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Guest Editor, May 2011: Jon Mayhew
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Short stories that have chilled me: It dawned on me not long ago that my actual reading of horror was largely confined to the short story. This means that a lot of my inspiration must come from there, given that I’m a total wimp when it comes to watching horror films. Friends and family looked on bemused when I declared triumphantly that I’d sat through a whole episode of The Walking Dead a couple of weeks ago! But it’s true. I flatter myself that it is my overactive imagination that causes this overthinking and revisiting the most horrific scenes but who knows? In my early youth, I was haunted by a thick tome called Alfred Hitchcock’s Tales for After Midnight. For many years, I was too scared even to look at the cover. When I did pick it up, I was treated to all manner of horrors including The Fly by George Langelaan, the original short story that inspired several films. |
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Jon Mayhew Jon Mayhew hails from the misty marshes of Wirral, described as a haunt of ‘godless people’ even in the days of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! He spent most of his childhood playing in the ruins of a Victorian zoo and when he wasn’t doing that, he was writing or telling stories. He loves traditional music and running too…which you’d realise is a useful combination if you’d heard him play the mandolin. |
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His children’s books, Mortlock, and The Demon Collector are published by Bloomsbury. Jon’s third book, The Bonehill Curse is published in 2012. Jon’s website: www.jonmayhew.co.uk
Mortlock website: www.mortlockdemon.com |
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| One of my favourite authors has to be M.R. James. Along with every other horror writer, it seems, I love the sense of the unexplained in his ghost stories. The unknown ‘things’ in James’s stories never walk, they shamble or flap. Nothing, not even movement is commonplace or earthly. The settings heavily influenced Mortlock. Lost Hearts is one tale I keep coming back to. A revenge story of great hideousness, I read it and re-read it whilst writing my first book. |
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Another chilling story is The Wailing Well is populated by bullies and strange, creeping, loping creatures who entrap the proud foolhardy. Casting the Runes has found silver screen fame as Night of the Demon (1957) and more recently as Drag Me To Hell (2010).
From the same era comes The Monkey’s Paw, by WW Jacobs. This short story has inspired so many copycat stories and is one of the original ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ tales. Again, this has been a springboard for my third book, The Bonehill Curse to be published in 2012. I used to read Monkey’s Paw to my classes when I taught High School English and they all, regardless of age, gender or ability loved to hear it.. |
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| The Clock by WF Harvey is my all-time favourite, though. It’s a simple story of a young girl who goes to her Great Aunt’s house to retrieve a travelling clock. Again, what happens is not seen, there’s no gore or violence, just suggestion and the sound of ‘something hopping’ up the stairs. Very creepy. I first encountered this in the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Harvey also wrote The Beast With Five Fingers, another short story that inspired a horror film and the original ‘severed hand with a mind of its own’ tale! |
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| Finally, I can’t leave out Ruth Manning Sanders and A Book of Devils and Demons. Sadly out of print and hard to find now, this book is a wonderful collection of folk tales about devils and demons from all over the world. It called out to me from a gift shop book rack in Wales in 1973 and I was instantly hooked. The demons aren’t the dull sadistic monsters encountered in so much modern literature. These were original folk devils, creatures as flawed and vulnerable as their human victims but with loads of front and brass neck enough to trick them. Some were kind and took revenge on the greedy and cruel, some were stupid and easily fooled by the youngest of children. When I wrote The Demon Collector, it was these creatures I returned to. |
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Chris Priestley
I’m a big fan of Chris Priestley’s Tales of Terror stories for young people. So I was more than a little pleased to share the stage with him recently at the Federation of Children’s Book Groups annual conference. The Tales of Terror stories are short stories joined by a common tale that runs on between each one. They’re brilliantly written and satisfying reads for children of all ages. Nik Perring
Nik isn’t a horror writer but he’s a master of the short story. I have to confess, he’s a mate of mine too. Not So Perfect (Roast Books 2010) is a collection of 22 short stories in a book the size of a CD case. The drawings that preface each story are neat but it’s the tales themselves, snapshots, memories and moments that haunt. Again, it’s a slightly unsettling tale called Say My Name that stayed with me, sad and yet a little disturbing at the same time. My Own Short Stories
My own stories are fairly conventional ghost tales with a twist if I can work one in! I enjoy the discipline of short stories, writing them hones the ruthless skills required in editing any work. The stories concern the characters in my books and I feel they give the characters life beyond the confines of the covers of the books. The stories fill in the gaps in their existence. Four of them can be downloaded in PDF format at www.mortlockdemon.com |
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