Recommendation: Cottingley by Alison Littlewood

"Dear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle..."

So begins this new novella from Alison Littlewood, the second in the 2017 NewCon press horror range. And it makes a nice contrast with the first, Case Of The Bedevilled Poet by Simon Clark. Clark's novella played with the fictionality of Sherlock Holmes; Alison Littlewood's Cottingley offers a fictionlised version of Holmes's creator.

Doyle himself does not appear onstage in this story, but it is based around a well-known chapter in his life, that of the Cottingley fairies. Famously, Doyle was taken in by these fakes, but in Littlewood's novella fairies are real; but they aren't as innocent as those in the famous photos. Instead, this tale explores the darker side of fairie lore. Littlewood's fairies don't seem evil or good so much as alien and other: beings that might entrance or harm us for their own unfathomable motives.

The story is told in the form of letters written by a Thomas Fairclough, a resident of Cottingley, who lives with his daughter in law and grandchild (his son having perished in WW1). They encounter shinning beings near the local brook, and despite the beauty of what they encounter even here there's traces of the unease to come. An unease only heightened when Fairclough returns home with the dead body of one of the creatures for reasons (he says) of science. Despite the story being related entirely via Fairclough's letters to Doyle and his associate Mr. Gardner (we never get to read their replies) we see both the good side of his character and his foibles—a certain vanity, perhaps, in his being the one to discover of the fairies, and a desire for the respect of great men like Conan Doyle. But Fairclough is a brave man, too, and it isn't long before he is put to the test...

It will be no surprise to long time readers of this blog how much I like Littlewood's fiction, and Cottingley is no exception. It expertly evokes both its setting and the characters' emotional lives; it's impeccably paced, perfectly structured, and a genuine page-turner. I devoured it in one sitting. Make sure you pick up a copy.

(UK | US)

Recommendation: Case Of The Bedevilled Poet by Simon Clark

Case Of The Bedevilled Poet is the first in a new line of horror novellas from NewCon Press. It tells the story of Jack Cofton, a poet in London during the Blitz who, in a compelling opening scene, narrowly escapes death from a Nazi bomb.

But after this escape, Crofton's life becomes decidedly strange: an off-duty soldier insults and attacks him, and complete strangers all start repeating the same words to him: "And suffer you shall before you die." London suddenly seems filled with a sense of threat and violence which, while ambiguous, is directed towards Crofton. Seeking shelter in a pub, he encounters two old men who, preposterously, claim to be the real Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Crofton doesn't believe them of course, but he's in no position to turn down their aid...

As the above makes clear, there's a lot of plates set spinning in this story, and if the author was less talented all we'd have would be a load of smashed crockery. Fortunately, Simon Clark is too accomplished for that to happen, in part because the setting of London under siege by the Luftwaffe is so convincingly realised, both in terms of the concrete details and the depiction of the British public under fire. The characters of 'Holmes' and 'Watson' are also well done; a potentially absurd scenario actually becomes the source of pathos as the story progresses.

On one level, Case Of The Bedevilled Poet is a fast-paced, plot-driven tale, racing along with the same narrative verve as the Sherlock Holmes stories themselves. But at the same time there's weighty thematic concerns raised, in particular the idea that the 'death drive' (based on Freud's theories of a universal urge towards self-destruction) is behind both the violence directed towards Crofton and the world-wide conflagration of WW2 as a whole.

Overall, Case Of The Bedevilled Poet is an exhilerating read, and a fine start this range of NewCon Press novellas. (UK | US)

Some Recent Horror Recommendations

A few hasty words on the cream of the crop of horror books I've read over the past few months:

The End by Gary McMahon (UK | US)
Stories about the end of everything are rarely light reading, but trust Gary McMahon to come up with an apocalypse that's even bleaker than anyone else's (with the honourable exception of Cormac McCarthy). The End begins with an epidemic of suicides and things only get grimmer and more violent from there on in. The scenes of society collapsing are some of the best I've read, chilling, plausible, gut-wrenching. Often these kind of stories limp to a conclusion as the author writes themselves into a corner: the world's ended, now what? But McMahon caps The End with an effective denouement, that manages to turn the screw one more time.

Born With Teeth by Conrad Williams
I loved this collection of short fiction by Conrad Williams (one of the highlights from the many books I picked up at last year's Fantasycon). Williams's fiction is intricate, atmospheric, and at times inordinately creepy. His prose is constantly a delight even as it leads us through the dark events of the stories here. Nearly every story is worthy of your time, but my own favourite pieces were Recycled, Haifisch and The Pike. 

The Lost Film by Stephen Bacon & Mark West (UK | US)
The Lost Film is a collection of two novellas, one by Stephen Bacon and one by Mark West, both dealing the same theme: that of lost films. Bacon's story, Lantern Rock, references both Hammer and Amicus early on, and his tale is very much in the spirit of those films. His two protagonists are seeking out the director Lionel Rutherford who lives as a recluse after his son died years before. Gradually revealing its secrets, this is a fun, atmospheric story. Mark West gets to follow that, and he does so by doing something very different. The Lost Film has a noir feel to it, as a PI is hired to track down the director of a film which sends people mad... There's some truly chilling imagery and ideas at play in this one, especially concerning the few snippets of the film itself that are uncovered. A very different story to Bacon's but one that contrasts it nicely.

