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Post by helrunar on Dec 4, 2021 16:49:31 GMT
I nearly bought a Mary Williams book on Abe the other day after reading Kev's intriguing program notes. The stories sound right up my street. I'd never heard of this author. She seems to have been quite prolific.
H.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 6, 2021 16:33:34 GMT
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2021 16:45:01 GMT
That's the one I bought; the Arch*ve is basically unusable now that people are (almost) always limited to 1hr loans so I don't even think of mentioning it here anymore. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 6, 2021 16:59:05 GMT
Chill Company : Ghost Stories from Cornwall That's the one I bought; the Arch*ve is basically unusable now that people are (almost) always limited to 1hr loans so I don't even think of mentioning it here anymore. Yes. I suppose you could use it to get an idea of the style and if it is worth spending money on a title. I used to download a lot of books there, but now I don't use it much. |
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Post by helrunar on Dec 6, 2021 17:07:41 GMT
I wonder if I'm missing something or people are simply expected to download the item during the one hour "loan"? I still haven't jumped through all the hoops to set up an account so I can "borrow" files of things. It just feels like a lot of trouble to go to when I don't really like reading longer things on the computer that much.
cheers, Hel
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2021 17:10:10 GMT
That's the one I bought; the Arch*ve is basically unusable now that people are (almost) always limited to 1hr loans so I don't even think of mentioning it here anymore. Yes. I suppose you could use it to get an idea of the style and if it is worth spending money on a title. I used to download a lot of books there, but now I don't use it much. It is helpful in that regard, that's true. They usually only let you preview 1-2 pages though, which can mean just the introduction which isn't much help. This can happen on Am*z*n too....So to get an idea of a horror/ghost novel or stories, the best place to come to is the Vault for some of Dem's witty synopses! |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2021 17:11:31 GMT
I wonder if I'm missing something or people are simply expected to download the item during the one hour "loan"? I still haven't jumped through all the hoops to set up an account so I can "borrow" files of things. It just feels like a lot of trouble to go to when I don't really like reading longer things on the computer that much. cheers, Hel No, you just get access to it for 1hr before it "cuts out", no actual downloading. I did it once for a book of "true" Hawaiian ghost stories which I wanted to read but not that badly. I too hate reading long(er) things on my computer & the phone's not much better. That's why I have an ereader, the perfect size in between both. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 6, 2021 17:12:58 GMT
I wonder if I'm missing something or people are simply expected to download the item during the one hour "loan"? I still haven't jumped through all the hoops to set up an account so I can "borrow" files of things. It just feels like a lot of trouble to go to when I don't really like reading longer things on the computer that much. cheers, Hel I just read online on my devices. You can borrow some for 14 days too. Also some are free downloads, these are out of copyright usually. It's useful if it's a rare and expensive book. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 6, 2021 17:15:31 GMT
Yes. I suppose you could use it to get an idea of the style and if it is worth spending money on a title. I used to download a lot of books there, but now I don't use it much. It is helpful in that regard, that's true. They usually only let you preview 1-2 pages though, which can mean just the introduction which isn't much help. This can happen on Am*z*n too....So to get an idea of a horror/ghost novel or stories, the best place to come to is the Vault for some of Dem's witty synopses! I never bother reading them. It seems too much effort. Should I try? Are they funny?  I've heard he is a beast, so I avoid him as much as I can. |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2021 17:18:33 GMT
I wonder if I'm missing something or people are simply expected to download the item during the one hour "loan"? I still haven't jumped through all the hoops to set up an account so I can "borrow" files of things. It just feels like a lot of trouble to go to when I don't really like reading longer things on the computer that much. cheers, Hel I just read online on my devices. You can borrow some for 14 days too. Also some are free downloads, these are out of copyright usually. It's useful if it's a rare and expensive book. Not many now that you can borrow for 14 days & the free ones are usually too old to be of interest to me, or I've already read them. I think I had trouble trying to access the site from my phone or Kindle; maybe they wanted me to log in & I can never remember my passwords, except for this site. Usually I just stay logged in to wherever it is on my ancient & outdated desktop. |
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2021 17:20:37 GMT
It is helpful in that regard, that's true. They usually only let you preview 1-2 pages though, which can mean just the introduction which isn't much help. This can happen on Am*z*n too....So to get an idea of a horror/ghost novel or stories, the best place to come to is the Vault for some of Dem's witty synopses! I never bother reading them. It seems too much effort. Should I try? Are they funny? I've heard he is a beast, so I avoid him as much as I can. I think you should, what can you lose except your immortal soul?  |
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Post by dem on Dec 10, 2021 18:38:19 GMT
Mary Williams - The Haunted Garden: Ghost Stories (William Kimber, 1986) The Doll's House
The Will
Grey Chimneys
Henry
The Haunted Garden
Holocaust
Rags
A Cornish Night
The Apple Tree
The ToupƩe
DĆ©jĆ Vu
Incident in the Mist
The Walk
The Open Door
Daisies
Ghostly Encounter
Great-Aunt Abigail
A Garden of Ghosts Blurb: She loved the house when she saw it. On the banks of the River Wye, it was a peaceful and perfect spot to convalesce. But that was until she had forced her way into the locked room and found the doll's house. Such an innocent toy it looked, but it was to lead Elaine into a sinister nightmare.
