Fontana Ghost & Horror Titles ’60’s/’70’s

This is doubtless far from complete, but if anybody can help out I’d be grateful. Other than the later volumes in the Horror and Ghost series’, I’m not looking at anything post 1979.

Anthologies

Robert Aickman (ed.) – The Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories 1-8 (1964 -1972)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – The Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories 9-20 (1973 – 1984)

Christine Barnard (ed.) -The Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories 1-4 (1966 – 1969)

Mary Danby (ed.) -The Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories 5-17 (1970 – 1984)

Mary Danby – Frighteners 1 & 2 (1974 & 1976)

Bryan Douglas – Great Stories of Mystery and Imagination (1966)Robert Muller – Supernatural (1977)

John Hadfield – A Chamber Of Horrors (1967)

J. J. Strating (ed.) – European Tales of Terror (1968)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Cornish Tales of Terror (1970)

J. J. Strating (ed.) – Oriental Tales of Terror (1971)

Jim McGarry (ed.) – Irish Tales of Terror (1971)

‘Angus Campbell’ (R. Chetwynd-Hayes, ed.) – Scottish Tales of Terror (1972)

Jacquelyn Visick (ed.) – London Tales of Terror (1972)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Welsh Tales of Terror (1973)

J. J. Strating (ed.) – Sea Tales of Terror (1974)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Tales of Terror from Outer Space (1975)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Gaslight Tales of Terror (1976)

Single Author

Robert Aickman – Dark Entries (1964)

Robert Aickman – Powers of Darkness (1968)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Elemental (1974)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Night Ghouls (1976)

R. Chetwynd-Hayes – Tales Of Fear & Fantasy (1977)

Brian Clemens – Thriller (1974, 1975)

Brian Clemens – More Stories From Thriller (1975)

Elizabeth Walter – Snowfall (1968)

J. S. Le Fanu – The Vampire Lovers (1970)

H. G. Wells – The Valley Of The Spiders (1964, 1978)

H. G. Wells – The Cone (1965)

Novels

H. G. Wells – The Invisible Man (1960, 1966)

Hugh Enfield – Kronos (1972)

Bernard Taylor – The Godsend (1977)

Bernard Taylor – Sweetheart, Sweetheart (1978)

Fritz Leiber – Our Lady Of Darkness (1978)

Anne Rivers Siddons – The House Next Door (1979)

Non-Fiction

Lord Halifax’s Ghost Book (1973)
Denis Bardens – Ghosts & Hauntings (1973)
Denis Bardens – Mysterious Worlds (1972)
Andrew Green – Our Haunted Kingdom (1974)
Joan Forman – Haunted East Anglia (1976, 1977)

Thanks to Rog of A Haunted Dolls House for his suggestions.

Veillot – Yeats

Claude Veillot – The First Days Of Spring (Terror From Outer Space)

Tim Vicary – Guest Room (Frighteners 2)

Pamela Vincent – Homicidal Maniac!: A lone woman breaks down in the middle of nowhere. She’s aware of a hairy, green-eyed figure watching her from the trees and fears the worst. Fortunately, a car pulls up, and two men drive her away to the safety of their secluded old house. As she flops out in a chair, she wonders at all the whips and leather gear on the wall. Reminiscent of a slightly restrained version of Alex White’s notorious Never Talk To Strangers, (Pan Horror #7) (Frighteners)

Pamela Vincent – Lost Soul: Whatever you do, don’t let that miserable old widower who sits in the launderette help you load your washing into the machine!

Pamela Vincent – The Attic: Frank inherits the old house on his aunt’s death. His fiancee Sybil is uneasy about the place, particularly the attic which she detests and fears on first sight. In her nightmares, she sees a figure in shadow swinging from a beam … (Ghost 11)

Pamela Vincent – Brooding Dark: Elizabeth and Cynthia attend their first seance. Bored, the sceptical Elizabeth allows her attention to wander to boyfriend Bob which is certainly a more pleasant way of passing the time while the toad-faced medium goes through her repertoire. And, while she’s still focusing on Bob, she receives a message from the other side … (Ghost 12)

Pamela Vincent – Hard Luck Story (Horror 6)

