Tomb Tomes
00:39:02
About
In an effort to prove that the team all have a reading age above 6; we’ve decided to have a chat about some of the supernatural and horror books that we’ve enjoyed, both recently and over the years. Featuring discussions of Syd Moore’s “Essex Witch Museum” series; Rosemary Sutcliff’s Beowulf adaptation “Dragon Slayer”; Richard Daniels and Melody Phelan-Clark’s “The Occultaria Majesteria”; Hammer Films graphic guide “Infogothic”; Dead Ink anthology “Unquiet Guests”; and the British Library’s “Tales of the Weird Collection”. We keep these spoiler free, so no prep before the ep, just hopefully some great recommendations.
Transcript
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LeeGood evening and welcome to horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeHey, and we're here for something a little bit different, as we discussed previously.
LeeWe are all avid readers, and although it comes up now and again if it's something that we're discussing that was a book before it was a film, or if we discuss authors because yeah, again, because it was a book.
LeeBut we don't generally talk about books a lot, and considering the amount that we read and we discuss amongst ourselves with books, we decided it'd probably be a good idea to do a book episode.
LeeAnd maybe turn this into a bit of a, you know, every three or four episodes, maybe we'll discuss books as much as as much as we do film.
LeeApart from so Adam and I read a lot of horror, Chris reads a lot but not so much horror.
LeeSo we are hoping to rekindle the welcome to horrorness, we've getting him into another of the same genre in a different medium, but we'll see how that pans out really.
ChrisCan't argue with that.
ChrisAlthough I'm going to do my best to, you know, bring what might be unknown to both of you.
LeeMm.
ChrisBecause I've got one, I've got one here that I'm a little surprised and I'm going to see if either of you got any knowledge about as to why we haven't talked about it.
AdamYeah.
LeeSounds excellent.
LeeRight, so there will be no spoilers, I'm guessing, it's easier to do book spoiler free than films, funnily enough.
LeeAnd we're going to yeah, it's going to be pretty loose fitting this episode, so it's going to be our favorite authors and subgenres and everything, it's just going to be a bit more a little bit more relaxed really, because it's a it's a massive, massive, ridiculously big subject.
AdamThis this is our sort of kickoff into that area, I suppose.
LeeYes.
LeeI'm sure Joe said to us many, many years ago, are you ever going to do a book episode, and we did one.
LeeBut yeah, we've never really returned to it since, so I thought it would be nice to do something different.
LeeSo Chris, as you've been teasing us with something that you're going to, why don't you kick us off?
AdamYou literally Jezebel.
ChrisWe're going to see, we're going to see if this sinks or swims between the masses.
ChrisSo, so the reason I've picked this one is because a few reasons.
ChrisOne, it was on my bookshelf from when I was too young to read it, but I was old enough to be terrified by the cover.
ChrisAnd it's also, it turns out that it's a very old English, possibly one of the oldest English horror stories, written in English, but it's set in Denmark.
ChrisAnd so this version of it is called Dragon Slayer, Dragon Slayer, you can't quite see that.
LeeNo.
ChrisAnd it's a story of Beowulf.
AdamOh, wow.
ChrisWhich I assumed both of you would have heard of, and yet at that point, I was like, that's funny, I don't remember any of us ever mentioning it before.
AdamI don't think because I don't think it's come up in anything that we've covered.
ChrisNo, well, so I searched to see if there was a film, and there is.
LeeIt says.
Chriswell.
LeeOh.
ChrisI imagine there might be, but I mean, one came up on a quick search that has some prominent actors.
ChrisAnd I was like, that's funny, was it terrible?
AdamIt's a CGI there's a CGI I'm not sure if it's entirely CGI but sorry, animated would be the but I think they basically it's a very early sort of example of like scanning people into it.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo I presume you're talking about the one that had, I think Ray Winston was his Beowulf.
ChrisYes, yeah, he was Beowulf, yeah.
AdamAnd there's I can't remember, I'm sure is it Charlie Theron's in it maybe and just.
AdamBut yeah, but I I'll be honest, I've never seen it because it looked very, I remember seeing the trailer and it looked very cutscene.
ChrisYeah.
LeeI've not seen it either.
LeeYeah, I felt the same.
LeeLike I thought it was again, I had that impression that it was the first steps into something that would become a new thing, but it was too early and a bit chunky was my impression I got from the trailer, so yeah, a bit like yourself Adam.
LeeBut I don't know the story particularly, if I'm honest.
ChrisYeah, so so Beowulf and I think he had something like 12 men with him, comes over to Denmark to try to kill Grendel, the monster.
