Sunday, 23 August 2015
The Daylight Gate
Hammer
Good Friday, 1612. Pendle Hill, Lancashire.
A mysterious gathering of thirteen people is interrupted by local magistrate, Roger Nowell. Is this a witches' Sabbat?
Two notorious Lancashire witches are already in Lancaster Castle waiting trial. Why is the beautiful and wealthy Alice Nutter defending them? And why is she among the group of thirteen on Pendle Hill?
Elsewhere, a starved, abused child lurks. And a Jesuit priest and former Gunpowder plotter, recently returned from France, is widely rumoured to be heading for Lancashire. But who will offer him sanctuary? And how quickly can he be caught?
This is the reign of James I, a Protestant King with an obsession: to rid his realm of twin evils, witchcraft and Catholicism, at any price...
To my mind Winterson is one of the unsung heroes of current weird and supernatural fiction. I've been a fairly devoted reader of her work since I was handed a copy of 'Sexing The Cherry' back in 93 / 94.
This latest excursion into the unusual side of life takes us back to Pendle, Lancashire at the time of the witch hunts where the wealthy newcomer Alice Nutter, proud and confident in her rightness and her self and unwilling to kowtow to local bigwigs and their toadies becomes embroiled in the lives of a local family accused of witchcraft. The reign of James the First is an unhealthy time to have any association with witchcraft or popery and Alice has both.
For much of the narrative Winterson retains a degree of period normality, peopling the cast with uneducated, superstitious peasants, officious religious zealots and people just trying to get along in an uncertain time. Behind this though there is an undercurrent of magic about which you are left, for much of the novel, uncertain about whether it is real or simply superstition and vain hope.
The book's devastating final act allows us to see beyond the mundane circumstances and as such we are granted an understanding of both Alice and her motivations.
Over the years there have been several of Winterson's novels that have earned a permanent place on my shelves and I'm pleased that this story of humanity at it's most vile, most compassionate and most incredible will be joining them.
Buy it here - The Daylight Gate (Hammer)
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Below is a short snippet from a talk by Winterson about the book. The full version can be found by clicking here.
Saturday, 22 August 2015
The Rhesus Chart
Orbit Books
Audible
London can drain the life out of you...
Bob Howard is an intelligence agent working his way through the ranks of the top secret government agency known as 'the Laundry'. When occult powers threaten the realm, they'll be there to clean up the mess - and deal with the witnesses.
There's one kind of threat that the Laundry has never come across in its many decades, and that's vampires. Mention them to a seasoned agent and you'll be laughed out of the room.
But when a small team of investment bankers at one of Canary Wharf's most distinguished financial institutions discovers an arcane algorithm that leaves them fearing daylight and craving O positive, someone doesn't want the Laundry to know. And Bob gets caught right in the middle.
The Rhesus Chart is a brand new supernatural thriller from Charles Stross, and sees hacker-turned-spy Bob Howard take on the (literal) bloodsuckers running London's financial district.
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| Charles Stross |
This time out Bob finds his newly promoted self hunting for vampires and finding a figure from his past just as his present starts to fracture alarmingly.
As ever with this series much of the time is spent exploring the bureaucracy of the Laundry and, in this case, the feasibility of vampirism. In both cases it is inordinate amounts of geeky fun.
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| Gideon Emery |
As ever I'm leaving one of these Laundry books desperately craving more but this time in the sad knowledge that one of my favourite modes of address will likely be absent from here on - although I sincerely hope not.
Buy it here - The Rhesus Chart: A Laundry Files novel
NB - My write-up of the rest of the series can be found here.
Friday, 21 August 2015
Ancient Sorceries and other stories
Penguin Books
I'm still fairly new to these books of Victorian & Edwardian ghostly / horror / weird fiction that I've been reading on and off over the last year so many of the writers that are considered key to the genres - let alone the more obscure - are still unknown quantities for me.
I've always had a soft spot for the film and TV versions but horror books never were a thing for me (except for a short lived teenage binge on Shaun Hutson books). So now that I'm giving them a go there are a few names at the top of my hit lists that I've been slowly ticking off; Blackwood is one of them.