Pamela Vincent – Mr. Priapos (Horror 8 )

Heather Vineham – The Rock Garden: “Take away the blest protectors and the dead will walk again. The black death will be back in Little Hallerton.” Melanie inherits Briar Cottage and immediately makes plans to remove the ‘weeds’ from the rockery, despite the pleadings of the aged servant, Sarah, who came part and parcel with the property as dictated by Aunt Phyllis’s will. Why does Sarah feel so strongly about the issue? In the 17th century, Alice Newcombe had a roll of cloth sent in from plague-ridden London from which her wedding dress was to be fashioned. Her intended, Mr. Carstairs, was one of those struck down as the disease ravaged the community. When, years later, Alice again walked up the aisle, Carstairs came for her. And now the unheedful Melanie sets to work on the garden … (Ghost 16)

Heather Vineham – Catherine’s Angel (Ghost 17)

Heather Vineham – The Summer House (Ghost 18)

Heather Vineham – Lost Eden (Ghost 19)

Heather Vineham – Graveyard Lodge (Ghost 20)

H. R. Wakefield – The Red Lodge: The narrator, his wife Mary and son Tim move into the old Queen Anne house of the title, rented from an unscrupulous estate agent, Wilkes, who turns a blind eye to the numerous tragic deaths associated with the property. Before long the new residents are subjected to all manner of supernatural manifestations, beginning with the slime trodden into the carpets of many of the rooms by persons unseen and the recurrent apparition of a ‘green monkey’ sprinting toward the pond. Legend has it that, back in the early eighteenth century, the then owner brided his servants to terrify his wife to death. They succeeded all too well, and one night she ran from the house and drowned herself. Her husband wasted no time in installing a harem at the lodge, but one by one his lovers followed her example. And so it has continued to the present day.

Apparently the first ghost story Wakefield ever wrote, this has endured as a genuine creepy classic. As with all but two of his contributions to the series, The Red Lodge was reprinted from his excellent collection They Return At Evening (Philip Allan, 1928).
(Ghost 8 )

H. R. Wakefield – Lucky’s Grove: Christmas Day, 1938, and “the cream of North Berkshire society” descend on the Braxton’s snowbound Abindale Hall. Unfortunately, Mr. Braxton’s land agent, Curtis, has retrieved their splendid tree from the locally shunned Lucky’s Grove. The larch in question, furious at being uprooted and festooned in Disney characters, wreaks spectacular Norse God-assisted vengeance, and deforming the snowman is the least of it. It all makes for an interesting holiday and gives the survivors much to ponder. (Horror 3)

H. R. Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff: : Aylesbury, Herts. When Mr. Cort asks directions to Lorn Manor a local obligingly sends him six miles in the opposite direction. Now, trapped inside the old ruin which seems to have an evil mind all of its own, Cort discovers too late why “none of us chaps goes to Manor after sundown”. (Horror 14)

Kathleen Wallace – The Head (Oriental Terror)

Hugh Walpole – Mrs. Lunt: Runceman accepts an invitation from a novelist whose book he’d praised to spend Christmas with him at Penzance. Mr. Lunt is so pathetic in his gratitude and so desperate to befriend him that his guest is soon working on an excuse to high tail it back to London. It’s not just his host; the dreary, depressing old house also affects him badly. And who’s that silent, evil looking old woman in black who keeps showing up, usually preceded by an abominable stench?  (Cornish Terror)

Hugh Walpole – The Snow: “She looked around her everywhere. All the familiar things, the pictures, the little tables, the piano were different now, isolated, strange, hostile, as though they had been won over by some enemy power.” Polchester. Herbert Fairfax’s first wife Elinor was a fiercely devoted woman and Alice, young and headstrong, doesn’t meet with the dead woman’s approval. Now even Herbert is losing patience with her. On Christmas Eve he suggests a separation whereupon Alice strikes him and he storms out of the house. Elinor’s vindictive ghost brutally sees off her successor. (Ghost 4)