ChrisWhich he does succeed in doing, and then I think he hangs his arm up in in the hall.
ChrisThis leads on to a followup with Grendel's mother, who Beowulf then chases down to her home.
ChrisAnd yeah, like it's sort of funny because when I looked up how old the story was, I definitely have an impression that horror is more of a modern thing.
ChrisAnd so it's sort of funny to find there are stories from this age, and then it got me thinking, yeah, what is the actual oldest like ever discovered written horror story that exists at all?
ChrisBecause you know we talked about Dracula, like the earliest film.
LeeYeah.
ChrisWhich was.
AdamYeah, there's I mean, well, there's Nosferatu, obviously and yeah, because there were even, there's even like silent Edison versions of Frankenstein that's sort of like, you know, 15 minutes of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, just that's as much as they could afford to film.
ChrisSo yeah, so it was interesting talking about the films has been, you know, they that seems crazy early and then to sort of think about the stories, how far back do they go?
AdamBecause I think it's one of those interesting things that because a lot of a lot of mythology and a lot of folklore and a lot of these really old stories.
AdamI mean, like at the moment, obviously you've got The Odyssey, like Christopher Nolan.
ChrisWell, that I think that was also what drew me to this, because it it reminded me very much of it, yeah.
AdamAnd again, you've got things like the figure of the Cyclops in there, which is obviously very sort of horror.
AdamAnd I think it's it's a weird thing because I don't know if it's, because again, it's down to that fundamental of what horror is, does it, is it sort of design what it's designed to do?
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, in that sort of like like like for example, oh, I've written a ghost story designed to creep people out or whatever.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWhereas I think a lot of it is there's stuff, I mean, there's Arthurian stuff, like sort of like King Arthur and stuff like that, that definitely borders into horror.
AdamAnd a lot of this thing, I think mythology and folklore, and maybe it's just it's the bits that we're all interested in.
AdamSo we know it's like things like, you know, like the Lampdon Worm and stuff like that, well, they're all like they're they clearly are horror in their own way.
AdamBut I don't know if and and also I think there's the element of the further back you go, it looks like horror, but life was just really fucking brutal.
LeeOh yeah, yeah.
AdamYou know, it's like, oh, well, there's beheadings and people getting stabbed to death and chopped to pieces, and it was like, yeah, but that was probably a weekend.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, that was that was pretty average, you know.
ChrisBut I suppose that's why this, this kind of interesting because it is truly a monster, sitting outside in the dark and the cold and you're all in the warmth inside, and it's like, it's terrorizing you.
AdamAnd I think what I I love the fact as well because it is that thing that they defeat Grendel, but then it's Grendel, they then have to deal with Grendel's mother.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWhich that almost seems like a modern kind of an idea.
AdamBecause I'm I'm trying to think and it's it's really bugging me because somewhere in the back of my head that this came up like it came up as part of something I was reading about with one of the films we've done fairly recently.
AdamNow, I say fairly recently, that's the equivalent of 18 months cuz my brain is a scramble.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd you know, but I'm sure that they were sort of voicing it within something that we were watching.
AdamAnd I cannot for the bloody life of me remember what it was now.
AdamBut I think, you know, again, it was, I think it was because there was the element of you, they defeat Grendel, but they actually have to deal with a feminine like a female monster.
ChrisWith wrath.
AdamRight, yeah.
AdamAnd because that's the thing, is it's like, I mean, come on, Beowulf, you've just killed her kid, you know, it ain't going to it ain't going to go well for you, mate, you know, so.
ChrisAnd then the sort of final thing that stood out to me was the fact that it's this adaptation has been written by Rosemary Sutcliff and it gets republished every so often.
ChrisBut yeah, it's aimed at children, really.
ChrisAnd we've sort of talked about that before, like what gets you into horror.
ChrisSo, you know, like I definitely read horror stories when I was younger before having watched any of them on on TV or film.
AdamIt's stuff, I mean, obviously, I mean, the obvious one is is Grimm fairy tales.
ChrisYeah, exactly, yeah.
AdamAnd for me, a lot of it was, you know, myths and stuff, like, you know, Greek mythology and, you know, so on and so forth.
LeeI think folklore as well.
LeeI mean.
AdamYes.
LeeHow much of folklore has nearly all of it is sinister, there's something creepy in almost all of it, there's something about the fact that we like we like telling these tales and keeping them alive, but they're all scary.
LeeThere's never a oh, there's a lovely fairy down the road, and if you go into those woods, she'll give you some cakes, or you know, it's never that, it's always follow you home and kill you in your dreams.
