|
|
Post by helrunar on May 29, 2021 17:40:48 GMT
Miss Scarlett, I'm in the throes of a major Dion Fortune reading period (and maybe I'll do a post somewhere here, but who apart from me would have any interest in her novels? they were written to illustrate specific facets of her occult training regimen; The Winged Bull, the one I'm currently reading, seems to be a sharply etched exposition on the theme "Here's how NOT to go into a major magical operation"). But I do look forward to dipping into the stories soon.
cheers, Hel
|
|
|
|
Post by Shrink Proof on May 29, 2021 18:09:44 GMT
Miss Scarlett, I'm in the throes of a major Dion Fortune reading period (and maybe I'll do a post somewhere here, but who apart from me would have any interest in her novels? they were written to illustrate specific facets of her occult training regimen; The Winged Bull, the one I'm currently reading, seems to be a sharply etched exposition on the theme "Here's how NOT to go into a major magical operation"). But I do look forward to dipping into the stories soon. cheers, Hel Post it. None of us can know quite when knowing how NOT to go into a major magical operation might be information we need. Urgently.... |
|
peedeel
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 61
|
Post by peedeel on May 30, 2021 7:42:42 GMT
Miss Scarlett, I'm in the throes of a major Dion Fortune reading period (and maybe I'll do a post somewhere here, but who apart from me would have any interest in her novels? they were written to illustrate specific facets of her occult training regimen; The Winged Bull, the one I'm currently reading, seems to be a sharply etched exposition on the theme "Here's how NOT to go into a major magical operation"). But I do look forward to dipping into the stories soon. cheers, Hel Post it. None of us can know quite when knowing how NOT to go into a major magical operation might be information we need. Urgently.... Iād like to second the request of Shrink Proof. We need all the help we can get!  āWe live in the midst of invisible forces whose effects alone we perceive. We move among invisible forms whose actions we very often do not perceive at all, though we may be profoundly affected by them.ā
Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defence
|
|
|
|
Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 30, 2021 11:25:26 GMT
But my favourite quote comes from Professor John Norman Collie, chemistry researcher, mountaineer and, according to some, one of the possible inspirations for Conan Doyle when he was working out the personality of Sherlock Holmes:- " Whatever you make of it, I do not know, but there is something very queer about the top of Ben Macdui and I will not go back there again." Rather surprisingly, Collie confessed publicly at the 27th Annual General Meet- ing of the Cairngorm Club in Aberdeen in December 1925 that he had experienced the most intense fear of his lifetime while climbing alone on Ben MacDhui thirty- five years earlier . . . I was returning from the cairn on the summit in a mist [he said] when I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps. For every few steps I took I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the length of my own. I said to myself, āThis is all nonsenseā. I listened and heard it again but could see nothing in the mist. As I walked on and the eerie crunch, crunch, sounded behind me I was seized with terror and took to my heels, staggering blindly among the boulders for four or five miles nearly down to Rothiemurchus Forest. Whatever you make of it I do not know, but there is something very queer about the top of Ben MacDhui and I will not go back there again by myself I know. From The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui by Affleck Gray |
|
|
|
Post by dem on May 30, 2021 11:55:55 GMT
Ed Burkley - Letters from a Toxic Heart: Longest piece in book, told over a series of letters and newspaper clippings hidden in the lining of a portmanteau belonging to Daniel Cream, whose infamous brother, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, aka the Lambeth Poisoner, was executed at Newgate in November 1892. Dr. Cream's last words as he dropped through the trap cause excitement among Ripperologists to this day.
Catherine Shingler - Havergill's Fetch: Havergill Church, Lincolnshire 189 ā. Local tradition has it that if you visit the churchyard at midnight on April 25, the spirits of those parishioners destined to die over the coming year will pass before you. Fortified by brandy, three young men loiter among the graves. What's the worst that can happen?