Hugh Walpole – Tarnhelm: Faildyke Hall on the outskirts of Gosforth village, Cumberland. The narrator reflects on his days at boarding school when, during the holidays he was shunted from one relative to another until the winter of 1890 when aged eleven he was packed off to stay with his elderly uncles Robert and Constance. Uncle Robert is approaching seventy, a touchy-feely yellow-toothed horror who the boy fears on sight. Constance is five years younger, something of a dandy and likable but for his continuous cowering to Robert who he is at pains not to accept. The boy is befriended by Robert’s barrel-chested valet Bob Armstrong who takes it upon himself to protect him and warns him never to go up into the tower where the old boy spends most of his time. Of course, when Uncle Robert invites him to his quarters, he ignores Bob’s warning. The old man shows him his tarnhelm, a skull-cap by which the wearer can transform himself into their wild animal of choice – his being a vile yellow dog. Although it’s not quite clear exactly what intentions the fiend has toward the boy (you can imagine it as creepily as you want) they’re obviously disturbing enough for Constance to finally conquer his cowardice. (Horror 1)

Hugh Walpole – The Silver Mask: Kensington, West London. Miss Sonia Herries, 50, falls foul of her good nature when she invites a starving, exceptionally handsome young man into her lavish home when he stops her in the street. Henry Abbott makes no bones of his daily business – “I am a pimp, a thief, a what you like – anything bad” – but he has the nicest smile and a fine eye for beautiful objects like that silver clown’s mask on the wall. After a good feed Abbott returns to his starving wife Ada and their baby leaving Miss Herries unmolested, her possessions ditto (save for a valuable cigarette box which he later returns). Over the next weeks he insinuates his way into her life until he and his ghastly relatives have ousted her altogether.
Hints of the supernatural but E. F. Bleiler got it spot on when he classified the story a case of “social vampirism”. Needless to say, it’s excellent. (Horror 9)

Elizabeth Walter – A Question Of Time: Art student Barney buys a portrait of a monk from a junk shop after recognising him as Father Furnival, “died in 1612, in prison – probably of torture – after being betrayed as he hid in the Priest’s hole”. Barney knows all this because he remembers being present at the arrest. In an earlier incarnation he sold out the Holy man. (Ghost 5)

Elizabeth Walter – In The Mist (Ghost 10)

Elizabeth Walter – The Travelling Companion: Jennifer Mallory finally leaves hospital and boards the train at Paddington, heading for her parents’ home to recuperate. Much to her surprise, she’s been assigned a chaperon, Tim, who she suspects is queer because she’s heard they make the best male nurses. In actual fact Tim is straight and has been through a similar tragedy to Jennifer – he lost his girlfriend in a motorcycle accident. After a grim journey interrupted by a professional mourner from somebody else’s funeral, they arrive at her mum and dad’s place only to find they’ve gone away that same day. Snippets of overheard conversation heard from gas-bagging neighbours suggest something isn’t quite right. When the couple take a short cut through the cemetery en route to her aunt’s place Jennifer learns the awful truth. (Ghost 12)

Elizabeth Walter – The Spider: Bad enough that luvvy journalist Justus Ancorwen (he writes for a ’sixties equivalent of Hello) was reckless enough to start a relationship with virginal Isabel Bishop, but it’s even worse that she occupies the rooms below him so, when he leaves her, there’s little chance of avoiding her for long. Tonight though, he’s almost relieved that she lives in such close proximity as a spider “as big as a coal scuttle” is out for vengeance after he flushed one of its brethren down the sink. He can’t abide spiders at the best of times, but this thing! Isabel mockingly wonders if it comes from Mars and generally uses the opportunity to humiliate him for his caddish behaviour. But when they return to his room the following morning and she locks him in with his “imaginary” eight-legged friend … (Horror 2)

Elizabeth Walter – The Tibetan Box (Horror 8 )

Elizabeth Walter – Telling The Bees (Horror 10)

Norman Watson – The House On Big Faraway (Horror 2)

Evelyn Waugh – The Man Who Liked Dickens: Brazil. The hapless Mr. Henty, the sole survivor of the ill-fated Anderson expedition is taken in and cared for by McMasters, an Englishman who has lived in the jungle among the Shiriana Indians for close on sixty years. McMasters is illiterate and his pleasure is having others read to him so – once he has recovered from malaria – the grateful Henty obliges the old boy with some chapters from mouldering copies of Bleak House & Co. Worryingly, he finds his rescuer stoically silent on the subject of his return to civilisation and it is soon clear that McMasters will stop at nothing to preserve his daily dose of Dickens … (Horror 9)