LeeAlways, like, fucked up.
AdamIf anything, sort of as I've gone on looking at particularly at fairy folklore and stuff like that.
AdamThey have got excellent PR, because people have, you know, it has gone very much the sort of thing of, oh, there's lovely gentle fairy, oh no, you know, when you know, there's and to the point that I'm not even going to mouth it any further.
LeeYeah.
AdamOh.
LeeAh.
AdamYou know, I'm not I'm not running the fucking risk.
AdamBut yeah, I think that there's is that the point though, is that is it that the stuff that's maintained is the horrific stuff?
LeeMm.
AdamBecause it's the stuff that people want to hear.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's it's, you know, it's no no one ever tells you you're never told at school about a teacher who went there who was absolutely lovely or whatever like that.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's always it's always, oh, there was a teacher, yeah, and he got he got thrown out cuz he ate a kid's name.
LeeYeah.
AdamOr something, you know what I mean, like, you'd just be bullshit you were told about, well, you know, of course the library's haunted, it's like, no, it's not.
AdamNo one's fucking going in there, this is a fucking secondary school, that'd be fucking ridiculous.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, and I think you're right, I think it is and it is proof that we've always liked being scared.
LeeIt's always been out, you know, I mean with literature generally, I think that's the thing.
LeeLike, so I I still I love the classics, so I still love M.R. James, and Poe, and Lovecraft, and I love like I still go back to them regularly and reread them fairly regularly.
LeeBut yeah, outside of that, apart from kind of detective, you know, like the Sherlock Holmes and stuff, I don't really read anything that's over a hundred years like none of it works for me, none of it in any way engages me particularly.
LeeBut the horror stuff, for some reason, it just endures, and it seems to for a lot of people, I mean, more than most, I'd say.
LeeBut maybe that's just the circles I'm moving in, really.
LeeSo, Adam, over to you, what would you like to bring to the table?
AdamWell, I think that with while I'm going.
AdamSo, I'm going to go somewhat up-to-date.
AdamAnd, I'm going to talk about the Occultarian Magisteria.
LeeYes.
AdamA paranormal compendium by the Occultaria of Albion.
LeeFantastic book.
AdamAnd I, the reason I'm going to talk about this is because we were like we were just saying about mythology and things like that.
AdamSo, it's written by Richard Daniels and illustrated by Melody Failing Clark.
AdamWho are lovely people as well as anything else, you know.
AdamBut, so I've spoken about, yeah, that's it.
LeeYeah.
AdamI've spoken about I'm waving my copy as well up in the beginning.
LeeI'm waving my copy as well up in the beginning.
ChrisI've mine somewhere.
AdamI've spoken about the Occultarian before on here because they were release it, well, still releases like zenes.
AdamAnd that you could buy, and it's basically building up this a sort of own, it's his own mythologies that he's coming up with, he's coming up with his own cryptids, he's coming up with his own stories of, you know, and.
AdamThat's that's not wishing to sort of remove the the veil or anything else like that, that it's written as these are genuine things that are occurring out in the wilderness and everything, and the Occultaria of Albium has become such a.
AdamBrilliant world of itself.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd the story goes that it was originally started by two journalists and then Richard Daniels has become the custodian of their files and is continuing the investigation and everything else like that.
AdamAnd so, they released the Occultarian Magisteria, which is a sort of it's I would say about the size of the classic Usborne books, like the Usborne Book of Ghosts and Book of Monsters and so on and so forth.
AdamAnd now, I've just been reading it myself, and along with the fantastic illustrations, Ted became really interested in it, and we've actually been reading it together.
LeeOh, nice.
AdamSo, if I'm if I'm reading it, I've sort of like I've he's been sort of like over my shoulder and I'm reading it to him and everything else like that.
ChrisAnd that's not to to be a negative that it might appeal to the youngest, but it but yeah, the the illustrations and the style is definitely friendly enough.
AdamIt's just visually strong.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd he's really sort of taken with it, and Ted Ted likes he well, he's unfortunately been indoctrinated by his father, but he does like, you know, weird stuff and things like that.
AdamBut he's reading it the same way that I read the Usborne Book of Ghosts.
ChrisMm.
AdamSo he's reading it, he's going, oh like and he's sort of, I I suspect going in and talking to his he's probably talking to his friends at school about the Magpie Man or the Fat Beast and things like that.
AdamAnd it's just, and like I say, it's all of Occultarian of Albion stuff is just really worth it.
