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Post by dem on Jul 23, 2021 11:22:34 GMT
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Tales From The Dark Lands (William Kimber, 1984) Mayfield
Something Comes In From The Garden
The Night Watch
The Astral Invasion
Someone In Mind
The Man Who Stayed Behind
Don't Know
Travelling Companion
The Switch-Back Blurb: The Saturn looked a remarkable car, with a remarkable driver, as it flashed around the Switch-Back track at 190mph. Just how remarkable they were only became obvious when the Saturn crashed and went up in flames. For that was not the end of the story, either for the Saturn or for its sinister driver. This is the theme of one of R. Chetwynd-Hayes' outstanding stories of the supernatural in this new collection.Recycles Something Comes In From The Garden and The Man Who Stayed Behind from The Night Ghouls (Fontana, 1975) and The Switch-Back, from Weird Tales, Spring 1993. Mayfield: When Miles Hamilton's car packs up in the English countryside, he stops at the first house he reaches to request use of the phone. Unfortunately for him, toward the end of the 19th century Mayfield House was home to fearsome matriarch Miss Sarah Mayfield, her nympho niece, Claudia, Meadows the butler, and a silent maid. Between them they would murder and rob every hapless stranger to arrive on their doorstep. An almost bad-sex scene (he loses his nerve when Claudia comes over all assertive) briefly enlivens the proceedings, otherwise as generic a haunted house story as I've read in an age. From memory, the next up is one of his very best ...
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Post by humgoo on Jul 23, 2021 12:16:58 GMT
From memory, the next up is one of his very best ... Am surprised that you never wrote that one up! High time you rectified that! |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 23, 2021 12:27:10 GMT
Yes it definitely is!
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Post by dem on Jul 24, 2021 11:11:01 GMT
Something Comes in From the Garden: ( The Night Ghouls, 1975) The Night Ghouls is a thoroughly decent collection, and because Dem hasn't mentioned it I'll just sing the praises of 'Something Comes in From the Garden' - a ghost story with a very nasty ghost indeed. In fact RCH liked it so much / was sufficiently desperate to fill up the space that it was reprinted in the later Kimber book Tales From the Dark Lands (that's the one with the really crappy drawing of racing cars on it - sorry Ionicus). When reclusive Mrs. Ames finally puts Ennerdale House on the market, she insists the estate agent inform potential buyers that the property is haunted. Happily for us, Robert Erwin laughs off the warning - 'Ghosts' indeed! The Erwins are moved in before we've made it to the foot of page one. At the housewarming, a very bored Robert gets talking to Julia Fortesque, a timid, very pretty girl in a white dress. Julia lets on that she once lived here but has since moved a little further down the road. Much to Edna's annoyance, this attractive young woman makes a habit of dropping by when her husband is around, but the kids - Richard, twelve, Joan, ten - seem to like her, especially when she tells them about the Pimpkins who live behind the skirting board. Just as Edna suspected, her husband's none too secret admirer isn't right in the head. A month on from the party, Edna finds a tramp "with the face of a witless fiend" washing his hands at the kitchen sink. It takes all her courage to confront him, but the intruder acts as though she's not there. And how did he get inside when the door is locked and bolted? On being informed of this creepy development, Richard flies off the handle, not least because he now realises that Mrs Ames was telling the truth. Ennerdale House is haunted in the most appalling fashion. It's likely the lack of previous commentary is because I couldn't do the story any kind of justice - and, as you just found out, that remains the case. Something Comes in From the Garden finds a sombre RCH at the top of his game and really should be more readily available. Two straight stories on the spin. The next one is going to be terrible, isn't it?