Philip Welby – Buffy: North London. Burford “Buffy” Albright is chief among the schoolboy tormentors of trampish alchemist Halliwell. One day he goes too far and the outcast avenges himself by systematically disfiguring the bully by means of black magic. (Horror 11)

H. G. Wells – The Door In The Wall (Ghost 6)

H. G. Wells – The Sea Raiders (Horror 5)

Edith Wharton – Afterward (Ghost 2)

Edith Wharton – The Lady’s Maid’s Bell (Ghost 9)

Dennis Wheatley – The Case Of The The Long Dead Lord: The affable, globetrotting Psychic Detective Neils Orsen and his assistant, Bruce Hemmingway visit Stuart Castle where the dastardly noble has been tormenting young Fiona Clyde. (Ghost 13)

Dennis Wheatley – The Snake: Carstairs amuses Jackson and the narrator with the story behind his rags to riches success, all of it due, he believes, to black magic. In South Africa, he’d worked as book keeper to Isaacson, a despicable loan shark who’d one day crossed swords with Umtunga, the local witch-doctor over an outstanding debt (after penalties, Umtunga owed him thirty women). Unimpressed at this rudeness, Umtunga promptly performed a cockerel sacrifice on the usurer’s doorstep, and that night the loan shark died horribly. His widow then ordered Carstairs to call in the debt. Through more luck than judgment, he survives a were-mamba attack and decides it’s time to cut a deal with the voodoo guy at Mrs. Isaacson’s expense. He’s never looked back. (Horror 7)

Malachi Whitaker – New Moon: The horror of a hateful marriage. Mrs. Mollineaux wed young and soon learnt that her husband is a cruel and despicable despot. unfortunately, her three sons – most notably the debauched Godfrey – take after their father. Only after the men are dead can Mrs. Mollineaux reclaim the life that went into suspended animation when she was fifteen. (Horror 4)

T. H. White – The Troll: Lapland: A man hears noises coming from the adjoining hotel room and, peering through the keyhole, watches horrified as an eight foot tall Smurf devours a woman. After prying into the business of who booked the room, he finds he’s set himself up as the blue ogre’s next meal … (Horror 8 )

Henry S. Whitehead – The Lips (Ghost 6)

Oscar Wilde – The Sphinx Without A Secret (Ghost 4)

Mary Williams – Melody in a Minor Key (Ghost 14)

Mary Williams – They Walk At Evening (Ghost 19)

Ralph Williams – The Head-Hunters (Terror From Outer Space)

Angus Wilson – Mummy To The Rescue: The retarded, violent Celia is an orphan, her only real friend being Mummy, the doll she keeps beside her at all times which represents her dead mother. Now well into adulthood, Celia is proving too much of a handful for her Nanny, and grandparents the Hartleys reluctantly make plans to have her committed. On the eve of her confinement, a hateful Mummy visits her in a dream and throttles her. The following morning she’s discovered dead in bed having strangled on her bed-jacket.
Not quite as unsettling as the same author’s unbearable Raspberry Jam, perhaps, but getting there. (Horror 10)

Angus Wilson – Animals Or Human Beings: Welsh Marches. Fraulien Partenkirchen’s parents pack their troublesome daughter off to Wales to take up the position of housekeeper to eccentric old Miss Ingelow. The old girl is a fervent anti-vivisectionist and devotes her life to adopting the unfortunate creatures destined for the laboratory. The Fraulien decides she doesn’t like pets – not when they’re huge buck rats, anyway – and resigns just in time to avoid witnessing Miss Ingelow’s grisly death. (Welsh Terror)

William Wood – One Of The Dead (Horror 13)

P. C. Wren – Fear (Ghost 10)

John Wyndham – Close Behind Him: Spotty and Smudger make the mistake of burgling the premises of a black magician and trader in occult paraphenalia. While the robbery is in progress, Spotty is surprised by the owner who grapples with him and sinks his teeth into the thief’s leg. Spotty retaliates by bashing him with an iron pipe, killing him outright. He soon discovers that he’s being trailed wherever he goes by a pair of bloodied footprints. The haunting doesn’t last long, but only on account of Smudger braining him, whereupon the footsteps transfer their attentions to his partner in crime. At first the imprints remain five yards behind his own but soon they’re closing with each passing hour, and now bite marks have appeared on his neck … (Horror 6)

