|
Ghost Story Society
The Ghost Story Society was a not-for-profit literary society whose members shared an interest in supernatural fiction. Founded in Britain in 1988 by Rosemary Pardoe, Jeffrey Dempsey, David Cowperthwaite and Mark Valentine, it had an international membership and was later administered by joint organizers Christopher Roden and Barbara Roden, owners of Ash-Tree Press, with the assistance of David G. Rowlands, Richard Dalby, Jan Arter, and Roger Dobson. It has not been active since 2007. The society produced the journal ''All Hallows'', which featured new ghostly fiction, along with studies of the works and lives of such authors of classic ghost stories as M. R. James, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, H. Russell Wakefield, E. F. Benson, A. N. L. Munby, and R. R. Ryan, as well as more recent authors such as Robert Aickman, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Terry Lamsley, and Jonathan Aycliffe. It also included detailed reviews and notices of recent ghostly publications and films, le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supernatural Fiction
Supernatural fiction or supernaturalist fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that exploits or is centered on supernatural themes, often contradicting naturalist assumptions of the real world. Description In its broadest definition, supernatural fiction overlaps with examples of weird fiction, horror fiction, vampire literature, ghost story, and fantasy. Elements of supernatural fiction can be found in writing from the genre of science fiction. Amongst academics, readers and collectors, however, supernatural fiction is often classed as a discrete genre defined by the elimination of "horror", "fantasy", and elements important to other genres. The one genre supernatural fiction appears to embrace in its entirety is the traditional ghost story. The fantasy and supernatural fiction genres would often overlap and may be confused each for each other, though there exist some crucial differences between the two genres. Fantasy usually takes place in another world, where fantastic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Valentine
Mark Valentine is an English short story author, editor and essayist on book-collecting. Short stories Valentine's short stories have been published in a number of collections and in anthologies. ''The Collected Connoisseur'' (Tartarus Press, 2010) is about the mystical encounters of an aesthete whose real name is never revealed, some written jointly with John Howard. ‘The Descent of the Fire’, a story in this series by Valentine & Howard, was included in the 2004 World Fantasy Award winning anthology ''Strange Tales'' edited by Rosalie Parker. ''Herald of the Hidden'' (Tartarus Press, 2013) collects stories about Ralph Tyler, a Northamptonshire folklorist. Other short story collections include ''Selected Stories'' (2012) and ''Seventeen Stories'' (2013). His story ‘Vain Shadows Flee’ was chosen for ''Best British Short Stories 2016'' edited by Nicholas Royle (Salt Publishing). ''Secret Europe'' (2012) and ''Inner Europe'' (2018) are shared collections with John Howard o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ash-Tree Press
Ash-Tree Press is a Canadian company that publishes supernatural and horror literature. The press has reprinted notable collections of ghostly stories by such writers as R. H. Malden, A. N. L. Munby, L. T. C. Rolt, Margery Lawrence, and Eleanor Scott. It also has published newly edited collections of supernatural tales by such writers as John Metcalfe, Marjorie Bowen, Vernon Lee, and Frederick Cowles, and it has produced multi-volume sets of the complete supernatural short stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, E. F. Benson, H. Russell Wakefield, Russell Kirk, and A. M. Burrage. In 2001, the press published a collected edition of M. R. James's ghost stories and related writings. In addition, Ash-Tree Press has published new collections of stories by contemporary authors and a series of original anthologies. Awards for these include the 2002 British Fantasy Award for best collection for ''After Shocks'' by Paul Finch and the 2004 International Horror Guild Award and 2005 World Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Dalby
Richard Lawrence Dalby (15 April 1949 – 4 May 2017) was an editor and literary researcher noted for his anthologies of ghost stories. Early life Richard Dalby was born in London on 15 April 1949 to Tom, a publishing editor, and Nancy, an amateur artist. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School from the age of 7 when he also began to take an interest in supernatural fiction. He was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 16. He did not attend university.Richard Dalby. '''', 1 June 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2017. Career Dalby's early career was spent as a bookseller in bookshops, including |
Roger Dobson
Roger Alan Dobson (1954–2013) was a British author, journalist, editor and literary researcher. Dobson wrote the Arthur Machen entry in the '' Dictionary of National Biography''. He also edited John Gawsworth's biography of Machen and co-edited Machen's ''Selected Letters'' (with Godfrey Brangham and R. A. Gilbert, 1988). He was a regular contributor to ''Antiquarian Book Monthly Review'', ''Faunus'' (the journal of the Friends of Arthur Machen), ''All Hallows'' (the journal of the Ghost Story Society), ''Wormwood'' and ''The Doppelganger Broadsheet''. Works Books written by Dobson *''Ann Lee: The Manchester Messiah'', St John Press, 1987 *''Hail, O King! The Last Days of John Gawsworth'', Tartarus Press/Friends of Arthur Machen, 2005 *''The Library of the Lost'', Tartarus Press, 2015 (edited and with an Introduction by Mark Valentine, with a Foreword, 'A Remarkable Man' by Javier Marías) Books edited by Dobson *''Arthur Machen: Apostle of Wonder'', Caermaen Books, 1985 (e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Story
