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Post by ripper on Dec 12, 2018 17:55:32 GMT
That's one advantage that ebooks have over traditional print ones; if there's a fire your ebooks are safe so long as they are held on external servers. My print books are all over the place, so if we had a fire I would only be able to save a small number. I do have my Ash-Trees in a separate box, and they are probably the ones that are of highest monetary value, so I could grab them reasonably fast if I had to.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 12, 2018 18:17:13 GMT
When I lived in Yorkshire I did some work as a volunteer at the National Railway Museum in York. As the world's largest railway museum it has an immense archive and library - the photo collection alone is 1.75 million images. They have a well worked out crisis plan for saving the most historically significant and/or valuable items in the collection from a total catastrophe (fire, flood, bombing, unannounced visit from Justin Beiber, that sort of thing). Seeing this, it struck me that the same should be applied at home for practically important stuff (passport, etc.) and those items that it'd be heart-breaking to lose (like Ripper's Ash-Trees).
I now live in a waterproof, hermetically-sealed fallout shelter with no windows and have never felt more reassured....
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 12, 2018 18:20:23 GMT
I agree with you (both) totally; let's hope none of us has to help save anything or anybody from a fire....
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Post by ripper on Mar 17, 2019 14:45:02 GMT
I was thinking about Munby's stories recently. I wonder if the tales that appeared in the POW camp magazine had to be approved by the German commandant prior to publication to make sure there was nothing subversive in them.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 17, 2019 16:04:28 GMT
I was thinking about Munby's stories recently. I wonder if the tales that appeared in the POW camp magazine had to be approved by the German commandant prior to publication to make sure there was nothing subversive in them. Probably. I can imagine that a battle-hardened, devout Nazi would need to check that Munby's writings didn't contain anything unsettling or scary that might be visited on unsuspecting decent, innocent people. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 5, 2020 10:54:29 GMT
*could've sworn we'd had this already ....* A. N. L. Munby - The Alabaster Hand: Uncanny Tales Of The Evil That Walks By Night (Tandem, 1974: originally Dennis Dobson Ltd, 1949. Four-Square edition, 1965) Herodes Redivivus
The Inscription
The Alabaster Hand
The Topley Place Sale
The Tudor Chimney
A Christmas Game
The White Sack
The Four-Poster
The Negro's Head
The Tregganet Book Of Hours
An Encounter In The Mist
The Lectern
Number Seventy-Nine
The Devil's AutographBlurb: "Centuries-old houses, ancient leather volumes, illuminated manuscripts and long-revered traditions - these are the stuff of which the most fearsome tales can be woven. The stories in this book challenge comparisons with those of that master of the uncanny tale, the author of Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary, to whom they are dedicated".Can't remember if I've done so already, but I've got to throw in a vote for 'The Alabaster Hand' by A.N.L. Munby. I used to read this a lot when I was at Uni, because they had a copyright library with the '95 Ash Tree print there. Recently, however, I procured the 1999 reprint, and it was like going back to an old friend! It's got so many classic stories in it. Even if his style is a blatant rip-off/hommage (delete as appropriate) of M.R. James, there are moments when he comes frighteningly close to James' crown. I think because his monsters don't get as physical as James', that creeps me out more. 'The White Sack' is the most well known one, about a guy who encounters a mysterious 'thing' in the mountains of the Isle of Skye, which is never clearly discernible but has a stench of... well read it and you'll see. Equally good though are 'The Devil's Autograph', which transcends it's cheesy title to become a very good Faustian tale, and 'The Inscription', which features an academic-style plot twist that M.R. James would have enjoyed immensely I'm sure. It's one of my favourite collections of antiquarian ghost stories. 'The Alabaster Hand' is a favourite of mine. I've got the 1999 Ash-Tree reprint that now seems to go for $250 on Amazon. Here's my review from all those years ago: A splendid collection of short, atmospheric ghost stories in the style of M R James. With many imitators of James' style assuming verbosity to be an essential component in the creation of atmosphere, Munby's prose is refreshingly economical. His characters find themselves in appropriately scary situations which are resolved within eight or so pages, but not to the detriment of the overall effect of the story. Excellent. A classic. If you love these sorts of stories, you've probably got this book already. Tandem books were full of surprises. One of my treasured Charity shop moments was finding this modern reprint of Munby's only ghost story collection. It's been years since I read it, but I remember being favourably impressed at the time. I'm not usually one for gentle ghost stories, but An Encounter In The Mist is a classic of it's kind: A man lost in the Welsh mountains meets a kindly old hermit who provides him with a map. Trouble is, the lay of the land has changed since the eighteenth century and the narrator nearly goes over a cliff. Also includes: 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. The Tregganet Book Of Hours: St. Denoil, Cornwall. How an illustration in a Calendar of Saints came to be defaced and replaced. It all goes back to the 15th century when Lord of the Manor and pirate Hector Tregganet cheated Thomas Prest (!) out of his land by circulating stories among the superstitious peasants that he practiced witchcraft. They duly torched Prest's house with he and his wife trapped inside. Before he died, Prest pronounced a curse on Tregganet that he "would never be buried with his forefathers in the church of St. Fagan." On his death in 1510, Tregganet's coffin was indeed taken into the church, but .... The funny thing is that despite having no distinctive or even any discernible prose style at all, Munby's best stories ("The Tudor Chimney" and "The Tregganet Book Of Hours") remain memorable. It must be the plots. I've attached this to the first comment as it uses the cover of the Tandem edition that I luckily found an excellent copy of very cheaply sometime last century. |
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Post by andydecker on Sept 5, 2020 12:15:00 GMT
Another interesting writer? Sigh. In the last years I have developed quite a taste for the M.R. James tale.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 22, 2022 16:38:20 GMT
 Tandem Books 1974  Award Books 1976 Separated at birth? |
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Post by humgoo on Jan 3, 2023 5:50:45 GMT
I was thinking about Munby's stories recently. I wonder if the tales that appeared in the POW camp magazine had to be approved by the German commandant prior to publication to make sure there was nothing subversive in them. You can see the cover of the Christmas number (1944) of the POW camp magazine (as well as one original illustration) on the Cambridge University Library Special Collections blog. Quite lovely. |
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Post by dem on Jan 3, 2023 19:57:05 GMT
I was thinking about Munby's stories recently. I wonder if the tales that appeared in the POW camp magazine had to be approved by the German commandant prior to publication to make sure there was nothing subversive in them. You can see the cover of the Christmas number (1944) of the POW camp magazine (as well as one original illustration) on the Cambridge University Library Special Collections blog. Quite lovely. Robin Bagot's Four Poster illustration is such a perfect fit to the story. Thanks so much for sharing this, Mr. Humgoo. |
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