M.R. James

My third book for Carl's RIP III challenge is The Ghost Stories of M.R. James, selected by Michael Cox and illustrated by Rosalind Caldecott.



I always try to remember when and where I buy books but this one totally eludes me. I know I've had it for quite a while and that on the inside cover is written '£6.00' in pencil, so I'm thinking it must have been a secondhand bookshop buy rather than a charity shop one. I also have the vague idea that I dithered over paying that much so it must have been a while ago. Now of course I'm thrilled to bits that I didn't leave it behind as an illustrated M.R. James is something I prize very highly indeed. The drawings are beautiful and I'll use a few of them in this post as I go along. (Click on the pic and you'll get a bigger version.)

The anthology includes some fifteen stories but starts off with a thirty page biography of the author, which I read after I'd read the stories and found fascinating. M.R. James was what you would call a scholar in the old-fashioned sense. Educated at Eton and then King's College, Cambridge he never married and dedicated his life to these two educational establishments as a teacher, but also to his writing.

And what writing. I first read most of M.R. James's ghost stories about fifteen years ago. I thought then that they were very readable but not necessarily as brilliant as people said and that there were other writers of the supernatural who were just as good. Now I'm not so sure. I read these fifteen stories and became utterly enthralled by the imagination displayed and the gorgeous writing that sweeps you away into a world of libraries, churches and stately homes where weird happenings are the order of the day.

The fifteen stories include such well known classics as Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad...



A Warning to the Curious, A View From a Hill and The Ash Tree. The last of these was probably my favourite in the book, a story of what happens when a lord of the manor betrays a witch, who is then hanged. He'd seen her collecting twigs from the ash tree that grew outside his bedroom window. What the witch does to this tree and the affect it has on future members of the lord's family is the subject of the story and its creepiness just blew me away. Another favourite was The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral...



... which tells what happens when a new archdeacon takes over from one who has let things slip, and how some rather weird statuettes on the end of the pews are involved in his downfall.



A Vignette was also a big favourite. It was the last ghost story James ever wrote and is apparently slightly autobiographical in that he used the rectory where he grew up as a setting. It tells the story of a young boy growing up in the vicarage who feels that something is very disturbing about the corner of the garden he can see from his bedroom window.



A gate leads into a plantation of trees and the boy has dreams about a being with a white hand opening the gate and coming up the path. One day he actually does see something and goes down to check...

Difficult to overstate how much I adored this anthology of weird stories. In the biographical bit it describes James's stories as a 'sub-genre of antiquarian ghost stories' and that's a perfect description in my opinion. James knew his world and used it time and again to great effect. I don't think 'stunning' understates the case. I was blown away by the quality of the writing and adored the supernatural bent to the tales. These weren't just stories about ghosts, there's all kinds of daemonic weirdness here and it was truly amazing to read. Add to that the lovely illustrations of Rosalind Caldecott and you have a beautiful volume of stories that I'm thrilled to bits to own.

The Vanished

My second creepy story for Carl's RIP III challenge is a Young Adult spine chiller, The Vanished by Celia Rees. I happened to spot this in our local Oxfam shop, liked the sound of it and bought it. I'd not read anything by this author before, although I had heard of her... I just can't remember where or why. I've since discovered via her FantasticFiction entry that she's actually quite a prolific writer of young adult novels, mainly, but not all, in the horror genre.



The story revolves around three older teenagers, Cassie, Fraser and Jake. Cassie, aged somewhere around 17, is the editor of her school newspaper - a newspaper that is not doing very well at all. Fraser is a new boy who you immediately learn has problems, but not what they are. He volunteers to write for the newspaper on his first day and immediately takes an interest in some photos Jake - the paper's photographer - has taken. They're rather weird studies of various abandoned tunnels or water culverts, all over the city, but when asked Jake has no idea why he felt driven that morning to go out and take these photos.

It's Fraser's idea to increase interest in the paper by getting pupils to send in their experiences of weird goings on in the school, hauntings and so on. Cassie thinks there aren't any and thinks it's a bad idea but is soon proved wrong when they are inundated with replies. It doesn't make any sense. She starts dating Fraser and finds out that there are things about him that don't make any sense either. A young girl has gone missing and the teenagers soon realise that a boy known as 'Billy', that everyone knows and has seen at the school, is not a pupil at all and that he has something to do with the disappearance. Who is he? And what has the children's poem about seven steps that descend from the woods, where no one goes alone, into an underworld of tunnels, got to do with all of this? Cassie makes the discovery that the missing girl is not the first to go missing and then Jake's eight year old sister disappears...

