Francis St. Clare & Frederica Masters

[dem bones]

"Having created a psychic detective of my own, I was delighted to meet Mr. Wheatley's Neils Orsen, and a very able investigator he is too. How nice it would be if he and my fellow could work together one day" - R. Chetwynd-Hayes in his introduction to 13th Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories (1977).

Chetwynd-Hayes' sleuth is Francis St. Clare, "The World's only Practicing Psychic Detective", and I've no idea how many stories he shows up in. Three I've been able to locate are The Wailing Waif Of Battersea (Night Ghouls, 1975), The Gibbering Ghoul Of Gomershal (Kamtellar, 1980) and The Cringing Couple Of Clavering (Tales From The Hidden World, 1988). St. Clare has an assistant, Fred, with whom he is always squabbling, and the stories are very much from the Oh-my-aching-sides Great Grand-Dad Walks Again end of the R.C.H. spectrum. Wheatley died in 1977, but one can only wish that he had made some kind of public response to Chetwynd-Hayes' proposal.

Fortunately, my friend John Llewellyn Probert was able to flesh out the St. Clare list and here are his findings:

"I was very fond of the Fred & Francis stories as a kid, and often wondered why they were never collected. Now I realise that the style is a bit too samey to have the stories running one after another, and the squabbling dialogue quickly gets repetitive. The first story was called Someone is Dead and appeared in the collection The Elemental & Others. My favourites are this and The Headless Footman of Hadleigh from Fontana's Tales of Fear & Fantasy. The last appeared in the late eighties William Kimber published collection Tales from the Hidden World. Like all RCH stuff the earlier ones are better. A novel The Psychic Detective appeared from Robert Hale in 1993 but it's as rare as hen's teeth & copies go for upwards of £70-00 on abebooks.

I've just gone through my RCH collection and here's the list of Fred & Francis short stories in order:

Someone is Dead The Elemental
The Wailing Waif of Battersea The Night Ghouls
The Headless Footman of Hadleigh Tales of Fear & Fantasy
The Gibbering Ghoul of Gomershal The Fantastic World of Kamtellar
The Astral Invasion Tales from the Dark Lands
The Phantom Axeman of Carleton Grange Tales from the Haunted House
The Cringing Couple of Clavering Tales from the Hidden World

Someone is Dead was reprinted in Steve Jones' Dark Detectives from Fedogan & Bremer a couple of years ago as well."

*****

The Gibbering Ghoul Of Gomershal is a previously unpublished account taken from the casebook of the world's only practicing psychic detective, Francis St. Clare. But he and his glamorous assistant Fredrica Masters (Fred for short) have made three earlier appearances, and for a long time there has been talk of a television series, which has still to materialise as something more concrete. In contrast to what has gone before, their escapade is light-hearted, written more for giggles than shudders, but, I hope, none the less entertaining. I like this pair, no matter where they came from, and would hate to see them buried in an unmarked grave.

Chetwynd-Hayes on Francis & Fred in the introduction to Kamtellar, 1980

I must admit, I'm warming to them myself.

Here's Francis St. Clare from The Wailing Waif Of Battersea:

He was a tall, lean young man, who seemed to be hiding his natural shyness under a mask of aggressive self-confidence. He wore a neat black suit and could well have been mistaken for a lay-preacher, or even a prosperous undertaker. His grey eyes seemed to sum up the visitor with one cool glance, then he bared his splendid teeth in a brilliant smile and came forward with an outstretched hand.

And Fred from the same story (repeated virtually word for word in The Gibbering Ghoul of Gomershal:

She was extremely pretty with ash blonde hair and white skin, but she wore a cynical expression as though the blue eyes had seen too much and forgotten too little in her short life. She wore a colourful costume that bordered on the bizarre. The bright green blouse had a dangerous split down the centre that revealed the valley between her breasts, the orange mini-skirt was the stunted offspring of a broad belt, and her splendid, nylon-clad legs made the man's eyes widen with involuntary appreciation. Her cynical smile deepened.
'Like 'em?'
'I beg your pardon!'
'Granted. Have a good look. What can I do for you?'

Yet another near-miss with television. He didn't really have much luck with the small-screen, did he?

[Johnlprobert]

As a footnote to that I'll just add that I was wrong about the last F&F tale - it was in fact 'The Fundamental Elemental' which you can find in 'Looking for Something to Suck' - The Vampire Stories of RCH, available from Fedogan & Bremer in the US and Robert Hale in the UK. The Hale edition is virtually impossible to get hold of. I've no idea how many Hale printed but even Stephen Jones, who edited it, told me he'd never seen a copy on sale.

[Johnlprobert]

Just wanted to add to this thread that I've finally been able to find a copy of The Psychic Detective for less than £150, which now seems to be the going rate. My ex-library copy cost a fiver, I'm halfway through it already, and it's quite, quite cracking

[dem bones]

Delighted for you, Lord P. I've never even seen a copy, let alone clasped one to my bosom. Any chance of a cover scan if it's not too much trouble, pretty please?

