Mary Danby – 65 Great Spine Chillers

[fritzmaitland]

William Hope Hodgson - The Voice In The Night

Feel a bit guilty for jeering him as William Hopeless Hodgepodge now I've actually read one of his stories, and it's a cracker. Some pals are on a long sea voyage and one is burning the midnight oil at the tiller whilst the others sleep, when a voice from the night hails them and asks for assistance. The steersman is joined by a comrade and they enter into a dialogue with the disembodied aid-seeker, who (in a nice variation on the old buffers in a gentlemen's club)regales them with a tale of being marooned with his lover on a mysterious nearby island. He doesn't reveal himself and won't come too near, so the two travellers put some provisions in a box, and float it toward the voice. As the castaway rows back from whence he came, the helpers get of glimpse of what has become of him, bearing out all that he had told them.

Must seek out some more WHH. I also sampled the Ambrose Bierce story, but although mercifully short, his stories haven't ...erm...floated my boat as yet.

[fritzmaitland]

October 2nd. Had recently been discussing with fans of Algy Ward's HM power trio Tank- The Snake, a song they did I loved, and was surprised to find out that it was a cover - originally done by long-haired Ladbroke Grove anarcho yobs the Pink Fairies, and was delighted to turn up a disc only copy of the PFs first album Never Never Land which contained said ditty as an extra track. Was fairly sure there was a horror story with the same name and couldn't believe my luck/the synchronicity when the second antho I plucked from the shelves was the ol' M&S Spine Chillers and lo and behold! The Snake! And if that wasn't enough it was by Dennis Wheatley! My cup runneth over! Not a tale for those who have trouble with dated racial attitudes and/or colonialism, it portrays the clash of two very different worlds, the white man in South Africa having to deal with ancient witch doctor practices. Wheatley excels in the confrontation stakes when Carstairs, having seen his boss mysteriously bumped off after a magical ritual, finds himself in the same situation - he's better prepared but will still need a lot of luck to escape the same fate....there's even an out of nowhere twist ending which threw me for a loop, just when I thought it had ended quite satisfactorily. Crikey.

[Michael Connolly]

Apr 22, 2016 15:31:30 GMT dem said:

Mary Danby (ed.) – 65 Great Spine Chillers (Sundial 1982, Octopus 1985)

Steve Crisp

Joan Aiken – Lodgers
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 Him

We'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.

"The Playfellow" by Lady Cynthia Asquith, very politely told, is a actually a nasty story with an unexpected twist and a real sting in the end.

You wouldn't have thought she had it in her. 

[helrunar]

I'm intrigued, Michael. Lady Cynthia's stories I have encountered thus far have been about as exciting as raspberry fizz that's gone flat. Quelle horreur.

cheers, Hel

[Michael Connolly]

Nov 19, 2021 19:07:49 GMT helrunar said:

I'm intrigued, Michael. Lady Cynthia's stories I have encountered thus far have been about as exciting as raspberry fizz that's gone flat. Quelle horreur.

cheers, Hel

I had expected "The Playfellow" (1929) to be a twee story about a lonely ghost child (or is it child ghost?). Instead, it is a story of grim revenge from the grave. Much more like real life, then!

I remember Lady Cyn's "God Grante That She Lye Stille" being effective (wherever I read it). I'll give it another crack from here: talesofmytery.blogspot.com/2013/10/cynthia-asquith-god-grant-that-she-lye.html

The Thriller version is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaTeUu_mNHQ

[Michael Connolly]

Nov 20, 2021 13:18:51 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Nov 19, 2021 19:07:49 GMT helrunar said:

I'm intrigued, Michael. Lady Cynthia's stories I have encountered thus far have been about as exciting as raspberry fizz that's gone flat. Quelle horreur.

cheers, Hel

I had expected "The Playfellow" (1929) to be a twee story about a lonely ghost child (or is it child ghost?). Instead, it is a story of grim revenge from the grave. Much more like real life, then!

