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Post by dem bones on Jan 7, 2010 12:48:52 GMT
Sir Andrew Caldecott - Not Exactly Ghosts (Wordsworth Editions, 2007) Introduction - David Stuart Davies Not Exactly Ghosts (originally Edward Arnold, 1947) A Room in a Rectory Branch Line to Benceston Sonata in D Minor Autoepiphany The Pump in Thorp's Spinney Whiffs of the Sea In Due Course Light in the Darkness Decastroland A Victim of Medusa Fits of the Blues Christmas Reunion Fires Burn Blue (originally Edward Arnold, 1948) An Exchange of Notes Cheap and Nasty Grey Brothers Quintet Authorship Disputed Final Touches What's in a Name? Under the Mistletoe His Name was Legion Tall Tales but True A Book Entry Seeds of Remembrance Seated One Day at the OrganBlurb: Here together for the first time in one volume are the twenty five spooky stories created by Sir Andrew Caldecott in two collections the 1940s. Caldecott, who only turned to fiction after retiring from the civil service, allowed his lifelong fascination with the supernatural full reign in these simple yet remarkably disturbing stories.
Taking his inspiration from the master of the ghost story, M. R. James, who chilled by implication rather than by gory description, Caldecott created believable but unsettling scenarios which effectively produce a sense of unease in the reader. The mundane becomes horrific; the everyday is unnerving; and the commonplace is frightening. At last these rare forgotten gems are available once more to stir the imagination and chill the blood.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 7, 2010 13:58:29 GMT
ooooh - looks like my kind of book. I'm starting to hate Wordsworth for producing these brilliant collections. I can't wait to get over to Blighty and root through a real bookshop for a change.
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Post by Steve on Jan 7, 2010 19:14:24 GMT
The Caldecott is making its way up the dreaded to be read pile. i like the few of his i've encountered in the past... but i bought Not Exactly Ghosts by mistake. if anyone cares to get us started, please do. Not Exactly Ghosts is one of the Wordsworths I picked up last year. Really should have another look at it before attempting any kind of proper review but I remember it as being enjoyable, i.e. not bad at all but not thrilling, if you know what I mean. Caldecott, when he's remembered at all, always seems to have this 'Jamesian' tag attached to his work. I'm sure he'd be very happy as he was obviously a big fan (there are several direct references to MRJ and his work in these stories). That said, I rarely found myself being reminded of James while reading this. Yeah, we're largely on the quieter, gentler side of things here but while M.R. James was always distinctive and quite capable, in his own way, of dragging you to the edge of your seat, Caldecott's stuff is just generally pleasant, sometimes fun, but not all that dissimilar to a lot of other stuff you'd find in magazines and short story collections of the time. Watch now while I go back to this and decide that these stories are in fact unjustly neglected classics...
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Post by dem bones on Jan 7, 2010 20:55:06 GMT
*discreetly nudges it a couple of places down the pile* you know, it's probably a terrible thing to admit, but, apart from 'James Montague's terrific Worms, but for a few shorts, the'Jamesian' collection i enjoyed most since we started this board was M. P. Dare's Unholy Relics, a book which maybe isn't held in the greatest esteem by proper MRJ fans - Rosemary Pardoe includes it in The James Gang: A Bibliography of Writers in the M. R. James Tradition but advises that "Dare was too over-the-top to be a true Jamesian" - or too many other readers come to that. i think there might be just about enough of us to make a go of this; who is your favourite Jamesian author?
