Occult & Horror Fiction 1

I must admit I am not much of a fan of horror fiction. Call me squeamish if you like, but it is not a genre I would go out of my way to collect. However, I do have a small selection, mostly from the occult side of the spectrum. I don’t mind the supernatural or the spooky at all.

First up an interesting supernatural thriller by Thomas Bontly, called Celestial Chess with a striking cover illustration. This Ballantine paperback was published in 1980.

 

Suzy McKee Charnas is well known for her feminist dystopian trilogy which began with Walk To The End Of The World and is generally referred to as the Holdfast Chronicles. She also penned this superior vampire novel, The Vampire Tapestry.

This paperback was published in 1981 by Pocket Books.

An Affair of Sorcerers is a novel in George C Chesbro in his Mongo The Magnificent  series of detective novels, so probably this book belongs in the crime fiction section, despite having sorcerers in its title, though the cover image looks spooky. This book was published by Signet in 1979.

Another two vampire novels, this time by Nancy A Collins, Sunglasses After Dark, and its sequel, In the Blood. Sunglasses was her first published novel and is an interesting take on the vampire genre, and has a rather stylish cover. There’s a whole series of Sonja Blue novels, but these are the only two I’ve read or indeed possess.

I will finish this entry with two old style occult novels, firstly The Witch of Prague by F. Marion Crawford, published in the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult in 1974,  and  Moonchild by Aleister Crowley in an old 1971 Avon edition.

More occult and horror to follow.

General Fiction – Aleister Crowley, Robertson Davies, Lisa St Aubin de Teran Del Piombo, Nigel Dennis and Francesca Duranti

Apologies for the long silence and hiatus between posts, but expect more frequent updates from now on as I’ve retired from work and finally my time is my own.

So to welcome the new year, the peculiar and purportedly autobiographical Diary of A Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley, this edition by Samuel Weiser Inc  was published in 1970. One chapter is memorable for being entitled A Heroin Heroine.

 

Quite a different kettle of fish is Canadian author Robertson Davies, who is an old favourite of mine. I present for your bibliographic pleasure several of his works…

Omnibus editions of his first two great trilogies The Salterton Trilogy and The Deptford Trilogy in King Penguin editions

…and the second volume of The Cornish Trilogy, The Lyre of Orpheus  in an advanced reading copy. I have the other two volumes in hard cover editions and have written about them previously.

Lisa St Aubin de Teran is described on Wikipedia as an autobiographical author and memoirist and is quite prolific. Her first novel Keepers of the House won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1982. She has obviously led an interesting life. I used to collect her books regularly, obviously being impressed with Keepers of the House, though have over the past two decades failed to keep up.

Here are the three novels I’ve so far located on my bookshelf.

Back to a druggy theme, Fuzz Against Junk & The Hero Maker by Akbar Del Piombo  is a sort of novelty book, termed a collage novel, an early form of the graphic novel.

Nigel Dennis’ Cards of Identity is a “scathing satire of psychology, identity theory and class prejudice..” and from what I can recall was quite an enjoyable novel when I read it way back when.

And finally for this entry two books by Italian writer Francesca Duranti. The House on Moon Lake is a kind of literary ghost story and Happy Ending is a pastoral piece.

Next - “E” & “F” authors including Timothy Findlay and Ronald Firbank