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006. (p. 404-5). The "ghost" may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic. Linked to the ghost is the idea of a "haunting", where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. Ghost stories are commonly examples of ghostlore. Colloquially, the term "ghost story" can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has been developed as a short story format, within genre fiction. It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story. While ghost stories are often explicitly meant to scare, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's." and that his short story collection '' Incredible Adventures'' (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century". Life and work Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (now part of south-east London, then part of north-west Kent). Between 1871 and 1880, he lived at Crayford Manor House, Crayford and he was educated at Wellington College. His father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, was a Post Office administrator; his mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the 6th Duke of Manchester. According to Peter Penzoldt, his father, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Aickman
Robert Fordyce Aickman (27 June 1914 – 26 February 1981) was an English writer and conservationist. As a conservationist, he co-founded the Inland Waterways Association, a group which has preserved from destruction and restored England's inland canal system. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories". The writer of his obituary in ''The Times'', as quoted by Mike Ashley, said, "... his most outstanding and lasting achievement was as a writer of what he himself like to call 'strange tales.' He brought to these his immense knowledge of the occult, psychological insights and a richness of background and characterisation which rank his stories with those of M.R. James and Walter de la Mare." Ashley, Mike. "In Memoriam: Robert Fordyce Aickman", ''Fantasy Newsletter'' (June 1981), p. 13. Ashley himself wrote: "Aickman's writings are an acquired taste like fine wines. I have no doubt that his work will always remain unknown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, Lady Amis (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist, author of 12 novels including the best-selling series ''The'' ''Cazalet Chronicles''. Early life Howard's parents were timber-merchant Major David Liddon Howard MC (1896–1958), son of timber-merchant Alexander Liddon Howard (1863-1946), and Katharine Margaret ('Kit') Somervell (1895–1975), a dancer with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and daughter of the composer Sir Arthur Somervell. (One of her brothers, Colin, lived with her and her third husband, Kingsley Amis, for 17 years.) Mostly educated at home, she briefly attended Francis Holland School before attending domestic-science college at Ebury Street and secretarial college in central London. Career Howard worked briefly as an actress in provincial repertory and occasionally as a model before her writing career, which began in 1947. ''The Beautiful Visit'' (1950), Howard's first novel, was described as "distinctive, sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Aycliffe
Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 he published a number of essays on current events with a Middle Eastern focus at the Gatestone Institute, of which he is a Senior Fellow. He was a Senior Editor from 2009 to 2010 at ''Middle East Quarterly'', a publication of the American think tank Middle East Forum, where he is also a Fellow. From 2006-2015 MacEoin wrote a blog entitled ''A Liberal Defence of Israel'', "designed to correct the false impression that Israel is an illiberal, fascist, or apartheid state." In 2007 he authored a report entitled ''The Hijacking of British Islam'', which garnered considerable criticism labelling him as a neo-conservative and accusations of forgery. As a novelist, MacEoin wrote under the pen names Daniel Easterman and Jonathan Aycliffe. MacEoin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films. Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", and Robert Hadji has described him as "perhaps the finest living exponent of the British weird fiction tradition", while S. T. Joshi stated, "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood." In a 2021 appreciation of his collected works, The Washington Post said, " ken together, they constitute one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction." Overview Early life and work Campbell was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Horror Guild Award
The International Horror Guild Award (also known as the IHG Award) was an accolade recognizing excellence in the field of Horror fiction, horror/dark fantasy, presented by the International Horror Guild (IHG) from 1995 to 2008. The IHG Awards were determined by a jury of notable horror/dark fantasy critics and reviewers, which has included Edward Bryant, Ann VanderMeer, Stefan Dziemianowicz, William Sheehan, Fiona Webster and Hank Wagner. Nomination suggestions were accepted from the public. The annual awards were usually announced during a special presentation at a convention or other event, and IHG Award presentations have been held at the World Fantasy Convention, the World Horror Convention and Dragon*Con. Originally in the form of a "winged dog gargoyle" figure on a base, in 2002 the IHG Award was redesigned as a black, tombstone-shaped and free-standing plaque. The Living Legend Award had the same design, but in clear acrylic. Presentations References External links Abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
