June 2008:
Reggie Oliver now has his own dedicated website. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, you may need to wait for a few moments for the soundtrack to download. The sounds you will hear include a medieval Gregorian requiem (played backwards) and the growls of various animals (also played backwards).
We’ve been very fortunate in acquiring two rather unique items of ghostly interest. The first is a letter from Rhoda Broughton to a fan dated 1879 in which she discusses her inspiration for two of her ghost stories (“The Truth, The Whole Truth & Nothing But The Truth” and “Behold It Was A Dream). Broughton advises that one of the stories was based upon a story her aunt had told her, but that she had transplanted the tale from Ireland to England (the aunt was most likely Susanna Bennett, wife of her uncle J. Sheridan Le Fanu). The second item is a lovely bright copy of R. Murray Gilchrist’s The Stone Dragon & Other Tragic Romances, signed by the author and presented to his friend and fellow Yellow Book contributor Richard la Gallienne. We’ll be adding scans of both to the book collecting page mentioned below.
May 2008:
We’re having a clear out to free up a bedroom and are disposing of all our small press books, inclusive of some Reggie Oliver titles and some signed titles by obscure publishers such as Sarob and Ashtree Press. Here’s the appropriate link to the Ebay auctions.
April 2008:
March 2008:
We’ve tidied things and have added a direct link to the various pieces of original writing available on the website. By public demand, we have made The Tableaux available again for online viewing.
February 2008:
It is with regret that I have to announce that we will no longer post books to the USA or Europe unless it is to trusted friends. There seems to have been something of an ‘open season’ on out-of-print Haunted River books. Although prices on the second-hand market have rocketed, we have been happy to pass on the last few copies at list price, but alas this has led to a spate of allegedly missing or non-received books. Never have so many gone missing in such a short space of time.
January 2008:
I hope to attend Reggie Oliver’s UK launch of Masques Of Satan on Sunday 17th February (childcare allowing). Should anyone find themselves in Suffolk on that day wishing to attend, please drop me a line and I will pass on more specific details. UPDATE: The launch was well-attended and some of it was filmed. It was especially pleasant to meet with Lord Probert of Portishead. Lord Probert allowed me to examine his priceless collection of velvet garters, which, according to his latest entry in Burke’s Peerage, has already been bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum.
December 2007:
The BBC will be screening a number of top quality ghost dramas this Christmas including the hitherto unrepeated 1970s drama ‘The Exorcism’. However, although beautifully shot, ‘The Haunted Airman’ [2005] departs from Dennis Wheatley’s original novel to provide a rationalized ending, so probably should not qualify as a ‘ghost story’. Inexplicably, the BBC still has not prioritised the repeat of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ [1989] and Le Fanu’s ‘Schalken The Painter’ [1979] even though both dramas are of greater literary importance than any of the M.R. James tales, and nor have they started adapting the strange tales of Robert Aickman, who is perhaps the greatest author of the supernatural tale in the last century.
Edits & revisions to site: we constantly edit the various pages on the website depending upon inclination and time. If we’ve removed something you would like to read again please feel free to drop us a line via the contact page. For example, we removed an amusing piece about a hoax perpetrated on the stuffy proprietors of the Ghost Story Society but will quite happily republish it again if anyone is interested.
November 2007:
According to the blurb for the new Reggie Oliver volume it is only now that the author’s writing potential has finally been achieved. This comes as news to both myself and Mr Oliver, and presumably will also do so to the various people who so highly rated his first two volumes, The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini and The Complete Symphonies Of Adolf Hitler. On a more positive note, advance congratulations to the author for the obvious quality of the artwork and design of The Masques Of Satan.
October 2007:
A world’s first: no photographs of the legendary horror writer “R.R.Ryan” have ever been seen - until now, that is. The Haunted River has unearthed a publicity photograph. Click here to view.
September 2007:
I hate blogs so I’ve started one. You’d be well-advised to steer clear of it. Misanthropic rants mostly.
A very powerful random clip by a genius of film: Mulholland Drive.
After having watched a harrowing documentary on the plight of children in Bulgarian Orphanages on BBC4 we have listed a small number of rare vintage ghost story books on Ebay with the proceeds going to a Save The Orphans charity. Click here for more details. We shall try to list a couple of books every month for this cause. NB. If anyone is aware of a charity which directly supports work in East European orphanages please drop us a line via the contact page. * UPDATE *: Thanks to those of you who bid - your donations of circa £190.00 are guaranteed by MissionFish.
Network DVD have just reissued the much-maligned ITV production of Casting The Runes. Although it is a significant improvement upon the grainy bootleg copies which have been doing-the-rounds for a couple of years, the film proves that screenwriter and director Lawrence Gordon Clark produced his best work when with the BBC. Casting The Runes suffers from appalling production quality and very poor editing. The DVD also features an intriguing 20 minute childrens’ version of Mr Humphries And His Inheritance - which despite some overly heavily musical soundtracking is nevertheless an interesting little piece - and the hideous travesty which is the savagely edited Anglia TV documentary A Pleasant Terror: The Ghost Stories Of M.R. James. Approximately fifteen minutes have been pruned from the wonderful original, notably the clips from the BBC ‘Ghost Story For Christmas’ series. Still, at £7.99 inc delivery you can’t grumble at the price.
