Joel Lane & Tom Johnstone (eds.) - Horror Uncut

[dem bones]

Joel Lane & Tom Johnstone (eds.) - Horror Uncut (Gray Friar Press, Sept. 2014)

Neil Williams

Tom Johnsone - Foreword

Joel Lane - A Cry for Help
Simon Bestwick - The Battering Stone
Priya Sharma - The Ballad of Boomtown
John Llewellyn Probert - The Lucky Ones
Stephen Hampton - The Sun Trap
Gary McMahon - Only Bleeding
Anna Taborska - The Lemmy / Trump Test
John Howard - Falling into Stone
Laura Lauro - Ptichka
Stephen Bacon - The Devil’s Only Friend
David Williams - The Procedure
Rosanne Rabinowitz - Pieces of Ourselves
John Forth - A Simple Matter of Space
David Turnbell - The Privilege Card
Alison Littlewood - The Ghost at the Feast
Andrew Hook - The Opaque District
Thana Niveau - No History of Violence

Tom Johnstone - Afterword

Blurb
“ ‘We’ve all heard rumour: that the austerity measures will be over by Christmas. That there will be a Christmas…’ ” But now the prime minister, in the opulent surroundings of a banqueting hall, has publicly called for permanent austerity.

The Con Dem Coalition government’s policies have brought real life horror stories: cancer patients bullied by the DWP, bereaved parents forced out of homes by the bedroom tax, pregnant migrants endangered by avoiding medical help in fear of hospital bills.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, Gray Friar Press presents macabre tales from the frontline of aus-terror-ty. We asked fine writers of horror to bring dark visions of a society blighted by poverty, debt and privatisation, exploring what ghosts, private madness and afterlife such a world might bring.

The anthology counters a culture encouraging ordinary people to scapegoat benefit claimants and migrant workers, show-casing fiction that examines the real roots of a crisis that causes hardship for many and lining the pockets of few.

Here you will encounter the...
...terrible price exacted for treatment in a private hospital…
...ancient curse on an abandoned housing development…
...torture gang of wealthy thugs who hunt the poor…
...suicidal apparitions encountered by a healthcare P.R. man…

Such acclaimed talents as Alison Littlewood, John Llewellyn Probert, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Gary McMahon, Anna Taborska, Joel Lane, Simon Bestwick, Andrew Hook, and Priya Sharma invoke a world where you queue to join the queues, personal space is strictly rationed, and sadistic game-shows control the population.

Out now from Gray Friar Press, the late Joel Lane's last great project. Am very proud to see no less than four Vault Advert Calendar donors on the stellar contributors list. Gary Fry writes.

"Just a short message to announce a project which is very dear to us here at Gray Friar Press. A few years ago, after publishing an anthology called Never Again which used weird fiction as a method of addressing issues of racism and fascism, one of its editors, the great Joel Lane, and Tom Johnstone approached us with an idea for a book of short stories concerned with the austerity measures established by the incoming ConDem government.

Sadly, Joel died while working on this book, but had a hand in selecting all the stories. The anthology - HORROR UNCUT - has since been brought to completion by Joel's co-editor Tom and now published by GFP."

In short: a must have.
Order: Horror Uncut

[weirdmonger]

From Clacton-on-Sea, I review this book HERE

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Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease
Edited by Joel Lane and Tom Johnstone
Gray Friar Press 2014

Including stories by Joel Lane, Simon Bestwick, Priya Sharma, John Llewellyn Probert, Stephen Hampton, Gary McMahon, Anna Taborska, John Howard, Laura Mauro, Stephen Bacon, David Williamson, Rosanne Rabinowitz, John Forth, David Turnbull, Alison Littlewood, Andrew Hook, Thana Niveau.

[dem bones]

Time to get back to horror business, and this anti-celebration of our beloved Con-Dem government@foodbank Britain PLC is purpose built for the occasion. Already had a crack at the late Joel Lane's A Cry For Help on the Fourth Black Book Of Horror thread, so will come back to it after I've made progress with more of the new material.

John Llewellyn Probert - The Lucky Ones: The new austerity-for-some policies as sex aid for the great achievers. Like all the best ideas, the beauty of Martin Johnson's concept for a new sado-games show to rival Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is in its simplicity. The input of Miss Christina Matthews, the latest in a seemingly endless procession of personal secretaries to company boss Royston Furlong, is not to be underestimated, although it certainly will be when the credits run. And to think initially she gave Martin and his project the finger!

Anna Taborska - The Lemmy / Trump Test: Vigilantism as tacitly approved "kill the scroungers" blood sport in aid of enforcing Government policy and slashing the deficit. Will leave if for you to discover what the "test" entails (this reader failed with flying colours).

