A couple chance upon a little boy digging up graves in the cemetery and removing the juiciest bones. The girl faints but the ghoul-boy, Ira, revives her by laying his finger on her eyes and lips and whispering in her ear: whereupon she rises, dusts herself down and departs with her astonished fiancé in tow. "Come on, darling ... good little boy. I hope we meet again some time." The spell he has cast on her suggests they will. For me, #15th's hidden gem.

Alex White - On the Box: Divorcee Pamela - 'Pim Pim' to her friends - meets handsome barrister's clerk Archie at a party. Archie moonlights as a stage magician: "Rabbits out of hats, cards up my sleeves, streamers from your hair, sawing a woman in half. That sort of thing."

Girl meets boy, girl is dismembered by boy. Read one after the other, White's stories present a world view for which the word 'bleak' is hardly adequate. I'd so love it if Alex White is still around and chances upon this board one day when she's feeling chatty ....

Conrad Hill - Wally: Absurdist adventures of an improbably over-sized infant who eats anything he can fit in his mouth. False ending adds to "wackiness" factor.

Franklin Marsh wrote;

Pan 15 - The Effervescing Skull!

That's right Dem - give it all away! After the Fengriffen epic I've dug out what Pans I have to attempt a Caseathon. Among The Wolves is a great example of the man's work. The first half is a very intriguing murder mystery (with a scene in a mortuary - the attendant is reading a lurid paperback.) which I enjoyed. The second section is basically a monologue in a natural history museum, but very gripping. I was a little disappointed we didn't really return to the events of the first bit, but overall the story was very satisfying.

Read Alex White's story last night - quite depressing. SPOILER - Shame we don't know much about her (Alex not Pim-Pim). There must be something behind all these girl-gets-picked-up-and-offed-horribly stories.

Reading the above looks like I'd better try some of the others.

Calenture wrote;

Speaking of spoilers, how about Morag Greer's other story in this anthology, The Gates Were Locked. As I remember it, I really enjoyed this one years back; but that title suggests she had enormous faith in her own ability to engage the reader... so much so that she believed they would forget the story's title!

I did!

Skiprat101 wrote;

Morag Greer's 'Under The Flagstone' is, IMHO, the vilest and most memorably nasty story in the collection - possibly in any of these collections. The description of the gluttonous feast is grue-inducingly horrible. This, for me, is the source of all my childhood memories of the Pan Books.

Matt

I'm not sure who, but I think it was either Calenture or John L. Probert wrote:

Whatever happened to Conrad Hill? I haven't read this book since the early eighties but I can still remember passages from his two contributions to this volume:

'ere Pete there's some mad bloke on the phone going on about having no feet and being attacked by mushrooms'

and how can anyone forget:

'Wally shot past the police car on the motorbike at 90mph. Nude. With no lights

Or words to that effect.

Bushwick wrote:

Big thanks to Franklin for sending me a very nice condition copy of this. I went straight to the Alex White story...and I thought it was nicely written and well constructed, but after the grim sadness of The Clinic, I found this one quite schlocky and actually pretty funny. Not really disturbing, although the line "Silly, horrible, thrusting, sexy old bitch" is certainly a winner.

Read "Wally" yesterday and thought it was a good laugh. Totally different mood to "The Man And The Boy" by the same author, which was just nastily real. "Wally" is a bit of a crazy mix eh? Very broad humour, bit of a Struwwelpeter-style cautionary tale as well I thought (warning against vanity and self-interest like a lot of these moral tales), some very grisly descriptions and the false ending/addressing the reader is, dare I say it and excuse my pretentiousness, a bit post-modern? It's not a classic but it did make me smile.

Also read "Sanctuary - For The Piped" and thought this one was a bit pointless all told... would have been a lot better illustrated by Ghastly Graham Ingels in a copy of Vault Of Horror...as a short story it was a bit, "...and?".

Almost forgot..."Under The Flagstone" was excellent. Really vividly written with a very imaginative backstory to it, poetic and very nasty.

There really is a mix of stuff in these books eh? In terms of 'quality' (subjective I know), style, mood, and lasting impact. I do like the sadistic stuff best though...hehe...

[Craig Herbertson]

Morag Greer - Under The Flagstones: particularly nasty, atmospheric and memorable story

[Red Hook]

You can say that again....

Thanks to the kindness of Johnny-allthingshorror I received a copy of PAN15 yesterday in the mail and this morning coincidentally read UTF by Ms. Greer with my morning coffee. Luckily, I hadn't eaten anything solid before I began.

Much too large a helping of the kind of horror that veers into sadism for my tastes, but I've definitely become more of a wimp in my old age.