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Post by andydecker on Jul 24, 2021 12:15:27 GMT
Something Comes in From the Garden: ( The Night Ghouls, 1975) The Night Ghouls is a thoroughly decent collection, and because Dem hasn't mentioned it I'll just sing the praises of 'Something Comes in From the Garden' - a ghost story with a very nasty ghost indeed. In fact RCH liked it so much / was sufficiently desperate to fill up the space that it was reprinted in the later Kimber book Tales From the Dark Lands (that's the one with the really crappy drawing of racing cars on it - sorry Ionicus). When reclusive Mrs. Ames finally puts Ennerdale House on the market, she insists the estate agent inform potential buyers that the property is haunted. Happily for us, Robert Erwin laughs off the warning - 'Ghosts' indeed! The Erwins are moved in before we've made it to the foot of page one. At the housewarming, a very bored Robert gets talking to Julia Fortesque, a timid, very pretty girl in a white dress. Julia lets on that she once lived here but has since moved a little further down the road. Much to Edna's annoyance, this attractive young woman makes a habit of dropping by when her husband is around, but the kids - Richard, twelve, Joan, ten - seem to like her, especially when she tells them about the Pimpkins who live behind the skirting board. Just as Edna suspected, her husband's none too secret admirer isn't right in the head. A month on from the party, Edna finds a tramp "with the face of a witless fiend" washing his hands at the kitchen sink. It takes all her courage to confront him, but the intruder acts as though she's not there. And how did he get inside when the door is locked and bolted? On being informed of this creepy development, Richard flies off the handle, not least because he now realises that Mrs Ames was telling the truth. Ennerdale House is haunted in the most appalling fashion. It's likely the lack of previous commentary is because I couldn't do the story any kind of justice - and, as you just found out, that remains the case. Something Comes in From the Garden finds a sombre RCH at the top of his game and really should be more readily available. Two straight stories on the spin. The next one is going to be terrible, isn't it? Chances are high. As RCH himself said that for Kimber he adapted the content for its audiance, so it is very possible that the rest is not up to the standard of Something comes from the Garden. Which is indeed one of the better ones. Sometimes I wonder if we don't expect too much of the guys. Other writers produced one or two stories which became loved over the time, and then stopped. So it is really surprising that the prolific ones produced more miss and hit? Or maybe the really brillant ones like Birkin or James put the bar too high? |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 24, 2021 20:35:22 GMT
Something Comes in From the Garden finds a sombre RCH at the top of his game and really should be more readily available. It's just been reprinted in the excellent RCH commemorative volume Gaslight, Ghouls and Ghosts from PS Publishing - copies are still available (I think) |
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Post by dem on Jul 25, 2021 12:49:52 GMT
Something Comes in From the Garden finds a sombre RCH at the top of his game and really should be more readily available. It's just been reprinted in the excellent RCH commemorative volume Gaslight, Ghouls and Ghosts from PS Publishing - copies are still available (I think) is indeed very lovely. It was a pleasant surprise to witness a surge of RCH appreciation over 2019/ 2020, what with Mr. Jones' book, the Dave Brzeski's Shadmocks & Shivers, tribute antho, and the Phantasmagoria RCH special, all of them splendid. His influence is apparent in certain stories featured in recent BHF Books of horror, too. The Night Watch: As his body lies mangled in a crashed car, Harry Morgan's spirit is conscripted into the Astral Guard Corps under Sergeant Denham, martinet with a heart of gold. Harry is doomed to patrol Bradley street every night until he has atoned for drunk driving and the abandonment of a lover who consequently took her own life. The purpose of the exercise is a mystery as sentries are prohibited from interfering in the affairs of the living, while to enter a household is to be imprisoned within its walls for eternity. But tonight Harry can't help himself. The silent cry of a newly dead alerts him to a house where violence has been done. The poor victim will be terrified when she realises her life is over, but that's not his concern. The rule books says he leaves her to it, but "that is the crime for which I am being punished. When the ship of passion sank. I ignored a cry for help." Lighter than above, but not in a terrible way. Unusually for RCH the main players are sympathetic characters. The murdered Wendy Allen's concern for the husband who survives her is deeply touching, as is Sergeant Denham's loyalty to his 'orrible little men. An incident involving a levitating vase is straight out of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). In short, a feel good ghost story. To date Tales from the Dark Lands has been one of the stronger Kimber entries. But then I turned the page and spotted the dreaded phrase .... |
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Post by andydecker on Jul 25, 2021 15:46:00 GMT
To date Tales from the Dark Lands has been one of the stronger Kimber entries. But then I turned the page and spotted the dreaded phrase .... Let me guess: Frederica and Francis ...  |
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Post by dem on Jul 26, 2021 7:54:03 GMT
Let me guess: Frederica and Francis ... I'm afraid so. The exact phrase is "From the casebook of the world's only practicing psychic detective" which - would that it were not the case! - amounts to the same thing. Added bonus; It's the longest story in the book. The Astral Invasion: We'll keep it brief. Francis St. Clare is approached in a pub by a damsel in distress. Sophia Danglar confides that her late step-sister Margaret, a vicious bully in life, returns home once a day to beat her and rearrange furniture. Francis, excited at the rare prospect of doing battle with a "sado-catamodo," offers his services. Case proves more complex than anticipated as Margaret is acting on behalf of a far more powerful and dangerous adversary, a "King pin," who plans to exploit a gap in the astral curtain to let loose an army of hostile entity on the world of the living ..... blah blah blah. All you really need to now is that The Astral Invasion maintains standard of F & F's previous adventures. "Exciting" footnote. It was RCH's proud boast that his books were most popular with women of a certain age, and this being the case, presumably these were women of a certain age with a lust for corporal punishment, as, once again, Frederica is subjected to a thrashing, this one courtesy of Margaret Danglar. Francis, commendably, leaves them to it. "You callous bastard. She almost flogged me to ribbons. Look at my back." |
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Post by andydecker on Jul 26, 2021 10:44:18 GMT
once again, Frederica is subjected to a thrashing, this one courtesy of Margaret Danglar. Francis, commendably, leaves them to it. "You callous bastard. She almost flogged me to ribbons. Look at my back." Yeah, Francis is a real prince  Like he is in The Wailing Waif of Battersea. I really wondered what was wrong with Frederica to hang with him. You can take rebellion too far, even in the 70s.  |
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Post by dem on Jul 27, 2021 5:56:19 GMT
The gruesome twosome out of his system, author gets back on track with the bleakest autopsy of a holiday romance lethally soured. Off hand, can't think of another story quite like it in the entire Chetwynd-Hayes canon.
