David Sutton - New Writings Horror & Supernatural

[dem]

David Sutton (ed.) - New Writings In Horror & The Supernatural (Sphere, 1971)

Introduction - David A. Sutton

Kenneth Bulmer - Under The Tombstone
Richard Davis - The Time Of Waiting
Robin Smyth - The Inglorious Rise Of The Catsmeat Man
Michael G. Coney - The Hollow Where
R. W. Mackelworth - Mr. Nobody
David A. Riley - The Farmhouse
Julia Birley - The People Down Below
W. T. Webb - Phantasmagoria
Bryn Fortey - Prison
David Rome - Charley’s Chair
Ramsey Campbell - Broadcast
David Campton - Goat
E. C. Tubb - The Winner

“Unlike most new anthologies NEW WRITINGs contains none of the great names of the past. Each story appears in these pages for the first time. The aim of the series is to discover tomorrow's masters of the macabre today”.

From David Sutton’s introduction.

As you’d expect, this was very much contemporary horror, with many of the stories touching on black magic, then enjoying something of a revival amongst the young (at least, as far as The News of the World was concerned). When it came to these types of books, Michel Parry, Campbell and Richard Davis were all pretty much Sutton’s brothers in arms, each of them compiling anthologies that tested notions of what was, and what was not, "permissible" in print at the time. The Bulmer, Campton, Riley and Smyth stories are excellent.

includes:

Kenneth Bulmer - Under The Tombstone: "Under every stone in London Lies a corpse". The perils of embarking on an impromptu vampire-hunt in a mini-skirt. Charley Randall reckons he's seen a tombstone "move" in the recently desanctified St. Dominic's churchyard while he was getting it on with Gloria. After a few pints in The Sphere, he and his groovy gang of longhairs including long-legged Mandy St. Clair, the skeptical Tom Davis and our narrator, make a cross and go take a look ....

David A. Riley - The Farmhouse: Kendale, near Tavistock. Surrealist Biblical artist Preskett committed suicide here by turning himself into a human torch amid much talk of ritual murder, drugs, and orgies on the hill.

Stopping at the deserted house, hikers Melbury and Janet discover a metal box hidden in the wall, inside which they find several books. The one Melbury picks up opens on a quote from Poe's The Conquering Worm.

Later, Janet leaves him asleep in the tent they've erected and returns to the farmhouse for the books. He comes awake with a terrible sense of foreboding, and goes off to find her ...

David Campton - Goat: The saturnine Goat Kemp has the uncanny ability of discovering his neighbours' darkest secrets and emotionally blackmailing them against very public revelation. For example, our narrator, the local schoolteacher, would prefer it wasn't widely known that he has an impressive collection of hardcore cecil titles including the infamous erotic works of Henry Spencer Ashbee. Life passes uneasily with Goat loathed, feared but placated with free pints by the regulars of The Ox, until the night Sam Ferlie finally snaps and gives him a kicking for threatening his daughter. Goat retaliates with black sorcery and funerals become a commonplace in the small community.

Richard Davis - The Time Of Waiting: John Daniels, a journalist on the local rag, frets in the hospital waiting room as wife Betty is about to give birth to their first child, a baby he thought he wanted - until now. He flashes on a previous life centuries ago, a woman chained beside him as they are about to be torn apart by savages. "I will wait for you", she promises, "even if it takes all eternity". Back in the waiting room, Daniels is not best pleased to be reunited with his soul mate.

[dem]

Robin Smyth - The Inglorious Rise Of The Catsmeat Man: "Frenzied Ghoul Axes Mother And Lover". How Boysie came to be incarcerated in Broadmoor in the 'thirties after his beloved mum reneged on her promise not to sleep with the merchandise. You see, prior to this mother and son had built up a successful business supplying the neighborhood with the delicious cats-meat the world has ever known by chopping up her would-be bed-mates and recycling them .....

R. W. Mackelworth - Mr. Nobody: An inspector is sent incognito to Calvani's seediest of glorified clip-joints to access how much the guy has swindled in unpaid tax. Being a stranger he's mithered by resident nuisance Alfred, a piss-artist who claims to have an invisible companion who can do anything requested of him. At first our man has Alfred figured as a rum casualty who lives in a state of permanent hallucination, but a few minor miracles convince him otherwise. Turns out that 'Mr. Nobody' is desperate for a new host and the taxman is sorely tempted: "I had joined the tax office not because I liked serving the community but because I didn't like the human race. In my youth I had read the rise and fall of every dictator and loved their sense of power". If only that godawful singer would shut up or burst into flames or something and let a fellow think ....

