Hugh Lamb - Star Horror 1

[dem]

Hugh Lamb (ed.) - Star Book Of Horror #1 (Star, 1975)

Introduction - Hugh Lamb

John Blackburn - Drink To Me Only
Don C. Wiley - The Head Of Wu Fang
Joy Burnett - Lot 87
Frederick Cowles - Punch And Judy
Charles Birkin - Waiting For Trains
Ramsey Campbell - Run Through
E. F. Benson - The Thing In The Hall
Philip Murray - The Trunk
Robert Haining - This House Is Evil
Robert Bloch - Untouchable
J. G. Ballard - Now Wakes The Sea
A. N. L. Munby - A Christmas Game
John Keir Cross - Hands

Blurb:

Veteran horror-monger Hugh Lamb presents a fearsome combination. A deep, dark well of strangely unsettling inspiration, a frightening onslaught on the reader's "inner space"

You what? Anyway, the first in a sadly short-lived series see's Mr. Lamb moving away from his trademark Victorian terrors Lamb turned and turning to the likes of the Not At Night's and John Gawsworth's Crimes, Creeps and Thrills series' for his older material, neatly balancing it with some very strong examples of contemporary horror.

includes:

Don C. Wiley - The Head Of Wu Fang: The Mandarin is subjected to extreme torture over a period of days but remains decidedly unmoved throughout and refuses to reveal the secret of eternal life. When he’s eventually executed, his severed head curses the bandit leader, Chang, the headsman, Wong, and his sidekick, Ching Tung-Li. They each meet the ghastly deaths he predicts for them.

Charles Birkin - Waiting For Trains: "Would the horror of this war, even in its aftermath, never end?" Dresselberg. At the close of WWII, George Barrow, a reluctant railway transport officer in the occupying army, is powerless to prevent a train crossing the border into Soviet territory due, in part, to the indifference of his superiors who can't be bothered to check one of the prisoner's credentials for fear of causing a diplomatic incident. The cattle trucks are crammed with young Russian immigrants who'd been conscripted into the German army and are therefore "traitors". When the train reaches Glenheisen they will be killed and buried in a mass grave, as have so many before them. As depressing as Birkin intended, Waiting For Trains is even bereft of the "it's only a story" get-out clause.

Philip Murray - The Trunk: “It is the execution of Burgomaster Heinrich who, as you see, was tortured to death in 1547. Yes, the method of extracting the entrails by drawing them from the slit belly by a spit was rather a favourite in those days …”

His aunt’s dying wish is that he take the massive iron-bound trunk and burn it. When he examines it a first time, he notes a deep stain at the bottom. Later, this time viewing it by candlelight, “inside glistened the back of a naked boy, the head forced down so abruptly that the shoulders almost touched the end of the box. The lid fell with a crash … when my brother found me a few moments later and we opened the trunk it was empty.” Later, a torture scene in a Flemish painting offers some clue as to the history of the grim dower-chest.

A. N. L. Munby - A Christmas Game: Dorchester, 1880’s. Father invites Fenton, an old school friend, to spend Christmas with his family after a chance meeting in Exeter. The man has an aversion to anybody mentioning his years as an administrator in New Zealand.

Despite this, things are fine until the family settle down to play ‘dead man’ (as made infamous by Ray Bradbury in The October Game) and Fenton is handed two squishy grapes in the dark. He screams and suffers a stroke. Shortly after, the narrator, a young medical student sees the ghost of a blind Aborigine stumbling about the yard and it’s obvious who he’s come for ....

[allthingshorror]

Dem, cover art is by Les Edwards.

[dem]

Yeah, but the other one (rats eating doll cover) is more of a mystery, possibly a proof, as both versions appear to be 'first' printings?

[allthingshorror]

The answer to that Dem is thus:

The rat came first. Les' was the 2nd printing. But when Star saw that the 2nd printing was selling more than the first - they took what ever stock they had of the first printing left in the warehouses - stripped the covers - and trimmed it down - replacing it with the Les artwork. If you have a copy of the both 1st printings you'll see that Les' might be marginally smaller.

