Issue 56 ezine available on Amazon for download

 The link to the ezine is here.

Issue 56 is out now!

 

Here it is, large as life and twice as spooky! All-new fiction by a host of talents, mostly British but also including our first-ever contribution from Germany. 

Here is the table of contents.

You	Roger Luckhurst
Braunhoffer’s Coaches	Martin Ruf
Violet	Rosanne Rabinowitz
Corpsed	Matthew G. Rees
The Haunting of Ian Bland	Lisa Pritchard
Hell Is	James Everington
The Hands of Men	Sam Dawson

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FRIENDS AND SPECTRES edited by Robert Lloyd Parry (Swan River Press 2024)

Splendidly atsmopheric cover by John Coulthart

'Friends and Spectres is a companion volume to Ghosts of the Chit-Chat (2020), an anthology of ghost stories by authors who had been members of the Cambridge University Chit-Chat Club along with M. R. James. Here the associations with MRJ are less formal, but stronger and more enduring: for it is the bond of genuine friendship that ties these writers to him.

'The majority of pieces here were originally published under pseudonyms, and over half appeared first in amateur magazines or local newspapers. All deal with the supernatural, and several of the stories are themselves spectres—or more properly “revenants”, only now re-emerging into the light after decades of oblivion. There are rediscoveries here of “lost” tales by Arthur Reed Ropes, E. G. Swain, and the enigmatic “B.”'

Thus spake the blurb! I greatly enjoyed Ghosts of the Chit-Chat and am pleased to report that Robert Lloyd Parry has once more done a thorough job of selecting and introducing a broad assortment of writings. The first item, which sets the overall tone nicely, is 'A Night in King's College Chapel' by MRJ. There's also an early fragment, one of those false starts most writers are sadly familiar with.

Next up is F. Anstey, a professional writer, and a sad reminder of how fickle the public can be. Anstey enjoyed early success in the late Victorian era but fell out of favour after the Great War. He is represented by two decent stories. 'The Wraith of Barnjum' is a dark comedy of murder and haunting. 'The Breaking-Point' is a very effective treatment of a familiar wartime theme - the 'decent chap' who returns from the front with the MC and a burden he dares not share. But he must...

Arthur Reed Ropes I found less engaging, though his 'Seraphita' does - as the editor points out - contain one brief passage containing  a fairly Lovecraftian dose of tentacles. Much better is 'B', long an enigma, now confirmed to have been A.C. Benson. Benson handles historical settings well and his 'When the Door is Shut' is nicely handled. He seems to have had some issues with ursine threats, as bears or bear-like entities appear in that story and the next, 'Quia Nominor'. 'The Sparsholt Stone' is also pretty good, falling into the folk horror tradition. 

E.G. Swain, author of The Stoneground Ghost Tales, needs no introduction to ghost story fans. Here Parry has provided a detailed and winning introduction to this amiable clergyman. Swain's only collection is well represented by 'The Man With the Roller', which does a good job of integrating the 'modern' hobby of photography into the historical ghostly tale. 'The Greenford Ghost' is a rarity - a longer tale by Swain that amply demonstrates his grasp of period detail and dialogue. MRJ would have approved, I feel. And Parry's introductory material offers an intriguing clue as to the origins of Swain's story, complete with a photo of an unusual church memorial. 

Last but not least is R.H. Malden, one of my favorite 'James Gang' authors. 'A Collector's Company' and 'The Sundial' are both excellent examples of Jamesian ghost stories by a very accomplished writer. Malden's work also, I think, possesses that elusive thing we call charm. He is engaging, like MRJ, so that we feel we are hearing a civilised ranconteur impart a good yarn. 

Overall, then, a very enjoyable book to dip into. You can encounter some old friends, a few surprises, and get a strong sense of how many long-term friendships MRJ cultivated. All credit to Robert Lloyd Parry for not merely assembling a worthwhile anthology, but adding plenty of biographical material to help flesh out the characters behind the fiction. 

'The Fifth Moon'

This is the final part of a running review of Lost Estates by Mark Valentine (Swan River Press 2024)

The final story in this splendidly produced volume is another deep drive into English folklore. A writer, accompanied by a photographer, goes to the region around the Wssh to research a book in a series on myths and legends. The topic he has chosen is the supposed loss of King John's treasure. 

