Supernatural Tales

  I received a review copy of The Water Bells from the author.  This new collection  contains one tale from ST 59, 'Fire and Stick', which I'm sure readers will agree is a first-rate tale of the strange and disturbing. In total TWB offers fifteen stories, and all are of the same high calibre. The illustrations, as astute folk might have noticed, are by Odilon Redon, and are well suited to the tales. Charles Wilkinson's world is an odd one, a liminal but very British domain. It lies, I think, somewhere between Aickman and de la Mare with a strong dash of M.R. James.  A recurring them here is the solitary or somewhat awkward individual - usually male - who finds himself a fish out of water. Thus Theo Dodds who, having 'done nothing with his life for three years', is sent to care for a dying relative in 'Absent Below the Lip'. The title more than hints at horrors to come as Theo discovers - far too late - just what his uncle was and did. 

  Another poetry pamphlet from the laureate of the fens, Pete Cox. This one contains a handful of works on a mysterious medieval outfit founded by one Hugh Bardolph. The guild 'oversaw the construction and consecration (in 1235) of the so-called Dean's Eye' - a rose window in Lincoln Cathedral. Among other things... The first poem deals with the imps of Lincoln and their role in the earthquake of 1185. Apparently 'their interference had been deduced/By mages skilled in ancient scrying art'. Which was a good thing, as 'holy magics' could be 'unloosed' on the little blighters. The imps turned to gargoyles. Serves 'em right. 'Hugh Bardolph and the Dragon' is a nice anecdote about the eponymous chap in his youth, arriving at court with what he claimed was the head of a dragon. Dinosaur fossil? Perhaps. As the poem reveals, Henry II and his advisors were not mugs. Hugh admits it's a fair cop... 'I found the skull among the rocks and sa...

  Sam Dawson's cover and internal art for Steve Duffy's upcoming story 'Valparaiso'. Definitely not AI-generated.  ST will never use any form of AI content. 

  Literary criticism is not everyone's cup of green tea, but this book is essential for anyone who loves the works of Sheridan Le Fanu. The bulk of the text consists of three introductions Jim Rockhill wrote for 1990s Ash-Three collections, now long out of print. Roc khill has updated what are very substantial essays, and added some extra matter pertaining to the author and his life.  And what a life it was. The first essay, 'As On a Darkling Plain' covers the period 1814- 1861. On the face of it this seems a little odd, as Le Fanu died in 1873. But, as I read on, I came to realise that before the 1860s the author had occupied himself with a wide range of activities, of which writing was just one. Politics, the law, and family life all demanded his time and effort. He married, fathered four children, then in 1858 suffered the terrible blow of his wife's death. It was only then that Le Fanu took to writing full-time to pay off debts and provide for his offspring.  Overa...

I received the review copy pictured below from the publisher. I am, as always, impressed by the quality of the volume. Tartarus never lets you down - their books are built to last. The cover is simply entitled 'An Old House', a painting by Edith Abbott. I like it.  Sophia J. Unsworth is a new writer - this is her first collection . However, as the biographical notes reveal, she is a late bloomer. A long-term resident of Tenerife, she recently retired from a career as a professional pianist and teacher.  (You can listen to the author playing some pieces on this  YouTube channel .) And t he first story in the book concerns one of her areas of expertise: accompanying silent films. 

  'B. Catling, R.A. (1948-2022) was born in London. He was a poet, sculptor, filmmaker, performance artist, painter, and writer. He held solo exhibitions and performances in the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland, USA, and Australia. His Vorrh trilogy and novels Earwig and Munky have drawn much critical acclaim. He was also Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.' I had never heard of B(rian) Catling when I received a review copy of this book , which comes with three intriguing postcards  'featuring photographs by Iain Sinclair and text by Alan Moore' . I was a little puzzled. So I did some Googling and YouTubing and discovered that Catling was a very significant figure in the UK arts scene. I feel slightly ashamed that his work passed me by, but I have tried to dispel some of my ignorance. This book certainly offers a good overview of some of the man's ideas and personal visio...

The 59th issue of the long-running magazine offers a wide range of stories by British and American authors. From an anecdote told in a Yorkshire hair salon to a worried academic wandering an East Anglian beach... from an art class in a US school to a place of the dead that may be nowhere... these stories take you to strange places where you will encounter weird phenomena. Ghosts? Yes, but things other than ghosts can be even more terrifying. People, for instance. Contents: 'The Ingress' by James Machin 'The Eternal Woman' by Stephen Cashmore 'Pastepot' by Rex Burrows '…and the traces of his memory fade' by Victoria Day 'Fire and Stick' by Charles Wilkinson 'Heron' by Sarah LeFanu 'On Dunwich Beach' by Roger Luckhurst Author Notes Rex Burrows writes dark speculative fiction. His stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Weird Horror Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Tenebrous Antiquities: An A...