Among the Wolves was in another class entirely, but I finished it with the feeling that there was some interesting character development left unfinished. A bit wordy, (I think breaking it up into smaller paragraphs at certain points would have helped the flow) but overall more truly atmospheric, and it reminded me a bit of the unnerving scenario from Algernon Blackwoods "The Wendigo".

This is my first reading of a Pan Horror volume. Thanks again Johnny!

Red

[dem bones]

Harry E. Turner - Fingers: "What I am about to tell you is considerably unpleasant. Indeed, I would go so far as to say it is a tale of exceptional hideousness."

Lonsdale Prince, another of Turner's beloved globetrotting adventurers and raconteurs, invites journalist Joan Hope to his lavish Yorkshire mansion, Caspar Hall, on the promise of giving her a major scoop. His tale concerns the cycloptic Oguka, powerful witchdoctor of the Namba tribe of Malekula in the New Hebrides, who performed a miracle for his people when all the women were made infertile by a plague: nonchalantly cutting off his finger, he pointed the severed digit at the womenfolk who fell instantly pregnant. Charles Taylor, scoundrel, blackguard, journalist scumbag, steals the mummified relic, convinced that this will cure his wife's inability to bear children, but cuts loose and runs off with a gold-digging younger model (and his wife's substantial fortune) when she gives birth to a monster child and is committed to a mental asylum through the shock of the experience. To learn the final chapter of Lonsdale's macabre story, and where he fits in, Turner requests Ms. Hope accompany him downstairs where all will be made clear ...

Very entertaining beast in the cellar hi-jinks with Lonsdale Prince coming on very 'Warwick' throughout! Lord Probert, if you're reading this: any chance of posting the details for The Man Who Could Hear The Fishes Scream.

Maggie Ross - Dark Reflections: Cheated upon by her husband, she wills him to death. *Shrug* It's late. Maybe i'm missing something.

Charles Thornton - Sanctuary: For The Piped: As though beckoned by an unseen hand - they came. A black carnivorous tide, leaping, clawing and biting in their avarice.". Cog Street has been earmarked for demolition, but defiant spinster Nelly Crupp refuses to be uprooted from her home. She has her ever-multiplying colony of rats to provide for after all, even if it's fast becoming financially impossible to keep them in food ...

[dem bones]

Conrad Hill - Amanda Excrescens: The narrator has a morbid obsession with mushrooms and his comprehensive knowledge of the subject comes in hand when he decides to poison his wife. After slicing Amanda into manageable pieces, he buries them in an open field and, over the ensuing weeks, records the remarkable growth of a new species of mushroom - a toadstool whose fruit cap bears a distorted likeness of his dead wife's face. The voracious fungi, Amanda Excrescens, rapidly devours all organic matter in it's vicinity as it heads toward the house ....

John Keefauver - Scream!: After witnessing a cockfight in Manilla, Mr. Angelois is plagued by nightmares in which he metamorphosizes into one of the participants. By the time he agrees to see the psychiatrist, Angelois has had 38 fights, won them all and killed his opponent every time. Some mornings, he even wakes to find blood on the sheets. And each day the newspaper brings another report of a vicious murder ...

Roger Dunkley - A Problem Called Albert: When Albert leaves a decapitated vole on the back doorstep, Henry Wortle decides it's time to have him neutered. Wife Maud reluctantly agrees. Unable to have children, Maud looks upon Albert as "her baby" which, as it happens, goes in her favour when Albert returns home, hungrier and more evil than ever!

Minor Globewatch moment: "Henry looked up from behind his paper where 'Languid Lulu, 38-23-38; hobbies: sunbathing and posing', was sunbathing and posing extravagantly across the center pages .."

[footeater]

I liked A Problem Called Albert, but then I usually like Roger Dunkley - he's like an edgier version of Roald Dahl. There was a story of his which might have been in one of the Fontanas which featured an image that has always stuck with me: that of a psychiatrist listening to a patient lying on a couch while he, the psychiatrist, sits behind the patient and swivels in his chair and forces his fist into his own mouth to stop himself from screaming with boredom.

[erebus]

Although UNDER THE FLAGSTONES. FINGERS and of course WALLY are without the standouts in this volume I am glad someone praised THE GATES WERE LOCKED. I thought it was another ho hum dull ghostie tale but this one is rather well written and has an effective pay off and its enjoyable.
SCREAM and DARK REFLECTIONS are the basic fillers IMO .AMONG THE WOLVES sadly is a little overlong for such a basic outcome . And AMANDA EXCRESCENS is another of those leafy, mushroomy , viney , plants attack stories that always popped up from time to time.

[allthingshorror]

Maggie Webb is the pseudonym for Samantha Lee - Pan #18 and #27.

[markmorb]

Anyone know who is repsonsible for the cover artwork on this one?

