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Post by dem bones on Jun 29, 2011 9:01:37 GMT
Caroline Upcher (ed.) - Are You Superstitious? (Fourth Estate, 1996) A black cat. Believed to herald bad luck Blurb Cilla Black has worn the same bathrobe in her dressing room for Surprise, Surprise since the very first series. Lloyd Grossman won't look at the full moon through glass - which is difficult since he wears spectacles. Maeve Binchy worries about singing 'When I'm 64' before she's 64 in case she never gets there. Nick Hornby accidently 'dooms' the Arsenal goalkeeper if he points a lighted cigarette at him. Fiona Pitt-Kethley's mother is visited by Korky, the premium bond cat. Anyone who strokes him wins - one woman comes from Spain every six months to stroke him for luck. And when a certain New York bookmaker is on a particularly bad run, he always throws his underwear out of the window.
Are You Superstitious? reveals the quirky pet superstitions and lucky habits from a host of celebrities and others including jockeys, plumbers, hairdressers, stuntmen, actors as well as those like Terence Conran, Simon Callow, Nicky Clarke and Tom Stoppard who insist they are not superstitious. Proceeds will be donated to CRUSAID and The Chicken Shed Theatre Company.
Donate a superstition by completing the form inside and your contribution will be included in Are You Superstitious Too?"I NEVER celebrate, get interested in, have anything to do with HALLOWEEN. I don't even like to write the word" confides best-selling fantasy novelist WIlliam Horwood. For Dennis McPartland of The Big Issue, it's a matter of life and death - everybody's - if a certain corner of the office ain't ship shape. "I see someone has left the lid open on the photocopier, I have to close it otherwise doom is imminent". Agent to the stars Susan Rodgers is another bundle of laughs ("When you hear a dog baying and howling in the distance it means someone in the family going to die") and Lloyd Grossman's lucky number is "too important to be revealed." Koo Stark: answered "yes." Are You Superstitious? is a compilation of such soundbites. To some it might appear infinitely less significant than even French Party Games or the doesn't-live-up-to-it's-name The Buffy The Vampire Pop Quiz,- i mean food critic Sophie Grigson's answer, "No, sorry", takes care of an entire page, likewise David Hockney's even blunter "NO" - but for this lazy bones it brings new hope. can it be, after all this time, i've found me a blueprint for a book even i might be able to write? i'm going to Argos now. For a foldaway table.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 13, 2011 10:02:06 GMT
Good Lord! Caroline was my editor at Pan in the later stages of New Terrors - around the publication of volume two, I think. A pleasant lady! But then my first British editor (Piers Dudgeon) has several books to his name by now.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 13, 2011 13:21:20 GMT
glad you mentioned New Terrors, Ramsey, as i'm sure i had an omnibus edition from the library once. huge paperback, it was, combining both volumes and i don't think it was called New Terrors. i've not seen a copy since returning it way back. any ideas?
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Post by noose on Jul 13, 2011 16:24:45 GMT
Omnibus of New Terrors!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 13, 2011 21:10:48 GMT
glad you mentioned New Terrors, Ramsey, as i'm sure i had an omnibus edition from the library once. huge paperback, it was, combining both volumes and i don't think it was called New Terrors. i've not seen a copy since returning it way back. any ideas? Dem - that's the edition that's on the shelves at Probert Towers! A big omnibus paperback - from Pan -of both volumes. I picked it up at a steam rally for 50p. It's called 'New Terrors Omnibus' and was published in 1985. Cover art by Matt Mahurin & was different to the two separate volumes published in 1980
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Post by dem bones on Jul 13, 2011 22:08:53 GMT
thank you, the johns. yes, that will be the one (the 1985 edition) i suppose .... and yet. perhaps i'm being swayed by Superhorror and the way its name changed to The Far Reaches Of Fear for paperback publication, but my 'brain' seems to be demanding that it's seen the stories collected in a volume that wasn't called New Terrors Omnibus or Omnibus Of New Terrors. Also, the Matt Mahurin cover artwork doesn't ring any bells at all!
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 14, 2011 10:03:05 GMT
glad you mentioned New Terrors, Ramsey, as i'm sure i had an omnibus edition from the library once. huge paperback, it was, combining both volumes and i don't think it was called New Terrors. i've not seen a copy since returning it way back. any ideas? Dem - that's the edition that's on the shelves at Probert Towers! A big omnibus paperback - from Pan -of both volumes. I picked it up at a steam rally for 50p. It's called 'New Terrors Omnibus' and was published in 1985. Cover art by Matt Mahurin & was different to the two separate volumes published in 1980 Different text? Are you sure, John? News to me unless senility has caught up with me...
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 14, 2011 10:15:55 GMT
Dem - that's the edition that's on the shelves at Probert Towers! A big omnibus paperback - from Pan -of both volumes. I picked it up at a steam rally for 50p. It's called 'New Terrors Omnibus' and was published in 1985. Cover art by Matt Mahurin & was different to the two separate volumes published in 1980 Different text? Are you sure, John? News to me unless senility has caught up with me... No Ramsey - I meant the cover art is different! The text is the same!
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 14, 2011 13:06:27 GMT
Different text? Are you sure, John? News to me unless senility has caught up with me... No Ramsey - I meant the cover art is different! The text is the same! Thanks, John! I won't need you to perform that brain operation after all (yet).
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 14, 2011 17:47:22 GMT
Thanks, John! I won't need you to perform that brain operation after all (yet). Also, are you sure you really want a urologist to do it?
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Post by dem bones on Jul 14, 2011 17:48:37 GMT
Thanks, John! I won't need you to perform that brain operation after all (yet). ... but i most likely will incidentally, Caroline Upcher is an interesting one. Among her claims to fame, she ghosted Naomi Campbell's notoriously poor-selling novel Swan! Caroline is aka mystery writer Hope McIntyre and Piatkus/Little Brown have published four novels featuring ghostwriter-turned-sleuth Lee Bartholomew. just been looking at her website . Are You Superstitious? is glaring conspicuous by its absence on the My Works page. perhaps it was her first book (she admits to fourteen and rising)?
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 15, 2011 9:45:27 GMT
Thanks, John! I won't need you to perform that brain operation after all (yet). Also, are you sure you really want a urologist to do it? I was thinking of that secret laboratory at Probert Towers...
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 15, 2011 15:41:25 GMT
Also, are you sure you really want a urologist to do it? I was thinking of that secret laboratory at Probert Towers... Mr Campbell is of course quite right, but at the moment the secret laboratory is used for other things...
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 18, 2011 15:31:11 GMT
By the way, I happened to notice Lord and Lady Probert in the society pages of the June issue of Locus.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 18, 2011 19:54:54 GMT
By the way, I happened to notice Lord and Lady Probert in the society pages of the June issue of Locus. Do tell us more, Mr Lapin X!
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