Someone in Mind: Celia Beaumont, 44 and off men after the break up of her latest relationship, books a holiday at the Claremont Hotel on account of its reputation as a refuge for those dead from the waist down. Much to her annoyance, incongruous among the guests is a thoroughly charming, devilishly handsome gent, Richard Duncan, the managing director of a successful advertising agency, whom she has no option but to seduce.
Richard proves disappointingly average in bed, but that's before he reveals his unique gift, the ability to enter a lover's brain and trigger her every nerve ending - has them writhing in ecstasy every time. Celia, already bored, agrees to give it a go.
Several multiple orgasms later.
"It was great of course. A real trip. But — well — weird. I mean — anything goes between two adult people — but there must be limits. That was a kind of mental rape"
Celia ends the relationship soon afterward when she senses Richard is indulging in a non-consensual pry at her deepest secrets. He promises never to do so again, but Celia wants out. Infatuated and suicidal, her creepy holiday pick-up proves a nightmare to shake off.
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Post by dem on Jul 28, 2021 16:00:01 GMT
The Man Who Stayed Behind: ( The Night Ghouls, 1975). Realising that his hour is near, Benjamin Howard consults a priest. He needs to ensure a smooth transition through the Pearly Gates so he can get on with the business of making serious money. Rev. Pierce is suitably appalled. "I fear you have some very strange ideas about Heaven. It is a place of joy and light. The material things of this life have been left behind. The attributes you describe, far from being an asset, will, I fear, be a great liability." Hell, his more likely destination, appeals even less. So Howard categorically refuses to leave this world. Now he can prevent George, his soft touch, philanthropic son and heir, from distributing the family fortune among the massed ranks of grasping relatives. The old bastard goes to the grave. As anticipated, the grief-stricken extended family fall over one another to get their claws into George. Eyes on the main prize, Cousin Marion is insistent he needs a wife who can operate a vacuum cleaner, only for the possessed vacuum to chase her from the fireplace whiles she attempts to cremate old man Howard's stash of porno mags. Some neat comic touches, including an animated suit of armour and a possessed Victorian time piece. Don't Know: Lunatic narrator Henry is convinced wife Lydia is having an affair with a half glimpsed presence in the attic. She denies all - how like a woman. he sneers - until, exasperated, she suggests they search every nook and crammy until they find this phantom lover. Henry is not to be deceived by her play acting .... Definitely one of the more consistently decent RCH Kimbers.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 28, 2021 16:33:29 GMT
The Man Who Stayed Behind: Some neat comic touches, including an animated suit of armour and a possessed Victorian time piece. Too much slapstick for me, and the ending was just there. A typical example of C-H writing along without a plot and going nowhere. |
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Post by dem on Jul 28, 2021 17:18:07 GMT
The Man Who Stayed Behind: Some neat comic touches, including an animated suit of armour and a possessed Victorian time piece. Too much slapstick for me, and the ending was just there. A typical example of C-H writing along without a plot and going nowhere. There's a dire sequence involving an avaricious psychiatrist, but the rest didn't strike me as so appalling. Could be I'm so delighted to see the back of F*** and F***** that everything I read from here on in is going to be the greatest thing ever written. |
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Post by dem on Jul 29, 2021 10:14:12 GMT
Another sad one.
Travelling Companion: Recently widowed and lonely, Lesley Dale-Henderson takes pity on a genial and very handsome young tramp when he knocks on her door and requests a drink of water. They get to talking. Harry is charming as he is good looking and Lesley can't help but insist he join her in a meal. Harry agrees, on condition she allow him to earn his dinner, and sets to scrubbing the windows, fixing the lawn mower, tidying the garden. How could such a man have thrown his life away? As night falls, she offers him the spare room, but Harry insists on bedding down on a bed of straw in the barn - he'll be on his way early tomorrow and has no wish to disturb her. Lesley is disappointed, even more so when she spots a tearful young beauty creeping in to join him ...
Just the one novella to go.
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Like he is in The Wailing Waif of Battersea. I really wondered what was wrong with Frederica to hang with him. You can take rebellion too far, even in the 70s. 