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Post by dem on Apr 22, 2016 15:31:30 GMT
Mary Danby (ed.) – 65 Great Spine Chillers (Sundial 1982, Octopus 1985)  Steve Crisp
Cynthia Asquith – The Playfellow
Enid Bagnold – The Amorous Ghost
Denys Val Baker – The Face In The Mirror
E. F. Benson – Caterpillars
Ambrose Bierce – The Damned Thing
Algernon Blackwood – A Case Of Eavesdropping
Robert Bloch – A Home Away From Home
Elizabeth Bowen – The Cat Jumps
Gerald Bullett – Dearth’s Farm
Ramsey Campbell – Calling Card
Mark Channing – The Feet
William Charlton – Undesirable Guests
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – Shona and The Water Horse
Winston Churchill – “Man Overboard!”
Michael Cornish – Superstitious Ignorance
F. Marion Crawford – The Dead Smile
Roald Dahl – Georgy Porgy
Mary Danby – Woodman’s Knot
David Dixon – The Lodger In Room 16
Arthur Conan Doyle – The Adventure Of The Speckled Band
Elizabeth Fancett – When Morning Comes
Rick Ferreira – The Girl From Tomango
Theo Gift – Dog Or Demon?
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – The Yellow Wallpaper
Anthony Gittins – Gibbet Lane
Catherine Gleason – A Question Of Conscience
Winston Graham – The Basket Chair
Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) – The Tsanta In The Parlor
Roy Harrison – The Frogwood Roundabout
William F. Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice In The Night
M. R. James – The Ash-Tree
Jerome K. Jerome – The Dancing Partner
Glyn Jones – Jordan
David H. Keller – The Thing In The Cellar
Stephen King – Suffer The Little Children
Nigel Kneale – The Pond
Henry Kuttner – The Graveyard Rats
Perceval Landon – Thurnley Abbey
Kay Leith – Avalon Heights
H. P. Lovecraft – The Rats In The Walls
Lord Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters
Richard Matheson – Deadline
Norman Matson – The House On Big Faraway
Ogden Nash – The Three D’s
E. Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble
Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and The Pendulum
Tony Richards – Headlamps
Flavia Richardson – Behind The Yellow Door
Lennox Robinson – A Pair Of Muddy Shoes
Saki – The Music On The Hill
May Sinclair – The Villa Désirée
A. E. D. Smith – The Coat
Clark Ashton Smith – The Seed From The Sepulcher
Lady Eleanor Smith – Satan’s Circus
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
Terry Tapp – The Invaders
Basil Tozer – The Pioneers of Pike’s Peak
H. Russell Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff
Evelyn Waugh – Mr. Loveday’s Little Outing
Dennis Wheatley – The Snake
Mary Williams – No Ticket
P. C. Wren – Fear
John Wyndham – Close Behind HimWe've individual threads for 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural, 65 Great Tales of the Horror, 65 Great Murder Mysteries, and Realms Of Darkness, so here's a stub to complete the set. Stories mostly exhumed from the Fontana Ghost and Horror books, plus a sprinkling from Mary's Frighteners.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Jan 11, 2017 13:43:17 GMT
Last night I re-read "Gibbet Lane" by Anthony Gittins. From 1935, it a well-written and funny rural ghost story set in broad daylight. So who was Anthony Gittins? (There's a Fr. Anthony Gittins, C.S.Sp., M.A., Ph.D. knocking about, but it's not him.)
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Post by Swampirella on Jan 14, 2017 17:00:58 GMT
I just finished this and was rather surprised at how good it was! For what it's worth, I loved: "The Lodgers" "The Face In The Mirror" "The Cat Jumps" "Undesirable Guests" "Man Overboard" "Georgy Porgy" "The Girl From Tomango" "Gibbet Lane" "The Basket Chair" "The Tsanta In The Parlour" "Suffer the Little Children" and "No Ticket". "The Coat" was amazing and "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing" delightful, even if I could see then ending coming. Of course there were several I'd already read and a few I didn't care much for. I re-read "Woodman's Knot" and found I'd forgotten how good it was.... Below is one of several stories included here that can be found online: The Pond - Nigel Kneale.doc (35.5 KB) |
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 20, 2019 18:55:50 GMT
Just read Joan Aiken's Lodgers, a bizarre and frightening tale, unfortunately not quite sustaining this until the end.