AdamReading because it's just wonderfully imaginative, but it's got a really lovely line of humor in there.
AdamAnd a sort of I I don't know, it's that sort of joining of the everyday to, you know, I'm trying I'm trying to think, I'm grasping my head for an example and I can't find one at the moment.
AdamBut it will be, you know, there's sort of like, right, we're talking about these monstrous things, but don't go there on Thursdays cuz it's dart's night and you won't see anything.
LeeAnd.
AdamThat's not one of their jokes, that's not, you know, that's not even approaching how good the work is.
AdamBut it's.
ChrisBut so yeah, so so that's what I wondered about it, so ultimately it comes across satirical because of that element, but where does it lead to with the seriousness?
AdamWell, because I think that there is it's just again, it's about establishing myths, it's about establishing new myths, and I think that that goes hand in hand with it.
AdamIt's not a, I think satire's probably the right word.
AdamBecause it's definitely not a parody, because a parody is something I would say that pokes fun at something or is trying to undermine it.
AdamI don't think this is a book that is written by people who love with that absolute love, and you just want to build another mythology.
ChrisYeah, okay.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, you want to build extend it and make more magic in the world, this isn't a book of sort of, this isn't a book for sort of like, oh, look at the silly s who bigfoot videos or whatever like that.
AdamThis isn't isn't that, this is done from an absolute place of love and just so creative and so well done.
AdamAnd actually, I have got because I've always been very much the case that I think that horror works best in the short story form.
AdamThere are great horror novels.
AdamBut I always love a short story.
AdamAnd uh Richard Daniels has also published a book of horror shorts.
AdamWhich again, follows the same vein, it's really.
ChrisDo you think that's that's because getting too much into the details sometimes then loses the effect, because really you want to build up the imagination?
AdamI think it's because horror at its heart is like a joke.
ChrisMm.
AdamIt should be, you know, you can do a big long routine.
ChrisYeah.
AdamOr you can do a knock-knock.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd I think that knock-knock horror, for want of a better expression, is my preferred form.
AdamWhen it's when it's subversion and it's that gag, because I think.
ChrisSubversion and unexpected, yeah.
AdamYeah, because I think actually, like you say, I think there's an element where examination can be you're trying to suspend this belief for too long.
ChrisStarts to lose. Yeah, yeah, mm.
AdamYou know, especially because, I mean, that's the thing, for example, that that I always say I really liked about The Exorcist, is there is the element of, well, she's gone to doctors and she's gone to psychiatrists and she's gone to medical people and everything else like that, who don't find an explanation.
AdamAlthough I still maintain that if your daughter's head turns 360 degrees, I'd imagine that the medical profession would be interested.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, I I don't think they'll be dismissive at that point.
AdamBut, yeah, I think that yeah, a short because.
AdamNot only that, but also I think it allows you to do something horrible without you don't want too much in the way of explanation.
ChrisMm.
LeeThis is my thing, this is what I love is and I'm the same as you, Adam, I like a nice short story.
LeeAnd I think it's because I don't want too much explained to me, like if you do if you were someone who is an unbeliever, if you were to experience a haunting, the chances of experiencing that haunting and then managing to go back and find out why it happened and who's involved and the dates involved is such a small chance.
LeeIt's more likely you're just going to see the haunting with no explanation.
LeeAnd that's what a short story is, it just gives you that snapshot of this really scary thing happened.
LeeAnd that's it, it doesn't have to, it doesn't have to have the whole backstory for it to work.
LeeIt just works as a standalone, this happened, it scared the piss out of me, end of story.
LeeAnd I like that.
ChrisOn Thursday.
LeeIt's.
AdamIt's like an anecdote almost.
AdamAnd I because I think actually and because I mean weirdly enough, I think the ones that do do a similar thing.
AdamLike Nigel Kneale's stuff, you always get they'll go back and look at records.
LeeMm.
AdamBut it always turns out it's like, no, we're just going to put on that there's more more people have experienced this.
AdamDoesn't necessarily actually then go here's a 400 year old curse or here's.
AdamYou know, the ring or whatever like that.
AdamIt's it works just slightly.
AdamI mean, even M.R. James will always have like a, you know, he'll have cursed objects and things like that, but even then, it's pretty vague.
LeeYeah, always.
LeeAnd that's what I love about it.
LeeIt is.
LeeIt's that if you blow the whistle, a thing comes.
LeeYou don't know where it came from, you don't know how it became linked to the object, none of that is ever given to you.
LeeYou just get the snapshot of somebody did something.
