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Post by jonathan122 on Mar 12, 2009 21:07:32 GMT
Sleep No More - LTC Rolt (Constable & Co. Ltd. 1948)
"Railway, canal, and other stories of the supernatural."
The Mine The Cat Returns Bosworth Summit Pound New Corner Cwm Garon A Visitor at Ashcombe The Garside Fell Disaster World's End Hear Not My Steps Agony of Flame Hawley Bank Foundry Music Hath Charms
A justly famous collection of ghost stories in, for the most part, an industrial setting, this has been reprinted at least once (in 1974, by Branch Line, a publishing firm specialising in railway books), and, if certain polls are anything to go by, there may very well be a Wordsworth paperback at some point in the next five years. As far as I know, Rolt only published two more ghost stories, which were included in an Ash-Tree Press edition of this book.
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Post by lobolover on Mar 12, 2009 21:49:38 GMT
You all got me rather curious about it. Hope it comes soon .
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Post by dem bones on Mar 12, 2009 22:38:24 GMT
Cheers for posting this Jonathan. Re: the extra stories in the Ash Tree volume. Hugh Lamb coaxed him out of retirement in the mid-seventies to contribute The Shouting and House Of Vengeance to Thrill Of Horror (1975) and Taste Of Fear (1976). It's been some time since i read either, but i seem to remember they were quite a departure from (what i'd read of) Sleep No More. Other than an essay in The Saturday Book, The Passing Of The Ghost Story, that seems to have been it as far as his contribution to the genre.
I've never had a copy of Sleep No More, but collected many of the stories via anthologies. The first to come this way were Hawley Bank Foundry and Bosworth Summit Pound (again via Hugh Lamb), really dark, grimy and sweaty in atmosphere, and still two of my all-time favourite ghost stories by any author. It was heartening to see him do so well in the Wordsworth poll - lets hope the email vote went the same way!
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 20, 2009 19:46:34 GMT
Read "Bosworth Summit Pound" just last week, and it's my favourite of Rolt's stories that I've read so far. Even without the ghost(s) the descriptions of the dark mouth of the canal tunnel gave me the absolute shudders.
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Post by jonathan122 on Apr 5, 2009 22:08:18 GMT
I think I'd probably go for "Bosworth Summit Pound" as my favourite as well, although I just recently re-read "Music Hath Charms" (probably the most "Jamesian" of his stories - it even has a mezzotint in it!) and "Agony of Flame" (about an elemental inhabiting a ruined castle on an Irish island) and remembered how much I enjoyed them. The only story that I thought actually fell flat was "Cwm Garon", which takes far too long to get going, and then stops just as its getting interesting, but other than that it's pretty high-quality all the way.
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Post by cw67q on Apr 29, 2009 11:29:48 GMT
The two extra stories also appear in the Pocket Classics edition. "The Shouting" is a superb short Machenesque tale, the other additional tale (the name escapes me) I remember as being more or less an alternative version of one of the tales from the original collection.
Rolt's collection is probbaly my favourite set of "Jamesian" tales, I like it more than any of MRJ's own single collections. Rolt is very much his own man and not a simple aper of MRJ's style and methods.
My favourite tale is Cwm Garon which is much closer to Blackwood or Machen than it is to James:
`An angel satyr walks these hills'
Indeed !!
- chris
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Post by monker on May 18, 2009 14:24:58 GMT
The two extra stories also appear in the Pocket Classics edition. "The Shouting" is a superb short Machenesque tale, the other additional tale (the name escapes me) I remember as being more or less an alternative version of one of the tales from the original collection. Rolt's collection is probbaly my favourite set of "Jamesian" tales, I like it more than any of MRJ's own single collections. Rolt is very much his own man and not a simple aper of MRJ's style and methods. My favourite tale is Cwm Garon which is much closer to Blackwood or Machen than it is to James:
`An angel satyr walks these hills'
Indeed !!- chris Oh...don't tease us like that, Cw! We don't all have a copy yet! I've read four of his stories, either in collections or dubiously reproduced on the net. Three were good reads that lacked that extra edge (for varying reasons) and the fourth was a classic. The fourth was Hawley Bank Foundry. The power of that one for me was in the impressions given in the plot (left largely unexplained) in combination with the final imagery rather than the final imagery in isolation. That story alone would be enough to recommend the anthology. I was a bit nonplussed beforehand after constantly hearing how "excellent" Sleep No More was supposed to be. My favourite 'Jamesian' collection is still James' own More ghost Stories but that his hardly surprising given that his collections are the only ones I've read from cover to cover. I do have Malden's Nine Ghosts ready to go, however.