I was pleased to unearth a copy of this in a local charity shop in time to take on holiday to Ireland with me. I sat and read it in a park in Dublin, a derelict graveyard in Glendalough (see photo), the castle grounds in Kilkenny and it was in my back pocket when I fell down a flight of stairs in Mullingar and broke my leg, arm and rib which kinda put a hold on reading, as did the ensuing operation and couple of months of morphine and frustrating, fidgety recuperation. But now, two months on from starting it, I've finished the final story.
The book contains 4 short stories, 2 longer ones and each offers up an individual slice of the odd and the creepy.
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| Algernon Blackwood |
The third story is my only previous experience of Blackwood, a great little story where a student entertains a visitor from his past in 'Keeping His Promise'.
My favourite story here is up next, 'A Case of Eavedropping' tells of a guest house haunted by echoes of an old crime.
The two remaining stories that make up the back half of the book both feature Blackwood's paranormal investigator Dr. John Silence. In the first of the pair, 'Ancient Sorceries', he really is little more than the narrator of a tale of love and cats whereas the second has him centre stage investigating strange fiery occurrences at the country residence of a retired soldier in 'The Nemesis of Fire'.
In all a thoroughly enjoyable read that has greatly endeared me to Blackwood. His prose is significantly less dense than many of his contemporaries and so I found him more readily readable and minor detours into the joys of surgery aside this was a very enjoyable read.
Thursday, 20 August 2015
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds
Manly W. Wellman & Wade WellmanTitan Books
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s timeless creation returns in a new series of handsomely designed, long out-of-print detective stories. From the earliest days of Holmes’ career to his astonishing encounters with Martian invaders, the Further Adventures series encapsulates the most varied and thrilling cases of the worlds’ greatest detective.
Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger and Dr. Watson meet their match when the streets of London are left decimated by a prolonged alien attack. Who could be responsible for such destruction? Sherlock Holmes is about to find out...
Manly and Wade Wellman’s novel takes H.G. Well’s classic story and throws Holmes into the mix, with surprising and unexpected results.
American father and son writing team conspire to mix the era's two greatest creations by setting Holmes, Watson and Professor Challenger (hero of Doyle's The Lost World) against those dastardly 'Martian' chappies.
The story is split into several parts with the perspective shifting throughout giving us tales of daring-do from Holmes, Challenger and then Watson for the last half of the novel at which point he takes over relating the tale.
It was solidly written and an enjoyable enough read. The characterisation of Holmes was way off portraying him as a friendly genius rather than the abrupt, rude and rather arrogant Holmes we know and love. He is however bursting with observations, intimations and deductions, as he should be. Challenger is the foil to this though as his egotism is so extraordinarily rampant that perhaps Holmes needed to be defanged. No point in defanging Challenger I suppose as readers are more likely to have Holmes as a reference point when venturing into these pages than the more obscure professor. Watson is very much in his bumbling persona here which is a shame as I always thought there was more to Watson than was often made of him in the non-canon or movie representations.
The one aspect of the book that I truly disliked though was the romance between Holmes and Mrs Hudson. I thought it was a nonsensical idea that only served to pad a thinly thought out plotline. Other than that a fun afternoon's read.
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories
Peter Bailey (illustrations)
Virago
'I wish we'll have two children called Mark and Harriet. And I hope lots of interesting and unusual things will happen to them. It would be nice if they had a fairy godmother, for instance. And a phoenix or something out of the ordinary for a pet. We could have a special day for interesting and unusual things to happen - say, Mondays. But not always Mondays, and not only Mondays, or that would get a bit dull'
As a result of their mother's honeymoon wish, Mark and Harriet Armitage have a fairy godmother, a pet unicorn, and are prepared for anything life can throw at them (especially, but not always, on a Monday): hatching griffins in the airing cupboard, Latin lessons with a ghost, furious Furies on the doorstep, and an enchanted garden locked inside a cereal packet. Life with the Armitages can be magical, funny, terrifying - but never, ever dull.
My first experience of Joan Aiken's writing was with one of her Armitage family stories - The Apple of Trouble - in a horror anthology called 'Ghostly Experiences' published by Armada Lion and it would be fair to say I was gobsmacked! The story was sprightly, inventive, beautifully constructed and above all fun. Since then I've been actively hunting for more.
