The Black Dreams - Strange Stories from Northern Ireland (Blackstaff Press 2021)

I hope to write a running review with a piece about a story every day or so. Apologies if it takes me longer than that. Disclosure - I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

Many years ago I was browsing in (I think) a public library when I did That Thing. It's a thing bookish types do a lot, I suspect. I saw an interesting title and didn't pick it up and examine it. But the title stayed with me. It was Ireland and the English Crisis, by Tom Paulin, published in 1984. Perhaps now would be a good time to get a second-hand paperback and actually read it, as the English crisis continues to afflict Ireland. 

Which brings me to The Black Dreams. The title comes from 'Autobiography', a poem by Louis Macneice, son of a Northern Ireland clergyman. It's worth quoting a little of it. Seek it out, it is not long.

When I was five the black dreams came;
Nothing after was quite the same.

Come back early or never come.

The dark was talking to the dead;
The lamp was dark beside my bed.

Come back early or never come.

These stories were specially commissioned for this anthology by Reggie Chamberlain-King, who provides a substantial introduction. It begins: 'I don’t recall if I saw my first gunman in my childhood nightmares or on my childhood streets.There were plenty in both and they looked very much like each other.' He goes on to discuss the importance of genre fiction - and other parts of pop culture - as a way of coping with an all-too-real but deeply irrational state of affairs. 

This is not a horror anthology, but it contains plenty of horrors. The first story, 'The Black', is a good example. In a few pages Ian Sansom tells the simple tale of a man who redecorates his home. Eventually all is black, The narrator, the man's sister, explains that he had to be sectioned. But these is no escaping the blackness of the title, because it must manifest itself, erasing colour and overwhelming everything. It's a powerful opener, with great metaphorical power.

With luck, I will have my take on another story tomorrow or shortly after.