LeeThey set a series of events in motion, this is the series of events.
LeeThere's not there isn't a massive backstory or and I love that.
LeeI think that's so good.
ChrisYeah.
LeeSo.
LeeAnd I think actually that's where a lot of.
Leefranchises go wrong within horror.
ChrisMm.
LeeIs because as soon as you start picking the threads.
LeeYou either demystify it or make it absurd.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah, actually.
LeeIt's either you either jump the shark where people are just like, well, that's just got fucking stupid now.
LeeOr you just like, actually, now I know more about this, it's not as scary as it was the fucking first time.
ChrisIt's it's the explained magic trick.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt is, it is, it's exactly that.
LeeEven if you had supernatural elements, if you over-explain it and give you too much information, it does lose its, yeah, its creepiness somehow.
ChrisMm.
LeeYeah.
LeeExcellent.
LeeBut yeah.
LeeYeah, I agree, I thought it was a great book, really enjoyed it.
LeeAs you say, I do like the, it is, it's that really good blend of.
LeeSort of it feels folkloric, but it's it's just fun fiction and it's funny and it's yeah.
LeeIt's really.
ChrisSure.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's a great book as well.
LeeIt's a great book for bed, cuz it's one of those ones, if you if you can sit up and read a couple of chapters, it's great, but equally, if you pick it up and read a hundred words and you're too tired and you just pass out, it's all in segments.
LeeYeah.
ChrisStill get a lot from it.
LeeExactly.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd.
AdamAnd as I say.
AdamI mean.
AdamThat's the thing.
AdamIs I'm just really it's just really gratifying to me to see Ted really sort of embracing it.
AdamAnd just going, and like I say, that could be it'll be I got the feeling it could be one of those things where it's just like.
AdamHe'll have a battered copy of that in 30 years time, saying, oh bloody hell, my dad used to read that, you know, sort of pick it up at a book fair or something and just be like, yeah, transported back.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, no, it is it is it is so much like the Usborne books, it's yeah.
LeeIt's got a lot in common with that.
LeeYeah.
LeeExcellent.
LeeLove it.
LeeI would like to discuss a new series of books, so Sid Moor, who I can't remember.
LeeI'm pretty sure I would have raved massively about Sid Moor when we did our first book episode, because it was one of the things that got me back into reading a lot.
LeeSo she wrote The Essex Witch Museum series.
AdamOh, yes.
LeeSo Sid Moor is from Essex, and all of her books, with the exception of the later ones, I'm about to talk about.
LeeAll take place in Essex, they're all set around Southend and Leigh-on-Sea.
LeeAnd the thing I love about her books are, one, they're a perfect blend of horror, comedy, and detective.
LeeAll of the you know, the Essex ones, as well as The Drowning Pool and Witching Hour, they're all that same.
LeeBut yeah, it's it she takes local folklore and wraps it up in her fictional stories.
LeeSo it's always got a kind of familiar feel because it's a story you know so well.
LeeBut it's told in a slightly different angle.
LeeAnd it's.
LeeIt's brilliant, and I I say I love them.
LeeAdam Laws switched me on to them.
LeeI had a long period where I hadn't read a lot, I'd been reading one or two books a year for a few years, and he said to me, oh, have you heard about The Essex Witch Museum series?
LeeAnd I hadn't.
LeeAnd I bought the first one, and I read it in like a week, and then I went and bought the second one, and I think there were three out at the time.
LeeYeah, and it's become a bit of a ritual now, whenever Sid Moor's new books come out.
LeeI pre-order it, I book a day off of work, pray to God that it arrives on the day it's supposed to.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd then I sit there from whenever it's delivered until, you know, midnight that night and just read them.
LeeBecause yeah, I just I can't I can't get through them quick enough.
LeeThe new ones, I think Adam, you would particularly like.
LeeSo, the two new ones are The Grand Illusion and The Great Deception.
AdamMm-hm.
LeeThey work in a very similar way.
LeeBut the story is basically it's a magician's assistant who's been drafted in during World War II, you know, they did all this stuff because Hitler was such a big believer in the occult.
AdamYes, yeah.
LeeBasically, the first book is a fictionalized version of that where this woman who's a magician's assistant has been brought in to do that, but actually, a bit like with the Essex Witch ones, it turns out it's not.
LeeIt might all be imaginary, it might not.
LeeIt might again.
LeeYeah.
LeeBrilliant.
ChrisI like that aspect.
LeeI do.
LeeI I love the fact that it's always that so much of her stuff.