Ms. Aiken wrote Armitage stories throughout her life (which shows in the changing preoccupations of the children - Mark in particular) and they were published in various anthologies over the years but until now the only collection has been a US edition from 2008 (with the same title) that was far too expensive for my pockets. So, a few months ago when it was announced that Virago were republishing it I was a very happy chappy indeed.
Well, it's here and so the question must be asked, 'Was it worth the wait?'
And the answer is 'Absolutely! It's utterly joyous.'
On the occasion of her honeymoon Mrs Armitage finds a magical stone on the beach and makes the wish in the blurb above triggering a life filled with dragons, ghosts, unicorns, old fairy ladies, owls, hippogryphs, furies, cereal packets, curses, troublesome fruit, goblins, warlocks and adventure mostly, but not exclusively, on a Monday.The Armitages - Mark & Harriet along with their parents - inhabit a world where magic and the supernatural are as common as a homemade nuclear reactor, domestic robots and a fancy dress prize that consists of 'a hundred cigarettes and a bridge marker'. Their village is populated both by the fantastical - the tiny little Perrow family and various 'distressed old fairy ladies' - alongside the tweely mundane of kids books everywhere - the blacksmith and the village shopkeeper. As such the extraordinary is very much commonplace for the Armitages. It's still fun, and occasionally a little annoying, but is very much just the way things are and this makes the whole thing marvellous.
It's almost soap opera-y in it's slice of life snapshots but with a level of wit, imagination and fun that no soap could every achieve. The characters are a little sketchy sure but this is a short story collection so do they need to be more? The kids are adventurous, brave and resourceful, dad is solid and a bit fusty and mum is loving, kind and generous (and a little bit mercenary) and all serve to fill very familiar roles in what is a very familiar format; the kids magical adventure story. It is Ms. Aiken's words that lift it out of any possible cliche though; her prose is elastic, her imagination dances and her audience is charmed.
The 25 stories presented here are fairly brief, staying just long enough to resolve their eccentric premises in often delightfully eccentric ways and together present a collection that offers a thoroughly enjoyable read that is very much of it's time whilst also being a book for all times.
Buy it here - The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories (Virago Modern Classics)
Sunday, 16 August 2015
The Twelve Hour Foundation - Macaroni Cheese
There's something particularly fun about waking up on a Sunday morning, stumbling blearily onto your social media of choice and finding a friends post that immediately makes the day more fun. It could be a status post, a vid, a comment or (my particular favourite) some music.
Today, thanks to tape loopers extraordinaire Howlround's Robin the Fog I was introduced to a fab slice of radiophonic whimsy by Bristol's The Twelve Hour Foundation called 'Macaroni Cheese'.
This duo of synthesists Polly Hulse (analogue synth / rhythms) and Jez Butler (analogue synth / concrète sequences) have produced 3 tracks crying out to be the theme tunes of 1970s science 'programmes for schools and colleges'. The 3 tunes are joyful excursions into late 70s synthesizer era BBC Radiophonic Workshop which, due to my particular love of Paddy Kingsland's music, means this is all right up my particular street.
Available as download or (and this is the one I oped for) 7" single with download.
Enjoy
Saturday, 15 August 2015
Kit Williams
The book itself is a series of 15 of Williams' paintings that tells the story of a hare who loses the gift he's transporting from the moon to the sun which becomes the object of the hunt.
The finding of the hare has become mired in controversy - see here - and the actual solution to the puzzle was spectacularly convoluted. Below is an extract from the Wikipedia page (that the above link takes you to) because I'm not even going to try and explain it...The solution to the Masquerade puzzle is elaborate. In each painting, lines should be drawn from each creature's left eye through the longest digit on their left hand to a letter in the border. Then from left eye through the longest digit on their left foot, right eye through the longest digit on their right hand and finally right eye through the longest digit on their right foot. This is only done for any eyes that are visible in the drawing. The resulting letters form individual words, revealed either by anagramming or by applying the order hinted at by the Sir Isaac Newton painting, in which all of the creatures of the book are represented as puppets hanging in a line from left to right.