David Rome - Charley’s Chair: Every day the frail, aged Charley Boswell sits in his cane chair on the porch, waiting to die. His new neighbour, author Joe English, lets compassion get the better of him and pays the old-timer a visit. Mr. Boswell shows an interest in reading Joe's books and eventually decides he wants to write his own story. Joe can read it, but only after Charley's in his coffin. This one wouldn't be out of place in a late Fontana Great Ghost Stories.

[dem]

quick one before i embark on a world tour of Ruislip Manor for rest of day.

Ramsey Campbell - Broadcast: "The microphone ... It's like a disposal unit. It's draining me away. I don't know how much of me remains." Mr. Rolands the art teacher allows two fourteen year old pupils to sit in on one of his evening broadcasts for Radio Brichester. There had been a fire at the building the previous night and this seems to have had some damaging effect on the microphone which plays up abysmally throughout. Locked inside his tiny studio, abandoned by Malcolm the producer who's disappeared to the pub, Mr. Roland fast unravels as he's recorded out of existence ...

Ramsey granted this and The Other House, his contribution to Volume 2, the distinction of appearing in his 'worst of' collection, Inconsequential Tales, joint top with Probably on the demonik RC wants list.

[cw67q]

Hmm, I followed up the link to the Ramsey Campbell "Inconsequential tales" thread and the childish, shameful side of my character couldn't help wondering about the big bash at Shocklines aluded to, what was the big bust up about? Anything of particualr interest?
Just being nosey in that "I have 10 minutes to kill before I pick up my daughter" way

- chris

[marksamuels]

Oct 22, 2010 13:51:03 GMT cw67q said:

Hmm, I followed up the link to the Ramsey Campbell "Inconsequential tales" thread and the childish, shameful side of my character couldn't help wondering about the big bash at Shocklines aluded to, what was the big bust up about? Anything of particualr interest?
Just being nosey in that "I have 10 minutes to kill before I pick up my daughter" way

- chris

I suspect it's this one:

shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/7197/t/Shocklines-----seditious-message-board-according.html?page=1

Therein, I too seem to have taken up the cudgels in the attempted annihilation of fiendish self-promoters (as ever) ....



Mark S.

[dem]

Oct 22, 2010 22:29:45 GMT marksamuels said:

Therein, I too seem to have taken up the cudgels in the attempted annihilation of fiendish self-promoters (as ever) ....



Mark S.

nowdays i try not to let 'em upset me like they once did and just vote with my piggy bank. Usually the worst offenders have turned me off months before their book has even gone to print so i make a note never to buy or, in extreme cases, even read their work. I know the horror intelligentsia would have it that we should judge a book on its own merits, regardless of any opinion we've somehow arrived at concerning the author, and i agree with them 100%, but i am far from intelligentsia material and can't find it in me comply. Besides, this policy has saved me a good few quid to spend on books i might actually enjoy.

meanwhile, back at New Writings ... and i got a blast from both of these;

Julia Birley - The People Down Below: Mack, a successful salesman in his late twenties with a penchant for whiskey and bullying timid women, has it made. The brand new semi-detached he bought three years back is now worth double what he paid for it and his subservient temporary 'wife' Dierdre has yet to become so tiresome that he needs get shot of her. But all that changes with the cockroach invasion and the sporadic ringing of an infernally loud bell "not even The Who could drown out". The sound seems to come from beneath the house and Dierdre, who is home alone for much of the time, finally confides that she sometimes hears raised voices coming from below, too. Mack learns that the semi was built on the site of a massive slum, once the domain of Aloysius Wheeler, wealthy Victorian bastard, who drove one of his serving maids to suicide with his insistence on exercising his manly rights over her whenever he felt the urge. Mack recognises a fellow after his own heart, but he's concerned that Dierdre is destined for the lunatic asylum as she acts as though Wheeler were present in the here and now! A mad bird, no matter how accommodating in bed, is no use to him, so he gives her her marching orders. As Dierdre begs him to reconsider, and the cockroaches scuttling all over the kitchen, Mack tears up the floorboards to discover the source of all this inconvenience.