  New stories by: James Machin Rex Burrows Stephen Cashmore Roger Luckhurst Sarah LeFanu Victoria Day Charles Wilkinson Cover by Sam Dawson

Clive Ward is one of the veteran contributors to Ghosts & Scholars who can always be relied upon to produce fiction in the M.R. Jamesian tradition. His stories usually offer slow-burn hauntings rather than gut-punch visceral horror - though he does sometimes deliver that punch very effectively. There is often that 'slight haze of distance' MRJ valued. This new collection from Sarob displays all Ward's virtues in four novellas (or 'Quarters'), longer tales in which there is sufficient elbow room to let the uncanny bubble slowly to the surface. The first story, 'Promenade Walk', concerns a Norfolk seaside town which has seen better days. The narrator recalls a series of visits, each one punctuated by revelations about a notorious local family. Many of the ingredients will be familiar to fans of ghost stories. There's a Punch & Judy show, a tumbledown Martello Tower, and a lighthouse where a lone keeper went insane. At times, I could almost smell ...

The final volume of Collected Speculative Works from Swan River Press covers the period 1858 to 1864. It was in the opening stages of the American Civil War that O'Brien joined that small but august company of authors who died in war or revolution. Some had already demonstrated their potential, others had yet reach it in full. O'Brien falls into the latter category, judging by the stories gathered here. As always, the book begins with a masterly essay by John. P. Irish. 'Premonitions of Death' makes clear that O'Brien was strongly committed to the Northern cause early on, unlike many in his Bohemian circle. Combined with this, he was pugnacious and a bit of a scrapper. So it's not surprising that, not long after enlisting, he was shot in a skirmish with a rebel patrol and died of his wounds.

 What are the tell tale signs of AI writing? There are definitely some fingerprints that AI tends to leave behind—especially when it's not trying to hide. Here are a few of the most common tells researchers and editors have spotted: Overuse of formal or Latinate vocabulary : Words like “utilize,” “commence,” or “ameliorate” pop up more often than they would in natural human writing, especially when simpler words would do. Repetitive phrasing or tautologies : AI sometimes says the same thing twice in slightly different ways—e.g., “Let’s come together to unite” or “a true fact.” Paragraphs that start with discourse markers : Words like “However,” “Moreover,” or “Overall,” followed by a comma, are a common AI tic 2 . Frequent use of the Oxford comma : That’s the comma before “and” in a list—AI tends to use it consistently. Numbered lists with colons : AI loves structure, and it often defaults to tidy, formulaic formats. Bland or journalistic tone : The writing can feel polished but em...

I received a review copy of this book. This is the second volume of three in the impressive Swan River Press collection of O'Brien's speculative works. It covers the years 1855-58 and shows the flowering of the Irish-American author's talent. As with the first volume (see review above) the book begins with a masterly essay by John P. Irish. In 'Bohemian Horrors', Irish gives an overview of the fashionable literary world of mid-19th century New York. O'Brien threw himself into the Bohemian lifestyle, which of course retained its glamour well into the 20th century. The first story in the volume is aptly entitled 'The Bohemian' and is an interesting twist on a familiar theme - the treasure hunt. The narrator, impoverished and obsessed with wealth, encounters the eponymous character, a louche Englishman called Brann, who promises him riches via startling and questionable methods. Brann is a powerful mesmerist, while the narrator's fiancée has clairvoyan...

I watched this Italian mystery on Prime and got a bit confused from about the tenth minute in. It was recommended by an algorithm when I asked for genre movies from the continent. So it came along with a bunch of Euro-cinema devoted to horror, sci-fi, the paranormal etc. And yet at first it seems to be nothing of the sort. Here's the synopsis from IMDb. A man is found dead in an office. Sonya, a charming 55-year-old woman, has abandoned her family for a love affair with a younger man. The two stories end up intertwining but nothing is as it seems. First things first, this is a short, beautiful film. We see Italy at its loveliest, the weather perfect, the people stylish and attractive. Even though a brutal murder is at the centre of the mystery, the pace is languid, punctuated by some sex and intrigue. But what's it actually about?  One reviewer described it simply as a confusing mess, which is fair enough. To me it was an intriguing mess, as if an episode of Inspector Montalban...

