Latest Finds!

[dem]

Nice going, nightie! Is that the Selwyn & Blount Not At Night or the Arrow? Either way you're in for a treat!

Slim pickings this end. Other than an emergency parcel drop from mr. nightreader - Stephen Jones Dancing With The Dark, Haining's Vampires At Midnight and the anonymously edited Tales Of The Supernatural (Panther, 1962): much appreciated, Andy! - the going's been poor to depressing with just a measly
Colin Wilson - Poltergeist! (Nel, 1980) to show for my troubles. A non-fiction offering, "including the Black Monk of Pontefract!", which I seem to recall had me in fits when I first read it but I'm not sure when I'll find the time for a rematch.

[nightreader]

Nightie here

The 'Not At Night' is the Arrow reprint and does look the business...

[dem]

I spoilered the whole book in the 'sixties and 'seventies section so best avoid that, but I reckon you're in for a treat! It's the one that started me on my Not At Night obsession!

[Calenture]

Visits to two shops on Friday produced some new finds and some I'd given away over the years.

The Treasure Hunters by Howard Baker (Star, 1972) (mentioned elsewhere).

The World Grabbers by Paul W Fairman (Monarch, 1964). "Inspired by the TV series One Step Beyond", this is definitely the very copy I gave away, as it had a catalogue number inside that I'd written there in sillier days.

The Third Spectre by Dan Ross (Macfadden-Bartell, 1971). Gothic Romance stuff.

Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy 2: Witches (Signet, 1984)

Save the Last Dance For Me by Judi Miller (Star/W H Allen, 1981) also previously my copy, I'm sure, but not with a catalogue number. I was wiser by then.

The Children Are Watching by Koenig and Dixon (NEL, 1971)

Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater by Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis (authors of BBC's Doomwatch) (Pan, 1974)

Voyage to Venus by C S Lewis (Pan, 1962) Cover signature looks like "A Boldman"?

And two Michael Innes Appleby hardbacks (brilliantly funny Brit detective stuff)

The Appleby File (Short stories, BCA, 1975)

Appleby's Other Story (BCA, 1974)

All books in good nick and some from a 10p bargain bin.

[redbrain]

I recently bought issue 57 of Supernatural Stories from Coldtonnage Books. It cost a fiver, but does have a point of especial interest - it is not only signed by Lionel Fanthorpe, but he's also written "All mine" (meaning that he wrote all of the 6 stories). Coldtonnage had (and probably still have) other issues similarly inscribed. The cover is a delight (pterodactyl carrying an ancient Greek girl by her blonde [!] hair [ouch!]). I wish I had a scanner to share it with you all.

[Steve]

redbrain said:

The cover is a delight (pterodactyl carrying an ancient Greek girl by her blonde [!] hair [ouch!]). I wish I had a scanner to share it with you all.

[Steve]

calenture said:

Voyage to Venus by C S Lewis (Pan, 1962) Cover signature looks like "A Boldman"?

This one? I think the artist is Boldero, who did those early Pan Horror covers.

You picked up some nice stuff there, Rog.

[Calenture]

Visited the Animal Hospital shop today and as usual found some truly awful books.

Tribe of the Dead by Gary Brandner (yes I gave it away before) (Arrow, 1984).
The Entity by Frank Felita (Pan, 1979) (god I bet this one sucks!)
Deadly Communion by Owen Brookes (Futura, 1985)
Star-Begotten by H G Wells (Sphere, 1975 - first UK publication)
The Silkie by A E Van Vogt (NEL, 1977, Bruce Pennington cover)
The Vampyre of Moura and Return to Moura by Virginia Coffman (Pan, 2002, omnibus edition)
Incubus by Ray Russell (Sphere, 1980)

The Haunting by C A Dawson Scott (Tabb House, 1985) Introduction by Francis King, first published 1921. When I got home and found my glasses ( ) I learned that it has a Cornish setting and begins with the haunting of a man which leads to the haunting of a lot of modern holiday bungalows. Scott said to be an influence on Drabble, Murdoch, etc.

The Prediction by John Hyde (Futura, 1980) "If they find you alive, you'll wish you were dead."
The Butcher of Glastonbury by David Bowker (Vista, 1997) "Half psycho-killer territory, half Stephen King..."

The Crime of the Century by Kingsley Amis (Everyman, 1987) First published in The Sunday Times in 6 episodes, after the 5th episode was published readers were invited to send in their own solution, the winning version to be published alongside Amis's (completely different) own version. It's a pity they didn't include both versions here. But I've read Amis's Riverside Villas Murder and others, and they've been enormously entertaining.