Elsewhere on the internet we have discovered and can recommend the curiously hypnotic video entitled Kraftwerk Vs. Terrorism. Eins, zwei, drei, vier......
July 2007:
A leading genre magazine has accepted two of Christopher Barker’s new short stories for publication later this year: One Last Glastonbury and Subtle Differences. Both are original contemporary pieces. We will provide links nearer the time (they should appear late 2007). *UPDATE*. I pulled them back when it transpired that not only was the magazine closing but that the final issue had been delayed for several more months.
June 2007:
Lawrence Gordon Clark eat your heart out! A new version of M.R. James’ Lost Hearts has been spotted on Youtube by the delectable Arabella.. Harmonicatastic. (I know many of you won’t know about it but you’ll say did afterwards!) Personally I prefer period dramatizations of M.R. James. Hopefully though some bright student filmmakers will have a stab at dramatizing a Robert Aickman tale.
We would like to express our heartfelt sorrow for the untimely death of Marc Ramsbotham a few days ago in the Isle Of Man TT races. Mark was a very pleasant and amiable man who leaves behind two wonderful children. Alex sends her special love to Bronwyn.
May 2007:
Although I can’t reveal precise details, I have been commissioned to introduce and edit the republication of an obscure Victorian work, scheduled for publication later this year. More details in a month or two.
Click here for a review of Craftsman Audio Books first volume in the The Complete Ghost Stories OF M R James as read by David Collings.
March 2007:
There appears to be something of a rush to release new audio recordings of M.R. James’ ghost stories. In addition to the forthcoming Craftsman Audio Books production, Fantom Films are just a few short days away from releasing the first volume of their own collection, complete with specially composed incidental music. Samples are available via the website.
We’ve started work on a practical guidance sheet relating to coping with an autistic child. Hopefully this will be of some assistance to parents who suddenly learn that their child might be autistic. It’s only a very rough draft at the moment but we’d welcome any suggestions you might have.
February 2007:
An impressive new M.R. James essay titled Was Mr Abney A Good Man? has been added to our James section. In this we speculate who might be the real inspiration for Mr Abney.
January 2007:
It’s a bit late in the day to recommend something that’s already received various professional accolades, but we only caught The Mysterious Geographic Exploits Of Jasper Morello last night on BBC4. This superb animation possesses an eerie, gothic charm not dissimilar to Edward Gorey or Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride. It recreates an alternate world in which people live on land masses that float in the air. They travel via curious mechanised airships which were clearly inspired by late Victorian depictions of how air travel might one day evolve (with particular reference to the visualizations of H.G. Wells and George Griffith). The graphics are simply breathtaking. Of particular interest to those obsessed with melancholy literature is the story itself: people are dying from a mysterious lichen-like illness (echoes of William Hope Hodgson here), so a crew of explorers and navigators head off in search of a cure, and chance across a mysterious ‘ghost ship’ whose crew have vanished. They then discover an unknown island which is inhabited by vampiric plant creatures who feed off human blood. Sap from the plants can cure the lichen-like disease - but in order to cultivate the plants, they must feed upon humans.... It’s all very sinister and creepy and beautifully illustrated. Strongly recommended.
We have uploaded an essay on Robert Aickman. The Stains - Robert Aickman’s Swan Song first appeared two years ago in the magazine Supernatural Tales. According to the editor, it was well-received. Please click on the link to access the feature. NB. We have two more Aickman essays in the pipeline. One argues the case for Aickman having been directly inspired by one specific novel, the other makes a surprising discovery about a whole collection.
A huge thank you once again to those who purchased items for the East Anglian Childrens’ Hospices association. Your donations totalling circa £400-450 have now been forwarded to and received by the charity concerned. With the exception of one person, the winning bidders were all American collectors. Please note that we posted your books and / or prints via first class airmail at the end of last week. The items should be with you by circa January 15th. Prints were sent separately to books owing to the awkward size of the parcels. Apologies for not being able to post these sooner, but it took two whole days to source packing materials and wrap them all up, and this could only be started once school term had recommenced after the holidays.
* Vintage Supernatural Television *
Do you have an interest in classic British television of the supernatural variety? If so, we are seeking essays and articles on various aspects of the genre for an exciting new project. Please contact us for more details.
December 2006:
Look out, there’s something in the trees! They said it couldn’t be done, yet it has been done! Click here to see an edited version of the classic British horror film Night Of The Demon featuring Kate Bush’s ‘The Hounds Of Love’ as a soundtrack.
