"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
I reviewed Richard Cabut's last book, Dark Entries, earlier this year. Now he's back with a drug-fuelled beat/punk, love/hate story. Robert and Marlene are the last of the original punks, entwined in a relationship in mid-80s Camden. Marlene is filled with self-loathing, while Robert dreams of possibilities that seem so close but are simultaneously unreachable. … Continue reading “Looking for a Kiss” by Richard Cabut
It's a while since I posted anything here in the Gyre. There's a book review I've been working on (more off than on) which should see the light of day in the next week or so, but the real progress is in my fiction. I finished the first draft of a short story: the second … Continue reading #AmWriting – No, really, I am
My review of the highly enjoyable portmanteau horror collection "Studio of Screams" by the formidable line-up of Stephen R. Bissette, Mark Morris, Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon & Stephen Volk, is now at Horrified Magazine, your new home for everything to do with British Horror.
Here's a book I misjudged by its cover. I bought it in the expectation of something enjoyably trashy: maybe a family pet gone psycho, like Cujo? Or at least animals on the rampage like The Rats, Crabs, Slugs, etc.? Not quite. It's the story of Don Boyd, seventeen and trapped in a house with parents … Continue reading Horror Rewind #5 – “The Pet” by Charles L. Grant (1986)
Or should that be "Anti-Horror Rewind"? American lawyer Douglas E. Winter made his literary name with one of the first book-length studies of Stephen King's work (The Art of Darkness), and in 2001 wrote the authorised biography of Clive Barker (The Dark Fantastic). In between, he edited (although curated may be a more appropriate term) … Continue reading Horror Rewind #4 – “Prime Evil” (ed. Douglas E. Winter) (1988)
It's been a while, but since I last posted about my own writing I've written loads (by my standards). Firstly, I made a few pages' progress on a folk horror novella that I really should have finished by now. Then, in a flash of inspiration, a potential recurring character came to me and I wrote … Continue reading #AmWriting – An awkward fit
I'm cheating on two counts here. I'd intended 'Horror Rewind' to be a look back at works of fiction from the Horror Boom of the late 70s to early 90s, and in their original (or at least a contemporary) edition. Cold Hand In Mine is a 2014 reissue from Faber (a lovely thing, as all … Continue reading Horror Rewind #3 – Robert Aickman’s “Cold Hand In Mine” (1975)
This book wasn't what I expected it to be. But that's fine, because it sets out to do one thing while it - deliberately, cunningly - does the opposite. In St. Mary's Church, Brent Pelham, in eastern Hertfordshire is the tomb of Piers Shonks, dragon slayer. Yep, dragon slayer. In Hollow Places, writer Christopher Hadley … Continue reading “Hollow Places” by Christopher Hadley
Into the Gyre 