First of all, I thought the three teenagers who were the main characters in this story were very nicely drawn. I liked Cassie a lot for being someone who is focussed, not only on her newspaper, but on her future career as a journalist - but at the same time is a normal teen who falls in love and so on. The boys felt real to me too... I love the way Jake, a year younger than the others, just can't make girls out at all. He adores his little sister but is quite resigned to the fact that at 12 she'll become someone he simply won't understand. This is all nice characterisation, in my opinion.

I think I must be a bit fascinated by underground worlds with lots of creepy tunnels and caves, in fact I know I am. There's quite an element of that in this book and it's incredibly well done - creepy and quite disturbing. The haunting element is likewise excellent and quite adult in content really, despite it being a book for *young* adults.

In short, I was very impressed by Celia Rees and this novel of hers that I bought on a whim. The writing is pacey and the book a page-turner. It was sufficiently creepy to have me looking around the bedroom when I was reading it late at night! Nice one. I'll be checking out the library to see if they have anything else by her *and* keeping an eye on the charity shops of course.

Recent buys

I haven't done a recent acquisitions post in ages, June I think, so I fancy it's time for one of those. I don't actually think this is all of them by any means. *cough cough* These are just the ones I haven't stashed away somewhere or are to hand because they're to be read for challenges. I was thinking the other day that if someone ever abolishes charity shops I would be in a right pickle. There's no easier way to get a quick book fix in the UK, if you're able to get to them, (apart from the library and I indulge in that pastime too...) and not only are the books cheap, you're also helping out someone less fortunate than yourself at the same time. So anyway, here are a few of my latest purchases that I don't need to feel guilty about buying at all!



These six are four charity shop buys and two new. I'm going to read Twilight for the latest RIP challenge and have a feeling I might want to read New Moon fairly quickly after, along with the rest of the family, so thought those were worth investing in new.

This particular Barbara Vine I've had recommended to me by several people so nabbed it quickly when I saw it in the Tiverton Oxfam shop. Holy Fools I've had my eye out for for a while too so that was likewise nabbed quickly. And the other two just looked interesting, particularly The Cruellest Journey, by Kira Salak, which is the story of a woman's journey up the Niger by canoe, following in the footsteps of Mungo Park, two centuries ago.



This lot are three new books and four charity shop buys.

Black Sun Rising and Shadow Bridge were recs from fellow bloggers who have loved them and I always take notice of good fantasy book recs. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue is a book I've wanted to read forever so I had no hesitation in adding it to a recent Amazon order to get free postage.

The rest were all from charity shops. The Vanished by Celia Rees is the book I'm reading at the moment for the RIP challenge and I'm loving it. Diary of a Provincial Lady is a book I read a few weeks ago so you may be wondering why I bought another copy. Well, it seemed to me it was too big for just one book and when I glanced inside I saw that it included not only that book but three sequels - The Provincial Lady Goes Further, ... in America and ...in Wartime. Was I delighted? Oh yes. The other brilliant find was yesterday in Teignmouth's Oxfam shop, and that was two brand new Sherlock Holmes books, one of which, The Sign of Four, I've been hoping to spot in a charity shop as it's the next one I want to read. I have it in a huge omnibus but it's too heavy to hold so I've been collecting these lovely little paperbacks.

So, all in all I reckon that's not a bad haul, with some interesting reads to come there.

The Vampire Tapestry

Well, I've got my first book for Carl's R.I.P. III challenge under my belt fairly quickly and am quite pleased about that. The book is The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas, who is an author I'd not previously heard of. I came across her here on the FantasticFiction entry for Peter S. Beagle. Often these entries are accompanied by some book recommendations from said author (you have to scroll down to the bottom of each entry) and they're nearly always worth looking at; I've found a few decent books this way.



I like the 'matter-of-fact' way this book starts:

"On Tuesday morning Katje discovered that Dr Weyland was a vampire, like the one in the movie she'd seen last week."