Decoding and following this method reveals the nineteen-word message:
CATHERINE’S LONG FINGER OVER SHADOWS EARTH BURIED YELLOW AMULET MIDDAY POINTS THE HOUR IN LIGHT OF EQUINOX LOOK YOU
Taking the first letter indicated by each painting, the acrostic “CLOSE BY AMPTHILL” is revealed. Properly interpreted, the message told one to dig near the cross-shaped monument to Catherine of Aragon in Ampthill Park, at the precise spot touched by the tip of the monument’s shadow at the stroke of noon on the date of either the vernal or autumnal equinox.Many additional hints and "confirmers" are scattered throughout the book. For example, in the painting depicting the Sun and the Moon dancing around the Earth, the hands of the two figures are clasped together, pointing at the date of the spring equinox.
Hope that didn't make your head hurt too much.
Williams' experience of the Masquerade phenomena caused him to distance himself from the public eye but he continues to produce work including a number of major pieces of public art including Cheltenham's 'Wishing Fish Clock' and the Dragonfly maze in Bourton-on-the-Water both situated in the county where he maintains his studio.
He remains a fascinating and unique artist utterly and triumphantly out of step with modern art trends who has spent his life creating a body of work that reflects himself and the world as he sees / wishes it.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Friday, 14 August 2015
Wyd Britain Mix 5
For your delight and delectation this time we are heading in a slightly more laid back and groovily spacey direction.
Opening proceedings is a pre Advisory Circle Jon Brooks lording it over both Woolworths and Bakerloo before we head back to the late 1960s to watch future BBC Radiophonic Workshop alumni Peter Howell along with musical partner John Ferdinando watch verbose flowers get their groove on. Dub Syndicate serenade our favourite time traveller and The British Space Group travel to other world whilst Brian Bennett remains Earthborn.
Derek Scott treats us to some seriously groovy unusual sounds and BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend Dick Mills takes things slowly before turntablist Philip Jeck cleans up and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra explore the local fauna.
Hope you enjoy.
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show live
I managed to track down the first two books a little while later but the radio show eluded me for years. By the time I did get to finally hear it so entrenched was I with the TV version that it took some effort to get my head around those characters that has been recast from this original version.
So it's with sadness that I noticed this weekend the passing of Ms. Sheridan and so, with my condolences to her family and friends, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you, not the original show because it's not online, but the casts triumphant return to the roles with the 2014 live show.
Monday, 10 August 2015
The Tiger Lillies
Formed in London in 1989 by singer / accordionist Martyn Jacques and joined by drummer Adrian Huge, and bassist Adrian Stout, The Tiger Lillies have built themselves a lush and evocative freakshow cabaret populated by the lost, the broken, the doomed and the desolate. Theirs is a world of bawdy balladeering and beautiful and poignant tales of the most human and heartwrenching of tragedies all filtered through through the blackest of comedy.
All these bands are my favourites, but here is a favourite, favourite. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Tiger Lillies - Matt Groening introduction at ATP Minehead, UK May 05, 2010
Just brilliant and utterly fantastic!! You'll never hear more perverse and twisted as well as haunting and sorrowful songs. Just get a ticket by hook or by crook, if there's any left (which I doubt) and catch them while you can. - Marc Almond
The Tiger Lillies discography is a substantial and bewildering affair for the neophyte so I thought I'd take this opportunity to point you in the direction of some favourites. Be warned though some of these are not for the easily offended.
For me it all started when the album 'The Brothel to the Cemetery' (Buy it here) was handed to me by a friend with the words 'You're going to love this'.
The album features what has become the bands signature tune...
Humour has always been at the heart of the band's work as you can see above particularly when allied to a good eyebrow raising shock factor...
For me though they are at their best when the are fully subsumed in their subject matter whether it be Edward Gorey on 'The Gorey End' (Buy it here), the moral tales of 'Shockheaded Peter' (Buy it here
) and my personal favourite, their sumptuous take on Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' (Buy it now
).
As is often the case with musical outsiders this is music that will both attract and repel and probably not in equal measures either. It is however music that rewards effort and I urge you to take this opportunity to immerse yourself in the unique world of this astonishing band.
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If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Doctor Who, Penguin style
Check out this glorious page of Penguin sci-fi cover art. There's so much pretty!
I know I'm anything but alone in my appreciation of these and I love it when people with more time and talent than me take that love and do something fun with it.