LeeCan be so open to interpretation, so whether you come at it wanting it to be supernatural or you come at it wanting to be something you can talk your way out of.
LeeIt's always that grey area.
LeeAnd it just I think it's brilliantly done.
LeeI mean.
ChrisThat is so clever to be able to pull that off effectively.
LeeExactly, like to to be able to do it and be like, it works on either side of the fence, it's just incredible, so good.
LeeYeah, and then The Great Deception is the second book in that series.
LeeWhich goes over to Iceland when we when we basically the Allies had occupation of Iceland, who were a neutral country.
LeeBut because they said look, the Nazis are going to try and take Iceland because it's it's going to be.
LeeUseful for them if they're pushing this way.
ChrisWho would ever try to take Iceland?
LeeYeah.
LeeChris and I've been to Iceland.
LeeI should say.
LeeWe didn't see we didn't see much apart from the inside of a conference.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisAnd quite a lot of ice.
LeeAnd quite a lot of ice.
LeeIt was cold as fuck, I remember.
ChrisIt was.
AdamI'd hope so.
AdamOh.
AdamWhy is it.
AdamOtherwise they're really not living up to their name.
ChrisAlthough Greenland does a good job and that doesn't really make much sense.
AdamYeah.
LeeTalking of insults occupations, but let's not go there.
ChrisYeah.
LeeBut yeah.
LeeSo it's.
LeeYeah, so I I love that this whole new element has been opened up, and again, it's the same.
LeeIt has that it's it's parts of true history, but with this supernatural vein running through it, and it's just, yeah, it's fantastic.
LeeSo anyone who hasn't checked out the work of Sid Moor.
ChrisS Y D.
LeeShort for Sydney, I suppose.
LeeOh, I don't know.
LeeBut.
LeeYeah, but I have read every book she's released.
LeeAnd there isn't a single one that I would say, it was okay, like they're all exceptional.
LeeEven I know, obviously, they have a particular place for me because, as they would for all of us, because the places she talks about, I know that so well.
LeeSo the Essex Witch ones take place in a fictional village, but it's so much like villages that we all know that are around here.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, I say.
LeeAnd, you know, The Drowning Pool is in Leigh-on-Sea, and Mistley and all those.
LeeLike those are places that are right on our doorstep.
LeeThat we've all been.
LeeSo, yeah.
LeeCheck out anything that Sid Moore does, cuz it's always absolutely exceptional.
LeeRight, we've got 10 minutes left.
LeeSo, Chris, over to you, real quick.
ChrisQuick, quick one.
ChrisAll right.
ChrisSo, this is a a book that Adam kindly got me, along with the previous one that we were talking about, and I don't know if we can see this the Infographic.
AdamOh, yes.
LeeOh, yes.
ChrisSo it's the the graphic guide to Hammer Horror.
ChrisAnd it's it's kind of mad just how much you know Hammer have done.
ChrisReally, you think you start going through it, you're like, you could probably spend years just studying their films alone.
AdamYeah.
ChrisBut yeah, and what was interesting it it I think it was nominated or like had a mention at the Information is Beautiful awards.
ChrisWhich was a book that Toby had been like obsessed with for ages.
ChrisAnd you can see going through it, it's like it's done such a great job of presenting all the information.
ChrisYou think like how much effort it must be to sit down, sort through it all, and then figure out how you want to present it all.
AdamThere's there's a beautiful because there's a there's quite a few of them now.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamI remember years ago Claire got me a Marvel one, like an infographic of Marvel, there's Doctor Who ones, there's there's quite a few of them now.
AdamAnd they are stunningly beautiful.
AdamYou know, and you could just spend so long just staring at how they've decided to arrange the information.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut they're also they are genuinely genuinely brilliant ways of imparting the knowledge, rather than having like a doorstep-sized book that just.
AdamYou know, that is all the facts, there's nothing wrong with a book like that, but I think you know, those those graphic ones that are just so.
AdamSo accessible.
ChrisSo accessible.
ChrisYou can get.
ChrisStraight.
ChrisInto it.
AdamStraight into it.
LeeIt makes the information stick as well, doesn't it?
LeeWhen it's.
LeeLike that's the thing, it's all very well having all of the knowledge and doing all of the research.
LeeIf you can't deliver it in a way that's punchy and memorable.
LeeMemorable.
LeeMemorable.
LeeMemorable.
AdamMemorable.
LeeIt's the heat, I'm going to blame that.
ChrisIt's also warmed up again today, yeah.
LeeOh.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's been horrific.
LeeBut yeah, so it it it's finding a way to present the information.