Now, like many people, I was taught that John's baggage train was simply caught by the tide and he lost a lot of precious metal and jewels etc. But as the story unfolds we find that things were not that simple. For a start, there's only one source for the lost treasure story. And a different contemporary account takes a very different line. 

This novella allows the author to plunge into rival theories about not only John and his antics but the way in which the English - both scholar and commoner - have a proprietorial interest in myth and legend. The professional theories corrects the amateur, the writer probes inconsistencies, and people 'in the know' spin a web of misdirection. The fifth moon of the title is a clever reference to Shakespeare's maybe-tragedy about John. 

An obvious comparison is 'A Warning to the Curious', in which an earlier king's treasure is plundered only to bring disaster on its finder. Here the threat, while less clearly defined, is almost as effective. And there is a nice nod to M.R. James in the climactic scene.

So, let me round off my review by saying that Lost Estates is a fine collection of tales that explore the lesser-known byways of the bibliophile world. If you - like me - enjoy rummaging in bookshops you will share the pleasures of many Valentine characters. And if you have every wondered about the boundaries between strange tales and even stranger realities, you will enjoy exploring the author's frequently familiar yet often unsettling world. 

'The End of Alpha Street'

 

This is part of a running review of Lost Estates by Mark Valentine (Swan River Press 2024)

I used to count cats. Not all the time, you understand. Just in the morning when I walked to work. I had chosen to live just a short walk from the office - odd, I know, but then I am a strange chap. The point is that counting cats became a kind of ritual. The more moggies I saw on that walk, the better I felt the day would be. A no cat day would not be a good day. Six or seven, and we're cooking with gas. Or at least, that's how I remember it. 

'The End of Alpha Street' is Mark Valentine's take on this tendency we humans have to invent personal rituals out of whole cloth. Or, in my case, a variable number of whole cats. A cat features in the story, as it happens. The narrator befriends the feline and its owner in the eponymous cul-de-sac. And in a way the story is a cul-de-sac, as an exploration of personal rituals leads the narrator to an old man and a collection of apparently random items, all of which bear information. 

There is a whiff of Dunsany about this one, in terms of playfulness at least. It's almost a story that Jorkens might tell, only it does not pivot on any kind of twist or punchline. Instead it leaves us with questions. 

'Lost Estates'

This is part of a running review of Lost Estates by Mark Valentine (Swan River Press 2024)

The title story of the collection! And it begins in fine form. 'I was playing the trans-dimensional crumhorn when the man from the Treasury called.' As the plot develops, we learn about the unusual musical combo the narrator was once part of and the unusual link to the inventor of a perpetual motion machine. 

The group is reassembled in response to the man from the Treasury. The latter is in search of an 'estate' that is in fact something altogether stranger and more significant. A musical performance turns into a very unusual gig, The theme of disappearance - accidental or deliberate - is central again. Did the perpetual motion machine work, but in an altogether unexpected fashion?

A light story, this, but not a frivolous one. It reflects a not-uncommon ambition, to discover that our quirky little interest might have wider significance - that we are as important as the people we are told are important. 

'The Understanding of the Signs'

This is part of a running review of Lost Estates by Mark Valentine (Swan River Press 2024)

Many years ago I submitted a tale about pub signs to Ro Pardoe of Ghosts & Scholars and was delighted when it was published. The story is due to reappear next year in a G&S anthology. I only wish that, when I created my supernatural conspiracy theory around the symbolism of pub names, I had had a tithe of Mark Valentine's knowledge of the topic.

The central conceit of 'The Understanding of the Signs' is far more effective than mine. What if changing the name of an old tavern somehow unleashes some archetypical entity that dwells in that location? Could the Gray Horse and the Red Lion run amok? The climax of the story grants the protagonist a glimpse of a landscape shot through with mystical significance. He senses a 'baleful power' in the motion of 'shadow beasts', which does not bode well for modern Britain. 

And now so many pubs are closing down. If only one in a dozen is the domain of some ancient entity, what might not be unleashed upon us?