Welcome to Gruesome Cargoes

[demonik]

Welcome to Gruesome Cargoes, a celebration of the great British horror anthologies of the 'twenties and 'thirties.

To begin with, I'm concentrating on a blow-by-blow account of the Not At Night and Creeps series, although in time GC will probably veer off into various unsavoury directions. I certainly hope so, anyhow.

It should be stressed that this is very much a tiny satellite board of Vault Of Evil which covers a far wider range of pulps, horror or otherwise, and you really should check it out. This is more of a side-project I've been meaning to knuckle down to.

Anyhow, have fun and I hope you find some of it of interest!

[JohnPelan]

Sounds good! Where to begin?

Cheers,

John

[demonik]

Hello John

Where to begin? Hey, just wade in wherever!

Really enjoyed your introduction to Harlem Horror, by the way. I hadn't realised Sir Charles was such an enigma until then - I just thought he'd been unfairly confined to the 'mindless sadism' trash-pit and nobody could be bothered researching him.

Hope to see you around on here.

[Calenture]

Hello John,

Mention of The Harlem Horror left me groping for some memory of a story I knew I'd read. Fortunately, I tracked it to Haining's Dr Caligari's Black Book which is one I'm happily re-reading.

Then I realised I'd read another Birkin/Lloyd story just yesterday, The Last Night, in The Third Pan Book of Horror Stories. Birkin's always been a familiar name, but is one of those authors I inexplicably failed to pick up any background information about. So I didn't think he'd been 'unfairly confined to the 'mindless sadism' trash-pit' as Dem' wrote. I just didn't have that much information to form an opinion! I just had this vague impression of some possibly aristocratic writer, who didn't write for the money, just did editors a favour by wading in now and then. Don't ask me to explain that!

But getting to The Last Night, it had closing lines that I found literally breathtaking, and the horror certainly wasn't gratuitious (it reminded me a little of Charles Beaumont's Miss Gentilbelle, although that story's more gruesome).

Anyway, I can see that my youth has been sadly misspent by not consciously concentrating on reading more Birkin, so I'll definitely be watching any Birkin/Lloyd threads in future, count on it! Oh, and welcome, John!

[John Pelan]

Ah, I wish I had an opportunity to meet Charles Birkin... I wouldn't be doing what I do without his influence (Birkin and Ramsey Campbell are equally to blame) ;-)

What makes his work so effetcive is the polished prose and aristocratic tone of his tales. Then when he drops the bomb... Oh, my!

You Brits are lucky in that his collections are readily available in the used bookstalls. Over here in the States, they are becoming quite collectible.

Cheers,

John

[demonik]

Hi John

Speaking of meeting him, do you know if he gave any interviews and, if so, where they were published? He seems to have been quite the mystery man.

I don't know where these bookstalls are where his work is "readily available." I've not seen a Birkin paperback - or any of the Creeps volumes - in maybe five years.

I enjoyed your intro to The Harlem Horror, by the way, and, perversely, Steve Duffy's trashing of the book. There's consistency for you!

[Calenture]

John said:

You Brits are lucky in that his collections are readily available in the used bookstalls.

My first reaction to this was a wry smile, as I really thought that I had no Birkin collections, and was wondering at it as I've been collecting for umpty years. But just yesterday, I found that indeed I did have My Name is Death in my collection. Don't ask me how it hid itself away, I don't know, but everyone who collects this stuff invariably collects more than they can read in 2 lifetimes.

With hindsight, I think I was unbelievably lucky to find a copy of Creeps in dustwrapper in an antique shop bin, and the fact that it didn't cost me a bomb I can only attribute to my living in a run-down Cornish town where the buses don't stop unless there's a hole in the road.

Until I found this site, I really had no idea what book I'd stumbled on - I just loved the dust jacket. Of course, the antique shop owner was equally uninformed. Through this site and it's parent, I'm learning.

Of course, I'm betraying my ignorance by saying that I hadn't read the Steve Duffy piece (I found his name online, but nothing relevant attached to it). John, I too would be exremely interested in any interviews Birkin gave. I'd love to know why the man was such an enigma.