Norah Lofts

[coral]

As mr Rog has mentioned that Norah Lofts has written under the alias Peter Curtis, I'd like to expand that by saying that she also used the alias Juliet Astley.
As Peter curtis, ms lofts also wrote Dead March in Three Keys(1975) and You're Best Alone(1943), which are both psychological thrillers rather than out and out horror.
The Little Wax Doll was republished by Corgi in 1971 under her own name, having been originally published in 1960 by Macdonald and co. under the title The Devil's Own, and subsequently by pan Books as The Witches. This book was originally wriiten as Peter Curtis, and ended up eventually with three different titles!
Another novel underwent the title change, Afternoon of an Autocrat / The Devil in Clevely offers a version of Lord of the manor secretly heading a club committing dark ritual in a specially built underground temple.

[killercrab]

As mr Rog has mentioned that Norah Lofts has written under the alias Peter Curtis >>

Thanks for the details on Norah Lofts guys! I'm quite fond of THE WITCHES as it happens. Right now I'm reading WITCHFINDERS A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy by Malcolm Gaskill. Pretty heavy duty tome - most of which is flying over my head to be honest - but it's interesting to read an historical account of the times and trials.

ade

[coral]

These were the images with which I was going to illustrate my initial post, but they were so huge and defied every effort to be ensmallened that I gave up on them in disgust. I am now posting them without there being any real need to see whether I have cracked photfucket's image resize option. I have everything crossed...

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[coral]

oh poo

[dem bones]

No 'poo' about it, coral, they look tops.

A programme you might like to consider downloading is the brilliant freebie image editor irfanview which has a very handy, easy to use 'Re-size' function (found under the 'Image' drop down list).

[coral]

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Is There Anybody There.
Copyrighted in 1967 by Norah Lofts.
This edition published by Corgi in 1974.

"And he smote upon the door again a second time
Is there anybody there? he said.

But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then;
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:"
Walter de la Mare, The Listeners.

Introduced by Norah Lofts:
"Have you ever noticed how often, when the company is congenial and the night ages, the subject of haunting will crop up, and how many apparently hard-headed people have had some eerie experience....Let us, for half an hour, be congenial, and ask-expecting no answer- Is there anybody there?"

12 tales of haunted houses;
Mr Edward
Victorian Echo
Pesticide
The Bird Bath
Something Young About The House
Avoiding Dunstable
A Clinical Case
A Curious Experience
A Visit To Claudia
The Watchers
The Big Bed Of Bad Pyrmont
Man In A Dilemma.

[coral]

The Claw.

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Copyrighted by Norah Lofts in 1981. This edition published by Hodder and Staughton in 1981.

The last novel Ms Lofts wrote before her death in 1983.
A story of modern Voodoo reanimation, and it's horrible consequences.

"Who can explain what turns a pleasant family man like Greg Anderson into something possessed of the ultimate evil, and with the cunning to hide it?...The first victim , for confused reasons of her own, doesn't call the police. The second is found clawed, bloody and hysterical with shock, screaming about the Devil behind the door..."