Donald Speed - My Blood Ran Cold

[dem bones]

Donald Speed [Alex Hamilton] (ed.) - My Blood Ran Cold (Corgi, 1966)

Donald Speed -Foreword

Michael Baldwin - Promise Me Tonight
Francis King - The Crack
John Burke - Incubus for Hire
Alex Hamilton - Not Enough Poison
Thomas Burke - The Bird
Richard Nettell - The Continual Dew
Jesse Bier - Father and Son
Stan Gooch - A Time for Living
Patrick Boyle - The Lake
John Brunner - Such Stuff
Jens Peter Jacobsen - The Plague at Bergamo
Martin Ford - Quittance
Hugh Atkinson - The Medusa Touch
Richard Kenneggy - The Gates
Leonard Ansell - On With the New
Simon Gray - The Holman Candidate

Blurb:
(There isn't one, just a cursory "Stories of horror and the supernatural by ...").

Love that cover painting. Hamilton's contribution is familiar from 9th Pan Book Of Horror Stories and Thomas Burke's The Bird is among the stories Peter Penzolt was up for banning on the grounds that such sadistic material should be prosecuted under the obscene publications act.

Hugh Atkinson - The Medusa Touch: "From morning until night, Molly sat at the mirror making love to her hair." On the death of his detested parents, George Montague St. John, a man with a superiority complex in keeping with his newly adopted name, inherits a substantial sum of money. Molly, a gold-digger with the most amazing living jungle of hair, marries him under the impression that so lavish a spender must be a millionaire. He isn't, and when the money runs out, she takes to idling in bed all day playing with her abundant tresses. George grows close to fellow teacher Netta, a shy introvert who shares his passion for poetry and the fine arts. If only he were still single. St. John resolves to throttle his bone-idle, unloving wife - as no-one ever sees her, she'll not be missed - and bury her body in the basement. Mission accomplished, he and Netta quit their jobs and begin a new life in Sydney. Molly may be dead but her hair won't lie down. Narrated by St. John from the lunatic asylum he's been confined to for the past twenty years.

John Burke - Incubus for Hire: Jacobs is a ghost-writer specialising in the "auto-biographies" of the rich and famous. The secret of his success? He gets under the skin of his subjects until he good as becomes them. Most recently he's been commissioned to pen the memoirs of Philip Newman, a highly successful businessman.

During the course of his research, Jacobs discovers that Newman's wife, Susan, is having an affair with his business partner, Leonard Blake (to be fair, Newman is having it off with Margery Blake at the same time). Jacobs believes Susan has murdered her spouse and disposed of him down the old well in the basement.

Jacob's calls on Susan, who is entertaining Margery at the time, and gleefully torments her over her indiscretion and alleged Mariticide.

Philip walks in ...

The title is slightly misleading but no matter, it all ends on a nasty note, and that, after all, is what we're here for.

[dem bones]

That cover painting weirds me out. Always thought it depicted some kind of voracious alien snail but now realise it's merely a tortured human face which somewhat lessens the impact. Still good, mind.

Richard Nettell - The Continual Dew: Never accept crisps from a stranger. Sparker Querney's bird has stupidly got herself pregnant so time for him to move onto the next doll. Drowning his sorrows at the bar of a country pub, Querney is approached by James Barrie, a garrulous old timer in a shabby tweed shower-proof. Barrie pours out the sob story of his life, how, as a young padre, he deserted the gipsy gal who bore his child. Over a period of decades, Barrie has lived as a fugitive. Wherever he goes, Babbie follows with decrepit pram carrying their dead baby. If only Barrie could find a Sin-Eater to unburden him of his load.

Leonard Ansell - On With the New: Lord Quibley, chairman of Square Root & Co., receives an unwelcome visitor - a medieval knight in armour. As demonstrated by his wanton destruction of the clerk's desk, mace-swinging Humphrey de Vizzard, "Lord of Upshire and Shattock, Warden of Castle Rutting, Hereditary Keeper of the cleaves " and, alarmingly, "Knight of the Festering Shaft," is in no mood to be trifled with.

Patrick Boyle - The Lake: A man with previously unimpeachable Republican credentials is condemned as an informant and sentenced to death. Mac and narrator Jim are charged with carrying out his execution. Mac suggests they dispose of the body in the slimy bog at the foot of a mountain five miles from human habitation. Jim, who is by no means convinced of the man's guilt, has the stark choice between blowing his head off or allowing him to escape.

Simon Gray - The Holman Candidate: Can safely advise that Mr. Speed's selection does not lack for variety. There's nothing especially horrific or supernatural about this satire. By due process of elimination, a three man committee unanimously arrive at James Caramel as the ideal candidate for Holman & Co.'s new doctor in residence. He proves utterly useless.

Jens Peter Jacobsen - The Plague at Bergamo: God having abandoned them in their hour of need, the people of a plague-stricken community turn to the Devil and make the most of what will be their last weeks on earth. As the orgy rages, a flagellant cult arrive from neighbouring town to celebrate Mass. A young monk, milk white with red glaring eyes, silences the goading degenerates with bombshell revelation that Christ did not die on the cross for our sins. Deeming man too vile and stupid to be worthy of His sacrifice, He instead tore out the nails and ascended to Heaven. We're someone else's problem. Subversive fiction unlikely to be added to R.C. school curriculum any time soon.

[mauricebendrix]

Here's a question - can anybody identify the original painting the artwork on the front cover is taken from?

[PeterC]

The Stan Gooch story ‘A Time for Living’ is one of very best pieces of short fiction I have read.

[mcannon]

Mar 24, 2018 21:27:59 GMT mauricebendrix said:

I'd love to read it. How many times have you bought an old anthology online, such as this one, for a single story only to find, a few months or years later, that you owned it already in some other anthology? For me, a few!

Many, many times. I also find that the more I pay for that book, the more copies of that particular story I'll turn out to already have in other anthologies.

Common sense would say to first check what you already have; but of course, that means nothing compared to the power of impulse buying.

Mark

[mauricebendrix]

By the way, if anybody knows where else I might find the Stan Gooch story mentioned above, please let me know.

[mcannon]

Mar 25, 2018 6:29:56 GMT mauricebendrix said:

It would be some task to wade through the contents of some 200 anthologies every time I wanted to buy a book!

While it's not perfect, I often find this site very useful in such instances -
www.isfdb.org/

Sadly, it only lists the Stan Gooch story as appearing in "My Blood Ran Cold".

Mark

[Shrink Proof]

A bit late coming to this, but if there are folk out there who are still searching for this tome, it can be downloaded as a PDF (legit and for free) from the Internet Archive - other formats don't work. Or you can read it online. Here's the link.