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elricc
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by elricc on May 19, 2009 18:42:56 GMT
I've got a copy of the pocket classics edition that I don't need if your interested
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Post by monker on May 20, 2009 14:34:27 GMT
Yep, I'll PM you later.
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Post by cw67q on May 25, 2009 8:04:06 GMT
;D Belated apologies Monker
- chris
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Post by dem bones on Jun 22, 2009 15:15:58 GMT
couldn't really think of anywhere else to put this, but i've enjoyed those few Rolt's articles i've read and was wondering if anyone's familiar with his non-fiction titles and, if so, which do they recommend? i picked up this grim looking paperback yesterday and i'm guessing the inspiration for his The Garside Fell Disaster will be in here somewhere. L. T. C. Rolt - Red For Danger (Pan, 1976; originally Bodley Head, 1955) Blurb Blizzard blinds the Flying Scotsman Holocaust at Gretna Green Catastrophe on the Armagh incline Tragedy at Lewisham Disaster at Moorgate
It is in the contrast between trivial error and terrible consequence that the drama of the railway accident lies.
This fascinating history covers every major accident on British railways between 1840 and 1975 and describes the evolution of safety devices which make a British railway carriage one of the safest places in the world.
`An intensely human story. A remarkable book' - The Listener `Very readable if horrifying' - The Railway Gazette
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Post by Shrink Proof on Aug 5, 2011 19:44:55 GMT
Coming (very) late to this & finally answering your question...
Rolt had a formidable knowledge of industrial archaeology, especially transport-related - he worked with Aickman on canal preservation (although they ultimately fell out) & was in at the start of the railway preservation movement. His book "Railway Adventure" details the early days of the Tallylyn Railway Preservation Society; he became chairman of it. The railway now has a steam locomotive named "Tom Rolt" in his honour.
He wrote lots of transport-related non-fiction & "Red For Danger" was his most successful book. Not at all gory, it manages to combine the technical reasons for railway disasters (and the safety devices & procedures derived from them) & the human side, both as causes of tragedies & their effects, in a very readable style.
The Garside Fell Disaster is pretty obviously set on the Settle & Carlisle line and the inspiration comes from the two major disasters on that route at Hawes Junction (Xmas Eve 1910) & at Ais Gill (1913) as well as from the bleak & lonely moorland setting. Both accidents are covered in the book. There are descriptions of signalmen realising what has happened & knowing that a disaster is inevitable, sitting in isolated moorland spots waiting for a whistle, a grinding crash or (in one case) a terrible red glow in the sky in the distance.
It was written in 1955 & has been in print fairly continuously since. Rolt died in 1974, and the 1982 edition of the book contains extra material written by others to bring it more up to date.
Highly recommended.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 5, 2011 20:35:30 GMT
thanks for the additional information, shrink proof. since i posted the above i read Red For Danger (i'd only intended to skim it but soon found myself engrossed and wrote something about The Garside Fell Disaster on the Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories thread. i missed Hawes Junction but got Ais Gill, so not too humiliating by my standards. Have you read his essays Down In The Dark and The Swan Song Of Steam from the The Saturday Book? the former is an enthusiastic celebration of the joys and dangers of pot-holing, the latter concerns his passion for the railways and, like Red For Danger, they add another dimension to his fiction. he really was a remarkable talent. will have to go back to his two later ghost stories in the Hugh Lamb anthologies as, from what i can remember, i didn't much rate them at the time.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Aug 6, 2011 12:03:47 GMT
Have you read his essays Down In The Dark and The Swan Song Of Steam from the The Saturday Book? he really was a remarkable talent. No, I haven't read them; sadly my pile of publications marked "I've got to read this sometime" is now so large that it has time zones... You can easily see more on Rolt the man, engineer, conservationist & writer at this website - www.ltcrolt.org.uk/index.htm
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 12, 2013 18:36:16 GMT
Sadly, Wordsworth never got around to reprinting Rolt's Sleep No More. The History Press did a nice reprint, however, and so far I've enjoyed all of the stories to varying degrees. With "Hawley Bank Foundry" and "Music Hath Charms" left to go, my favorites are "Bosworth Summit Pound," "Cwm Garon," and "Agony of Flame." Rolt seems to be most famous for his railway and canal settings, but I'm also impressed by his Machen-style use of remote settings and hidden, sinister folk.
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