Favourite Short Stories of 2014

I've been keeping a list of the best short stories I read this year - they weren't all necessarily published this year, but they're all relatively recent. I read a lot of short stories, so although there's nearly a hundred below that doesn't mean I've not been very strict in selecting what to include. Each story had to impress me enough to make a note of it in the first place, and then still seem as impressive when I whittled the list down for this post.

I've tried not to include too many stories from any single author or from any specific book; in all cases I've listed the publication I read the story in, not necessarily where it was originally published.

Last year I had a few emails from readers saying they discovered some new stories from the 2013 list, so I hope that's the case this time. And a big cheesy thank you to all the authors & publishers, for the inspiration, exhilaration (and not a little envy) your stories gave me.

Nina Allen: Seeing Nancy (The Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories By Women)
Stephen Bacon: Apports (Black Static #36)
Stephen Bacon: I Am A Creation Of Now (Peel Back The Sky, Gray Friar Press)
Stephen Bacon: The Trauma Statement (Peel Back The Sky, Gray Friar Press)
Richard Farren Barber: Bus Routes Through the Sticks (The Horror Fields, Morpheus Tales Publishing)
Richard Farren Barber: Where The Stones Lie (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Jasper Bark: How The Dark Bleeds (Stuck On Your & Other Prime Cuts, Crystal Lake)
Laird Barron: Nemesis (Primeval: A Journal Of The Uncanny #1) 
Simon Bestwick: A Kiss Of Old Thorns (The Condemned, Gray Friar Press)
Michael Blumlein: Success (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Eric Brown: The Disciples Of Apollo (Ghostwriting, Infinity Plus)
Eric Brown: The Man Who Never Read Novels (Ghostwriting, Infinity Plus)
Pat Cadigan: Chalk (This Is Horror chapbook)
Chloe N Clark: Mud (The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society Feb 2014)
Chloe N Clark: Who Walks Beside You (Supernatural Tales #25)
Ray Cluley: The Festering (Black Static #36)
Ray Cluley: Water For Drowning (This Is Horror chapbook)
Ray Cluley & Ralph Robert Moore: The Space Between (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Erin Cole: Between Feathers & Furs (February Femme Fatales)
MR Cosby: Necessary Procedure (Dying Embers, Satalyte Publishing)
MR Cosby: Turning The Cups (Haunted, Boo Books)
Anthony Cowin: The Brittle Birds (Perpetual Motion Machine)
KT Davies: Zombie Worms Ate My Hamster (Worms, Knightwatch Press)
Kristi DeMeester: Like Feather, Like Bone (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Paul M Feeney: The Weight Of The Ocean (Phrenic Press)
Gary Fry: Biofeedback (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Terry Grimwood: Red Hands (The Exaggerated Man & Other Stories, The Exaggerated Press)
Terry Grimwood: Soul Masque (Spectral Press chapbook)
Stephen Graham Jones: The Elvis Room (This Is Horror chapbook)
Rachel Halsall: The Conch (Hauntings, Hic Dragones)
Frances Hardinge: Slink-Thinking (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Hannah Kate: Lever's Row (Hauntings, Hic Dragones)
Holly Ice: Trysting Antlers (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Jane Jakeman: Adoptagrave (Supernatural Tales #16)
Carole Johnstone: Scent (The Bright Day Is Done, Gray Friar Press)
Carole Johnstone: Stomping Ground (The Bright Day Is Done, Gray Friar Press)
Joel Lane: Like Shattered Stone (Joel Lane Archive, Spectral Press)
Emma Lannie: There Is A Light & It Never Goes Out (After The Fall, Boo Books)
VH Leslie: Namesake (Black Static #36)
VH Leslie: The Quiet Room (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Alison Littlewood: The Dog's Home (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Livia Llewellyn: Furnace (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Sean Logan: The Tagalong (Supernatural Tales #27)
Johnny Mains: Aldeburgh (Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types, Shadow Publishing)
Usman T Malik: Ishq (Black Static #43)
Nick Mamatas: And Then, And Then, And Then... (Innsmouth Free Press)
Amelia Mangan: If I Were You (X7, Knightwatch Press)
Amelia Mangan: These Blasted Lands (After The Fall, Boo Books)
Helen Marshall: Death & The Girl From Phi Delta Zeta (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Helen Marshall: In The Year Of Omens (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Helen Marshall: We Ruin The Sky (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Laura Mauro: When Charlie Sleeps (Black Static #37)
Gary McMahon: For The Night Is Dark (Knightwatch Press chapbook)
Gary McMahon: The Ghost Of Rain (Tales Of The Weak & Wounded, Dark Regions Press)
SP Miskowski: This Many (Little Visible Delight, Omnium Gatherum)
Alison Moore: Eastmouth (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Alice Munro: Queenie (Penguin chapbook)
Scott Nicholay: Eyes Exchange Bank (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Thana Niveau: And May All Your Christmases (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Thana Niveau: Stolen To Time (From Hell To Eternity, Gray Friar Press)
Antony Oldknow: Ruelle Des Martyrs (Supernatural Tales #26)
Jonathan Oliver: Baby 17 (British Fantasy Society Journal #11)
Reggie Oliver & MR James: The Game Of Bear (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Stephen Palmer: Palestinian Sweets (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Sarah Pinborough: Collect Call (The Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories By Women)
John Llewellyn Probert: The Secondary Host (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Iain Rowan: The Grey Ship (52 Songs, 52 Stories)
Iain Rowan: Waiting For The Man (52 Songs, 52 Stories)
Nicholas Royle: Dead End (X7, Knightwatch Press)
Nicholas Royle: The Reunion (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Lynda E Rucker: Beneath The Drops (The Moon Will Look Strange, Karoshi Books)
Lynda E Rucker: The Moon Will Look Strange (The Moon Will Look Strange, Karoshi Books)
Karen Runge: The Philosopher (Pantheon July 2013)
Daniel I Russell: Following Orders (Phobophobias, Western Legends Publishing)
Ray Russell: Company (Supernatural Tales #16)
Eric Schaller: To Assume The Writer's Crown: Notes On The Craft (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Robert Shearman: Granny's Grinning (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Robert Shearman: It Flows From The Mouth (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Angela Slatter: Home & Hearth (Spectral Press chapbook)
Phil Sloman: P Is For Pathophobia (Phobophobias, Western Legends Publishing)
Michael Marshall Smith: Author Of The Death (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Elizabeth Stott: Touch Me With Your Cold, Hard Fingers (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Simon Strantzas: The Nineteenth Step (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Cameron Suey: East (After The Fall, Boo Books)
Adrian Tchiakovsky: Lost Soldiers (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Steve Rasnic Tem: The Night Doctor (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Stephen Volk: The Magician Kelso Dennett (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Mark West: The City In The Rain (Strange Tales, PenMan Press)
Mark West: A Quiet Weekend Away (Strange Tales, PenMan Press)
Conrad Williams: The Jungle (Nightjar Press chapbook)
Neil Williamson: Amber Rain (The Ephemera, Infinity Plus)
Mercedes M Yardley: Black Eyes Broken (Little Visible Delight, Omnium Gatherum)
Rio Youers: Outside Heavenly (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)

