N S Ford

Tag: E F Benson

  • Review of ‘Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird’ edited by Daisy Butcher and Janette Leaf

    Sixteen tales of entomological horror – ‘scary bugs’ to the layperson – spanning 1846 to 1938. And they’re 99.9% spider-free! Moths and ants seemed to predominate but there were beetles, bees, even praying mantises.

    A few of the stories are brilli-‘ant’ while the rest are a ‘beetle’ mediocre. Still, they were aw-‘flea’ interesting from a historical perspective, preoccupied with empire and evolution. The introductions to each piece contained spoilers, which ‘bugged’ me so I ended up skipping to the stories and didn’t go back to read them afterwards. I have marked the stories I liked best. I was surprised to find that the best in the collection was by an author I’d never heard of, Clare Winger Harris. I already expected to like the stories by Wells and Blackwood, as I usually do.

    ‘The Sphinx’ by Edgar Allan Poe – psychological horror during a cholera epidemic.

    ‘The Blue Beetle: A Confession’ by A G Gray, Jun. – Frankenstein-inspired cautionary tale.

    ‘The Mummy’s Soul’ by Anonymous – a bloodthirsty fly and a mummy’s curse. *

    ‘After Three Thousand Years’ by Jane G Austin – a tragic story, again with a mummy theme.

    ‘A Dream of Wild Bees’ by Olive Schreiner – a strange fable, rather than horror.

    ‘The Moth’ by H G Wells – an academic is haunted by a moth that no one else can see. *

    ‘The Captivity of the Professor’ by A Lincoln Green – a highly-evolved insect civilisation in the jungle.

    ‘The Dream of Akinosuke’ and ‘Butterflies’ by Lafcadio Hearn – two stories, sad not scary, set in Japan.

    ‘Caterpillars’ by E F Benson – terrifying tale of revengeful caterpillars. *

    ‘An Egyptian Hornet’ by Algernon Blackwood – an encounter with a hornet brings out a vicar’s worse nature. *

    ‘The Blue Cockroach’ by Christopher Blayre – not keen on the style and didn’t really get this one.

    ‘The Wicked Flea’ by J U Giesy – eccentric professor breeds an enormous flea.

    ‘The Miracle of the Lily’ by Clare Winger Harris – brilliant dystopian eco-horror. *

    ‘Warning Wings’ by Arlton Eadie – supernatural story, set at sea.

    ‘Beyond the Star Curtain’ by Garth Bentley – pulp science fiction adventure.

    ‘Leiningen Versus the Ants’ by Carl Stephenson – a plantation owner won’t let the ants win.

    This book is a good companion to Evil Roots (also edited by Daisy Butcher) although not quite as marvel-‘louse’. If you’re looking for insect-themed weird fiction, you can’t go wrong with this volume.

    Published in the British Library’s ‘Tales of the Weird’ series, 2021.

  • Review of ‘Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles’ edited by Emily Alder, Joan Passey and Jimmy Packham

    “We’re all going on a… horror holiday!” A collection of scary seaside stories, carefully curated to give a flavour of the genre from the late 18th century to the 1930s. This is the fourth I’ve read in the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series and although I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Evil Roots and Chill Tidings, I preferred it to Weird Woods.

    As usual with these books, there is a mix of famous and lesser known authors, with each story or poem having its own introduction, although in this book these were too academic for my taste and the editors’ favourite word seemed to be ‘liminal’.

    Generally I enjoyed these 20 texts. They had a strong sense of place and a sense of dread. Here’s what’s included in the collection, with my favourites marked.

    ‘The Haunted Beach’ by Mary Robinson – a gothic poem about the ghost of a fisherman.

    ‘Two Sonnets’ by Charlotte Smith – gloom-laden poetry reminiscent of Mary Shelley.

    ‘Narrative of a Fatal Event’ by Anon – sad tale of guilt and friendship with a natural history theme.

    ‘The Strange Student’ by Anon – enchantment and horror on the Scottish coast.*

    ‘What Was It?’ by Anon – wordy yarn about sea monsters.