So, with that in mind, you might like to have a look at these pages of Doctor Who stories reimagined as Penguin books - http://doctorwhopenguin.tumblr.com.
Kudos to all involved.


Thursday, 6 August 2015
The Prisoner
The 17 episodes tell the story of an un-named spy (McGoohan always denied that the central character was his Danger Man character, John Drake) who, in the event of his retirement from the secret service, finds himself confined in an incomprehensible coastal village filled with seemingly happy people each identified by numbers rather than names.
Many aspects of the series have become firmly established in popular consciousness; the village itself (actually Portmeirion in North Wales), the Ron Grainer theme, 'Rover' the inflatable guard ball and the two key quotes from Number 6...
'The Prisoner' was and indeed remains a singular creation. Loved and loathed in equal measure this wilful, obtuse, stylised and enigmatic show is quintessential cult TV. In it's attacks on authority and conformity and it's celebration of individual integrity and personal freedom it continues to amaze and baffle viewers to this day and remains both completely of it's time and utterly contemporary for exactly the same reasons.So, below is the pilot episode 'Arrival'. I'm not sure how many of the other 16 episodes are available online but the series has been released in box sets a number of times and is absolutely well worth your money.
Buy it here - UK / US
Be seeing you.
The Prisoner - Arrival by tvchannels
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
Raagnagrok - Man Woman Birth Death Infinity
CD
The first time I played this CD I fell asleep. Not, you may think, the most auspicious first impression but it was a very nice sleep indeed - what wasn't so good was the bit where I woke up with my head slumped sideways over the arm of the chair with the worst pain in my neck. The sleep though, was deep and dark and profound. I'd got to about halfway through the album's 14 minute epic journey towards 'Infinity' and then I was gone. They'd taken me with them, entirely.
What we have here is a UK duo of Mark Pilkington on modular synth & electronics and Zali Krishna on electric sitar & guitar who have produced a set of intensely celestial kosmische jams; some live, some studio. The occasional presence of the sitar means that a vaguely Indian aspect is often shown (as is also implied by the bands name) but it is Germany of the very early 1970s that is most apparent.
With a running time of an hour and with a concise palate, many of the tracks, once the music starts to permeate the room, do run into each other and the whole becomes more important than it's parts as they paint a really rather glorious psychotropic colourfield. There are moments I'm not hugely enamoured with but even these parts often swirl by once it's achieved consonance with the room (and my head) and they are few and far between.
I've had this album here for just under a week now and it has pretty much dominated my ears since it arrived with the disc being carried from house to car and a rip sitting front and centre on my MP3 player. If big, bold Krautrock inspired kosmische excursions are your bag then really do hunt this down cause you'll love it. If they're not, hunt this down anyway because it's great and it may change your mind.
in UK available from Strange Attractor
in US or RoW available from lotushouserecords.com
NB - This review originally appeared in the pages of one of my other blogs - http://ian-quietworld.blogspot.co.uk/
Friday, 12 June 2015
Christopher Lee - In Search of Dracula (1975 documentary)
Even if the documentary doesn't appeal it's worth skipping to the 48 minute mark to catch the magnificently mustachioed narrator's closing remarks.
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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Monday, 1 June 2015
Wyrd Britain Mix 4
Making up the mix this month is a collision of laid back library pieces, some acid-folk wistfulness, two glorious TV themes, some proto post rock and some actual and a little bit of (ch)easy listening to round things off in suitably groovy fashion.
Opening proceedings is the god like genius that is Basil Kirchin who is followed by Reg Wale's 'Fruity Flutes' used as the theme to Farmhouse Kitchen (got to be one of the greatest theme tunes ever).
Anne Briggs is Standing on the Shore before Wayne Hill's absolute classic 'Left Bank Two' the Vision On Gallery theme.
Talk Talk tell of the 'Myrrhman' and the massively under-rated Scottish bass wranglers Ganger make a regular appearance in one of my mixes.
Paul Giovanni documents 'Sunset' over Summerisle (and Sergeant Howie), Sounds Orchestral indulge in some not entirely orchestral sounding 'Soul Coaxing' and finally Tony Hatch is 'Herbin'.' about which we'll say no more.
Hope you enjoy.
























