Jack D. Shackleford - Tanith

[severance]

Jack D. Shackleford - Tanith - Corgi, 1977.

Can't get my printer to scan this for some reason, but it's on another thread here somewhere - the cover of a naked woman riding a winged goat with death sitting behind her implies a cracking good novel - and thankfully Shackleford delivers. The bio about him claims that he is a practising witch and his interests are sex, drink, tennis and writing. Not sure about the tennis part, personally, but the rest enable him to concoct this superb exploitative piece, with lashings of female nudity, macabre rites in the woods and demonic wood-woses (the hairy wildmen of the woods, the sasquatch equivalent in Northern Europe)

I don't want to give too much of the plot away here, as it does twist and turn wildly on occasion, but the main thrust is the manipulation of Virginia Lane by Tanith and Selwyn Rowan, a pair of witches carrying out a macabre plan to save Tanith's life from encroaching cancer. Selwyn has discovered that the wildmen of the woods actually exist, know of a cure, and so he subjugates them with Tanith as their mistress. A hellish bargain is struck, and in exchange for a willing woman who they can impregnate to further their dying race, they will cure Tanith. Three years ago a rite was performed but the woman, who the Rowans had manipulated and controlled, screamed at the wrong moment and was killed. Now there is one last chance to halt the disease, when Tanith finds Virginia Lane, recently moved to the area, whose writer husband seems to have mysteriously vanished.

This is a bloody excellent read, full of the things that go into making a great, trashy piece of fiction. Admittedly there are a couple of occasions when Shackleford overdoes the magic rituals, but that's a minor quibble in an otherwise tasty little read. If only Hammer had stilll been around to make a film of this!!

[dem bones]

I've copied the responses here because we've just had another response to this on the old board from "thing" - Jack's son, Greg.

demonik

Great review Sev - this has gone from nowhere to top five on my wants list. Tell me there's some hot hostile pub action in there and it could even knock William Johnston's novelisation of Asylum off the #1 spot.

Heres a direct link to curts review of Tanith on Groovy Age Of Horror

killercrab

Great work Sev ! - I have Jack's THE STRICKLAND DEMON from CORGI on my pile to be read - I think there are some posts in LATEST FINDS with scans around here.

ade

Steve

Jack D. Shackleford is great and his re-emergence into the pulp horror limelight is long overdue.

I confidently predict that Jack D. will be this summer's Peter Saxon.

demonik

Phew! Thanks for the tip-off. If there's one thing I can't stand its missing a bandwagon.

Ok, Everybody send me their Jack Shackleforth novels immediately so I can decide whether or not I've always been his number one fan. For the present I'd just like to go on record as saying I heard of him before anybody else.

Steve

Stick with me, Dem. I'll see you right!

As I was saying to Jack only the other night over a pint in The Lord Byron following a brisk game of mixed doubles...

curt

I've still got STRICKLAND DEMON and HOUSE OF THE MAGUS to read--and THE SOURCE to acquire. Did Corgi use the artist for Shackleford's covers for any others? Anyway, great writeup Sev! Been a while since I read this, but your review brings back memories.

justin

Chris Achilleos is the artist in question. He didn't do a great deal of other horror stuff to the best of my knowledge but obviously went to excel at fantasy and the Dr Who books.

killercrab

Achilleos did a shedload of science fiction covers outside Dr Who and in a more traditional painted style ( for Phillip . K . Dick novels for instance) . The work looked quite rough up close - but when reduced and published worked really well - I guess the artworks were about A3-2 in size.

I met him once at the agency I worked for when he joined - we had a pile of his stuff in the corner of the studio - this was early 1990's - I think his star had risen and fallen a bit by then.

ade

thing

Well this blows me away!

I was surprised enough when I got down to my parent's place last weekend and found a print out of this page from the Groovy Age of Horror blog. The page was supplied to them, by the way, since they are rather technophobic and have yet to get on the net in any way.

Then I emailed Curt from said blog and he passed me a link to this site. Wild.

We'd (my parents and I) heard that Dad (yep, Jack Shackleford is my old man) had achieved some sort of minor cult status but to actually see it in print like this (well, e-print) is superb!

I'm printing a copy of this thread and mailing on to the old man as I write!

All the best ... and given half a chance we'll get those novels reprinted. Plus he's working on a few more. Might not be for a year or two yet, but watch this space. If (when) they happen I'll see about posting a head's up!

Greg

demonik

Thanks for writing, Greg and be sure to pass on our regards to your father.

thing

Will do! He's chuckling over his coffee as we speak ... or so Mum tells me!

Severance

Hi Greg,
Glad you found us, hope your old man likes my review, I hope to get to The House of the Magus soon.

Would you be able to help with a bibliography?
Apart from the 5 novels Eve of Midsummer, Strickland Demon and Tanith (all 1977), The House of the Magus (1979) and The Source (1985) - I can see only one anthology appearance, Thy Intention Turn... in The 17th Pan Book of Horror Stories (1976)

Are there any other short stories out there we could be looking for, or are the above the extent of Jack's literary endeavours so far?

Glad to hear he's still working.

Cheers
Sev

thing

Nope, that's the lot mate.

He is working, as mentioned, on some stuff - well over due. There's a nearly finished and many times re-written novel and a non-fiction work he's hopefully going to publish soon.

Just needs to find a new agent and then a publisher.

Thing is he's something of a perfectionist and since he was never happy with the published works (with the possible exception of the last two - he was happier with those) he tends to really take his time over his work. It's more a passion than a livelihood - hell, the only way to make money as a novelist is to go really commercial.

And by the way I tend to agree with the small criticism that Dad overdoes the magic ritual descriptions. It's sort of like, I think, Eco over egging his knowledge of an historical period or spending nearly three pages describing a door. Maybe a particularly important door, but it's still a door!

Greg

demonik

A short story from Pan Horror #17 but I thought I'd post it here on the off-chance Greg bookmarked this thread and can ask his dad if my not entirely wild guess in the third paragraph is right?

Thy Intention Turn ....: Jermyn Street. 24 year old Alexandra German has taken the job of secretary to Damon Selby, an authority on all things folklore, occult and witchy. Selby has incurred the wrath of a Black Magician he inadvisedly dismissed in print as a charlatan and this man has vowed to destroy him. Alexandra volunteers to assist Selby in raising a demon to reverse the spell but ... it doesn't go too well.

This would have been right at home in one of Michel Parry's Mayflower Book Of Black Magic's and Shackleford even manages to smuggle in some comment on the contemporary witchcraft/ BM scene with a dig at (I assume) Alex Sanders?

"There is a man who will perform rites - for a suitable fee - in other people's homes, as a sort of cabaret act for parties, or even on the stages of local cinemas and theatres - but one could never take such a man seriously. He is, at best, a harmless pretender, at worst a fool."

I've a clipping of Sanders performing a Black Mass or some-such exciting ritual at the Hendon Classic (Church Slams Black Magic Show, News Of The World, Jan. 24th 1971). *God, but so tempted to put together something about the NOTW-fuelled Witch-sploitation craze of the early 'seventies and all the laugh-out-loud exposes*

thing (today)

Hi mate,

Sorry it took me a while to get to this - not been on this forum for an age. Just going through a list of bookmarks to see what's still active landed me here and your last entry.

In essence, yes, the reference you make is pretty much correct to the best of my knowledge. Though in fairness I don't think the dig was 'exactly' aimed at Alex Sanders but more at folks like him who would, I believe, 'initiate' nearly anyone for a fee.

Dad isn't particularly tolerant of 'new age' Magick (sic) or such things. He's a traditionalist for want of a better word.

Greg