Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror

[dem]

Many thanks for these wonderful synopses, CB. will step up my efforts to land a copy because - was there ever any doubt? - this sounds well up to the high standard of Uncle Montague and Black Ship. Sister Veronica is indeed my kind of nasty nun, albeit a bit young for the job. Another bonus is the inclusion of a demon flower story - can never get enough of those, either!

re your reference to The Engelmayer Puppets: would you agree that the darker CP's stories would not seem out of place in Mary Danby's Fontana Book Of Horror Stories?

[cauldronbrewer]

I haven't read Danby's Fontana books, but I do have her "65" books (which apparently overlap with them). Looking at the contents of the former and recollecting the latter, I would say: definitely.

I have two three more chapters to go in Tunnel's Mouth, and then I'll be going through Priestley withdrawal for a while.

[cauldronbrewer]

The Whispering Boy: Roland, son of the new local bigwig, and his gang of townie urchins discover a corpse, its mouth closed but its eyes bugged out in terror. As they examine it, a fly exits the mouth. The other boys blame this death and four similar ones on an apparition known as the Whispering Boy. Roland isn’t concerned, however—certainly not worried enough to decline a challenge to fisticuffs at sundown. Inevitably, the Whispering Boy is also out and about that evening . . .

A Crack in the Wall: Philip watches impatiently as two workmen prepare his new bedroom. When they try but fail to repair a curious crack in the wall, he takes a peek through it and sees a shadowy man facing the far wall of another room. This is strange, in no small part because the crack in Philip’s room runs through an exterior wall. Perhaps the oddest story in the book.

The Tunnel’s Mouth: The conclusion of the framing story, in which we learn why Robert’s train has stopped at the mouth of a tunnel and who the Woman in White is.

And that’s it for Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth. As with Tales of Terror from the Black Ship, Mr. Priestley includes a little treat for readers familiar with the first book in the series, Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror. All three books are excellent, and I can only hope that the author decides to write a fourth installment.

[wolfkiller]

I asked chris in his forum about plans for a 4th volume, he says not at present, :'(but let's hope that he does one day.

I loved all 3 volumes, they are well written and seriously creepy!

veering briefly off topic---has anyone read his novel "The Dead of winter" ?

I loved it, just right to curl up with in your favourite armchair on a cold winters night.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Feb 13, 2011 12:30:33 GMT wolfkiller said:

I asked chris in his forum about plans for a 4th volume, he says not at present, :'(but let's hope that he does one day.

There is what pretty much amounts to volume 3 and a quarter, with 'The Teacher's Tales of Terror', a £1 flip book (turn it over and you get a story from Philip Reeve's 'Mortal Engines' series) released for World Book Day.

This has the framing device of the creepy supply teacher, Mr Munro, turning up at a school on World Book Day to read three nasty little tales - 'The Jet Brooch', 'Simon Magus', and 'Lydia' - to a class of children. The stories are up to the usual very high standards of the other 'Tales of Terror' stories, and there is the required nasty twist to the framing story.

I've also treated myself to the new editions of the original books, with the more adult style covers - though I do miss Dave Roberts' lovely illustrations. Each volume has an additional story at the end. I haven't read the new tales yet, as I've started reading, and enjoying them again, from the beginning.

Feb 13, 2011 12:30:33 GMT wolfkiller said:

veering briefly off topic---has anyone read his novel "The Dead of winter" ?

I loved it, just right to curl up with in your favourite armchair on a cold winters night.

It is very good, isn't it? I hugely enjoyed it. A lovely, traditional ghost story, but with some very engaging twists of its own.

I notice that Mr Priestley's next novel, 'Mister Creecher', looks to be a sequel to 'Frankenstein'.

[wolfkiller]

new editions? I'll have a look for those when we are back over next month, should be able to find them somewhere in central London I hope?

[dem]

Chris Priestley - Tales Of Terror From The Tunnel Mouth (Bloomsbury, Oct. 2010)

David Roberts

Robert Harper is going back to school. It is the first railway journey he has ever made alone and it is not the usual sort of railway journey. The train stops at the mouth of a tunnel and in order to help while away the time a strange woman dressed in white tells Robert stories.

But these are not the kind of stories normally told to a child. Soon Robert is both entranced and terrified by the woman in white and her macabre tales.

Prepare to be chilled to the bone as Robert discovers just how frightening it can be to be alone on a train with only strangers to keep you company.

This is a seriously scary book — younger readers be warned!

Illustrations by David Roberts www.bloomsbury.com www.talesofterror.co.uk

Feb 1, 2011 4:12:54 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Sister Veronica: Oh, Dem, I think that you’ll like this one. Sister Veronica is young and pretty, but vindictive as well—beating wicked girls with a hazel switch in the name of God makes her heart flutter giddily. Needless to say, her art students aren’t fond of her. Her former favorite, Barbara [extra points to Priestley for invoking my wife’s name], persuades her to pose as a saint with her arms behind her, wrapped around a column, and then things get . . . interesting.

You are so right, CB. The library came good on Tunnel Mouth yesterday, and soon as i got it home, devoured Sister Veronica. This story alone would've made Chris Priestley a cult hero at secondary school, as 'Sister Veronica' just happened to be the name of our headmistress, although to give her her due, she wasn't the most bitter and twisted of the sadista str's.

Am now reading the book through from the beginning like a grown up, and already mightily impressed. There's a delicious Dr Terror's House Of Horrorsness about the framing story. Robert is a little on the precocious side, so am looking forward to the lovely woman in white scaring the bejabers out of the little creep.

[cauldronbrewer]

Good to hear you enjoyed it!

Speaking of Priestley, a while back I read Dead of Winter. Like WK and Lurker, I enjoyed it immensely. It has a somewhat different feel than the Tales of Terror books (less M. R. James, more Wilkie Collins/J. Sheridan Le Fanu). Highly recommended.

