vivdunstan

Just finished this today, another in the British Library's "Tales of the Weird" series of short story collections, gathering together generally older tales, as well as sometimes more recent ones. This collection was edited by Edward Parnell, and focuses on East Anglia, such a rich setting for spooky and weird fiction.

There are 17 short stories in this collection, including a couple by MR James (such as "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad"). But also stories by many others, including E.F. Benson, Marjorie Bowen, and even Robert Aickman.

Stories range from medieval through to the present day, though many are in the Victorian or early twentieth century era. Many are written in the MR Jamesian style, of old manuscripts and strange places. Others take a different approach.

Overall most of the stories are strong, but three were absolute standouts for me. Firstly "The Dust-Cloud" by E.F. Benson, the atmospheric tale of a ghostly car crash. This left me unnerved for some time after, as did "The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster" by H.R. Wakefield, the story of a haunted golf hole. Which started almost PG Wodehouse like, but soon became something darker. The third story that wowed me was John Gordon's "If She Bends, She Breaks", a tale of winter in the fens, that I very much regretted reading just as I was about to go to sleep, because it spooked me so extremely much! But in a good way.

A couple of the stories felt workmanlike. There was only one story that I disliked, indeed viscerally so: "Possum" by Matthew Holness. This was one of a few more modern stories in the book, and felt tonally completely out of place, and phenomenally unpleasant to read. But otherwise it was a strong collection.

Recommended. 4/5 stars.

Current main Kindle reading for me. The top 6 books in the picture below are the main books I'm currently reading. A mix of fiction and non fiction.

I have just DNF'd My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. It should have appealed a lot, with lots of 80s pop culture references. But I didn't find the writing style worked for me, nor were the voices of the young girls convincing. I see it was made into a movie a couple of years ago. Happy to pass on both.

Alongside other non fiction books on the go I've now started a short story fiction collection, gathering together classic spooky stories about Cornwall. Cornish Horrors is another in the British Library Tales of the Weird series. And should fill a nice slot for me.

I am leaving my fiction reading slate free after that for the middle of July, when another in Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches fantasy series is published. I particularly enjoyed the original trilogy, and am keen to read this upcoming 5th book, The Black Bird Oracle. I have it preordered on Kindle, and intend to read it right away on publication. And I also have a signed hardback copy on preorder.

I've picked up a bunch of the British Library's Tales of the Weird series of books over the years for my Kindle. All short story collections. But I still have to read most of them. So tonight I'm starting on the first of their four (so far) Christmas themed collections. Hoping for suitably festive spooky stories!

Martin and I have just enjoyed watching last night’s recording (for paid ticket holders only - I had bought an online viewing ticket) of Neil Gaiman at the British Library chatting with Roz Kaveney about fantasy. It was lovely. Takeaways included:

• Neil has a half completed Neverwhere sequel novel that he hopes to get back to after writing Good Omens season 3 (yes 3!).
• As a youngster Neil thought he’d be a scifi writer later in life. Ditto for Terry Pratchett. Both of whom ended up pretty resolutely as fantasy writers.
• The only Discworld book Neil had a serious hand in was Pyramids, which he helped plan the plot for.
• So many insights into the origins of Sandman - even loads I hadn’t heard in Neil’s one hour detailed chat at the Edinburgh Book Festival just about Sandman.
• Neil thinks we are approaching the end of social media as we knew it. In particular he spoke of Twitter as “It’s a thing that we used to have in the olden days that was good.” Quite!
• I still have some Neil Gaiman graphic novels yet to read - must prioritise! His discussion of his family history links with Violent Cases and Mr Punch was eye opening.
• And yes, we need to watch the last part bonus episode for Sandman season 1 (“Calliope”) which was mentioned in the chat, and also Good Omens season 2 (also mentioned).

Tomorrow night we will be watching the recording from tonight of Neil Gaiman chatting with Rob Wilkins about Terry Pratchett and his worlds. Should be fab. Again I had pre bought an online ticket. These events are part of the wider Fantasy exhibition season at the British Library, and are going ahead despite the library’s ongoing cyber attack problems. I’m finding it astonishing that I’m able to watch and enjoy these talks viewing from northern Scotland.

Both poring over the 400th anniversary British Library facsimile Shakespeare First Folio we bought. It is a very accurate reproduction of an excellent BL copy of the original. And yes we had to look up the bear stage direction. Very nice item to have, large, with sturdy hardback binding in slipcase. Unlike the Norton one it uses just a single copy of the original book as its source. Which may mean it is less clear to read in places. But book historian me - and Martin too! - is a lot happier with this for authenticity and provenance reasons. Now the challenge is where we will shelve it. It's a whopper! 4kg and 35cm x 23 cm x 8 cm.