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 24, 2019 7:04:42 GMT
John Wyndham - Close Behind Him. Another bizarre one. Smudge and Spotty are attempting to burgle a house they're sure is owned by a collector of rare and valuable items that he pays for in cash. When Spotty is surprised by the homeowner (who seems to be attacking him in slow motion - with very sharp teeth), the criminal batters the victim with a length of lead piping. Smudge is dismayed by the move from burglary to murder, but they've a fairly good haul - if only Spotty wasn't being followed by bloody footprints during their getaway...not what I expected from the man who gave us Day Of The Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, but an entertaining romp
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Post by dem on Oct 24, 2019 14:27:53 GMT
Some from an old notebook. Seem to recall intensely disliking Deadline.
Terry Tapp – The Invaders: Several million strong, the starving army of mutant red ants cross the prairie and descend on the cabin of Seth, Stella and little Alice Kenyon. The family’s only hope is if they can flood the cornfield before the terrible termites reach them. A late-‘seventies nastied up rewrite of Carl Stephenson’s classic Leiningen Versus The Ants.
Saki – The Music On The Hill: Society Girl Sylvia marries ‘Dead’ Mortimer Seltoun and relocates them in Yessney down Devon way. Farm life suits the hardworking Dead, but Sylvia is restless and scornful of country beliefs. When she snatches the grapes left on a pedestal as an offering to Pan, her husband warns that “the Wood Gods are rather horrible to those who molest them,” and so it proves. She dies in agony with the gloating laughter of Pan ringing in her ears.
Michael Cornish – Superstitious Ignorance: Edward and Penny view their dream home on the outskirts of London, currently occupied by Mrs. Laristis and her brood of filthy, wide-eyed silent children. She does all she can to turn them off of buying the place. “This house not good. Not glad. Is evil presences. Is old evil thing, maybe murder, I don’t know. Very evil things here. Not good for you.” Edward dismisses her as a credulous retard. He and Penny step into the shunned room downstairs ….
Ogden Nash – The Three D’s: Victoria, the new girl at the Misses Mallison Female Seminary, is keen to join the Sorority Club. The ‘daring’ and ‘deadly’ deeds she is required to perform hold no fears for her, but ‘done never before’ is a stumbling block. Until the girls tell her about the grave of the executed witch in the field behind the slaughteryard.
Anthony Gittins – Gibbet Lane: Surrey. Flash Londoners Gollen and Pounceby are on a walking tour and pretending to enjoy it. When they stop to ask a farmer for directions to the nearest pub, he insists on accompanying them for some of the journey. By way of conversation, he offers the cheery tale of an innocent man hung for the murder of his wife, and his own weird experience on this gloomy stretch of land.
Richard Matheson – Deadline: Dr. Bill leaves the New Years Eve bash and his heavily pregnant wife to answer an emergency call. An “old man” in a boarding home claims he will die on the stroke of midnight. The doctor hears out his strange tale of ‘precocious youth’ and the patient’s theory as to why he looks like this when, in reality, he’s just approaching his first birthday. Sure enough, he passes away at twelve, and the doctor becomes a father at the same time.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 25, 2019 1:51:21 GMT
Thanks for sharing these old notes. I strangely don't seem to have read that Saki tale, and the Ogden Nash one sounds potentially sharp and sweet.
H.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 25, 2019 1:54:32 GMT
Not really pertinent to this thread--a friend was telling me (via electronic communique) that she has been reading the Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories. I looked for it on here but don't see anything about it. Wonder whether it is a new anthology, or an old one she recently got hold of?
H.
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Post by Swampirella on Oct 25, 2019 11:05:05 GMT
Not really pertinent to this thread--a friend was telling me (via electronic communique) that she has been reading the Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories. I looked for it on here but don't see anything about it. Wonder whether it is a new anthology, or an old one she recently got hold of? H. You've piqued my curiosity, Steve! It's just a little over a year old....
I just see our very thoughtful fellow inmate Slime Beast/Andy Decker has started a thread with a table of contents.