Special Chance to acquire Haunted River books & ephemera: Partly in response to requests from people who are keen to acquire copies of the two out-of-print Haunted River collections, we have managed to rustle up a half dozen copies of each title which we propose to list on the popular auction site Ebay. We shall be putting together several very special packages which will each include signed copies of both books (signed by both author and publisher) along with scarce limited booklets and artwork from the two collections. All of the proceeds will go to the East Anglian Children’s Hospices association who are happily already registered with Ebay. These unique lots will be put up for auction in early December. We shall post appropriate links nearer the time.
October 2006:
Sir Rufus Inkpaw cordially invites you to try Satire Fire.
New short story available on website
For a limited period only, we are making Christopher Barker’s story Larger Than One’s Mezzotint available to read as a PDF document on the website. This unpublished story has not been offered to any publisher, and constitutes a contemporary retelling of the classic M.R. James story The Mezzotint in the style of Robert Aickman.
New editorial assistant
We would like to welcome Arabella Loame onto the editorial team at Haunted River. Arabella is a graduate in English & American Literature whose thesis on ‘The Exegesis Of Supernatural Horror In Twentieth Century Literature’ is soon to appear as part of a larger work.
Email problems
After someone hacked in to our Ebay account we now suspect that our Outlook Express accounts have been intefered with too. If you have sent an email which you think may have gone astray, or you haven’t received a reply to an email that you think you should have, please accept our apologies and try emailing us again.
NICK DRAKE WEBPAGES: At the expense of much happiness I have been immersing myself in a study of Nick Drake, the highly talented songwriting genius who died miserably, aged 26.. The fruition of these endeavours comprises a webpage analysis of his music in addition to a novella entitled The Curious Melancholy Of Nicholas Parkes. Details to follow.
May 2006:
I’ve been a little busy on the home front so have yet to upload a review of Harold Billings’ biography of M.P. Shiel though hope to do so within a few days.
March 2006:
The Complete Symphonies Of Adolf Hitler has been shortlisted by the Dracula Society for it’s annual Children Of The Night award.
We can warmly recommend Harold Billings’ M.P. Shiel: A Biography Of The Early Years which has just been published by Roger Beacham. The book is set to become the definitive reference work on M.P. Shiel and represents a labour-of-love on behalf of the biographer. Featuring never-before published photographs, unique ephemera and a wealth of startling new revelations, this limited edition will sell out very quickly (the hardback is close to selling out as I type). Essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in M.P. Shiel. * Review to follow.*
May 2005:
Images from the June 1932 edition of Pearson’s Magazine depicting artwork for M.R. James tale The Mezzotint have been added to the M.R James page.
April 2005:
What with all this talk of elections, we wondered how the respective political parties would debate the important social and economic issues in Fireman Sam’s home town of Pontypandy. Click here for the answer. Click here for the real Fireman Sam.
March 2005:
We can confirm that the musical artist Peter Murphy (formerly of Bauhaus) has agreed, subject to other commitments, to appear in our supernatural play entitled One Last Glastonbury which is currently under consideration at the BBC. Mr Murphy has recently produced a new solo album and has a tour planned for 2005. He will also be getting back together with the other members of Bauhaus for a short series of concerts.
Apparently Mr Batchel now has his very own website at http://stonegroundparish.co.uk. Edmund Gill Swain chronicled some of his supernatural adventures in The Stoneground Ghost Tales.
Congratulations to Haunted River author and occasional editor Reggie Oliver for winning the Arthur Machen Society’s short story competition.
The respected scholar Dr Glen Cavaliero has agreed to contribute an introduction to the forthcoming Reggie Oliver collection. Dr Cavaliero is the author of the reference work The Supernatural & English Fiction.
February 2005:
We shall be producing a third issue of Weirdly Supernatural this year, publication expected late Spring.
A play by site owner Christopher Barker is currently under consideration with a leading UK broadcaster. A well-known indie ‘icon’ from the musical world has expressed interest in playing a part that was specially written for him, that of a demonic fortune-teller. The play - One Last Glastonbury - is a story of existential supernatural horror and will hopefully feature the music of Muse, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay and various other genre notables.
Reggie Oliver and Christopher Barker are working on scripts for possible radio dramatization, adapted from short stories which first featured in The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini.
Winter 2004:
Have been doing quite a lot of Christmas shopping recently. Otherwise pretty quiet on the news front.
Autumn 2004:
Click here to read A.D. Crake’s The Three Black Cats - the previously unknown short story which M.R. James appears to have plundered when writing The Ash-tree .
The Dark Demons Of Monty James is activated along with the publication of the controversial essay Unpleasant Demons: Cruelty In The Jamesian Tale. NB. Mr Reggie Oliver has agreed to contribute a scholarly study on the psycho-sexual undercurrents in the Jamesian tale for a future issue of Weirdly Supernatural.
A Small Press Awards Model has been added by way of illustrating how various genre bodies might improve their awards processes.
A new page of Ghostly Images has been added. Click here for details.
Images of several rare ghostly dustwrappers have been featured on a new page entitled Ghostly Images, accessible from the Elcectica page. Alternatively click here for immediate transportation. (Please allow a minute or two for the page to download properly if not using broadband.)
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