[noose]

Could be a possible Kirby painting as he did the covers for 13 and 14.

[markmorb]

Nov 24, 2010 12:31:47 GMT @noose said:

Could be a possible Kirby painting as he did the covers for 13 and 14.

Is that Josh Kirby? It could possibly be a manipulated photograph...I'll have a deeper dig around..

Thanks,

[noose]

Another suspect could also be W F Phillips, who I think may have done the painting for 16 - though I may be wrong.

[marcgreenman]

currently in the process of re-reading this series, have only tried a few so far but this volume looks like being a good one. just finished among the wolves and under the flagstones last night. the first story reaffirms my opinion that case is a great writer, absolutely gripped by this story, and of course the ending is absolutely hideous. the hunter was pretty good, but wolves is even better. under the flagstone was also extremely good, a family of ghouls or vampires (?) and a very unpleasant demise for their luckless victim. now keen on reading the rest and getting more volumes!

[charliegrenville]

Again, a mixed bag- and one that doesn't bring back GREAT memories of my childhood, but one with plenty of delights for the perseverant.



Belive it or not, I still haven't read EITHER of Morag Greer's stories, but now I thoroughly intend to...if they are as incredible as people say. I must admit, I always loved a nice, long, drawn out epic with a portentous title, and THE GATES WERE LOCKED sounds right up that particular spooky lane, so I shall enjoy getting doon to it...see, I'm talking Scoootish already...



Of the ones I did read, though, I seem to remember SCREAM being great, a nice short sharp shock with a touch of humour, and far less 'pity me' than Keefauver's earlier, first-person, melodramatic epics like KALI. Anyone know anything about him by the way? DARK REFLECTIONS made little sense at the time, but seems quite interestingly psychotropic, if a little pointless, now: AMANDA EXCRESENS is a great title, but not so great a tale, and its disjointed shorthand structure is difficult to follow, especially when, as I did at the time, you get someone to read it out to you from the hall while you're having a bath!!



SANCTUARY FOR THE PIPED is sad, WALLY is ludicrous, hilarious, and full of wonderful imagery, just like FINGERS and A PROBLEM CALLED ALBERT, and as for ON THE BOX- well, here we go again, the wonderful world of Alex White. Except that from what I've been led to believe, "she" was this series' Alan Smithee, a pseudonym for a variety of Pan regulars offloading their most disgusting material. And yes, the blatant sadism is disturbing, as with many White tales, but to be honest, I was more concerned about the fate of the rabbit than Pim-Pim herself. Archie's description of her should win some sort of award, though...



I haven't read QUIETA NON MOVERE, nor have I plunged into AMONG THE WOLVES yet...I know I said I like a long'un, but David Case (I knew his brothers, by the way: Head, Suitable and Open And Shut) can be heavy going, especially right at the start of the book, and especially when the title gives away exactly what we're getting. MORE bloody werewolves!!! Have a day off already!!



One to return to then, but not a classic by any means.

[andydecker]

Onward to No. 15.

I will save the Case to the last. As with others Pans I seriously question the wisdom to begin with such a long story. It would have been better as the last entry. As a reader of Pan I want a lot of short stories to get in the mood, not a novella to start with.

Morag Greer - Under the Flagstone

Fantasy – the ghoul family living among the tombstones  – combined with the usual Pan sadism. It is all a bit Tanith Lee. I liked it a lot.

Conrad Hill - Amanda Excrescens

Bertie not only gave us horror, but educational tales too. So many infos about fungus. Absolutly loved the tone, the footnotes and the straight faced narrative. I hope when my foot rots off I will take it as cool as the professor did.

Sally Franklin - Quieta Non Movere

Agatha Christie meets Midsomer Murders. The skeleton in the shed of aunties house in the country. Those wacky old birds. Uncommon soft for the brand, this story could easily have been in Ellery Queen's or so.

Maggie Webb - Dark Reflections

And here I was begining to miss the 'kill the rotten spouse' tale which was such a trademark of Pan. It was well written, on the other hand it offered nothing new. This also is more a crime story than a horror story. She should have stabbed instead of poisoning him.

John Keefauver - Scream!

Robert Bloch wrote quite a few of these psychiatrist tales. At least it had an interesting antagonist and the delusion was original. Attack of the big Cock. Nowadays this surely sounds stranger than in 1974.

Roger Dunkley - A Problem Called Albert

Animals attack! I am no big fan of cat stories, and this one didn't deliver something new. Filler.

Harry Turner - Fingers

Classic Pan. There was just the fireplace missing. But the whiskey was there. A nice and satisfyingly revolting revenge tale. Good old Mr. Prince, kept his grandson in a cellar on a bed of straw. Kind of an anti-Jesus. It would have killed the ending, but I wonder if it worked.

To be continued ...