W. B. Yeats – The Sorcerers (Irish Terror)

Saki – Swain

Saki – The Wolves Of Cernogratz: When a member of the Cernogratz family dies it is said that all the wolves come down from the hills to mourn them and a great tree falls in the forest at the moment of their passing. The insufferable Countess and her equally arrogant brother don’t believe in either the legend or their old Governess Amalie’s insistence that she is the last of the bloodline. (Ghost 4)

Saki – The Interlopers: Carpathian Mountains. Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym are sworn enemies, continuing a family feud over ownership of the forest that has lasted generations. One stormy night they face each other in the wood, but before either can strike a fatal blow a huge tree falls pinioning both men to the ground. As they await rescue they make their peace and each man prays that his own people reach them first that he can insist they free the other before him. At last they can discern figures in the mist loping toward them …. (Horror 1)

Saki – Sredni Vashtar: Conradin, lonely and frequently ill, despises his cousin and guardian Mrs. De Ropp with a passion. All he has in the world is his hen, a polecat-ferret and a vivid imagination. It’s the latter that allows him to build a religious cult around the ferret which he names Sredni Vashtar and worships with offerings of nutmegs and a “paeon of victory and destruction”. Mrs. De Ropp – who enjoys tormenting her charge – sells the hen and now she’s discovered Sredni’s hutch hidden away in the garden shed. With the boy banished to the house under the watchful eye of the servants, can his God save itself? (Horror 6)

William Sansom – A Woman Seldom Found: A disillusioned young man on holiday in Rome meets and falls in love with a mysterious and beautiful woman and it seems that his desperate belief that there is such a thing as the perfect encounter is about to be realised … (Horror 5)

William Sansom – Various Temptations (Something Terrible, Something Lovely, 1948): Ronald Raikes, 31, is wanted for questioning in connection with the Victoria murders. Four London prostitutes have been strangled in a week and the known sex-offender has gone to ground. On impulse, he climbs a ladder and climbs in the open bedroom window of Clara, a plain and lonely woman who’s just been reading about the slayings. Telling her not to be frightened, he finds himself pouring out a very diluted account of his life story. Despite suspecting him to be the murderer, still she shelters him, finding it all a great adventure and soon they are making arrangements for their wedding. To celebrate his 32nd birthday, Clara throws him a party and, much to her own amazement, dolls herself up for the occasion, getting her hair done, buying a new blouse and even applying a dash of lipstick which is probably not the most advisable course of action in the circumstances, though the creepy undercurrent suggests she had a death wish all along. (London Terror)

‘Sapper’ – The House By The Headland (Ghost 15)

Robert Scheckley – Specialist (Terror From Outer Space)

Arthur Schnitzler – The Fate Of The Baron (European Terror)

Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber (Ghost 12)

Sir Walter Scott – Wandering Willie’s Tale (Scottish Terror)

A. Scupham – Destination Glen Doll (Ghost 16)

Ronald Seth – The Reverend John Jones And The Ghostly Horseman (Welsh Terror)

Bob Shaw – Invasion Of Privacy (Terror From Outer Space)

Robert Silverberg – Back From The Grave: When John Massey, 44, discovers his young wife Louise in bed with her flashy friend, Henry Marshall, it triggers a coronary. Louise knew it was coming – the doctor had confided in her that she must prepare for widowhood – and as John sinks to his knees she explains how she and Henry have been lovers for years and that she only married him to get her hands on his inheritance. This is bad enough, but it gets far worse: such was the rush to get his funeral over and done with that John’s been buried alive! Can he get out of his coffin and dig his way to the surface before the air runs out or the graveyard rats get at him? (Horror 17)

May Sinclair – Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched (Ghost 6)

May Sinclair – The Villa Desiree (Ghost 20)

May Sinclair – The Victim: Steven Acroyd, a young chauffeur to old Mr. Greathead at Easthwaithe Lodge on the moors, is possessed of a dreadful temper, so when he catches the harmless Ned Oldishaw mucking around with his girl, Dorsy, he beats the lad to a pulp. This overreaction leads to his being cold-shouldered in The King’s Head, but far worse than that, Dorsy declines his marriage proposal on the grounds that she’s frightened he’ll kill somebody. Dorsy is right: when she leaves the village after a chat with Mr. Greathead which he partially overhears, Steven blames her departure on the old man and vows to get even. He dismembers him and throws the pieces down a pit.