LeeThat actually makes it nice to ingest, and I think that's what those books do.
LeeLike they just they make it stick.
LeeThey really do, cuz it's it's.
ChrisThe slight downside.
ChrisIs that doesn't lend itself to an audio podcast.
LeeYeah.
AdamOh.
ChrisWe'll have to turn the video on, but.
LeeYeah.
LeeOh.
LeeIt wouldn't encourage people to go and check them out.
LeeYeah.
LeeYes, right, Adam, quickly, what are your next.
AdamI'm going to.
AdamWell, I'm.
AdamI'm just going to do this one because this uh Sarah got me this, my sister.
AdamShe got me this for Christmas, I believe.
AdamChristmas and my birthday right next to each other.
AdamSo I'm sort of like, was it Christmas or was it my birthday?
LeeChristmas.
AdamI can't remember.
AdamBut this is from.
AdamThis is from Dead Dead Ink Press.
AdamAnd it's a an anthology called Unquiet Guests, edited by Dan Coxon.
ChrisOh.
AdamAnd it's basically it's just on its own, it's a beautiful object because it's like hardback and yeah.
AdamJust beautiful.
AdamBut, you've got basically sort of variants on haunted house stories.
AdamBut we're talking Matthew Holness, aka Garth Marenghi.
AdamAnd Will Maclean, Grady Hendricks, who did The Horror Store book.
AdamYou know, the one that's like that's kind of like an IKEA catalog, but also a horror story.
AdamSo, and just yeah.
AdamAnd some Chuck Palahniuk, who did Fight Club.
AdamAnd various others here, let me just read through.
AdamSo Claire Fuller, Clay MacLeod Chapman, Kirsty Logan, that was a really good one.
AdamAli Wilks.
AdamErenson Ojo.
AdamAnd Alison Moore.
LeeNice.
AdamSorry, Erenson Ojo. Akoji, I apologize if I've said that wrong.
ChrisWe've found a word you can't pronounce, that's impressive.
AdamBut yeah, so and it's just a great series of really good stories.
AdamWill Maclean's one is fantastic.
AdamMatt Holness.
AdamHis one felt like a Will Maclean one.
LeeReally.
AdamWhich is weird cuz it's like cuz it's people going back and sort of like looking back from their childhood.
AdamAnd things like that, but yeah, just an absolutely great little collection.
AdamAnd again, I love an anthology and I love horror short stories.
AdamAnd they're a great bunch in there.
AdamIt's a really good a proper spine-chiller, so.
LeePerfect.
LeeExcellent.
LeeAnd that leads me nicely into mine.
LeeSo I've recently over the last few years been checking out the British Library's Tales of the Weird.
AdamOh, yes.
AdamChris has got me a few of those.
LeeOh, they are so fucking good.
LeeSo the British Library have been taking all of these short stories that are lesser known and grouping them into what seems like really abstract groups.
LeeBut it's so good.
LeeYeah.
LeeSo one of my favorites was The Haunted Library, Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves.
LeeAnd it's a whole it's a whole book of literally just the story of cursed cursed literature.
LeeAnd they.
LeeYeah, and it's and they've done so so they did a Christmas one, Spirit of the Season.
LeeWhich was just stories placed at Christmas, and the second one, Sunless Solstice.
LeeWhich was again, all just stories set around that time of year.
LeeI've also.
LeeI haven't got it in front of me, but somewhere I've got one, it's literally just stories about cursed hands, which I bought last year and I've not got around to reading yet.
AdamYeah.
LeeUm.
LeeYeah.
LeeLike just really obscure stuff, but they just, they just managed to find all these and you think, how can there be that many stories about cursed hands or about cursed books?
LeeBut they're just fantastic, and hardly any of them, like, yeah, none of them feel like filler, they all feel like they've whittled down from 50 stories to the 10 they've put in the book.
LeeAnd they're just fantastic.
LeeAnd there's loads and loads of them.
LeeI mean, obviously.
LeeThey've got a huge pool to to source from.
LeeBut yeah, they are just absolutely incredible.
LeeAnd I'm I'm excited every they go Jennifer gets one every year for Christmas, at least one.
LeeBecause yeah, I just every year I go through and go, oh, they've got a new one out, well, she's definitely getting that.
LeeI said, I get to read it two weeks later when she's finished it.
AdamIt's a beautiful system.
LeeTruly is.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd it's just, yeah, blown away by it, and the amount of authors who I'd never even heard of, you know.
LeeSometimes it's people who've only written half a dozen stories and just wrote them for newspapers and stuff like that, like stuff that never got like full publishing.