Well quite. ;-) Dr Weyland *is* in fact a vampire, masquerading as a university professor, somewhere in upstate New York. Katje, is a late professor's wife who has been left in reduced circumstances and has to clean the campas social club for a living. At first she decides she must be mistaken about the doctor, then realises she isn't when the professor is obviously singling her out for something. He studies dreams and wants her to take part in his study but Katje realises that this is how he chooses his victims and tries to avoid him. Things come to a head in the car-park one night and... well after what happens Dr Weyland has to move on and we next meet him in a small appartment in New York city where he being held prisoner by 'Roger'. Roger is a bit of an odd ball and thinks there is a profit to be made out of 'his' vampire but his nephew, Mark, is appalled and slowly gets to know Weyland and tries to help him. Things turn very nasty when a dangerous friend of Roger's, who specialises in black magic, decides to put the doctor on show for his creepy friends...

The first thing to know about this book is that it isn't a novel in the traditional sense, it's really a series of five novellas that make a whole story. The first takes place as stated, in the university, the second in the appartment in NY, the third tells how he becomes a patient of a psycho-therapist, also in NY, after which he moves to New Mexico. Things do all tie up in the end but the joy of the story is in the journey so to speak.

The second thing to know is that this is not a cosy story. Dr Weyland is not a benevolent vampire, he's a hunter pure and simple. He's cold, manipulating, emotionless - lives only for his next meal and loves the hunt. And yet, oddly enough, it's still possible to empathise with him and even feel sorry for his plight! This is obviously due to the skilful writing of Suzy McKee Charnas - she writes well and keeps you turning the pages. The only section I did find ever so slightly tedious was the one based on a trip to see the opera, ' Tosca', in New Mexico. I'm not much into opera (even though I'm thoroughly enjoying 'Maestro' on TV) and there was a great deal about it in this part. But that's only a very minor quibble in an over-all enjoyable read.

Peter Beagle is quoted as saying it was the best vampire novel he'd ever read. I wouldn't quite say that - my favourites so far would be The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Sunshine by Robin McKinley, not to mention Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. But The Vampire Tapestry is, nevertheless, excellent and definitely a keeper though I think I might try to get a copy with a nicer cover at some stage.

A good start to the challenge.

Monstrous Regiment

Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett, was one of the few Discworld books I had left to read. Not sure what I'll do when I've finished them all... start all over again perhaps. It took me eleven days to read this one but that has nothing to do with the quality of the book - two words represent the reasons and those are: Olympics and grandchildren. The first is self-explanatory and the second, well, our grandaughter's been here since Tuesday and went home today. Thus my reading time has been severely disrupted for a couple of weeks. Not that it mattered as this is just the sort of story that's ideal for reading slowly over a period of time.



Polly Perks' older brother, Paul, has gone off to war and disappeared off the face of the earth. He's not very bright, Polly has in fact spent most of her life being an older sister to her older brother... so Polly is worried. On a whim she decides to leave her father's inn one night, disguised as a boy, and joins the army in order to search for her brother. And thus Polly Perks becomes Oliver Perks and heads off to fight for her warlike little country of Borogravia.

With her goes Maladict, the vampire, who has sworn off blood but is addicted to coffee, Igor the igor (Igors specialise in sewing people together), a troll, and several youngsters from the local workhouse, all led by Sergeant Jackrum, a legend in his own lifetime. The officer in charge, known to one and all as 'the rupert' is one, Lieutenant Blouse. He has no chin, reads battle strategy books and wants to have an item of clothing named after him. Polly is made his batman, which is difficult as she doesn't know how to shave a man, but then neither does Blouse... Not only that, her fellow soldiers seem oddly deficient in that and other areas too. It seems there are secrets amongst this extremely motley band. Not that any of it matters because they are the last recruits from Borogravia and it's going to be up to them to win the war and save their country from disgrace.

I couldn't help feeling while I was reading this book, that if ever a teacher wanted to push home the futility of war to his students, all he would really need to do is hand them each a copy of this book and let them draw their own conclusions. That makes the story sound preachy when it most certainly is not. Terry Pratchett does what he does better than anyone else in my opinion, and that is to drive his point home with his superb humour. He is the perfect 'show, don't tell' author as new recruits are handed an IOU instead of a shilling, get taken to a shed for new uniforms only to find they're getting secondhand ones with blood and gore on them, and are fed 'scubbo' which can be pork, chicken or beef boiled in water but is more likely to be rat or horse. A couple of well-known Discworld characters turn up - William de Worde, the journalist from The Truth and the ever wonderful Sam Vimes, head of the Night Watch and now Duke of something or other, much to his disgust. I'd forgotten how much I love his character and must get around to reading Night Watch and Thud!.

