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Post by michaelscollins on May 5, 2017 17:44:40 GMT
I'm not very keen on thread creation, but given the news of the untimely death of Mr Dalby, an old query surfaced to my mind. As its stumped me, I wondered if folk here would know, from the very bare recolllections.
Also, I was convinced I'd posted this months ago and then forgot all about it, only to check and find I hadn't. Mind's like a sieve...
Anyhow, the Richard Dalby anthologies my primary school teacher read to us, aged 10, had two stories in particular which lingered in the memory at the time. I've no idea who wrote them, or which books they were in, or even if they were any good. I think, but can't claim for certain, that they were in the "X for Christmas" series. It's certainly not Chillers for Christmas, though. Pretty sure it's not in Horrors for Christmas either, but I can only recall the Basil Copper and Robert Bloch's novellas in that, off the top of my head.
Sorry, inadvertent spoilers follow, but this is pretty much all what I remember, after 20 years...
Story 1. Young career minded woman goes off on a trip before Christmas, called Trez (pronounced that way, my teacher had interesting character name pronunciation at times, so no idea of the spelling) . Her car breaks down in a snow storm, and she travels to this hotel/house in the middle of nowhere, where an old woman - who seems strangely familiar to her - keeps calling her Theresa, despite the main characters claims that "she hasn't gone by that name" in some time. I think its meant to be her mum, despite the mum having died some time previously. Anyhow, she (Trez/Theresa) is dead in that car, and its her ghost who went to the hotel. Cliched story, but I didn't know that at the time!
Story 2. Young family on holiday! Car breaks down. What is it with cars in these stories? 2 parents, 2 kids. B&B place run by super creepy old man. Think he offers some cocoa that the kids dont drink, can't be sure. Anyhow, they wake up in the middle of the night, to find dad gone and mum drugged.Dad's in a room at the end of the corridor, surrounded by vampire bats, which are feasting on him. Kids get away to warn the police, but their dad dies. Happy Christmas!
Any ideas on who and what these stories were?
Thanks in advance.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 5, 2017 19:13:34 GMT
I'm not very keen on thread creation If everybody thought like that, there would be nothing to read here. Think about it. |
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Post by michaelscollins on May 6, 2017 17:38:43 GMT
I meant on a personal level, but the point is taken!
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Post by michaelscollins on Nov 30, 2019 12:55:52 GMT
Two and a half years on, I am still trying to track these stories down. Chillers for Christmas wasn't it. I was sure Horrors for Christmas was the book read to my school class, but no, it wasn't (although the Basil Copper take on W.S. is good fun). Now for Shivers and to see if it has any vampire bat stories in it. It sounds like pulp horror and probably was, but the image of the locked room being broken open by the kids to find their dad surrounded by giant bats, and the coda: "It was morning and dad was dead"... it stuck in the mind!
I am increasingly worried that I am barking up the wrong tree on Dalby having edited the book, and my teacher actually read some other "Horror/Ghosts/something for Christmas" anthology published around 1993-97. I am reasonably sure of that timeline as I went into Dillons Book Shop on Argyll Street while the vampire bat story was being read in installments, found the book newly released, and spoiled the ending for myself!
Oh well, onward and upwards. The search continues.
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Post by ripper on Dec 1, 2019 19:01:27 GMT
I've read all of the '...for Christmas' anthologies apart from Crime for Christmas, but those two story snippets aren't ringing any bells I'm sorry to say. It's been a few years and I only have a couple of the books now, so I can't say for sure they aren't from a Dalby '...for Christmas' anthology. I have to tip my hat to your teacher for reading scary tales to his/her class.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 1, 2019 22:17:59 GMT
Hello, Roughly around what year would this have been, when you were ten? That might help to narrow it down. The story about Trez actually reminds me of one I read last year around Yule called "The Travelling Companion" by Elizabeth Walter, but the details are different. As you said, it's a familiar theme in tales. Have you checked through all of these? I see that Mr Dalby edited a volume called Horror for Xmas, but that might have been since the time when you were around 10 years old. www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8844The story you describe actually sounds more like the kind of thing one would read in an old horror comic from the 1950s... we have a couple of threads here about those. They're fun. Best wishes, Helrunar |
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Post by michaelscollins on Dec 5, 2019 16:49:51 GMT
Hello, thanks, sorry for the belated reply. I was in Mrs Walkers class from 1995 to 1998. I have been working down the ifsdb list (and this forum's own description sections) to narrow down the possibles. The phrase "Horror for Christmas" definitely sticks in the mind for the collection with the vampire bats.
Mrs Walker's view was basically: kids learn best when they read. They read more when they enjoy the topic. Kids love (age suitable) horror. So she'd read to us from the Goosebumps books, and moved onto classics like The Signalman and A School Story. Great teacher.
A look through the isfdb brings up a few other possibles, which I note here so I remember them too:
And 3 better options. Apparently Scholastic UK produced three Christmas horror collections in the 1990s. My school was part of the Scholastic Book Club to aide literacy in working class areas in the 1990s. (As a result, I was one of the many test readers on the first Harry Potter book, incidentally, and 10 year old me... absolutely panned it!)
You can see why they'd mix in the mind with the Dalby Christmas collections. And, incredibly, I think I recognise that Chilling Christmases cover!
A look at Goodbooks using that link gives me a strong possibility for Story 1:
"Jingle Bells by Tessa Krailing - a girl who is haunted by the mysterious jingling of bells and a terrifying sense of suffocation every Christmas hopes moving house will put an end to her terror. However, the haunting follows her, and she has to find out why." Moving house, check, haunting follows her, check... now does she wind up dead in a car in a snow storm? There is another story about ghosts from the past in Chilling Tales which could also be the right one.
And as a result of this Vault of Evil/ifsdb/memory jog/GoodReads train of thought, I am now 80% sure I have tracked down story 2!
"'In the Bleak Midwinter'' by Robert Swindells. A family of four on their way to grandma's cottage. A heavy snowstorm forces them to seek shelter and accept the hospitality of a strange old man. I remember I had nightmares because of this story. It is dark. Dark and harrowing."
Yes, I think that's it. (If so, sorry for spoiling the From Dusk till Dawn style twist ending...)
Looks like I can track down copies fairly easily in the new year once the Christmas rush is over (hah!), but yes, thank you for the help, everyone! I think the mystery could be solved soon.
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Post by michaelscollins on Apr 22, 2021 13:06:29 GMT
This is Christmas Past by David Belbin. Belbin was an ex-policeman who turned to pulp teen fiction in the 90s, later writing the grim The Beat series about policing in the 90s. As suspected, this was In The Bleak Midwinter by Robert Swindells. Both were in the same book! www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?369068Anyhow, that concludes that long lasting mystery. (And I do aim to post on here more often, one just loses track of years...) |
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