Hence the reason why there are 2 different covers both stating 1st printing.

Phew!

[Craig Herbertson]

Is this not a post in the great tradition of the Vault we know and love. I feel tempted to ask the names of the Rats and who's doll was sacrificed

[dem]

Dec 19, 2008 14:35:31 GMT @allthingshorror said:

The answer to that Dem is thus:

The rat came first. Les' was the 2nd printing. But when Star saw that the 2nd printing was selling more than the first - they took what ever stock they had of the first printing left in the warehouses - stripped the covers - and trimmed it down - replacing it with the Les artwork. If you have a copy of the both 1st printings you'll see that Les' might be marginally smaller.

Hence the reason why there are 2 different covers both stating 1st printing.

Phew!

Thanks John - another mystery solved. As to the rats, don't know their names, but maybe they arrived on loan from Sphere 'cause they look like the same ravenous rodents who starred on the cover of Robert Bloch's Tales In A Jugular Vein

[dem]

with many of our two regular contributors away gallivanting at FantasyCon, this could be an even deader weekend than ever, so i figured i'd take the opportunity to dip back into some of Hugh's paperbacks. a couple from Star Book Of Horror to begin with.

John Blackburn - Drink To Me Only: Amy, sister of Sir Thomas Thurnston has been kidnapped and a ransom demanded for her safe return. Sir Thomas isn't the least perturbed: Amy was born with the evil eye and has frequently used it to destroy any rivals who might prevent his rise to the top of the business world. On the minus side, she is overly possessive and has ruthlessly rid him of the women he's fallen for. But then the phone call; Amy pleads with him to pay up as she is at the mercy of sadistic fiends who have her bound and .... blindfolded. What will Sir Thomas do? Nasty!

Joy Burnett - Lot 87: Major Charles Fosdick, the club bore, purchases an oriental painting at auction so he can add another tedious subject to his repertoire. The painting depicts a spider on the leaf of a purple flower. The spider gets bigger each time he looks at it ... Squelchy!

[cauldronbrewer]

I recently ordered a copy of this book thinking that I was buying the face-in-the-tombstone cover (to match my copy of Star Horror No. 2), but through some mix-up (mine or the booksellers, I'm not sure which) I wound up with the rats-and-doll cover. Oh, well.

As for the book itself, I think I slightly prefer Star Horror No. 2. Still, Lamb can really pick them, and I found plenty to enjoy here. I seem to detect a body-parts theme: one story about severed heads, another about severed hands, and two different stories that each feature a pair of gouged-out eyeballs.

The Blackburn story had me laughing at its end (in a good way). Not so much to laugh about in the Birkin tale. The Haining entry was intriguing but left me scratching my head.

[valdemar]

Is the image of Bela Lugosi on the cover taken from his late [1953] movie 'Old Mother Riley Meets The Vampire'? [Don't bother watching it - it's bloody dreadful].

[dem]

John Keir Cross - Hands: John Neville, the new English teacher at Cruach Academy, finds himself in constant dispute with the senior masters, in particular Hamden, a thrash first, ask questions later disciplinarian and self-confessed misogynist. Neville has a fixation about the man's hands, all huge and knobbly, which are a constant reminder of a grisly tragedy from his childhood involving his beloved mother. Neville's fear that he's about to be dismissed, coupled with a realisation that his budding relationship with timid Miriam Tainsh will lead to nothing, nudges him toward the act of violence that will see him committed to a lunatic asylum.

Frederick Cowles - Punch And Judy: "With whiskey the price it is an' not so easy to get, there's too many hours to a day an' far too many to a night."

Ten years ago, Professor Jack Smith was a man on his uppers, married to Daisy and raking in a steady income. Now he's hit the skids, lugging a Punch and Judy show around the seaside towns to ever-diminishing audiences. When Cowles stumbles upon him drunk in a ditch at Lewes, the Professor confides his appalling crimes, and how the rotting corpses of the victims have taken to haunting his canvas booth.