The Pan Book of Horror Stories

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After ninety years of utter indifference to this sex business, old Miss Eliza Mary Hannam finds unfamiliar desires welling up within her. It takes her a further decade – just past her hundredth birthday, in fact – to find herself with the opportunity to satisfy these urges.

In the run-up to Halloween in October 2018, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Anita Sullivan's reinterpretations of five stories from the 1962 Second Pan Book Of Horror Stories as part of the station's 15 Minute Drama series. [5] Reception and influence [ edit ] John Keir Cross (1914-1967) was a British author of young adult science fiction novels, adult horror stories and television adaptations of literary classics. This is a particularly unusual story, told from the point of view of someone who appears to be losing his mind. It suggests more than it really makes clear, but it has a poetry and a sense of probing into profound and forbidden thoughts that makes it quite unsettling.SUITABLE APPLICANT, by Charles Braunstone: A young woman applies for a job as a companion. Perverse sex, cannibalism and a surgical nightmare. All in a day's work for a Pan Horror author, I guess... 3/5 Nigel Kneale (1922-2006) was a British screenwriter, famous for creating the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass. W.S.’ by L.P. Hartley – An interesting little tale of a writer who is haunted by ‘someone’ sending postcards which are postmarked from locations that are getting nearer.

THE FUR BROOCH, by Dulcie Gray: A young woman is desperate to get rid of her slimeball suitor, but he has other ideas. Written in a very genteel and decidedly old-fashioned style, but this somehow On the other hand, there are exceptions that have dated quite badly: George Fielding Eliot’s The Copper Bowl is a derring-do tale of Chinese torture that reads like a bad pulp tale of the 1930’s. Had it not been for the unforgettable portrayal of a rat, burrowing beneath the skin of a torture victim, this one would not have been memorable at all. I’d also give worthy mentions to ‘The Treat’ (M. S. Waddell), ‘The Sins Of The Fathers’ (Christianna Brand), ‘Message For Margie’ (Christine Campbell Thomson), ‘The Spider’ (Basil Copper), and ‘The Living Shadow’ (Rene Morris). This story was filmed as part of Season 2, Episode 6 of Night Gallery, Oct 27, 1971 with Leslie Nielsen in the lead role. The character names were changed. For although Kaufman does shy away from a full blow-by-blow account of the deed, he leaves us in no doubt Eliza went to her grave with a smile on her face for good reason.

Mrs Manifold' by Stephen Grendon - one of the few supernatural tales in the collection is a highly atmospheric ghost story, very much in the revenge tradition, revolving around a seedy inn come boarding house owned by the eponymous woman. I think this probably gets my vote as the best story of the bunch; THE MAN WITH THE MOON IN HIM, by William Sansom: A down-and-out stalks the London Underground, looking for meaning in his life. A study of social alienation in this non-mainstream effort. 3/5 A well-written ghost story told from the point of view of the ghost by Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. As this was way before political correctness, story after story gives us psycho after psycho, chopping away at all and sundry. One thing sure to tip the most ordinary timid soul over into kitchen knife improvisation was sexual betrayal, and to their credit the authors give us hideous deaths of roving husbands just as much as faithless wives. And it's notable that in the world of the Pan Books there are no happy marriages. None at all.

After reading all 37 Fontana Books of Horror and Ghost stories, I now embark on the 30 volume Pan Books of Horror (published between 1959 and 1989). I’ll mention ‘Jugged Hare’ (Joan Aitken), ‘The Mistake’ (Fielden Hughes), ‘The Lady Who Didn’t Waste Words’ (Hamilton Macallister) and ‘A Fragment of Fear’ (Chris Massie) as reasonable supporting horrors; but there are just too many stories here that I couldn’t connect with. As stated earlier, the hit rate on volume two is looking much better. Lukundoo’ (Edward Lucas White). Story of explorers in Africa; one of whom has strange carbuncle-like protrusions on his body. But they’re not carbuncles. I like something different, and this certainly is. With character and exotic locale, this is a finely written adventure/horror. Lunatic aunt keeps pretty blonde girl relative prisoner and convinces her she’s ugly. Great study of insanity. Adobe James has become one of my favourites of the writers I know only from these collections. He favours lurid subject matter and a very dark sense of irony. This is the tale of a nymphomaniac ghost and the only man who might be able to handle her.

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THE COFFIN MAKERS, by Raymond Williams: In Victorian times, two coffin makers have a falling out. Another disappointment, going for the gore but with no discernable atmosphere or decent plotting. 2/5 The Bean-Nighe’ by Dorothy K. Haynes. A woman who lives a tough life runs into a hag-like apparition on her remote journey to work. Her domestic life (constant work, living in a small house with her mother, ill brother and sister who keeps her awake at nights) is every bit as horrific as the apparition she sees. This is a doom-laden tale from one of the most consistent writers in the genre. I have yet to read a bad story from her. The cover of my edition (a head in a hat-box) is clearly inspired by this one.