This is the theme of the opening story in Mary Williams' new collection of chilling ghost stories, some horrific, some humorous, some gentle, but all with that indefinable atmosphere that gives her supernatural writing its unique quality.The Doll's House: Six months on from the death of her baby, a desolate Elaine Shane persuades her husband to buy a cottage in South Wales border country and make a new start. Julian's business keeps him from home for weeks at the time, but Elaine has a housekeeper, Mrs. Gorte, a handsome young manservant, Boles, and his not-so-secret lover, Marie the serving girl, for company. Elaine appears to be on the mend until she prevails upon Mrs. Gorte to open a locked room, wherein she finds the enchanted doll's house. It is possessed by the evil spirit of a rich young widow murderously jealous of the hired hand's affair with a scullery maid ...
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Post by dem on Dec 11, 2021 12:08:50 GMT
The Will:"Darling Willie" marries Emma for her vast fortune. Fifteen years his senior, dangerously overweight and, best of all, diagnosed witha heart condition, is it too much to ask that she hurry up and die so he can go back to Herbert? Too late Willie learns that Emma is far from the mug he took her for.
The Haunted Garden: I like The Doll's House a lot even if it ends in disappointing fashion, but title story far out in front at this early stage. Julia, a young art student, is spending the holiday in Capel-Teg. Wandering a narrow country lane, she comes upon a lonesome cottage with the most immaculate garden. An old lady (that's her on the cover) insists she come in to inspect the pretty flowers. Julia feels uneasy, but is too polite other than to comply, and, after all, the garden is something special. What does her hostess feed the soil to make it flourish so?
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Post by dem on Dec 12, 2021 15:05:33 GMT
Rags: Bobby, lured into the bushes by a lollypop-laden child molester in t-shirt and jeans, is rescued by Old Matty Pearce's dog, 'Rags,' who died several weeks ago. When police pay a visit to the old recluse they find him weeks dead in his chair. Rags' posthumous heroics have seen to it that his master's bones receive decent burial.
A Cornish Night: The ghosts of Zaul's founders - men who worked the seas, fought wars, starved, attended church, etc. - frown upon the annual festival as they disapprove of drugs and vice and "ugly [trans. modern] things." Life should be about enduring hardship and misery.
"Endurance. Duty.
The duty of the Inheritors."
Could have done without this one, to be frank.
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Post by dem on Dec 13, 2021 16:58:28 GMT
Back on track. A gloomy horror and a haunted photo.
Grey Chimneys: Locals question the wisdom of building a house directly above the dead Wheal Cobra mine, scene of too many fatalities due to the owner's negligence, but author Charles Wayne is not one to heed morbid peasant superstition. His first inkling that things are not as they should be is the materialisation of a witch's ghost in his bedroom, before 'Grey Chimneys' is overrun by a plague of dead things, disfigured by accident, cholera and starvation, come to claim his life-blood.
Henry: Throughout her childhood, Georgina and family have spent their summer holiday at Windersley, a rambling, ivy clad, red brick house in the Norfolk countryside. From the age of six, Georgina has been best friends with Henry, the housekeeper's grandson, though he insists she keep him a secret as the adults wouldn't understand.
Holocaust: Thorke, a fishing village off the Cornish coast, shortly after the end of WWII, is home to a thriving boho artist community, furriners all, but tolerated. Maybe the locals know the unpleasantness in store for them. The catalyst is Hermoine, a gorgeous proto-hippie, who inveigles her friends into a Coven. Disaster befalls them when a nude ritual at Clooney Cross stirs whole armies of early Celts from the earth to reclaim their land from a "decadent civilisation." (on the evidence of this and A Cornish Night, Mary Williams had by now acquired a Robert Bloch size downer on "the young generation."). The official verdict has it that Hermoine and friends were swallowed up in a freak earthquake, but our eyewitness knows different.
The Apple Tree: Old Mrs. Dorcas Penwilly dies resisting eviction from her cottage which is due for demolition to make way for a motorway. Her ghost continues the fight. A lost cause, but she does at least accomplish a small victory.
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