Enjoyed both of these, in fact, whole book has been a treat. Gonna have to read something I hate again soon to get back to "normal."
|
|
|
|
Post by cauldronbrewer on May 30, 2021 16:43:58 GMT
Miss Scarlett, I'm in the throes of a major Dion Fortune reading period (and maybe I'll do a post somewhere here, but who apart from me would have any interest in her novels? they were written to illustrate specific facets of her occult training regimen; The Winged Bull, the one I'm currently reading, seems to be a sharply etched exposition on the theme "Here's how NOT to go into a major magical operation"). But I do look forward to dipping into the stories soon. Sure. I can at least say that I made it through The Secrets of Dr Taverner. |
|
|
|
Post by dem on May 31, 2021 8:00:06 GMT
Ra Goli - The Pied Piper of Essex: Carly ill-advisedly conducts a seance inside the Southend subway tunnel where, fifty years ago, a homeless man was beaten to death by loathsome scumbags unknown. By the time his body was discovered, hungry rats had partially devoured his face and fingers. Carly's attempt at contact succeeds only too horribly. Accompanying essay cites urban legends commemorating various Ratman/ Catman/ Goatman legends.
Chris Rush - Lambs to the Slaughter: Newlywed Derek and Brenda, honeymooning in Dublin. He insists on dragging her up Montpelier Hill to visit the ruins of a hunting lodge once used as a HQ by the local Hellfire Club. They've picked a bad night for snooping around. Another nasty one. Reads a little like a shudder pulp, sans Scooby-Doo ending.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on May 31, 2021 23:08:20 GMT
Those who decide to buy this anthology--absolutely don't miss Aine King's story "The Handfast Wife." It really knocked my socks off this afternoon. She has a gorgeous voice with a marvelous flair for folk horror at its most earthy and gruesome. I was gripped.
Other entries I have read to date have come across more like blog entries, not particularly noteworthy ones. But rather than dumping on stories I found wanting, I'll simply make mention of any others that impress me favorably. And as used to be said, over the rest I shall left fall a veil...
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Jun 1, 2021 7:30:38 GMT
But rather than dumping on stories I found wanting, I'll simply make mention of any others that impress me favorably. H. That pretty much captures what Vault is about. Does for me, anyhow. I got The Handfast Wife up next. Barry McCann - Ring around the Rosie: Jan and Michael's Christmas countryside ramble a wrong turn brings them to the Parish Church of St. Helens, dating from the Norman conquest. Once inside, the door locks fast behind them, but that seems a blessing when the church is besieged by corpses of those who died of the Black Death. Ann O'Regan - Hunger: Cork. An alarming spike in deaths attributable to malnourishment and madness has Michael Corcoran fearing the return of Fear Gorta, or the hungry man, famine personified in the form of a living skeleton. Legend has it that those pointed out by the spectre will die of starvation within a very short while, no matter how much food they consume. But better death than incarceration in St. Kevin's Lunatic Asylum! Kevin Patrick McCann - Churchgoing: Joe Sweeney, recently bereaved of his father, visits St. Brigid's on a whim, even though his belief in any kind of existence after death is shot. Meanwhile on a different time-line, Thomas Caryngton, Vicar of St. Brigid, mourns his loss of faith and any hope of redemption. Their worlds collide. |
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Jun 1, 2021 12:50:26 GMT
Catherine Shingler's tale "Havergill's Fetch" was good reading. In her subsequent note in which she provides a lively and interesting account of folklore in various places concerning the Fetch, she mentions M. R. James towards the end as one of her inspirations in how she crafted her yarn. It reminded me more of one of E. F. Benson's stories (and that's no mean compliment). Shingler spoke of trying to convey "an anecdotal, gentlemen's club sort of style" in how she wrote it, and I think she did evoke that atmosphere to a degree.
There was an element in this story that reminded me of the 1981 Dr Who serial "Logopolis"--which I was re-watching a couple of weeks ago. A specific element in that particular story had always struck me as coming quite out of left field; I wonder if it could have been suggested by screenwriter Christopher Bidmead having been inspired by some of the folklore Shingler references in her note. It was interesting to get at least a potential answer to something about that story that has puzzled me for decades.
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Jun 1, 2021 20:41:55 GMT
Hannah Kate's "Dust to Dust," though very brief, had some effective shocks.