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Post by cw67q on Jan 8, 2010 11:38:43 GMT
i think there might be just about enough of us to make a go of this; who is your favourite Jamesian author? My favourite "Jamesian" collection is LTC Rolt's Sleep no More, although I don't think it is entirely fair to classify Rolt as Jamesain as his collectioin has a wider range than MRJ's work, and my faviourite tales straty closer to Machen and Blackwood. Still he is considered part fo the James gang. More modern: If you can find a copy, check out Steve Duffy's "Midnight Never Comes", the most enjoyable pure JAmesain collection I've come across. Even better is "the Five Quarters" which SD co-wrote with ian Rodwell, which consists of 5 longish stories within a framing device. I think of it as more of an episodic novel a la the three imposters than a story collection, but the stories work fine on their own. Reggie Oliver is I think the finest writer of ghost stories for decades, many of his tales fall into the Jamesian tradition. Cheers - Chris
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Post by dem bones on Jan 8, 2010 21:16:37 GMT
L. T. C. Rolt is class and the proposed Wordsworth Sleep No More will be an excellent addition to the series. i'm a big fan of Frederick Cowles, too, but i'm not sure he wrote enough MRJ-influenced stories to qualify.
Of the moderns, Roger Johnson, whose work is collected in A A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour (Sarob Press, 2001) and David Rowlands' Father O'Connor stories (not quite so keen on his continuation of E. G. Swain's Stoneground ghost stories).
Have only read one Steve Duffy story (The Clay Party in the Mark Valentine edited Werewolf Pack from Wordsworth), loved it, too. Friend Ripper rates him highly.
only read three Reggie Oliver stories, but he's seemingly pulled off that tricky one of appealing to both the more highbrow, uh, Dark Fantasy audience and thrill-seekers like self who can barely read.
There's some guy called Daniel McGachey whose They That Dwell In Dark Places is on my wants list, having enjoyed his work in The Black Book Of Horror and Filthy Creations ...
following steve's post, i took a tentative dip into Not Exactly Ghosts. Not feeling particularly daring, i stuck with the tried and trusted Christmas Reunion, which famously takes it's cue from one of MRJ's suggested plot-lines in Stories I Have Tried To Write but reads more like L. P. Hartley as nice, middle class family the Dreyton's have their festivities disrupted when young Mr. Clarence Love returns from the antipodes to spend Christmas as their guest. Love is a gold prospector made fabulously rich by the mysterious death of the uncle who shared his adventure in the Bush. A sinister Santa with a neat line in macabre doggerel sees to it that Mr. Love's Christmas is not a pleasant one.
If all the Not Exactly Ghosts stories are as fun as this, i think we'll get along famously.
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Post by Steve on Jan 9, 2010 9:05:53 GMT
following steve's post, i took a tentative dip into Not Exactly Ghosts. Not feeling particularly daring, i stuck with the tried and trusted Christmas Reunion, which famously takes it's cue from one of MRJ's suggested plot-lines in Stories I Have Tried To Write but reads more like L. P. Hartley... That was the first one I read as well (what are the odds?) and, yeah pretty much my thoughts exactly. Oh, Caldecott can be fun alright. For a bit of a change of pace and scenery you might try 'Grey Brothers' in Fires Burn Blue. Seconded on our man McGachey too. For my money, the likes of 'The Mound' are as good an example of the Jamesian tradition as you'll find today. For some unearthly reason I've got it in my head to post something about the mysterious 'B' - he of 'The Stone Coffin' and what have you - but I really need to go back to bed for a bit before I even think about attempting anything of more than a few sentences. I only got up to go for a piss.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 9, 2010 11:23:27 GMT
That was the first one I read as well (what are the odds?) you're not, by any chance reading the Ghosts & Scholars anthology, are you? rather than get stuck into the Wordsworth collection, i dug out G&S for Christmas Reunion, then carried on last night with the Rolt and Spence stories. if i hadn't slumped into a coma midway through The Dean's Bargain (a decent enough story, but you need your wits about you), The Stone Coffin was up next as it's relatively brief ...
