We're all familiar with the "difficult second album", but "difficult seventh single"? Not so much. It's ironic that 1990's most anticipated record - the follow-up to a majestic debut album and groundbreaking 10-minute rock/dance hybrid - should now be the one moment from the Stone Roses' glorious 'Madchester' period that's least-discussed. It's time to look … Continue reading “Show me your vision” – The Stone Roses in 1990
Regular readers will know the name of Dan Coxon, whether as editor of the excellent Tales from the Shadow Booth series and This Dreaming Isle anthology, or as author of the delightfully dark micro-collection Green Fingers. Only the Broken Remain is his first full-length collection of horror shorts, and it's full of good stuff. Some … Continue reading “Only the Broken Remain” by Dan Coxon
The short review: best issue yet of Weird Walk. Buy it now. The longer review: Outwardly, nothing has changed. Weird Walk still has the same neat 48-page A5 format as ever, printed as before on high-quality paper. The design and typography are unchanged, as are the grainy photos of megalithic sites. But the contents have … Continue reading Zine review: ‘Weird Walk’ #4
'Splatterpunk' was a short-lived tag applied to a generation of younger horror writers who appeared in the mid-80s and took the levels of explicit gore pioneered in the late 70s to new levels. John Skipp and Craig Spector were twenty-something US horror authors at the forefront of the movement. In an interview with them in … Continue reading Horror Rewind #6 – ‘The Cleanup’ by John Skipp & Craig Spector (1987)
My review of the latest novel by British horror veteran Graham Masterton is now up at Horrified magazine.
Well, 2020 was a year, wasn't it? Not one that any of us want to revisit but please join me for a quick final recap of my year's reading. I also did a similar review last year. Total books read: 191 (-28) Re-reads: 53 (28%) (+6%) The overall number is a bit lower than last … Continue reading A year in books – 2020
"Wyrd and other derelictions" is a brave, not always successful, but nonetheless very welcome collection of experimental horror shorts from Adam Nevill, author of Ritual.
A quick note to let you know that 'Horrified' magazine have published my short story 'The Reeds'! Why don't you go there now and read it (and all the other great stories, reviews and articles they have)?
"This land is laden with phantoms." This line from "The Dunes", one of the haunting and elusive stories from this intriguing collection, is the theme that underpins Tim Cooke's fiction. These interconnected stories - about an unnamed narrator and his mates as they grow through childhood, adolescence and to young manhood - are set in … Continue reading “Where We Live” by Tim Cooke
"If you look closely enough, all landscapes can be fascinating and any object, no matter what its material, can be freighted with meaning." This is the most inspiring book I've read all year. Writer Gareth E. Rees1 shows, through his wonderfully offbeat travels across Britain, that in a secular age "significance" can be found anywhere, … Continue reading “Unofficial Britain” by Gareth E. Rees