LeeAnd they just put them in there, and they're just amazing, so, so good.
AdamYeah.
LeeYes, so.
LeeGo and read more.
AdamYeah.
LeeAs.
LeeYeah.
LeeSo check out all the stuff we've been discussing.
LeeWe're going to be back in a fortnight's time.
LeeAdam, what are we going to be covering?
AdamWe are going to be covering in in line with our book tone, we're going to be looking at the works of one R. Chetwynd-Hayes in the anthology film The Monster Club.
ChrisOoh.
LeeThis film is.
AdamIt's.
ChrisI think you might like this one, Lee.
LeeOh, I know.
LeeI gush about this film because it is.
LeeThis is one of my late night movies.
LeeThis is one of my, oh, it's a bit late, it's 1:00 in the morning, I've got half a beer left, I'm going to put this on and I'll pick one of the stories at random and watch it.
LeeCuz I just want something that's going to entertain me for 15, 20 minutes.
LeeThis comes out more than most because it's just such a great film and it's so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeGo and read more.
LeeYeah, so check out all the stuff we've been discussing.
LeeWe're going to be back in a fortnight's time.
LeeAdam, what are we going to be covering?
AdamWe are going to be covering in in line with our book tone, we're going to be looking at the works of one R. Chetwynd-Hayes in the anthology film The Monster Club.
ChrisOoh.
LeeThis film is.
AdamIt's.
ChrisI think you might like this one, Lee.
LeeOh, I know.
LeeI gush about this film because it is.
LeeThis is one of my late night movies.
LeeThis is one of my, oh, it's a bit late, it's 1:00 in the morning, I've got half a beer left, I'm going to put this on and I'll pick one of the stories at random and watch it.
LeeCuz I just want something that's going to entertain me for 15, 20 minutes.
LeeThis comes out more than most because it's just such a great film and it's so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeGo and read more.
LeeYeah, so check out all the stuff we've been discussing.
LeeWe're going to be back in a fortnight's time.
LeeAdam, what are we going to be covering?
AdamWe are going to be covering in in line with our book tone, we're going to be looking at the works of one R. Chetwynd-Hayes in the anthology film The Monster Club.
ChrisOoh.
LeeThis film is.
AdamIt's.
ChrisI think you might like this one, Lee.
LeeOh, I know.
LeeI gush about this film because it is.
LeeThis is one of my late night movies.
LeeThis is one of my, oh, it's a bit late, it's 1:00 in the morning, I've got half a beer left, I'm going to put this on and I'll pick one of the stories at random and watch it.
LeeCuz I just want something that's going to entertain me for 15, 20 minutes.
LeeThis comes out more than most because it's just such a great film and it's so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeGo and read more.
LeeYeah, so check out all the stuff we've been discussing.
LeeWe're going to be back in a fortnight's time.
LeeAdam, what are we going to be covering?
AdamWe are going to be covering in in line with our book tone, we're going to be looking at the works of one R. Chetwynd-Hayes in the anthology film The Monster Club.
ChrisOoh.
LeeThis film is.
AdamIt's.
ChrisI think you might like this one, Lee.
LeeOh, I know.
LeeI gush about this film because it is.
LeeThis is one of my late night movies.
LeeThis is one of my, oh, it's a bit late, it's 1:00 in the morning, I've got half a beer left, I'm going to put this on and I'll pick one of the stories at random and watch it.
LeeCuz I just want something that's going to entertain me for 15, 20 minutes.
LeeThis comes out more than most because it's just such a great film and it's so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeGo and read more.
LeeYeah, so check out all the stuff we've been discussing.
LeeWe're going to be back in a fortnight's time.
LeeAdam, what are we going to be covering?
AdamWe are going to be covering in in line with our book tone, we're going to be looking at the works of one R. Chetwynd-Hayes in the anthology film The Monster Club.
ChrisOoh.
LeeThis film is.
AdamIt's.
ChrisI think you might like this one, Lee.
LeeOh, I know.
LeeI gush about this film because it is.
LeeThis is one of my late night movies.
LeeThis is one of my, oh, it's a bit late, it's 1:00 in the morning, I've got half a beer left, I'm going to put this on and I'll pick one of the stories at random and watch it.
LeeCuz I just want something that's going to entertain me for 15, 20 minutes.
LeeThis comes out more than most because it's just such a great film and it's so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeGo and read more.
LeeGo and watch The Monster Club.
LeeAnd we'll see you all in a fortnight's time.
LeeThanks very much for listening.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