This TV film (first broadcast on the Arte channel) directed by  Marion Desseigne-Ravel  is an updated adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's classic tale. I enjoyed it, though I felt the story flagged in places and - perhaps inevitably - lapsed into horror cliché at times. It is available on Amazon Prime at the time of writing.  Le Horla begins not with a solitary gentleman but with a young family moving into a new apartment near a river. The river plays a key role in the original story. Here, there is also an implicit link, although nothing is ever stated. One of the film's strengths is that much is left unexplained, but not too much. This does, however, lead to one obvious weakness. Why is it entitled 'Le Horla' in the first place, when the name of the malign entity is never revealed in the movie?  What of the plot? The father, Damien, has opted to work remotely so that his wife, Nadia, can take a prestigious new job. Their little daughter Chloe seems happy with the new...

This is the first volume of three , collecting for the first time all of the horror and supernatural works of the Irish-American author whose life was tragically cut short by the Civil War. I was fortunate to receive review copies, which was a very pleasant surprise. The books are things of beauty. The enchanting cover art is by Brian Coldrick. The introduction to the first book, by John P. Irish, gives an excellent overview of O'Brien's early life and times. I learned in school about the horrendous Irish famine - the 'Great Hunger' - that began in the mid-1840s and was exacerbated by chronic misrule. Had it not been for the potato blight, O'Brien might well have remained in the UK and lived to a ripe old age.  But, as it is, we have a considerable body of work from a man with such a relatively short career.  The first volume covers 1848 to 1854.  Not surprisingly, the author's early output includes some mediocre efforts. While I appreciate the insights into the...

   The latest edition of Nightmare Abbey is as strong as its predecessors, which is heartening. Editor Tom English continues to attract first-rate talent. Many of the writers in this, the eighth issue, will be familiar to ST readers. But before I pick out a few highlights of the fiction, let me mention how solid and entertaining the non-fiction is. There’s an excellent overview of that classic The Black Cat by John Llewellyn Probert, an interview with Ghostwatch and Gothic writer Stephen Volk, and John V. Navroth continues his aborbing history of US horror comics. ‘A Legend of the Ile de St Anselm’ by Steve Duffy is, as we’ve come to expect, a slow-burn tale of weirdness that lingers in the mind. The setting is a frequently fog-bound isle off the French coast, reached by a tidal causeway. A retired psychiatrist is approached by a man with an unusual problem, and the doctor agrees to take the case. The story this special patient tells is one of strange dreams and stranger r...

Christopher Harman's work has been appearing in ST for quite a while. This new collection of nine stories contains three that I had the pleasure of getting first dibs on. Those tales - 'Cold Air from the East', 'The Abbey Hoard', and 'Black Water' - are all excellent, I need hardly add. Rereading them confirms how well Harman builds his tales. He is, to coin a phrase, an architectural writer, creating a strange edifice that we can explore and inhabit for a while. And yet he is also a writer of the great outdoors with a very British love of the countryside, the coast, the long hike in the rain.  Cover by Paul Lowe for 'Wet Jenny' Harman is arguably a folk horror writer, at least for some of the time. 'Wet Jenny' is certainly in that category, with its variation on the regional bogeyperson that is Jenny Greenteeth. 'Cold Air...' is a remarkable take on a Russian folk tale. And 'A True Yorkshireman' is a wry, somewhat hallucinat...

I received a paperback review copy of this debut collection because several of the stories first appeared in ST. And I'm proud of that fact. I seldom talk about why I accept or reject stories because in the end it's all personal taste, instinct, 'vibes'. With Tim Foley I knew there was something good here - I enjoyed his work and felt good about putting it in front of my (admittedly tiny) readership. Let us dive in... The subtitle is A Collection of Stories of the Uncanny . Not horror, though horror is to be found here. Not ghost stories, though most of these tales qualify. The uncanny is the key ingredient, the mortar that binds together every story. Fans of old-school pulp fiction will enjoy this book, as will ghost story aficionados. More importantly, anyone who appreciates well-crafted short fiction will find plenty to savor and admire. Foley's world is a realm of abandoned buildings, shabby apartments, ageing hotels, second-hand cars. Above all, it's a wor...

‘What’s Inside’ by Peter Kenny Hoppy Monday! Early to work for once, you stop to watch Happy Hoppy’s Summer Farm Experience getting ready for business. The annoying whack-a-mole machine is switched on, while the incongruous bucking bronco is stripped of its overnight canvas. You can just hear the excited squeaks of breakfasting guinea pigs in the animal petting zone. In the half-a-dozen local produce stands, the pale woman who sells cutesy wax candles, quince jam and lavender honey is staring into space.   ‘Bright By Name’ by Katherine Haynes “Fortescue has a second-rate mind.” These words weren’t intended for my ears, but I couldn’t help hearing them as I tiptoed past the staff room. At my daughter’s school the Principal had laid down a ‘no high heels’ rule—presumably to preserve the shining parquet of the new building—and I had been guilty of breaking it before. There’s something shaming in being told off in front of a bunch of kids, especially when you’re one of the...