Bryn Fortey - Prison: Edgy young drop out Aislewood befriends a lonely, half deaf old man returning with his pension from the Post Office and invites him to join a commune at the disused fairground. There are only three other members of this unlikely alliance: Jan, a half crazy hippy chick. Renfrew, a chattering hunchback, and Waldo, their tyrannical and undisputed leader. For all that they're vaguely idealistic, it's not all peace and harmony. Waldo constantly bullies Renfrew, has first claim to Jan in the bonking chain and his word is the law. Aislewood, who detests him, has so far failed to stir up enough courage to take him on. 'Pops', blissfully unaware of these tensions, thinks he's going to like it here, especially after enjoying a session with Jan in the tunnel of love which damn near kills him. Better for him that it had as next up is his initiation at the coconut shy.

You know from very early on that something dreadful is going to the likable old timer, it's just a question of what, when and how horrible will it be?

[cw67q]

Thanks Mark, I look forward to indulging my morbid, unjustifiable interest in flame wars past at some quiet moment.

- Chris

[clinician]

Demonik refers to the 'horror intelligentsia' and Mark S. talks of 'fiendish self-promotors'. Who precisely are these people? Horror intelligentsia sounds like an oxymoron:we don't read horror novels and stories as though they were learned dissertations from elite universities,do we? If I read something by someone who I think is too up themselves and trying to demonstrate their superior literary ability and wondrous 'insightful' observations,I growl 'emo bullshit' and bin the book immediately.

All I want from horror is fast,concise pulp writing. So whoever the 'horror intelligentsia' are,I bet they don't shift more that 1000 copies between the lot of them.

Moving on to Mark's 'fiendish self-promotors'. Are these in fact the same group that Demonik refers to, but to whom Mark has assigned a different title? They then become the 'Fiendish,self-promoting horror intelligentsia'. Basically,'Big fish in small ponds'. Or as the Texans would say: 'Tall hats;no cattle'.

Enlighten me please.

[David A. Riley]

You're asking two very contentious questions there.

There are those who do take their horror seriously. And do believe there are literary qualities in what they write. Far be it from me to decry them. At the end of the day, though, a horror story has to succeed first and foremost as a horror story. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

I don't believe personally that the self promotors are always the same people, though some of them are. But there are those whose every activity online is to promote their own stories and rarely, if ever, say anthing about anything else. We had one who would only post here to give a link to yet another online review of what they had written.

There are others. I know of several on the BFS forum, for instance, who only ever post stuff about themselves. Or about new entries on their blogs, etc. I find these people very boring.

[Craig Herbertson]

Oct 23, 2010 15:55:11 GMT David A. Riley said:

You're asking two very contentious questions there.

There are those who do take their horror seriously. And do believe there are literary qualities in what they write. Far be it from me to decry them. At the end of the day, though, a horror story has to succeed first and foremost as a horror story. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

I don't believe personally that the self promotors are always the same people, though some of them are. But there are those whose every activity online is to promote their own stories and rarely, if ever, say anthing about anything else. We had one who would only post here to give a link to yet another online review of what they had written.

There are others. I know of several on the BFS forum, for instance, who only ever post stuff about themselves. Or about new entries on their blogs, etc. I find these people very boring.

Perfectly summarised - boring is absolutely correct. Same with music - there are some musicians who love music and will happily recommend a great band or musician they've watched; there are others who endlessly self promote their own stuff as though they were the only person in the world. They are generally speaking, BORING.

[dem]

David, Craig. my sentiments entirely. i wonder if they realise what a turn-off some of us find it?

easy for me to talk because i'm no writer and have zero to promote but, while i appreciate that authors have to make their work known to sell it, certain individuals, shall we say, abuse the privilege. i'm not going to name names and would prefer others didn't either - those who witnessed what transpired when we had the effrontery to express such sentiments in the past will maybe appreciate my reasons and besides, why give them the publicity? - but here's a personal take.

Boards like the BFS have a 'Promote Your Own Projects' section so if people wish to take advantage of it, good luck to them, nothing wrong with that at all. Vault has no such section - have, indeed, been mocked elsewhere for refusing to provide a platform for over-zealous persons of the 'buy my book!' persuasion - but there have been, and still are times when you wouldn't think so. it used to be a simple case of "Hi great forum. Here's a great review of a book by yours truly! It's been long-listed for a BFS award. I'm over the moon! You guys are great! How do i can add an enormous banner as my signature? Great forum!", etc., but either my cynicism has completely got the better of me or i've noticed a chilling new-ish development. Knowing the reception they're likely to get (i.e., none), the more tenacious of the species have learnt subterfuge, or think they have. Author doesn't want to be seen to self-promote so asks tame fellow author/ contributor/ publisher to join horror-interest forum and lavish fulsome praise on their work. Recipient of favourable review feigns complete surprise, returns the compliment in kind. In the most extreme cases, this love-in is reenacted simultaneously over dozens of message boards. sure hope that one never spreads to Vault, eh boys and girls?

clinician, "Horror intelligentsia" is just me being rotten about authors who maybe take it all too seriously, but i think you answered your own question. for me, pulphack put it best; "It's a horror story, it's not the cure for cancer."