[Johnlprobert]

Aug 24, 2011 21:19:35 GMT dem bones said:

delighted for you, lord p. i've never even seen a copy, let alone clasped one to my bosom. any chance of a cover scan if it's not too much trouble, pretty please?

Wish, command, etc Mr D!

[Swampirella]

May 16, 2008 22:54:36 GMT dem bones said:

"Having created a psychic detective of my own, I was delighted to meet Mr. Wheatley's Neils Orsen, and a very able investigator he is too. How nice it would be if he and my fellow could work together one day" - R. Chetwynd-Hayes in his introduction to 13th Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories (1977).

Chetwynd-Hayes' sleuth is Francis St. Clare, "The World's only Practicing Psychic Detective", and I've no idea how many stories he shows up in. Three I've been able to locate are The Wailing Waif Of Battersea (Night Ghouls, 1975), The Gibbering Ghoul Of Gomershal (Kamtellar, 1980) and The Cringing Couple Of Clavering (Tales From The Hidden World, 1988). St. Clare has an assistant, Fred, with whom he is always squabbling, and the stories are very much from the Oh-my-aching-sides Great Grand-Dad Walks Again end of the R.C.H. spectrum. Wheatley died in 1977, but one can only wish that he had made some kind of public response to Chetwynd-Hayes' proposal.

Fortunately, my friend John Llewellyn Probert was able to flesh out the St. Clare list and here are his findings:

"I was very fond of the Fred & Francis stories as a kid, and often wondered why they were never collected. Now I realise that the style is a bit too samey to have the stories running one after another, and the squabbling dialogue quickly gets repetitive. The first story was called Someone is Dead and appeared in the collection The Elemental & Others. My favourites are this and The Headless Footman of Hadleigh from Fontana's Tales of Fear & Fantasy. The last appeared in the late eighties William Kimber published collection Tales from the Hidden World. Like all RCH stuff the earlier ones are better. A novel The Psychic Detective appeared from Robert Hale in 1993 but it's as rare as hen's teeth & copies go for upwards of £70-00 on abebooks.

I've just gone through my RCH collection and here's the list of Fred & Francis short stories in order:

Someone is Dead The Elemental
The Wailing Waif of Battersea The Night Ghouls
The Headless Footman of Hadleigh Tales of Fear & Fantasy
The Gibbering Ghoul of Gomershal The Fantastic World of Kamtellar
The Astral Invasion Tales from the Dark Lands
The Phantom Axeman of Carleton Grange Tales from the Haunted House
The Cringing Couple of Clavering Tales from the Hidden World

Someone is Dead was reprinted in Steve Jones' Dark Detectives from Fedogan & Bremer a couple of years ago as well."

*****

The Gibbering Ghoul Of Gomershal is a previously unpublished account taken from the casebook of the world's only practicing psychic detective, Francis St. Clare. But he and his glamorous assistant Fredrica Masters (Fred for short) have made three earlier appearances, and for a long time there has been talk of a television series, which has still to materialise as something more concrete. In contrast to what has gone before, their escapade is light-hearted, written more for giggles than shudders, but, I hope, none the less entertaining. I like this pair, no matter where they came from, and would hate to see them buried in an unmarked grave.

Chetwynd-Hayes on Francis & Fred in the introduction to Kamtellar, 1980

I must admit, I'm warming to them myself.

Here's Francis St. Clare from The Wailing Waif Of Battersea:

He was a tall, lean young man, who seemed to be hiding his natural shyness under a mask of aggressive self-confidence. He wore a neat black suit and could well have been mistaken for a lay-preacher, or even a prosperous undertaker. His grey eyes seemed to sum up the visitor with one cool glance, then he bared his splendid teeth in a brilliant smile and came forward with an outstretched hand.

And Fred from the same story (repeated virtually word for word in The Gibbering Ghoul of Gomershal:

She was extremely pretty with ash blonde hair and white skin, but she wore a cynical expression as though the blue eyes had seen too much and forgotten too little in her short life. She wore a colourful costume that bordered on the bizarre. The bright green blouse had a dangerous split down the centre that revealed the valley between her breasts, the orange mini-skirt was the stunted offspring of a broad belt, and her splendid, nylon-clad legs made the man's eyes widen with involuntary appreciation. Her cynical smile deepened.
'Like 'em?'
'I beg your pardon!'
'Granted. Have a good look. What can I do for you?'

Yet another near-miss with television. He didn't really have much luck with the small-screen, did he?

Thank you! Since I prefer non-Francis St. Clare stories, I can now buy Tales From the Shadows with confidence. Well, confident about one thing, anyhow. I'm itching for more RCH but not to pay the high prices of the older ones.