A. F. Kidd - Bell Music

[dem bones]

A. F. Kidd - Bell Music (A.F. Kidd, Ruislip, 1989)

A. F. Kidd

Introduction

Alice
Postman's Knock
Renaissance
Immortal, Invisible
The Howlet
Stone Music
Butterfly
Gifts

Glossary Of Ringing Terms

From the good old DTP days of eyesight-annihilating close type when all small press publications looked like this! It has taken me the best part of half an hour to reacquaint myself with the fondly remembered Postman's Knock, but i'm glad to have made the effort as it's a super tale of visitation beyond the grave with a deliciously nasty ending. The village postman in question is - or was - Edward Kenny, killed in the trenches during the first world war. Sixty years on and he returns to his lover, Harriet Blair, the vicar's daughter, but the reunion is far from cheering. Edward blames her for the drowning of their illegitimate child. And what's inside the parcel he's gone to such lengths to deliver? Probably my favourite of A. F. Kidd's campanologist- themed supernatural stories is her vampire offering, The Bell-founders Wife which Karl E. Wagner included in volume 16 of The Years Best Horror Stories, but this runs it a close second. Will try and read/ write up some more from Bell Music once i've sandblasted my eyeballs back into shape.

[dem bones]

A. F. Kidd

Alice: 1750. The Reverend Cox of St Mary the Virgin, conspires with Lye, the innkeeper, to burn down neighbouring St. Catherine's, Abbots Hartford, so he might salvage its bells for his own church. Cox callously records that the "tragedy" came with "scant loss of life" though the truth is otherwise. A distraught Alice Lye confides the truth in Nicholas Lamb, bell-founder, imploring him not to recast the eight damaged and broken pieces and melt down and bury them deep as they came at cost of an entire congregation, cremated alive. Alice goes missing shortly after, though her spirit haunts the belfry, ready to punish the murderers when the opportunity arises.

Cut to the present day as the local bell-ringers plan to ring a full peal for the first time ...

The Howlet: A faerie braves the hostile town at night to replace a human child with a changeling — but who gets the worst of the exchange? "The very short piece The Howlet was written for a competition, which is about the most thankless reason for writing anything. It did not take me long to discover that contest organisers are not in the least interested in fantasy or the supernatural, however well-written."