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Jun 2, 2021 1:21:47 GMT
For those interested in old Faery lore, "Creatures of Rath and Bone" is inspired by "Tam Lin" and a couple of other familiar sources--the author cites Kirk's Secret Commonwealth and the Glastonbury legends of Gwyn ap Nudd (a very old Deity indeed, recorded by the Romans as Vindos, which means the White One--"Gwyn" means the same, and the shift from V/W to Gw seems to be a feature of Welsh).
I have to confess I found the author's treatment of this fascinating, and indeed harrowing lore, a disappointment, but those are the breaks. It was interesting to read what she did with it.
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem on Jun 2, 2021 7:22:29 GMT
Catherine Shingler's tale "Havergill's Fetch" was good reading. In her subsequent note in which she provides a lively and interesting account of folklore in various places concerning the Fetch, she mentions M. R. James towards the end as one of her inspirations in how she crafted her yarn. It reminded me more of one of E. F. Benson's stories (and that's no mean compliment). Shingler spoke of trying to convey "an anecdotal, gentlemen's club sort of style" in how she wrote it, and I think she did evoke that atmosphere to a degree. "In telling the story I have tried to convey something of the sort of atmosphere found in the writing of M. R. James and other Edwardian masters of the genre ..." I really like Havergill's Fetch, think it could even pass for an authentic 'forgotten' late nineteenth/ early twentieth century story in Richard Dalby's Mammoth Book of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories. But MRJ maybe not the best comparison. Those who decide to buy this anthology--absolutely don't miss Aine King's story "The Handfast Wife." It really knocked my socks off this afternoon. She has a gorgeous voice with a marvelous flair for folk horror at its most earthy and gruesome. I was gripped. : John Gow is to hang in London for piracy. According to Lizzie the speywife, his rotting corpse will share wife Helen's bed each night unless she go to him and unswear the blood oath they took on the Odin Stone. As payment for this information, Lizzie demands the child in Helen's belly which is due in time for Samhain. Helen travels the 700 miles to London from the Orkneys only to arrive three days too late. Johns tarred body hangs in chains along the Thames wall. She goes to him .... Agree with H., this is powerful indeed. Petula Mitchell - Camp 46: Billinghurst, Sussex. The first completed house of what will soon be a new estate is built on the site of a WWII Prisoner of War camp. It is haunted by the ghost of an SS Officer for whom the conquest of Britain is an ongoing consideration. |
|
|
|
Post by dem on Jun 5, 2021 8:07:34 GMT
"Let's play fairy funerals!"
Rachel Steiner - Creatures of Rath and Bone: "We are of the forest, the earth. These lands are of our flesh. We have been here before your kind was in its infancy, and we will endure long after your demise. You and yours are simply ....vermin."
Hopelessly lost in Carterhaugh Forest while seeking the location of a fabled Ring Fort, Briget Galloway, Uni student, is violently abducted from her sleeping bag by the faerie folk and carried to their hillside hideaway. Can her best friend, Jennifer, prevent the girl's sacrifice on the altar stone? I particularly like the depiction of the cadaverous little people.
D. C. Merryweather - Spoor: A sceptical journalist and her photographer visit an expanse of woodland near the underpass to investigate the latest reported sighting of the Beast. Depending on the witness, the scourge of the farmlands is either a big cat, a black dog, or an ex-squaddie gone psycho-survivalist.
Jaki McCarrick - The Ear: Convalescing in hospital while she regains the use of her legs, a spiritually awakened and euphorically drugged Christine takes advice from a protrusion in the wall as to how best be rid of her abusive husband.
Finally .... Seems entirely fitting The Spooky Isles Book of Horror should end with a story about the little folk.
Tracy Fahey - Come Away: The ten year old's in Miss Brooks class construct a fairy village by the Shannon as a summer project, utilising stones, shells, dolls, lego bricks, ornaments, whatever they can find. Soon the adults join in, taking care of any heavy spadework, hanging trinkets from tall branches, etc. It's decided among the kids that a huge mound of earth - to which one of the dads has provided wooden blue eyes - is the fairy king, Pook, who isn't very nice and comes alive at night ...
Hel doesn't seem to have been overly impressed, but this anthology worked a treat for me. I hope the Spooky folk still plan to continue the series.
|
|