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Post by cw67q on Jan 12, 2010 9:15:39 GMT
L. T. C. Rolt is class and the proposed Wordsworth Sleep No More will be an excellent addition to the series. Hi demonik, Rolt came up on another board and I casually mentioned that wordsworth were planning a reprint, a friend conatcted me to ask about this and I realised that I may have read more into your "proposed" above than I should have. Do you (or anyone else) know if wordsworth have any definite plans to, or even a definite interest in possibly, reprinting Rolt? Cheers - Chris
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Post by dem bones on Jan 12, 2010 10:08:16 GMT
hi Chris: my reason for mentioning a 'proposed' edition is Rolt's good showing in the online poll Wordsworth New Author Poll (Still In Copyright). i've just dropped Derek a line so, with a bit of luck we'll have something concrete to go on later. Later..... and it's bad news, i'm afraid. "L.T.C. Rolt falls into the category of titles we'd like to do, but that are still in copyright (he died in 1974, so 2045 before copyright lapses), so it doesn't figure in our current plans.sadly, i gather they're not getting any joy from Wakefield's estate either. hope i've not caused you any embarrassment
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Post by cw67q on Jan 12, 2010 11:47:03 GMT
hi Chris: my reason for mentioning a 'proposed' edition is Rolt's good showing in the online poll Wordsworth New Author Poll (Still In Copyright). i've just dropped Derek a line so, with a bit of luck we'll have something concrete to go on later. Later..... and it's bad news, i'm afraid. "L.T.C. Rolt falls into the category of titles we'd like to do, but that are still in copyright (he died in 1974, so 2045 before copyright lapses), so it doesn't figure in our current plans.sadly, i gather they're not getting any joy from Wakefield's estate either. hope i've not caused you any embarrassment Thanks for getting back to me so soon, Demonik. My fault for jumping to conclusions, but no big problem, I'll just have to come clean :-) Pity about the news though. - chris
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 12, 2010 12:14:41 GMT
Interesting. Wonder what happens with the estate; perhaps a conflict of interests between family?
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Post by dem bones on Jan 13, 2010 16:24:08 GMT
i've a hunch Lord Probert would appreciate this one. Seated One Day At The Organ: Outrage at Scarminster Abbey. Was Mr. Fulstowe the organist blind drunk when he collapsed across his keyboard during Evensong, causing the service to be brought to an unseemly conclusion amid the most devilish din? Fulstowe assures the Canon that it was all the fault of the mirror above the console, recently purchased from a second hand shop - or rather, the macabre and dreadful things he'd seen reflected in the glass. Yeah, we're largely on the quieter, gentler side of things here but while M.R. James was always distinctive and quite capable, in his own way, of dragging you to the edge of your seat, Caldecott's stuff is just generally pleasant, sometimes fun, but not all that dissimilar to a lot of other stuff you'd find in magazines and short story collections of the time. one thing, i've noticed; if this and Christmas Reunion are representative of the rest, while he doesn't exactly linger over the deaths, he certainly makes them unpleasant enough. By the way; Just in case all this classy ghost story stuff is all getting too tasteful for you, never fear. i've almost finished issue 2 of Justin's Men Of Violence!
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Post by cw67q on Jan 13, 2010 20:17:58 GMT
Rolt redux! Loose no more sleep for it appears a reprint of Sleep No more is imminent after all. Another poster kindly puit this info up on another forum: >Disengaging lurk mode a for a moment, I gather it is being reprinted >by the History Press at the end of the month, which is rather >appropriate as their usual stock-in-trade is volumes on obscure >industrial and transport history. Details can be found at www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/Sleep-No-More.aspx- Chris
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Post by monker on Jan 14, 2010 1:53:55 GMT
he was obviously a big fan (there are several direct references to MRJ and his work in these stories). You know, to be perfectly honest, I hate it when authors do that because it disturbs what is essentially each individual reader’s own personal suspension of disbelief level. I would assume that most readers read as if they were somehow in on the action and not as if they were reading some quasi ‘true’ account from a position of complete detachment. If this is generally true then by making reference to another author of the same genre in their own fiction, these authors are essentially putting the two pieces of fiction into completely separate categories. One becomes ‘fiction’ and the other ‘true’ and I don’t think that is fair on either the author or the reader. who is your favourite Jamesian author? James Seriously, I’m essentially still a novice who picks and chooses my fiction very deliberately so I haven’t read enough strictly ‘Jamesian’ fiction to really be able to judge. However, apart from James himself, I do like Rolt’s book which I read last year.
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