Thana Niveau - No History of Violence: If it's heartbreak you're after, try this account of the last days of Sara and her husband, Robin, a man plagued by terrifying hallucinations from childhood, whose treatment for mental health issues has been abruptly terminated due to swingeing NHS budgetary cuts. Sara can see only one way out, but she's determined to strike back at the uncaring hypocrites responsible for Robin's plight before the inevitable.

[dem bones]

With every story read I fear distinct possibility of a fuming Dennis "Trade Unionists = fledgling traitors" Wheatley clawing his way out of the grave to give all concerned a damn good "rogering." Well I guess just so long as he doesn't knock out a Gateway To Hell sequel while he's about it. As to the Rev. Sabine "A Dead Finger" Baring-Gould and certain contributors (i.e., Eimar O'Duffy, Edgar Jepson) to John Gawsworth's Crimes Creeps & Thrills anthology - livid. Positively livid.

David Williams - The Procedure: With the NHS teetering on the brink of collapse, Shaun McNab, who has a morbid fear of Hospitals, bites the bullet, opts to go private for his hernia operation. But can his credit card take the strain? Kindly chief surgeon Dr. King, the best in the business, is quick to reassure him that all is well, "You can trust me, I'm a Doctor!" So, no cause for alarm then.

Alison Littlewood - The Ghost at the Feast: Intent on retribution, the ghosts of destitute austerity victims converge on the second home of local MP Coleman, self styled "friend of the working man" and instigator of the lethal Square Footage Tax (essentially the Bedroom Tax notched up to 11). Among their number, David, recently deceased, whose years of toil were rewarded with the living death that is redundancy and homelessness. Coleman, feigning ignorance of their hateful presence, sits down to his sumptuous banquet for one.

Stephen Bacon - The Devil’s Only Friend: Pyromaniac Nolan has served six years for setting the blaze which claimed the life of his lover and best friend, Mark Wheeler. Recently released after extensive therapy in the prison medical wing, he returns home to find the burnt out shell of the hotel still stands but everything else he once knew has changed. Now more socially isolated than ever and with the bitter curse of the bereaved and broken parents ringing in his ears, it is almost a mercy when Mark's ghost lures him to his doom.

[dem bones]

Simon Bestwick - The Battering Stone: D. S. Dougie Poole and his sometimes sidekick, dishevelled occult detective Paul Hearn, investigate a suicide epidemic in Salford, linking cause of death a fractured skull sustained through beating ones head against a mobile stone "like a giant tooth made of flint." Hearn learns from an old-timer that "the Battering Stone" is a centuries old phenomenon, dormant during boom years, rampant during times of economic recession.

"A little culling of the chavs for the greater good ..."

David Turnbell - The Privilege Card: Tom, a forklift driver, is invited to an appointment with Ms. Mona McAllister, the Loyalty Reward Consultant for the Government-approved UK Citizen's Agency. Tom recently filled in a questionnaire and, his low opinion of welfare claimants, the disabled, asylum seekers and similar obstacles to economic recovery, has earned himself a UKCA privilege card, a loyalty reward scheme for "Britain's hard working families." The financial bonuses - tax rebate, council tax exemption - are attractive and easy to claim. To accrue credit Tom need do no more than keep his eye on work colleagues, casual acquaintances and neighbours, and report on those he suspects of "cheating the system."

The fly in the ointment is the ghost of his father. Dad died of cancer at the age of forty-nine but his ghastly, tumour-ridden spectre still clings to his socialist beliefs and detests informants even above scabs. But Tom's principles are less rigid. After all, what have the Union ever done for him? What did the NHS do for his father? How will he ever get his young family off this sink estate? Here at last, an opportunity to make some sexy cash, own a property and gain a foothold on the social ladder. Like Ms. McAllister says, "We're all in it together!"

So the suddenly very public spirited Dan turns super-grass and prospers. Ms. McAllister commends his public-spiritedness, although:

"Passing on information and leaving it to the authorities to act is tantamount to expecting something for nothing .... I mean all you're doing so far is reporting wrong doing. As a loyal citizen it might be said that you should have done that anyway."

And at that she tantalises him with the offer of an upgrade to the silver privilege card. The incentives are devilishly attractive although, naturally, to earn them he will need to become pro-active ....

