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Post by helrunar on Jan 29, 2022 19:05:22 GMT
That's a really sad note in that final Xmas number of Scotsman. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of this book. It does sound like just my sort of thing.
Off topic--have been reading L T Meade's novel The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings on my electronic device. A typical magazine serial of its era (not sure if the date is shortly before or after 1900), but very relaxing to read on my commute. The indescribably evil, endlessly plotting Madame Koluchy is a cameo character and we must take it on the author's word that she is both the most diabolical and most skilled woman who ever walked the Earth. Fun stuff.
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem on Jan 30, 2022 17:21:01 GMT
That's a really sad note in that final Xmas number of Scotsman. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of this book. It does sound like just my sort of thing. cheers, Hel You might want to check the TOC before you make a purchase, H. Far as I know, The MacGregor Skull is only available in recent editions (the Polygon 2017, with excellent introductory essay by Alistair Kerr, is particularly attractive). The Sweet Singers: Dickinson's earliest ghost story, first published in Blackwoods #261, Feb. 1947. Bass Rock Castle, late Seventeenth Century. A dying inmate leads his fellow Covenanter prisoners in a rousing rendition of the 51st Psalm. 250 years later, their ghosts remain in fine voice. St Botulphs Eve: The Chronicle of Dundrennan records that, during over three successive St. Botulph's eves, a lay brother at the Abbey was accosted by a 'dark stranger' in the wood. With the encouragement of the Abbot - he advised prayer, plenty of it - it seems the Devil was denied, though at cost of the monk's life - he died when a mysterious blaze consumed the North Grange. 600 years later, in June 1825, Prof. Alexander Hutton, boarding at The Douglas Arms in neighbouring Kirkcudbright, retraces the Cistercian's footsteps to the abbey ruins. The following weeks local press report a bizarre death in a fire at the inn. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jan 30, 2022 19:46:18 GMT
Off topic--have been reading L T Meade's novel The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings on my electronic device. A typical magazine serial of its era (not sure if the date is shortly before or after 1900), but very relaxing to read on my commute. The indescribably evil, endlessly plotting Madame Koluchy is a cameo character and we must take it on the author's word that she is both the most diabolical and most skilled woman who ever walked the Earth. Fun stuff. Last year, I read an episode from The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings, "The Star-Shaped Marks," in Steampunk: Extraordinary Tales of Victorian Futurism (edited by Mike Ashley). One of Madame Koluchy's agents attempts to murder a person with a weapon that was cutting-edge for its day: {Spoiler}an x-ray machine. |
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Post by dem on Jan 31, 2022 14:39:41 GMT
His own Number: Murdoch Finlayson, the university's technological wizard in residence, receives a cryptic premonition of doom from an 'unlucky' computer. Three times it pinpoints the precise location and grid number of his impending death. The House of Balfother: Lost in freezing mist in the vicinity of Kilchonan and Loch Ericht, Petrie chances upon a tower-house uncharted on the map. Despite his protestations that "Na stranger enters Balfother. The King's writ has it. It canna be," the dour old timer who answers his knock reluctantly provides a room for the night. Petrie's relief turns to horror when Robbie Norrie, the tower's senile equivalent of the Monster of Glamis, joins him beside the fire.
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Post by dem on Feb 1, 2022 10:41:47 GMT
The Witch Bone: Sutherland, Scottish Highlands. Michael Elliott is forever in dispute with bolshy fellow Antiquarian Society member, MacKenzie Grant. So when Grant pours scorn on his latest acquisition, an "authentic" witch's bone, Elliott puts its evil powers to the test. His nemesis dies horribly. Now Sir Stephen Rowandson, Honorary Curator of the local museum, requests a loan of the grisly relic for forthcoming exhibition ...
Finally;
Return at Dusk: Winter of 1939-40. The War Office requisition 'Cairntoul' Castle, Mar for their counter-espionage operation. Drummond, the project leader, finds the Turret Room disagreeable on account of a hateful face glaring at him from the window. Noting Drummond's discomfort, Mother Lum, the lugubrious housekeeper, mutters "I'm hearing Black Dougal will be back then" but refuses to elaborate. When a member of the team sets out on a mission overseas, Drummond gratefully switches rooms, and a new arrival at the castle moves into the haunted chamber. The murderous spectre recognises the poor fellow as his hereditary enemy. Arguably WCD's greatest hit with The House of Balfother, The Witch Bone and The Return of the Native also in the running. Alistair Kerr suggests that 'Cairntoul' is based on Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 7, 2024 15:29:48 GMT
For anyone interested, I'm reading the electronic edition of this collection on my "device," and it does include the yarn of "The MacGregor Skull."
Have read the first two tales thus far, "The Keepers of the Wall" and "Return at Dusk." Both were diverting, but not really all that frightening--I have to say that I long ago stopped being frightened by ghost stories. I enjoy the tales mainly for that quality of "atmosphere" so strongly disapproved of by Christine Campbell Thomson. The tone with Dickinson reminds me more of E. F. Benson than our good Provost, thus far.
An idle thought, but one that has occurred to me--is a lot of Scottish history mainly a chronicle of feuds, amped up in many cases by aggressive landholding titled folk who were insane? Maybe after I've read more of the tales I'll have a different impression. Similar thoughts have occurred when reading the early history of various other countries, from Ireland to Israel.
Hel.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 7, 2024 16:34:55 GMT
For anyone interested, I'm reading the electronic edition of this collection on my "device," and it does include the yarn of "The MacGregor Skull." Have read the first two tales thus far, "The Keepers of the Wall" and "Return at Dusk." Both were diverting, but not really all that frightening--I have to say that I long ago stopped being frightened by ghost stories. I enjoy the tales mainly for that quality of "atmosphere" so strongly disapproved of by Christine Campbell Thomson. The tone with Dickinson reminds me more of E. F. Benson than our good Provost, thus far. An idle thought, but one that has occurred to me--is a lot of Scottish history mainly a chronicle of feuds, amped up in many cases by aggressive landholding titled folk who were insane? Maybe after I've read more of the tales I'll have a different impression. Similar thoughts have occurred when reading the early history of various other countries, from Ireland to Israel. Hel. Only one of William Croft Dickinson's stories has stuck with me - "The Witch's Bone". It's his best. |
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Post by helrunar on Apr 12, 2024 13:16:46 GMT
"The Witch's Bone" was a superior entry in this collection. It was told more straightforwardly than most of the other stories, and included a genuinely creepy touch that was effective.
Reading these stories has been an exercise in further understanding just how much artistry it takes to bring excellence to the construction of this type of tale. Dickinson's work is diverting, but rarely memorable or actively engaging.
If I had more mental energy I'd try to understand the to-ing and fro-ing around "handicap" in the golfing pages of "The Sweet Singers." Completely irrelevant to the actual matter of the yarn so doubt I will bother. I could imagine dying of boredom at a golf tournament. Surely one of the most tedious "games" ever known in recorded history. But the author insists that the "Cup" was "immensely popular."
Hel.
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