[Johnlprobert]

Oct 23, 2010 15:55:11 GMT David A. Riley said:

I don't believe personally that the self promotors are always the same people, though some of them are. But there are those whose every activity online is to promote their own stories and rarely, if ever, say anthing about anything else. We had one who would only post here to give a link to yet another online review of what they had written.

I actually find self-promotion very difficult and consuming of time and energy I would rather use to do other things.

It's interesting to note that the small press horror genre includes people who are excellent writers who don't self-promote at all (eg Reggie Oliver) all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum with individuals who are far, far better at promoting themselves than they are at actually writing.

In fact I would go so far as to say that it may well be where the talents of certain individuals lie & that they might find their metier publicising and promoting the work of others???

[Johnlprobert]

Time for a bit of a rest from Mr Lovecraft so I thought I'd tackle this one - and what a pleasant surprise it's been so far!

Kenneth Bulmer - Under The Tombstone. See Mr D's notes above. This actually plays out like an EC comics story, but presumably because this was 'New Horror' it would appear that vampires were out and big squidgy things were in, but otherwise it was business as usual down in the crypt.

Richard Davis - The Time Of Waiting. Around this time (1971) Sphere published a load of 'New SF', usually edited by Michael Moorcock, a lot of the stories of which involved their central characters going on some form of druggy trip. This story wouldn't have been out of place in one of those as John Daniels suddenly finds himself in a ?past life while waiting for his wife to give birth.

Robin Smyth - The Inglorious Rise Of The Catsmeat Man. '1935 was a year of downs for my old man as it was the year he fell in the giant cement mixer at Bleeson's cement works'. I really liked this hilariously inappropriate tale of splatter and shagging up North. Feeling very much like a Ripping Yarn with cannibals (Michael Palin could easily play the central character) there are plenty of laughs to be had here amidst the unpleasantness.

Michael G. Coney - The Hollow Where. Odd title. Slightly less odd story. Ron marries Janet but wishes he was married to her lovely sister Marion . With a wave of the storytelling wand he is and Janet is instead married to his rival Ed. But oh dear, Marion starts to become distinctly Janet-like as Ron realises his Big Life Lesson that actually was His Fault that Janey ended up a bit rubbish. A bit like this story.

R. W. Mackelworth - Mr. Nobody. More fun with pissed up Arthur being followed around by Mr Nobody who has green skin & a bowler hat and can cause nightclub signers to spontaneously combust. Sounds rubbish & it probably is but I laughed.

David Riley - The Farmhouse. Hooray - it's David Riley! With a horde of really horrible, horrible things down on the farm. Good scary, disturbing stuff, and obviously the work of the author of Lurkers in the Abyss

[Johnlprobert]

Dem's done a fine job of summarising the rest of the tales in this volume, which I finished off last night, so instead of in depth plot synopses here are a few random thoughts on what was left:

Julia Birley - The People Down Below - Cheating husbands, cockroaches and evil Victorians. Lovely

W. T. Webb - Phantasmagoria. Is Tickner the children's story writer raving mad or does he really have a friend called Olaf Perrydown who is trying to defend the world against Voskars from the 7th Dimension? Er...

Bryn Fortey - Prison. Nice Birkinesque finale to this bit of grungy horror. What a lovely bunch of...

David Rome - Charley’s Chair. Very sweet and gentle, and quite unexpected in view of what had gone before.

Ramsey Campbell - Broadcast. Not a bad RC story at all, and nowhere near as obverse as some.

David Campton - Goat. Straightforward supernatural revenge tale with a fun way forthe villain to do his dirty work.

E. C. Tubb - The Winner. I've got the Sarob Press ECT collection & I didn't think much of it. This howevere is loads of fun, being a bit of a piss-take of Dennis Wheatley, early 70s low budget film-makers, and with a witty ending. Glad I didn't give this one a miss.

[dem]

thanks, Lord P. still playing catch-up after enduring the worst bout of man-flu in history so i only just got to see this. i wasn't much enthused by Phantasmagoria either - don't think i've ever managed to finish it - but your comments on the E.C. Tubb story have determined me to get around to that one pronto. It's a wonderful collection, don't you think? Even the stories that perhaps haven't worn so well play their part.