****

I've been mightily impressed with Horror Uncut!. The more stories I read, the more I'm convinced that this is one anthology should be marketed as non-fiction. It's not so much a book to be enjoyed as endured, the subject matter very commendably cutting way too close to the bone to allow for an escapist thrill (unless, of course, you happen to be a Cabinet Minister, in which case you should buy a copy on expenses to wank over between budget-slashing orgies). But to partially quote co-editor Tom Johnstone in his Afterword, "Can horror [fiction] change the way things are going? The simple answer is, of course, no." And there-in lies the tragedy. Much as the odious Coleman relishes the misery and despair his flagship policy has wreaked in Ghost At The Feast, so those Horror Uncut! finger as the real parasites would be far more likely to get a blast from the book - "The Tories - back to our 'Nasty Party' best!" - than those it seeks to defend, who, even should they have a taste for macabre fiction, are unlikely to be in a position to buy one. And who wants to read about the tragic human consequences of these hateful, ideologically driven "necessary" austerity measures when they've just been sanctioned, evicted, or told sorry, but you'll have to wait a little longer for that urgent medical treatment?

That said, with six stories to go, I'd rate this the finest, certainly the most frightening horror anthology I've read in 2014.

[dem bones]

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

'Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'

'Have they no refuge or resource.' cried Scrooge.

'Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses.'"

Sorry, wrong book! Now where were we:

Gary McMahon - Only Bleeding: Poverty as vampire, personified in the deceptively fragile body of a homeless waif who appears to those most in need, in this case the husband of a terminally ill wife. In return for his blood, the boy drains the narrator of any last pretence of a "conscience".

Laura Lauro - Ptichka: Marta, recently arrived in England and earning a minimum wage as a waitress in a fast food outlet, falls pregnant after a one-night stand. Due to the clampdown on "benefit tourists", the young Russian is not entitled to free NHS treatment and must rely on the cheaper, highly illegal alternatives. It sure doesn't help that the foetus is deformed.

John Forth - A Simple Matter Of Space: Curmudgeonly Old Mr. Leibniz is furious when the solitary condolence card he receives in the wake of his wife's death is a letter from the local housing office advising him that he must now pay the bedroom tax. After a frustrating interview with staff, he resolves to return this suddenly so precious free space with interest.

Stephen Hampton - The Sun Trap: A grasping son shamelessly fleeces his father's hard-won, modest pension pot to finance his own lavish, thoroughly vacuous yuppie lifestyle. After all, family comes first and without his trophy wife, flash car, luxury home and cash to burn, Lee would be a nobody like ..... like those feckless benefit scum! Dad Joe duly bails him out, watches his hopes and aspirations cruelly dashed and wonders what all those years of self-sacrifice were actually for?

[dem bones]

Rosanne Rabinowitz - Pieces of Ourselves: Richard, a librarian, develops an appalling case of stress-related psoriasis after participating in an anti-cuts Demo which turned ugly? Has his altercation with a police officer been caught on CCTV? Will he be outed as a hooligan in the media? And why oh why did he put his career before Blanca, the one true love of his life, and return home to England? His skin disease worsens. He collects the monstrous flakes in the box Blanca bought him to stash his dope. Gradually they fuse into his very own mini-me, 'Ricardo', who brings sad tidings from the Iberian Peninsula.

Incidentally, Tom Johnstone's excellent 'Afterword' cites several examples of Ficticious Capital: Horror Literature & Economic Unease from Dickens through to the present day, but I'd best ask permission before reproducing the full bibliography.

[dem bones]

Final four;

Priya Sharma - The Ballad of Boomtown: A housing development, abandoned mid-construction due to the collapse of the Euro, and an ancient curse spell tragedy for the narrator, Grainne Kennedy, and her married lover, whose son is left to explore the building site unsupervised while they endure a joyless goodbye romp.

Andrew Hook - The Opaque District: Not sure I got this one at all, but it's set in near future Austerity Britain PLC where there is little left for the starving population to do but queue outside the food banks. Jay, quite possibly already dead, discovers a door recently incorporated into a familiar wall mural that acts as a portal onto an exclusive Paradise untouched by the recession. Obviously this idyll is kept a closely guarded secret from the massed ranks of "the undeserving".

Joel Lane - A Cry for Help: As effective as this story is in the Fourth Black Book of Horror, this collection is its spiritual home.

John Howard - Falling into Stone: When their employer files for convenient bankruptcy leaving them jobless and all but destitute, narrator Jake and his manipulative architect chum Jake form a two-man protest movement, "Austerity Outlaws". The Outlaws' speciality is ghosting into the homes of the affluent and rearranging their furniture. But the harmless aspect of their protest takes a destructive turn when Josh - who is hardly to be trusted - learns that their former boss has miraculously bounced back and bought a luxury apartment.