The Hero by Peter Haining (first NEL paperback, 1975)
The Unspeakable People edited by you-know-who (Everest, 1975). Looks like an interesting anthology

[jerrylad]

Had a nice few finds yesterday ,
Brak The Barbarian ,The Sorceress
Conan The Wanderer
and on Justin's recommendation Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner, paid 1.50 for all three and the wagner is on e-bay for 15.00 start price.
its the same place I got the Pans mint from19 to 30 for twenty quid all in a couple of years ago. I'm beginning to think I'm part of a Dr Terror / Needfull Things conspiracy.

[justin]

Sulking about not being able to get to the Copper book launch and loitering outside a tiara shop (!) I decided to check out a cruddy ephemera stall at a market. Under a table were 20 near mint issues of Magazine of Horror (plenty of Seabury Quinn yarns) and approx 100 issues of New World SF mags with all of the cutting edge J G Ballard stuff. At 50p per throw! Budget didn't stretch to the whole run (tiaras ain't cheap!) but very pleased with my pickings which did act as some form of compensation.

Guaranteed 100% satisfaction or your money back on Darkness Weaves, Jerry!

[dem]

i reckon you'll adore the magazine of horrors, justin. Robert Lowdnes was one of the great US editors and these and his startling mystery stories are the ideal compliment to the not at night series. there's a full bibliography (to the best of my ability) on these titles on the gruesome cargoes board.

gruesomecargoes.proboards52.com/index.cgi?board=weirdpulp

saturday night's haul:

stephen jones (ed.) - basil copper : a life in books (P.S., Feb. 2008)

not had time to study this yet, but it looks very exciting: a bibliography supplemented with stories, essays, basil's tribute to peter haining, etc.

the insanely kind franklin presented me with a bumper marsh fun-pack (in a specially acquired iceland carrier bag) containing dennis wheatley's giant spider outing the haunting of toby jugg, timothy lea's confessions of a window cleaner, peter haining's ace the ghost's companion, a shaun hutson omnibus of 'captives' and slugs-sequel breeding ground and barbara ireson's creepy creatures, plus a CD of the revamped new york dolls' wonderfully titled one day it will please us to remember even this.

as mr. marsh has noted elsewhere, mark generously slipped me a copy of gerald suster's ''the handyman' (nel, 1987) which begins with an uncompromising: Although she was thirty, she stood obediently in the corner with her hands behind her back and a dunce's cap apon her head.

blimey.

[nightreader]

This looks interesting.....arrived today ;D



NEL - 1997

According to the cover there's one by Suster called 'The God Game' - never heard of it before...

[Calenture]

So when I came out of the dentist's, I went into The Redruth Book Shop, where I found these:

The Cellar Boys by Howard Baker (Five Star, 1965-73)
The Judas Diary by Howard Baker (Zenith, undated - 5th in this Richard Quintain series)

Modesty Blaise: Sabre-Tooth by Peter O'Donnell (Pan, 1967)

Horrorscope # 2: The Revenge of Taurus by Robert Lory (Pinnacle, May 1974 - corners of covers a bit chewed)

The Saint Intervenes by Leslie Charteris (H & S, 1965)

The Dawning Light by Robert Randall (being Robert Silverberg and Randal Garrett, I believe) (Mayflower-Dell, 1964)

The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy (Penguin Plus, 1988)

Now it would have been perfect if the West End Pasty Shop hadn't been sold out when I staggered out with my prizes; and better still if I didn't have to go back to the dentist to have a filling in a wisdom tooth next week.

[killercrab]

The Haunting of Gad's Hall - Norah Lofts.
CORONET 1981.

Blurb - something about a locked room hiding a shameful secret.The medium says :' What I am about to say may sound ridiculous , but it is there in that attic: devil worship , demonic possession, ritual slaughter and suicide.'

Ridiculous indeed...


SHE - H.Rider Haggard

The cover got me to part with 50p.


SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES - Philip Strick.
Galley Press 1979.

Lacking it's dustjacket - this is typical of genre movie books of the 1970's. It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of stills these books hold - many I'd guess now lost in antiquity. I was thrilled to see a still from Hammer's THE REPTILE included - that I'd not seen anywhere else. I know - it's not science fiction - but who cares. Cost - 49p...

ade

[coral]

Hey ho, mr killercrab, have you read The Haunting of gad's hall yet. It is actually the second of two books, the first being Gad's Hall. If it not to your taste, perhaps you could try The Road to Revelation instead. If you were to judge by the covers and blurbs you would instantly think "bodice rippers", but they are simply a product of their era. Having collected and read Norah Lofts for over ten years now, I can vouchsafe that she writes some fairly weighty stuff too, her spooky short story collections are particularly good.
The Road to Revelation deals with the privations of a set of characters on a wagon trail to California, and with the main issue being the struggle for survival, it's a nasty as one could wish.
Norah Lofts has highlighted in some of her writings such unladylike(at the time) themes as prostitution, racism, cannibalism, slavery, child abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, and was an intelligent and progressive writer, quite ahead of her time. However most people still tend to look on her work as old fashioned "chick lit".
I enjoy this author very much indeed.