I remember Lady Cyn's "God Grante That She Lye Stille" being effective (wherever I read it). I'll give it another crack from here: talesofmytery.blogspot.com/2013/10/cynthia-asquith-god-grant-that-she-lye.html

The Thriller version is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaTeUu_mNHQ

Lady Cyn's "God Grante That She Lye Stille" is less good than I remembered. The Thriller version is very pulpy. There is one very nasty scene in it (based on one in the original story) that I'm surprised the American television network allowed at the time.  You'll know what it is if you watch it. 

[Michael Connolly]

This is what the doctor who narrates Lady Cyn's "God Grante That She Lye Stille" writes: "I visited my new patient three times during the next week. Finding her physical condition very little improved, I decided that some electric treatment would be beneficial, and as I had a portable apparatus, I was able to give the applications in her own room."  He doesn't say what this "portable apparatus" is. 

[helrunar]

Michael--how shocking! (I know, awful but how could I not.) There's a photo of a portable electroshock therapy device in this article. It's dated 1945-1960, and the story was originally published in 1931, so it is something of a puzzle, particularly since the author of this piece says that the therapy was invented in Italy in the late 1930s:

www.scientificamerican.com/article/electroconvulsive-therapy-a-history-of-controversy-but-also-of-help/

I suppose Asquith (or Peter Haining, lol) may have revised the story at a later date when electroshock therapy became fashionable among the wealthy (if that was a thing--perhaps one of the eminent medical doctors who occasionally visit here will know). 

There was a brief period in the 1950s and early 1960s when US television wasn't so heavily censored and there were, indeed, some violent and gruesome scenes that were shown during those years. Violence on TV became a huge media issue as the 1960s unraveled onwards and I think sometime around then network "standards and practices" dictating what could, or could not, be shown wound up having an effect similar to the establishment of the Hays office in Hollywood in '34.

cheers, Hel.

[Dr Strange]

That Scientific American article refers to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which had its origins in the 1930s. But electrotherapy (which just involves applying an electric current to some part of the body) has been around since the 1740s. Benjamin Franklin was an early enthusiast. Mid-19th to early-20th C. electrotherapy boxes turn up fairly regularly on TV antiques shows in the UK. Here is one from the 1850s -

[helrunar]

Thanks, Dr Strange! Now I'm imagining a Flavia Richardson story that starts with some leering, seedy "Doctor" inviting a winsomely unsuspecting lass to behold the secret horror of his shock box collection chamber.

cheers, Hel

[andydecker]

Gruesome. Were these the things they tried to cure I quote "female hysteria" with in Victorian times?

[Dr Strange]

Yes, though they also seemed to be quite popular for domestic use in the comfort of one's own home.

Painting by David Henry Friston (1820-1906) -



Friston was the first illustrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and also illustrated Le Fanu's Carmilla when it was first published as a serial in "The Dark Blue" magazine (1872).

[Michael Connolly]

Nov 22, 2021 23:06:29 GMT Dr Strange said:

Yes, though they also seemed to be quite popular for domestic use in the comfort of one's own home.

Painting by David Henry Friston (1820-1906) -



Friston was the first illustrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and also illustrated Le Fanu's Carmilla when it was first published as a serial in "The Dark Blue" magazine (1872).

That woman being treated is Maw Broon!

[Michael Connolly]

Nov 22, 2021 22:42:45 GMT andydecker said:

Gruesome. Were these the things they tried to cure I quote "female hysteria" with in Victorian times?

Whatever do you mean?

[cauldronbrewer]

Nov 22, 2021 16:07:41 GMT Dr Strange said:

That Scientific American article refers to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which had its origins in the 1930s. But electrotherapy (which just involves applying an electric current to some part of the body) has been around since the 1740s. Benjamin Franklin was an early enthusiast. Mid-19th to early-20th C. electrotherapy boxes turn up fairly regularly on TV antiques shows in the UK. Here is one from the 1850s -

Interesting. A while back I did some research on the violet ray, an electrotherapy tool invented by Nicola Tesla and endorsed by Edgar Cayce.