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 25, 2019 11:41:33 GMT
Roald Dahl - Georgy Porgy. Good grief. Brilliantly barking mad. Must seek out the dramatization (with John Alderton and Joan Collins - the latter playing the mother and the seductress) - Dahl's intro - about a huge snake devouring a rat - is also insane, apparently.
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Post by helrunar on Oct 25, 2019 13:10:26 GMT
Thanks, Swampi, for pointing me to that thread! I looked for it using the Search protocol but couldn't find it.
Best, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Oct 25, 2019 16:57:38 GMT
Thanks, Swampi, for pointing me to that thread! I looked for it using the Search protocol but couldn't find it. Best, Steve Thanks, Swampi! I created the thread today after Steve mentioned the book, he couldn't find it. Maybe someone has this more or less new anthology and can say something about it. Nice to see that Stephen Jones is still doing books. |
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Post by dem on Oct 26, 2019 12:17:16 GMT
Few more. Seem to have commented on most of these on various Fontans horror/ Tales of Terror/ Frighteners threads scattered across the board. Just read Joan Aiken's Lodgers, a bizarre and frightening tale, unfortunately not quite sustaining this until the end. : Widowed Rose Burdock is struggling to balance a career and look after Bob and Titch, bedridden with mumps and measles respectively. The editor of Women's Scene is unsympathetic, reminding Rose that she knew emergencies were prohibited when she took the job. In the circumstances, when Desmond and Laura Colgate enquire after lodgings and volunteer their services as babysitters it seems like a Godsend. So what if they leave their accumulated junk strewn across their rooms, are over fond of the drink, and creepy Mr. Colgate is forever terrifying the kids with his puppets including "a big one which moves all by itself, I've trained it to do that."? Must be the third or fourth time I've read Lodgers and some of the clashing (?) symbolism still defeats me. A case of not quite understanding a story but still getting a kick from it. Roy Harrison - The Frogwood Roundabout: Summer 1914. Jack, Alicia and Georgia sneak out to the fair on the common late at night, lured by the barker's promise of a free ride aboard the roundabout. "The ride of a lifetime, the ride that never ends" spins them faster and faster through every catastrophe from the outbreak of the Great War to the (then) present day. A world gone insane. |
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 27, 2019 9:45:13 GMT
Roy Harrison - The Frogwood Roundabout: Summer 1914. Jack, Alicia and Georgia sneak out to the fair on the common late at night, lured by the barker's promise of a free ride aboard the roundabout. "The ride of a lifetime, the ride that never ends" spins them faster and faster through every catastrophe from the outbreak of the Great War to the (then) present day. A world gone insane. Read this one and found it bizarre. A similar message to Gerald Kersh's Comrade Death? Have watched the Tales Of The Unexpected adaptation of Roald Dahl's Georgy Porgy twice. It's utter genius. |
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Post by dem on Oct 27, 2019 11:57:47 GMT
Roy Harrison - The Frogwood Roundabout: Summer 1914. Jack, Alicia and Georgia sneak out to the fair on the common late at night, lured by the barker's promise of a free ride aboard the roundabout. "The ride of a lifetime, the ride that never ends" spins them faster and faster through every catastrophe from the outbreak of the Great War to the (then) present day. A world gone insane. Read this one and found it bizarre. A similar message to Gerald Kersh's Comrade Death? Seems that way to me, but am probably wrong. I'm fond of the pair; Rick Ferriera - The Girl From Tomango: Screen writer Sinclair returns to Tomango to find Lily Carew, the girl he fell in love with when they visited the shunned Turk Island on a movie shoot. Lily, who insisted on returning to the mainland alone, hasn't been seen since. Only one man ever takes a boat across to Turk and that's old Ramos, Lily's father. He casually admits to abandoning his daughter to the carrion crabs, "big as turtles," as she was "evil, like her Ma." Sinclair insists the old bastard take him out to the island on the slim chance Lily has survived. First he finds her dress .... Edith Bagnold - The Amorous Ghost: There was a Radio 4 broadcast of this a few years back, read by Paul Daneman, with the magnificent strap line: "Mr Templeman's wife is away, but it seems someone is sleeping in her nightgowns."You can read it here (if logged in): The Amorous Ghost |
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