A year later, Dorsy returns. She’s had a change of heart and is now set on becoming Mrs. Acroyd. Steven would be delighted … were it not for the fact that Mr. Greathead has chosen the same moment to put in a reappearance. But the old boy’s ghost isn’t out for revenge. He just wants a little clear the air chat … ( Horror 2)

Kushwant Singh – Death Comes To Daulat Ram (Oriental Terror)

A. E. D. Smith – The Coat: On a cycling holiday in France, the narrator stops off to mend a puncture at a deserted chateau near Vosges where he is seen off by an animated coat. He later learns that it belonged to a sadistic murderer in Napoleon’s army whose own daughter was obliged to shoot him in the back. (Ghost 9)

Lady Eleanor Smith – Mrs. Raeburn’s Waxwork: Patrick Lamb, out of work actor, takes the job of attendant at Mugivan’s Waxwork Exhibition. From the start he’s morbidly fascinated by the image of a beautiful poisoner. Comes the day when a veiled woman requests a guided tour of the chamber of horrors … (Gaslight Terror)

Lady Eleanor Smith – No Ships Pass:  When the yacht The Seagull catches fire and explodes, Patterson is washed up on what first appears to be a beautiful island. The first person to greet him is a simple-minded dwarf, Heyward, who was marooned there several years ago. Then there’s the Cockney, Dicky Judd, a survivor of the Titanic versus iceberg clash, Spanish pirate Captain Micah Thunder late of The Black Joke and finally his prisoner turned mistress the beautiful Dona Ines who looks twenty and is all of one-hundred and sixty years of age. Judd explains that they’re stranded on a mirage island, “floating round the world, picking survivors from shipwrecks in all the seven seas.” There’s no death for any of them, but neither is there any escape and “no ships pass”. They can be injured and pain still hurts so its best not to upset the sadistic Thunder by chatting up Dona. Each of them has gone from sanity to madness and back again many times over, finally deciding that the only way to cope in Limbo is to stop thinking. Patterson finds it impossible to give into this perpetual living death and builds a raft. What will happen when he sets out to sea?   (Ghost 3)

Lady Eleanor Smith – Satan’s Circus: The famous, ever-travelling Circus Brandt has a terrible name among those who’ve toured with them and this entirely due to the antics of the saturnine Carl Brandt and his Morticia Adamms of a wife, Lya. Hired hand Anatole, a deserter from the Foreign Legion, learns too late that you cross the latter at your peril when she gives him the choice of either filling in for the absconded lion-tamer ot being handed in to the authorities. No animals react well to Lya passing near them and at that night’s performance she deliberately causes Anatole’s gory death. Hints of vampirism in the pay-off. (Horror 2)

Barbara Softly – Master Ghost And I (Ghost 10)

Robert Solomon – The New Old House (Ghost 18)

Barnard Stacey – The Devil’s Ape: Artist Nickey and guests intercept a parcel for Hugh in the flat upstairs. Hugh is entirely humorless and his friends delight in winding him up so their first thought is to replace whatever is inside the package with some old tat. On discovering that Hugh’s ordered a book on black magic, Nickey decide’s it would be a great crack if they transferred Mr. Grumpy’s soul into the lay-figure he’s recently acquired. They dress the dummy to resemble Hugh and read allowed the spell. Eerie laughter from the room upstairs … (Horror 10)

