I suspect that unlike many here who are big into their anthos and who'll probably struggle to narrow their choice down to 10 titles, I'm going to struggle to come up with 10. Still I'll give it a go.
The Unspeakable People - ed. Peter Haining (1969)
Hands down my favourite anthology ever. I've always had a soft spot for his
Evil People too (
Midnight People not so much, I have to say) but
Unspeakable - give or take 3 or 4 somewhat questionable inclusions which I'm more than happy to overlook - is an absolute blinder of a collection. "The Loved Dead", "The Idol of The Flies", Kuttner's "The Graveyard Rats" (probably my single favourite horror short), John Wyndham's "The Cathedral Crypt", "Bianca's Hands" by Theodore Sturgeon - if I was putting together my own anthology, they'd all be in there. Alongside these you get classics like "The Copper Bowl" and off-beat oddities such as "The Bird Woman" and barking mad necrophiliac love story "A Thing of Beauty". All this and Laurence James. Sublime.
The Far Reaches Of Fear (orig.
Superhorror) - ed. Ramsey Campbell (1976)
Another attempt at a taboo-breaking anthology and a pretty damn good one at that. I know this one in its Star paperback incarnation, which as far as I'm aware has the same line-up as the hardback. Brian Lumley's "The Viaduct" gets the ball rolling and, by my reckoning at least, it's an absolute cracker. Anything with Manly Wade Wellman and R. A. Lafferty in will do for me thank you very much (although Lafferty's not at his best here) but the main reason I hold this one dear is that struggling to get my head round the story "Wood" finally helped me realise the extraordinary genius of Robert Aickman. It takes me a while sometimes but I get there eventually.
The 3rd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories - ed. Robert Aickman (1967)
The first half dozen or so Fontana
Great Ghost Stories are all well worthwhile - not least for Aickman's introductions - this one makes my list simply because reading "The Beckoning Fair One" and "Negotium Perambulans" in here again a while ago got me back into short horror fiction again after far too long away from the fold.
The 3rd Pan Book Of Horror Stories - ed. Herbert Van Thal (1962)
Even if you're not really one for horror anthologies, the Pan Horrors are a bit special. But how do you choose your favourite? Number 3 contains a few old chestnuts, and I've always thought "The Two Bottles of Relish" was a bit over-rated, but this is more than outweighed by the likes of "Meshes of Doom" and the masterly "Unburied Bane". Plus it's practically riddled with Charles Birkin. Maybe not the sort of stuff the Pans are remembered for today but still a lovely collection.
You can see why Kirby went for
The Dark Descent - the sheer bulk of the bastard in its original form (1000 plus pages) makes it a portable library. It's a marvellous achievement but, for reasons i can't fathom, despite rating virtually every story, i've never liked it.
- ed. David G. Hartwell (1987)
I've got
The Dark Descent split over three, still fairly hefty, volumes;
The Colour of Evil,
The Medusa in the Shield and
A Fabulous Formless Darkness, which maybe helps make it a bit less of a bastard. Anyhow I think this is a staggering piece of work. Any attempt at a "definitive anthology" tracing the development of the horror genre from the early 19th century to the present day (mid '80s) must surely, you'd think, be doomed to failure. Somehow though Hartwell pretty much pulls it off. So much great stuff here and he even finds space to occasionally step outside the perceived confines of the genre. A stunner.
65 Great Tales of the Supernatural - ed. Mary Danby (1979)
Another great bruiser of a collection, in which one Roger B. Pile more than holds his own alongside some of the greatest names in supernatural fiction. Bedside reading of the highest order.
Tales from a Gaslit Graveyard - ed. Hugh Lamb (1979)
Some of this stuff may be a touch creaky but it's that other worldly sense that really makes this collection. "The Shrine Of Death" is truly haunting, there's a healthy dose of conte cruel, and this collection introduced me to both R. Murray Gilchrist (who recognised the weird possibilities of The Peak District long before Brian Ball wrote
The Venomous Serpert) and Bernard Capes (who I'm still not quite sure about). Either way I'm grateful for the heads up.
Never at Night (orig.
More Not At Night) - ed. Christine Campbell Thomson (1961)
There's something tremendously comforting about the
Not At Night stuff, of which this was my first taste. You've just got to love any book full of stories with names like "Swamp Horror" and "Creeping Fingers". Romeo Poole's man-bat classic "The Death Crescents Of Koti" is but one fine example of the delightful tales that make up this volume. Looked at now, the Robert E. Howard story might seem a touch out of place, at the time though it would have just been another highlight.
The Black Book Of Horror - ed. Charles Black (2007)
I'm currently catching up on the
BBoHs I'd missed and still can't quite believe we're on the 5th book already. I suppose the first one will always be my favourite though - partly because, not to take anything away from Charles, it's very much a Vault anthology (12 of the 18 stories were written by Vault members) and partly because it's just such a bloody good read.
There you go, that's my Top 9.
Just thought of another one;
Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate - ed. Michel Parry (1975)
Because reading this - particularly Basil Copper's "Amber Print" - in bed as a child scarred me for life. My heartfelt thanks to all concerned.