    ‘One Day at Arle’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett – intensely emotional story with a lot of dialect.

    ‘Two Folk Tales’ by James Bowker – a dark fairytale and a shiver-inducing gothic tale.

    ‘The Last of Squire Ennismore’ by Charlotte Riddell – truly haunting story with a moral message.*

    ‘Legends’ by H D Lowry – grim and creepy tale of the damned.

    ‘A Ghost of the Sea’ by Francis Prevost – a bizarre story in four parts.

    ‘Crooken Sands’ by Bram Stoker – entertaining Scottish-themed tale.

    ‘The Sea Raiders’ by H G Wells – fabulously Wellsian adventure about an invasion of man-eating giant squid.*

    ‘The Sea Fit’ by Algernon Blackwood – sinister slow-burning tale of ancient beings.

    ‘Where the Tides Ebb and Flow’ by Lord Dunsany – a brilliant apocalyptic vision.*

    ‘Four Folk Tales’ by Sophia Morrison – some interesting Manx myths.

    ‘Out of the Earth’ by Arthur Machen – very odd story about scary children and the First World War.

    ‘A Tale of an Empty House’ by E F Benson – excellent example of a traditional ghost story.*

    ‘On the Isle of Blue Men’ by Robert W Sneddon – horrible squid people attacking a lighthouse.

    ‘Seashore Macabre: A Moment’s Experience’ by Hugh Walpole – unexpected combination of holiday nostalgia with gothic horror.

    ‘A Coast-Nightmare’ by Christina Rosetti – terrifying apocalyptic poem.

    As you can ‘sea’, I was very impressed with five of the stories. I thought that ‘beach’ one was worth [sea] ‘weeding’, however. I recommend you spend a few ‘squid’ on this ‘sand’-sensational book. If you’re a fan of classic supernatural fiction, I’m ‘shore’ that you’ll enjoy it.

    First published in 2022.

  • Review of ‘Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain’ edited by John Miller

    This book has zero scare factor. The title is also a little misleading, as not all of the stories are about haunted forests. I enjoyed the other British Library Tales of the Weird collection that I’ve read, Evil Roots, much more than this one.

    The collection has a general introduction and contains 12 stories, each with a spoiler-free mini introduction. I liked that the stories all had real settings around Great Britain and some of them had that ‘sitting around a merrily crackling fire on a winter’s evening’ atmosphere associated with traditional ghost stories. However, the only pieces which really stood out for me were those by Edith Nesbit and Algernon Blackwood. One of the good things about collections like this is that authors who were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries but have since become obscure are now being presented to us for rediscovery, so it was interesting to read some of these authors for the first time.

    ‘The Whisper in the Wood’ by Anon is a terrifically gothic story of a father and son.

    ‘Man-Size in Marble’ by Edith Nesbit – cautionary tale of why we should heed old legends.

    ‘The Striding Place’ by Gertrude Atherton – didn’t enjoy the writing style or the ending.

    ‘The Man Who Went Too Far’ by E F Benson is Dorian Gray-esque and intensely wordy.

    ‘An Old Thorn’ by W H Hudson – didn’t quite understand this one.

    ‘The White Lady of Rownam Avenue’ by Elliot O’Donnell – traditional ghost story presented as truth.

    ‘Ancient Lights’ by Algernon Blackwood is an amusing story of a forest which deals with trespassers.

    ‘The Name-Tree’ by Mary Webb – feminist tale of a cherry tree.

    ‘The Tree’ by Walter de la Mare is very wordy and is about a fruit merchant.

    “He Made a Woman” by Marjorie Bowen – strange tale of scientists and magicians.

    ‘A Neighbour’s Landmark’ by M R James is long-winded with an underwhelming ending.

    ‘N’ by Arthur Machen has a good concept but took many pages to reach it.

    In summary, this collection was disappointing for me but I’d recommend it if you’re looking for folklore stories about trees and nothing frightening.

    Published in 2020.