Supernatural Tales

  Too Near the Dead by Helen Grant | Waterstones

  h/t Steve Duffy

Something Ominous Something Strange Something Dangerous Stay tuned for further developments!

 The National Trust has just found out that one of its rudest attractions is also one of its oldest. The Cerne Abbas chalk giant is almost as old as the kingdom England itself. Generations have speculated about the age and meaning of the club-brandishing giant hewn into a Dorset hillside. Was he a depiction of the legendary demi-god Hercules, an ancient fertility symbol, or even the soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell? Another theory holds that the figure was carved around the body of a giant who was slain by local people after he terrorised the countryside.    Now, after state-of-the art sediment analysis jointly funded by the National Trust, the University of Gloucestershire, Allen Environmental Archaeology and the Pratt Bequest, National Trust archaeologists have concluded the giant was probably first constructed in the late Saxon period. I always found it rather odd that people thought anyone in the 17th century could construct a huge landscape outline of a club-wi...

 Now available in paperback ! This is an absorbing collection of stories, poems, and other writings of a supernatural nature by members of the eponymous society. I t was established in 1860 and new members had to be elected by the current ones. Like many similar societies it existed for members to read papers on any topic they considered interesting, to be followed by a discussion.    In an excellent preface, editor Robert Lloyd Parry (of  Nunkie  Theatre fame) offers a perspective on the clubs most famous member, M.R. James, and the way in which his first two ghost stories were read aloud to members. the first two stories in the book are the original versions of ‘Canon Albéric's Scrapbook’ and 'Lost Hearts’. Neither differ much from the versions that appeared in James first collection of ghost stories.      While Anderson/ Dennistoun  could be taken as a portrait of the author,  Mr  A bney  in lost heart is the diametrical opp...

It's not a sofa. It's a recliner. One of those chairs that leans back and sticks out a footrest. If you're a fan of Frasier, it's as if Martin's old comfy chair had suddenly become homicidal. In New Zealand. Yes, from the land that gave us that film about killer sheep and that movie and TV show about the silly vampires, comes another horror thing that is absurd. That said, it's not bad. It just doesn't quite live up to its premise. It's as if someone had binge-watched a lot of ridiculous Eighties 'possessed object movies' and tried to pair it up with Edogawa Rampo's famous story about a chair. The result is a right old mess, but an entertaining one. The story begins with Frederico, a bloke who spends far too much time on the internet talking about horror and the occult. Ahem. Fortunately, when we meet him Frederico is about to be dismembered by a bloke with an electric saw. We see the chair in the background, just in case we missed the mislea...