W. J. Stamper – Fidel Basin: Haiti. having seen the squalor and starvation of the prisons where so many of the townsfolk are being unjustly held, Captain Vilnard is so disgusted at his army’s treatment of their own people that he resigns his commission and defects to the rebels, advising his lieutenant, Fidel Basin, to do likewise. But Basin only has eyes for promotion and is quite happy to carry out whatever barbaric orders are forthcoming from Port au Prince. Now the army have had enough, the soldiers mutiny and Michel meets a deservedly dreadful end – trussed to the festering corpse of an innocent prisoner who died of tropical dysentery. (Horror 17)

Francis Stephens – A Walk Along The Beach: Four-year-old Tod, pet-torturing little bastard, learns too late not to torment the mutated jellyfish washed up on the stony beach at Dirk Point near the nuclear power station … (Frighteners)

Frances Stephens – Claws: Tony Price escapes his creditors by doing a flit to the Outer Hebrides where he lands a job at a lobster refinery. Unfortunately, one of his colleagues, Logan, takes an instant dislike to him for being a ‘prancing Nancy boy’ Southerner with a flash car, and Price is obliged to bash him over the head and feed him to the merchandise. The Islanders don’t take kindly to this at all. (Frighteners 2)

Frances Stephens – Only Child (Ghost 15)

Robert Louis Stevenson – The Bodysnatcher: Fictitious account of the Burke and Hare murders. Edinburgh, 182-. Fettes, a medical student of some promise, is assigned the duty of paying the Resurrection Men who deliver corpses out back of the dissecting rooms for Dr. K— to distribute among his classes. It is soon obvious to Fettes that many of the “subjects” did not die of natural corpses – one such, ‘Jane Galbraith’ (Burke victim Mary Patterson) is his drinking partner of the previous day – but he’s imposed upon by star pupil Wolfe “Toddy” McFarlane to keep his suspicions to himself as no good can come of pointing the finger. McFarlane has good reason to silence him, for he too is a murderer. When a man named Gray insults him in a bar, he delivers his body to Fettes and bribes him to keep his mouth shut. The pair go into business together, digging up bodies from neighbouring churchyards until the night they receive their come-uppance following their exhumation of a farmer’s wife at Glencorse. (Scottish Terror)

Angus Stewart – Brown God In The Beginning (Scottish Terror)

Bram Stoker – The Squaw: The narrator and wife Amelia are honeymooning in Nuremberg where they befriend loud Nebraskan Hutcheson, a well-meaning but somewhat clumsy adventurer with a neat line in grim reminiscences. When Hutcheson gormlessly kills a kitten, its mother trails him everywhere, finally getting its opportunity for revenge in the Torture Tower where he will insist on climbing inside the Iron Virgin to try it for size. (Horror 1)

Bram Stoker – The Secret Of The Growing Gold (Horror 12)

Bram Stoker – The Burial Of The Rats (Horror 16)

Theodore Sturgeon – The Other Celia (Horror 12)

Psu Sung-Ling – The Magistrate Of Hu-Nan (Oriental Terror)

Psu Sung-Ling – The Inn At Ts’ia-Tien (Oriental Terror)

Virginia Swain – Aunt Cassie: The old girl has lived with nephew Edward Alden and his family for twelve years, an absolute dear but with one grating habit – she will insist on seeing the ghosts of her dead at inopportune moments and passing on their (usually critical) observations. When she upsets his wife and daughter with some alarming faux pas, even Edward thinks maybe it’s time she made other arrangements. Besides, one of the spooks keeps going on about his drinking. But he has a business arrangement tonight and the roads are icy. Best be very careful, especially as he knows the brakes to be faulty. Best have another shot of whiskey to keep off the chill …. (Ghost 11)

Nabokov – O’Sullivan

Vladimir Nabokov – The Visit To The Museum (Ghost 7)

Ray Nelson – Eight O’Clock In The Morning (Terror From Outer Space)

Edith Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble: Brenzett village. The church houses two statues commemorating wealthy knights of evil repute. Local legend has it that these huge marble figures rise from the slab at eleven on Halloween and walk abroad. The narrator and his timid wife Laura, whose house is built on site of the brothers’ once home, are about to discover if there’s any truth in this laughable old wives tale. (Ghost 2)

E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding: Brixham. The village belle May Forster, finally gives in to the persistent John Charrington and accepts his marriage proposal. It is clear to all the villagers that she’s loved him all along, and as for John, “My dear, I believe I should come back from the grave if you wanted me.” Which, as it turns out …