I still need to order a copy of Teacher's Tales of Terror. Given that I have the original Tales of Terror editions, I'm also missing the extra stories in the new editions (on the bright side, I do have the illustrations--the one for "Sister Veronica" is a good one!). I'd be interested to hear anyone's take on those.

[dem]

Chris Priestley - looking snazzy in bootlace tie with skull clasp (among other items of clothing) - made a fleeting appearance on the couch in BBC's Breakfast yesterday morning in relation to a recent survey which, apparently, reveals that one in five parents will no longer read trad fairy tales to their children as they are too frightening. Cases in point include Rumpelstiltskin (for its themes of kidnapping and execution) and Red Riding Hood (abduction). If presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid even knew who Chris was beforehand, they can't have read his work. Best bit was when Susanna Reid asked him what Bloomsburys' reaction would be if he offered them a story about the abduction of two sweet innocent children by a nasty old woman who keeps them in a cage and feeds them up until the little girl escapes and pushes her into the oven? "My publisher would be delighted if I came up with an idea like that!"

[cauldronbrewer]

I watched it on the BBC website and thought he was great--especially his reply to that question. I wish they'd had him on for longer.

[dem]

Chris Priestley - Tales Of Terror From The Black Ship (Bloomsbury, March 2011)

Cover design & illustration: blacksheep-uk.com

The Storm
Piroska
Pitch
Irezumi
The Boy In The Boat
Nature
Mud
The Monkey
The Scrimshaw Imp
The Black Ship
Wolfsbane
----------
Father

landed this in the charity shop this morning, the repackaged for the adult market edition, containing bonus story Father incorperating The Mermaid. Never did get around to finishing the notes for the original (or Uncle Montague ..., or Tunnel Mouth), so will try make a better fist of things this time. Currently reacquainting myself with the bloody pirate yarn, The Monkey.

[dem]

Tales Of Terror From The Black Ship: continued.

Thackeray's well into his stride now and continues to rattle off his terrible tales.

The Monkey: When The Fox is boarded by Captain Tobias 'Blackheart' Reeves and his gang of cut-throats, cabin-boy Lewis Jackson is swept up in the excitement and throws in his lot with the pirates. After a succession of daring raids, The Firefly comes off worst in a skirmish with a merchant ship off Chesapeake Bay. With the navy in pursuit of the crippled vessel, Blackheart needs another boat fast if he's not to swing for his crimes, and what at first appears to be salvation drifts by in the form of a seemingly derelict hulk. As The Firefly sinks, Blackheart and his men clamour aboard. From the journal of an adventurer they learn that some rare and poisonous specimen has escaped it's crate in the stronghold, and it's evidently a a big fan of Alien as soon the buccaneers either die horribly or mysteriously vanish. Blackheart believes he's put an end to the menace when he shoots dead a rabid monkey and tosses the corpse overboard, Blackheart believes wrong.

The Scrimshaw Imp: Young Edward Salter runs to the aid of a fellow who has collapsed on the quayside, but he's too late. The poor man, who looks like he's been mauled by a lion, is evidently trying to warn Edward about something, but all the froth in his mouth gets in the way. His final act is to throw the object clutched in his hand, but it falls short of the sea. Edward retrieves the strangely engraved sharks tooth, and unwittingly brings the demon down upon himself. Shades of Casting The Runes and The Mezzotint though it likely doesn't qualify as truly "Jamesian".

The Black Ship: Old sea dawgs swap yarns. Gibson recalls his bloody encounter with a shark off the Coral Reef, Jacob the cabin-boy wonders aloud at the existence of a phantom vessel, manned by zombies, doomed to sail for all eternity recovering the bodies of dead mariners.

Thackeray's now had his fill of scaring Cathy and infuriating Little Lord Fauntleroy and, besides, it's time he returned to his ship ....

Wolfsbane: Ethan and Cathy half-realised the terrible truth as they watched Thackeray board the rotten, blatantly unseaworthy black hulk and set off into the fog, and now their suspicions are confirmed when two strangers arrive at the Inn. Hugh and Uncle Montague, entirely oblivious to the presence of the children, discuss the appalling events that gave rise to the local belief that The Black Ship is haunted.

Which leaves only the bonus story

[dem]

The bonus two-parter - a bloodbath on the high seas - goes some way to compensate for the absence of Chris Roberts' adorable illustrations. If you don't want to know the result, jump to another thread, you fiends.

SPOILER

Father/ The Mermaid: We're in the after-life now. John, the childrens' father, explains the reason for his enmity toward Thackeray and reveals the tragedy that drove him to drink and, ultimately, cost him his sanity.

On the eve of their wedding, Agnes, John's wife-to-be, falls from a cliff and is washed away. Her body is never recovered. John, distraught, takes to sea with his father and brothers, Jacob and Samuel. During a snowstorm off the Bay of Biscay on what will prove their final voyage, the trawler-man net a mermaid - a mermaid bearing an uncanny resemblance to Agnes. The captain is all for taking her home and selling her to a carnival, but John won't hear of it and demands they throw her back. A scuffle ensues, John is eventually overpowered and tied to the masthead to prevent his causing further affray. And that's when the mermaid shows her stuff. She may wear the sweet face of Agnes, but there all similarity ends, and she's not going to be taken without a fight to the death.

[cauldronbrewer]

Jun 29, 2012 18:58:12 GMT dem said:

The bonus two-parter - a bloodbath on the high seas - goes some way to compensate for the absence of Chris Roberts' adorable illustrations.

I need to go back and look at the Roberts illustrations to console myself for not having the bonus stories.

[dem]

uh, that should be 'David Roberts illustrations'. Wow, i'm on fire this weekend.