Mary Danby (ed.) - The 14th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories (Fontana, 1981)
John Holmes
Andre Maurois - Thanatos Palace Hotel
H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Buff
Terry Tapp - Polish The Lid
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle - Lot No. 249
Roger Clarke - So Typical Of Eleanor
Thomas Burke - The Bird
Tony Richards - Headlamps
Sir Hugh Clifford - The Ghoul
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Boorees
Christianna Brand - Akin To Love
Robert Haining - The Vigil
Mary Danby - The WitnessKen Burke - Starvation Diet: Andrew and the Doc are the only survivors of the shipwreck, with the medic saving his injured friend from drowning and carrying him to the island. Marooned with minimal provisions, it looks all up for the pair, but Doc is no quitter. The day after he's amputated Andrew's bad leg, he wanders the island, joyfully reporting back that a crate of the ship's supplies have washed up on the beach. They dine on roast pork and all is bearable for a few days, but Doc is worried about Andrew's arm. It doesn't look so good. It might even have to come off ...
Terry Tapp - Polish The Lid: Ernest Perryman bullies son Ian into taking a job at Monmouth's Undertakers, primarily so that he can grill him about all the secrets of the trade. We get the lowdown on some of the proprietor's cost-cutting ploys, corpse abuse and a blow by blow account of a particularly harrowing cremation.
Thomas Burke - The Bird: Captain Chudder gets a young Chinese drunk and whisks him aboard the
S.S. Peacock to keep him entertained during the voyage. Every night Sung Dee's shrieks for mercy are heard from the cabin but nobody thinks to intervene on account of Chudder's white parrot. The bird acts as his master's eyes and ears among the crew, and all are agreed that there's something uncanny about it. Back on dry land, the ill-used boy seeks his revenge.
One of the stories that Peter Penzoldt got so upset about in his
The Supernatural In Fiction on account of its "descriptions of sadism". It's certainly ghastly enough, but just what the Captain does to the boy is alluded to as opposed to lovingly gloated over.
Roger Clarke - So Typical Of Eleanor:
She was smiling a dreadful parody of a smile, green teeth showing through her parted and unnaturally red lips. Everything seemed to be getting wet ...." Octavius detests his domineering older sister. Now, as he sets off for his secret camp near the old mill at Yafford, she invites herself along. As it turns out, the afternoon doesn't go well with her and she drowns in the slimy water. Did she fall or was she pushed?
Andre Maurois - Thanatos Palace Hotel: US Mexican border: Feel suicidal but don’t want to make a mess of ending it all? Let Mr. Boerstecher and his staff do all the hard work for you. Very reasonable rates.
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Boorees: Angry, bat-like little demons who live in chimney stacks and come to life during the winter months. They particularly have it in for spoilt, middle-class children who provoke them, as the odious Dennis learns to his cost. Narrated by the nanny who discovers his scorched remains.
Mary Danby - The Witness: Whitesea. Sylvia, down on her luck, gives uncle Arthur a helping shove toward his coffin so that she can get her hands on his house and convert it into a respectable hotel. She hasn't accounted for Julius, the old boy's tenacious cat, who's taken that whole "nine lives" thing to heart.
Christianna Brand - Akin To Love: The bedroom has an appalling reputation dating back to the Seventeenth Century when the young man who lived there joined the Hellfire Club. Even in relatively recent times his evil presence has driven two women to suicide. Now he appears to the virginal Sam, and it transpires that all it will take to set him free is for a woman to listen to his confession and forgive him. Not being used to being chatted up by a Satanic corpse, Sam falls for it, even going so far as to romp with him on the four poster. Only then does she realise the soul destroying truth.
Sir Hugh Clifford - The Ghoul: Sir Hugh's nasty adventure in necromancy - detailing a graveside ritual in which a stillborn child is temporarily brought back to life for just as long as it takes to have its tongue bitten out - first appeared in his
In Court and Kampong (1897) and has been something of a horror staple ever since. The aforementioned tongue-job, is no gratuitous thing. The grave-robbing hag needed this specific organ to create a PELESIS, a kind of demonic house cricket which works in conjunction with a likewise magically created thumbsize vampire, the P0LONG - the blood of a murdered man being the all important ingredient should you wish to conjure forth one of these. The Pelesis burrows into the chosen victims flesh forging a channel just wide enough for the Polong to squeeze in and between them they reputedly drive their unfortunate host insane!