Come the wedding day and, while the best man kicks his heels at the station awaiting Charrington’s return from a mercy dash to a sick relative, the wedding goes ahead and a terrified May is hustled into the carriage by her corpse groom as the bells sound the death knell … (Ghost 15)

Edith Nesbit – The Head: Derbyshire. Lost en route to an interview with music hall legend Tottie de Vere, promoter Morris Diehl stops at a remote house and begs shelter for the night. His host, April Vane, gives the appearance of being an octogenarian, but in reality he’s merely 43 years old, prematurely aged by the bitter tragedy which saw the woman he loved burnt to death while her husband lolled drunk in the gutter. Vane is obsessed with the event to the point of having built a scale model of the village commemorating the incident with little figures indicating where the locals stood at the time of the blaze. Diehl recognises it as a work of genius and brings Vane back to London with a commission to build a life-size replica of his masterpiece. This he does, but with one chilling improvement …. (Horror 4)

Josef Nesvadba – Vampires Ltd: English setting for this story of a Czech in need of a lift who is gifted a magnificent racing model by a pale gent who promptly hails a taxi and sets off in the opposite direction. Behind the wheel, Nesvadba is the king of the road, the public falling over themselves to be of assistance, but there’s a price to pay for a dream car that runs on something other than petrol … (European Terror)

Andrea Newman – She’ll Be Company For You: Henry has just lost his invalid wife, Margaret, one of those deaths usually referred to as a merciful release for all concerned. His despised sister-in-law Barbara doesn’t see it that way. She insists on lumbering him with her cat, Jennet, while she spends a few weeks convalescing abroad. It is soon apparent to him that puss has something of the uncanny about it and Henry’s life is soon in meltdown. Halloween approaches. (Horror 15)

John Nicholson – Sawney Beane And His Family: Sawney Beane and his clan snatch innocent travellers, drag them back to their cave then pickle and eat them. “In the conflict the poor woman fell from behind him, and was instantly butchered before her husband’s face, for the female cannibals cut her throat, and fell to sucking her blood with as great a gust, as if it had been wine”. This exciting and incredibly gory history is usually credited to Captain Charles Johnson, although it probably wasn’t new when he included it in his General History Of The Most Famous Highwaymen, etc. (1734). It’s even been suggested that ‘Johnson’ was Daniel Defoe. (Scottish Terror)

Amyas Northcote – Brickett Bottom (Ghost 16)

Alfred Noyes – Midnight Express: As a twelve year old, Mortimer was terrified of an illustration in one of his father’s books depicting a man standing under a dreary lamp on a desolate railway platform, staring into a pitch black tunnel. This makes such an impression on the boy that he pins it to the facing page so as never to see it again.
Thirty eight years later, he finds himself on that same railway platform after dark, and there is that ominous figure stood before the tunnel mouth. He approaches, desperate to get a look at the man’s face …  (Ghost 8 )

Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?: 26th Street, New York. Following a night of opium smoking and conversation about the supernatural, narrator Harry is attacked in his bed by an invisible being. After a fierce struggle he eventually manages to subdue the unseen assailant with the help of friend Hammond. They bind “the enigma” but have no idea what to do next; they can’t keep it in the house indefinitely, but to let it loose on the world is unthinkable.

Fortunate for them then, that the being dies through lack of sustenance and, after taking a plaster cast, they bury it in the back garden. The passages concerning the assault on Harry identity the type of food it needed to remain alive. (Gaslight Terror)

Sean O’Casey – The Raid (Irish Terror)

Maureen O’Hara – The Rainbow: Takes the nightmare of heroin addiction as it’s theme and the famous Finsbury Park rock venue as it’s setting; it’s “horror with a message”, admirable in sentiment but entirely incongruous. (Horror 11)

Mrs. Oliphant – The Library Window (Ghost 5)

Oliver Onions – The Beckoning Fair One (Ghost 3)

Oliver Onions – Two Trifles (Ghost 10)

Oliver Onions – The Rocker (Ghost 13)

Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead (Ghost 4)

Vincent O’Sullivan – The Business Of Madame Jahn (Ghost 15)