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Post by dem on May 19, 2023 19:53:38 GMT
Good to hear that your local library is up and running again, Dem. Ours was shut for a while during the pandemic, but I don't believe it was ever facing a permanent closure. I'm not sure if they have any programmes like yours does, Dem, it's really small. There used to be schools trips to encourage reading and a story-time for really young children, but not sure if they are still going. I certainly disagree with Mr Deary if he advocated widespread library closures. One very strong aspect of the UK library system is the ability to go to any library, no matter how small, and ask for a book or other item from any other library for a very modest fee and often free. I have used that service quite a few times over the years, and been able to read books that I just wouldn't have been able to without paying sizeable sums to purchase. It's really concerning about so many hundreds of libraries being closed in the UK. In the US, library closures are sought by fatcat Republicans who disregard the role of these spaces in providing a whole roster of community services--from computer use for the unemployed to educational opportunities for those who can't afford to buy books, to children's enrichment activities, to safe spaces for the unhoused. And beyond. Yes, ours provide free computer access for all, clean bathrooms with hot water, too. Occasionally, they'll host an exhibition (the 'Battle of Wapping' commemoration was excellent). Pre-pandemic, the ground floor was where you'd go for any council/ housing association enquiries. Personally, I hated them sharing the same building, but can appreciate the logic. The more use the premises are put to, the less chance of their being sold off for conversion to "affordable" flats. On another note, in one of the local "free library" book boxes on the sidewalk in front of somebody's home (there are 3 or 4 now in hailing distance from me), I briefly browsed this interesting classic ghost story collection I'd never seen before, simply titled Ghost Stories without editorial byline, from some firm called Cathay Books: www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=726046036I almost took the book since it included a Rosemary Timperley tale I have yet to read, as well as a couple of other unknown gems--but I felt I should wait and see if another "patron" decided to make use of it. I know it well: Ghost Stories. I strongly suspect it was among the many Octopus titles anonymously edited by Mary Danby. |
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Post by dem on Jul 25, 2023 17:29:34 GMT
Terry Deary - True Horror Stories (Scholastic, 1993) Introduction
Lizzie Borden's Axe
The Hidden Killer - Fact File
The Deadly Daughter - Fact File
The Murderous Maid - Fact File
Nightmare Farm
Ghostly Evidence - Fact File
The Bodysnatchers
Bodysnatching - Fact File
Diary of a Horror House
Amityville - Fact File
The Ghost of the Red Barn
Ghost of the Red Barn - Fact File
Five Ways of Becoming a Ghost
The Witch's Execution
Valentine's Day Murder- Fact File
A Dream of Death
The Assassination of Lincoln - Fact File
The Legend of Lincoln - Fact File
The Ghost in the Lift
The Ghost in the Lift - Fact File
Five Explanations for Ghosts
The Vanishing Village
Unidentified Flying Fears - Fact File
A Killing in Kildare
Irish Horror - Fact File
The Mummy's Curse
Five Titanic Truths - Fact FileBlurb: Incredible? Impossible? Too awful to imagine? But someone, somewhere at some time has sworn that each of these sinister stories is true...
A girl murders her own father and mother in cold blood.
A whole village of people disappears without trace, and all anyone saw were strange lights in the sky.
An Egyptian mummy, disturbed after thousands of years, leaves a trail of horrible disasters.
Some of these stories have possible explanations, but for others there is no answer. Consider the facts and decide for yourself whether each gruesome story really is true — but keep the cover firmly closed once darkness falls, or your dreams could turn into NIGHTMARES ...Picked up copies of this and his True Monster Stories for 50p each at Sunday market. Introduction: The author's encounter with a Grey Lady in his Newcastle office shortly before he was approached to write this book. Lizzie Borden's Axe: Could it be that Elizabeth was innocent and a vengeful servant butchered the parents for overworking her on the hottest day of summer? Nightmare Farm: "John didn't wait to see what the pyjama's did next." John Allen's cycling holiday in Brittany brings him to a derelict farmhouse, abandoned since the former owner, a Nazi collaborator, drowned in mysterious circumstances shortly after the war ended. His waterlogged nightwear puts John to flight.  Uncredited David Wyatt (?) : Chapter devoted to the exploits of Burke and Hare, even though neither resorted to digging up the dead — smothering the old and enfeebled was so much easier, and Dr. Knox wasn't the least particular how they procured the merchandise. "Understand, I do not wish to know where you obtain your bodies. Just bring them to me. You are doing a service to the world of medicine." Diary of a Horror House: Amityville's greatest hits, including the Defoe family murders, the plague of flies in the boathouse, the glowing pig face at the window, a demon in the fireplace, the green slime, etc.
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Post by dem on Jul 26, 2023 17:37:22 GMT
 David Wyatt (?) : Polstead, Suffolk, 1927. Mrs Ann Marten's claims that her stepchild's ghost had appeared to her in a dream, alleging murder against the squire's son, William Corder, famously led to the villagers' discovery of Maria's corpse hidden away in the Red Barn. It was common knowledge that Mrs Martin and the mole catcher's daughter had no liking for one another, so why would the spectre chose her, of all people, to appear to? See also Peter Haining, Buried Passions: Maria Marten and the Red Barn Murder. The Witch's Execution: Lower Quinton, Warwickshire, 1945. The gory Valentine's Day pitchfork murder of 74-year-old Charles Williams, farmer and self-described witch, following reported sightings of a phantom headless black dog prowling the village. Did the old man's self-alleged dabbling in the dark arts spook his neighbours to retribution? Fabian of the Yard thought not. A Dream of Death: Abraham Lincoln's vivid premonition of his assassination as confided in wife, Mary, and reported sightings of his ghost in the White House. The Mummy's Curse: Egypt, 1890. Defiled by tomb-looters, the bandaged remains of Princess Amen-Ra embark on a cross-continent killing spree, culminating in a voyage aboard the Titanic. |
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Post by dem on Jul 27, 2023 15:22:25 GMT
 David Wyatt (?) : Co. Offaly, 1883, Paris, 1893. Lord Dufferin's premonition; the coffin carrying gent and the life attendant of doom — "Room for one more." Five Explanations for Ghosts: Lake Anjikuni, winter 1930. A UFO sighting coincides with the Marie Celeste-style disappearance of an entire 1200-strong Eskimo community. Whoever — or whatever — was responsible also emptied every corpse from the graveyard. Could this be a genuine case of alien abduction? A Killing in Kildare/ Irish Horror: Éire, 1880. A recovered corpse, 21 years preserved in a peat-bog, spews mud on his murderer's shoes, effectively condemning him to the gallows. The evil ways of the fairy folk, the appalling fate of Michael Cleary's wife, and why you should never kiss a mystery girl in a graveyard. |
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