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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2010 14:26:39 GMT
Charles Birkin - So Pale, So Cold, So Fair (Tandem, 1970) "So Pale, So Cold, So Fair" The Godsend Rover Circle Of Children Lot's Wife Gideon The Road A Haunting Beauty Lords Of The Refuge.For my wife, Janet, who is allergic to all 'unpleasantness'Inside cover blurb The carver in ivory who used only the rarest materials.... The Hallowe'en party for the children that was planned to be authentic in every detail .. . The impecunious tourist who still had one priceless commodity to sell ... The weird jewels that would for ever retain a memory of beauty ...
These are only some of Charles Birkin's nerve-twisting excursions into a new dimension of horror.Lord P. has already made a masterly job of A Haunting Beauty and Lords Of The Refuge on the Birkin in Midnight House thread so apologies if this is all getting confusing! Two-three years back, i attempted to read/ reread every Birkin story I could lay my hands on and this was the collection that tripped me up. Think I picked too many of his really depressing ones on the bounce. So I gave him a break for a year or so, went back to So Pale, So Cold, So Fair and, while it's not my personal favourite of his collections, it sure has its moments. So Pale, So Cold, So Fair: The title story is an odd choice for radio adaptation. It's grim enough but deathly slow (in print, at least) and the ending doesn't come as such a sick twist. Young Londoners Mark and Gillian, holidaying in Greece, are enjoying themselves so much they want to prolong their short stay through to Sunday. Mark being adventurous by inclination (never be that in a Birkin story!) is delighted to learn from a young busker that "in this renowned cradle of civilisation there is a market for everything. Drugs. Blue films. Even for something I have to offer!". So that night, Mark sets out for a seedy district to see if he can find a buyer for what he "has to offer" - and that's the last Gillian gets to see of him until she's called upon to identify his corpse. A Haunting Beauty: Paris. After ending his passionate affair with celebrated dancer Jaqueline Jerot, fabulously wealthy Eugene de Coulieure announces his engagement to a young American beauty, Shirley Stewart. M. Jerot decides the wedding cannot go ahead and, having befriended the girl, deliberately drives their car off the road, throwing herself free at the last moment. As luck would have it, Shirley is thrown onto the path of a train with her head lying just so across the track ... Eugene, deeply suspicious of Jaqueline's culpability in the death of the only woman he's ever loved, still refuses to reunite with her. So our heroine goes for all out nasty to hurt him as much as he has her.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 10, 2010 21:28:05 GMT
I haven't been able to find this book in any form, but isn't this particular cover simply smashing?
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Post by dem bones on Aug 10, 2010 22:12:21 GMT
Its a big improvement on the Tandem and somehow more appropriate. Don't get me wrong, I like suicidally depressing as much as the next man, but ... The Tandem was the last of his collections to be printed in the UK and can't help thinking that mushroom cloud had something to do with it. The My Name Is Death skeleton looks positively cheering in comparison.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Aug 11, 2010 9:50:43 GMT
I haven't been able to find this book in any form, but isn't this particular cover simply smashing? Yes, lovely! Although why they've changed it to "so pale, so cold, so DEAD" escapes me. It doesn't work as well as the English. I can get the German version for you if you like, Mein Herr. Just say the word. ;D
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 11, 2010 10:33:33 GMT
I can get the German version for you if you like, Mein Herr. Just say the word. ;D Will you read it to me?
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Post by andydecker on Aug 11, 2010 19:09:27 GMT
Yes, lovely! Although why they've changed it to "so pale, so cold, so DEAD" escapes me. It doesn't work as well as the English. "So fair" doesn´t just have the same ring as "so dead" in german.
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Post by Middoth on Apr 13, 2019 9:44:23 GMT
Who's author of the cover? He is a genius.
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Post by pbsplatter on Dec 31, 2022 15:17:10 GMT
The Godsend: Gerald Poulsen, ambitious supermarket marketing executive, and wife Hayley, are preparing for a make-or-break dinner with three similar couples and American supermarket tycoons Hilton & Theda Karraski. Three open positions and four applicants, that sort of thing. Potentially grounds for a bleak story itself, but unfortunately Hayley neglected to secure a sitter for infant son Martin. Happily, elderly Moira Bishopgate, visiting the apartment building on a trip down memory lane, overhears and offers her services.
The subsequent revelations, once the Poulsens are at dinner, that Moira is 1) AWOL from an old folks' institution and 2) a bit of a tippler shouldn't be of too much concern. After all, Martin is the spitting image of Moira's own dear departed baby Derrick. Well, almost the spitting image. . .
This one is my choice for prize of the collection, but the next two are really quite good as well.
Rover: Windsor Park. Blind Dora Ellis' 80th birthday present from husband (and seeing-eye 'Rover') Maurice is his death. She's taking it quite well, really, until the interval between when housekeeper Mrs. Gaffney steps out and Dora's sister Florie arrives, and she's alone. Well, not quite--Maurice's body will be laying out at the house until the doctor comes round on Monday--but he's not in a state to help her see, is he?
Circle of Children: Holystone Manor, where Sir Robin & Lady Hudson have arranged a Halloween treat for Master Edmond and his day school class. Failed actress Mrs Winter and her troupe will portray the wicked witch Mother Blackstick and her miserable cat and frog familiars. The tots take it all very seriously, which makes it even worse luck when Mother Blackstick stumbles into a bonfire. . .
Probably the closest we get to 'comic relief' in this collection, which says something!
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