Anyway, another wonderful book from Mr. Pratchett. They just get better and better and Monstrous Regiment manages to be extremely thought provoking whilst maintaining the author's well earned reputation for exceptionally clever humour.

R.I.P. III challenge

It's that time of year again! September is almost upon us and it's time for Carl's latest Halloween challenge - R.I.P. III. I've been looking forward to and thinking about it for ages and had my pool of books stacked up on the shelf a week ago. Nothing like being 'a bit previous' as Grandma would have said...

Anyway, the challenge has three 'Perils' to choose from and I've chosen 'Peril the First' which is to 'Read Four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose' between the 1st. September and the 31st. October.



To that end I've chosen a pool of 12 books - probably a typical case of 'overkill' but there you go, making up my mind was never my strong point. These are they:

Tales of Terror from Blackwood's Magazine - ed. by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick
Return of the Deep Ones and other Mythos Tales - Brian Lumley
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James - selected by Michael Cox
Jamaica Inn - Daphne Du Maurier
Bitten - Kelley Armstrong
The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy McKee Charnas
The Vanished - Celia Rees
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
The Moor - Laurie R. King
Tunnels - Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
On the Edge of Darkness - Barbara Erskine

A pretty mixed bag really. Several books of short stories which I may just dip in and out of; three or four vampire yarns (not sure about The Vanished); a couple of gothic type stories and a couple that are just a bit 'sundry'.

Three are rereads - the Lumley, the Du Maurier and the M.R. James. The Du Maurier will be a cross-over with another challenge; I had it on my RIP list for last year and didn't get around to it, so will definitely try to get to that one this year. I'd love to read them all, I really would, but realistically - it ain't gonna happen. I know for a start that October is going to be a busy month for me. The challenge says four and that will be my aim and if I manage more then it's all to the good.

Really looking forward to participating in this challenge and thanks, Carl, for hosting it once again.

Two short reviews

A couple of very short reviews starting with The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.

I've been reading this book for what seems like ages so some of it is a bit of a blur. My main impression is that it was a bit patchy in quality. Some of the stories didn't take my fancy at all. On Lickerish Hill was cleverly written in the style of an uneducated woman but it was basically just a retelling of the traditional fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin, and as such was very much not my thing. Antickes and Frets, a story about Mary Queen of Scots, and John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner I also found rather unsatisfying.

On the other hand, the title story, The Ladies of Grace Adieu was a good solid tale connected I believe to Susanna Clarke's huge novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Mrs. Mabb a story of a fiancé stolen magically away, Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower and Tom Brightwood or How the Fairy Bridge was Built at Thoresbury were all top notch stories and very enjoyable. I really love the idea of a Regency England where magic actually exists and if this anthology has taught me anything it's that it's high time I made an attempt on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: I'm almost sure I'll love it. I think I might line it up for 2009.

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Okay well, confession time... I have a guilty pleasure and that guilty pleasure is the poetry of Pam Ayres. It's all to do with my sense of humour, I know that. What she writes is very true to life and very funny and if she's performing her poems on TV I can guarantee to be in fits within moments. I just can't help it. Anyway, I picked up this little volume, With These Hands, in the library and it's an anthology of some of her poetry and monologues which I actually had never read before. The monologues are little gems that concern such 1950s and 60s nostalgia as knitted bathing suits, the joys of suet puddings, holidays in a caravan, gyms and the middle-aged and keeping chickens.

Here's one of my favourite poems from the collection, especially for those of us addicted to The Antiques Roadshow and Bargain Hunt.

I loved an antique dealer
I loved him heart and soul
Although he was bow-fronted
And his legs were cabriole.
His eyes they were cross-banded
And his surface was distressed
But he was nicely moulded
With a sturdy little chest.

But on examination
There were several things he lacked.
I found him dummy-fronted
And I found him spindle-backed.
So I sent him off to auction
And I've had a note from there
To say he's on a pedestal
In Weston-super-Mare.

Love it.

And I'm now off to investigate cds and dvds because I've just discovered that there are loads available by Pam Ayres.