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Post by dem on Aug 8, 2010 12:48:43 GMT
Michel Parry (ed.) -The 5th Mayflower Book Of Black Magic Stories (Mayflower, 1976)  Les Edwards
Evelyn Waugh - Out Of Depth
Alfred Bester - Hell Is Forever
Henry Slesar - The Wish-Giver
Patricia Williams - The Night Of The Beast
Ramsey Campbell - Lilith's
Anthony Boucher - Nellthu
Roland Caine - Red ChristmasFrederick Cowles - The House On The Marsh: "For God's sake, sir .... let's get away from this place. The house is full of flies, there's a ghost in the library, and there's dead men in the pond." Norfolk: Slade inherits the house from his Uncle Richard, a man with a dreadful reputation locally whose library is filled with obscure black magic texts. Slade was a child when last he saw him and recalls only that "he had an unpleasant way of fondling me on every occasion." When Richard died, the Priest was unable to bury him with full rites on account of a church invasion by monstrous flies. The dead man's journal reveals the lengths he was prepared to go to in pursuit of eternal life. Reads like M. R. James' Lost Hearts reworked by a pulp author and is, of course, utterly brilliant fun. Evelyn Waugh - Out Of Depth: Bloomsbury. Socialites Rip Van Winkle and Alistair Trumptington fall foul of black magician Dr. Kakophilos who is prone to giving it plenty of "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" (in "horrible cockney tones" - how frightful). Alistair is temporarily thrown back five hundred years with Rip being sent in the opposite direction. Neither find the experience to their liking. Ramsey Campbell - Lilith's: An Inland Revenue employee becomes increasingly obsessed with a shop he sees from the bus on his daily journey home. Lilith's, it transpires, is a sex shop, and when he eventually plucks up the courage to browse, he fixates on the rubber doll in the shop window and the crippled girl running the shop. Shortly after he buys the inflatable, Lilith's burns to the ground and the girl perishes in the flames. The hero dumps his fiancée and he and the doll make the happiest couple. For a while ... Patricia Williams - The Night Of The Beast: Osbury. Jim just hasn't been the same man since the accident, and his interest in the occult has taken over his life. Wife Elaine consoles herself by embarking on a string of affairs, the latest with hunky toyboy Bruce. Jim's reaction is to banish them back to pre-Christian times when the Pagans knew how to deal with an adulteress. An eventful and unpleasant five-pager featuring a neat cameo from the Wicker Man. It's dated 1974 but this wouldn't have been out of place in one of the Creeps anthologies. Henry Slesar - The Wish-Giver: A belligerent demon is sent to Earth and sets up shop on First Avenue. One free wish granted per client, but you'd better get it right .... Anthony Boucher - Nellthu: ... as Alisa does when she summons forth one of Nellthu's colleagues, a more amiable fellow altogether who allows her the traditional three bites at the cherry. She messes up the first two, but her third demand is pure genius. Ronald Caine - Red Christmas: Four year old Nugent Mason is so looking forward to Christmas Eve because, as he repeatedly explains to his exasperated parents, that's when Satan Claws will bring him his presents. Mum Alice and dad Frank wonder where the little tyke gets his wild ideas from ... I'm still working through the Alfred Bester mini-novel - six decadents hold one of their sordid shin-digs in a bomb shelter during the blitz and laugh at the thought of London being obliterated - but it's been great fun reacquainting myself with this one. Campbell and Cowles are on top form, Ronald Caine is supremely ghastly (imagine an E.C. comic strip minus a moral), Patricia Williams is all intensity and gloom: really, the only story that didn't do it for me was Evelyn Waugh's effort which has something of The Daily Ma*l about it.
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