Some Recent Recommendations

With a holiday and lots of reading time recently, I've enjoyed a lot of books that I wanted to recommend but for which I'm unlikely to find time to write full posts for. So here's some brief snippets about some wonderful books that really deserve more words than I'm giving them...

52 Songs, 52 Stories - Iain Rowan: a brilliant concept (52 short stories & pieces of flash fiction, written over the course of the year, each titled after a song randomly chosen from the author's ipod on shuffle) and brilliant execution - these short stories veer from crime to the weirdly supernatural to small, devastating emotional epiphanies, from an author with the talent to make a thousand words or so sparkle and linger in the mind. Most of the time he's got a good taste in music, too.

Shadows & Tall Trees 2014: there's a lot of anthologies these days with titles like "Year's Best Horror..." etc. Shadows & Tall Trees 6 isn't called such a thing, but it might as well be. A stunning collection of stories, with not a bad one among the bunch. Intelligent, well-written, original horror fiction and (along with the editor's introduction) a passionate manifesto for horror fiction in the short form. Superb.

Horror 101: The Way Forward: a non-fiction book of articles about horror writing; as ever with these things, which of the pieces will be more interesting will vary from reader to reader dependent on how experienced they are and whether such things as writing screenplays have any appeal. But overall this was a useful and interesting read and one I'd certainly recommend to any aspiring authors out there.

A Kiss Before Dying - Ira Levin: a masterfully constructed novel of murder, in which the shifting viewpoints really help heighten the tension. Maybe the climax was not quite as good as the build up, but still I devoured this book in a single day, and it's a long time since I've done that.

La Femme: this one is an anthology from Newcon Press, with each story based around a very loose definition of the femme fatale. Most of the stories here are science-fiction, and most of them are very, very good. My own personal favourites were by Holly Ice, Stephen Palmer, and Frances Hardinge (who managed to write a story from the perspective of a household pet that I really liked - no easy feat as that's normally a real bugbear of  mine).

From Hell To Eternity - Thana Niveau: a collection of short, often brutal, sometimes erotically charged horror stories. I've read a few of Thana Niveau's stories before in anthologies, but this really showcased her range and differing styles.

The Testimony - James Smythe: if, like me, you prefer your science-fiction to be metaphysical head-fuck rather than technological fetish, then this is a must read. An engrossing, original end of the world style plot, about what happens when people all across the world apparently hear the word of God. Or not, depending on your viewpoint.