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The best book of this year so far. Was moved and touched by this story and loved Stephen's prose.
A thoughtful and beautifully written novella covering grief, the true nature of evil, and what it means to be a hero. In his depiction of Cushing, Volk evokes the spirit of a man who was beloved by many, and manages to make you miss someone you never had the pleasure of meeting. Highly recommended.
Touching character portrait of Peter Cushing following the death of his beloved wife Helen on the early 70s. When sat on the beach one day he gets confused for his on screen alter ego Van Helsing by a young boy who wants his help in vanquishing the vampire in his life.A moving study in grief, despair and loneliness that encourages us to question true horrors the exist is our everyday world.
I'll start this review off with an admission...I'm not well versed in old horror movies. In fact, when I read that this novella was a fictional story about Peter Cushing, I almost set it back down, because I didn't know who the man was. I mean, I've seen him around, but I'm not familiar with his canon of work. Anyhow, I decided to keep reading and I'm glad I did, because this was a poignant story about grief and the darkness that we all have inside, as well as the effect that darkness can have o...
In 1971, a recently bereaved Peter Cushing locks himself away in his Whitstable home, intending to cut himself off from day-to-day life in order to grieve privately. For years, as the star of numerous horror films, he has despatched creatures of the night with their fake fangs, pelts and blood but after a trip to the beach and an encounter with a young boy, he quickly discovers that some monsters are human. With grief weighing heavily on him but a strong desire to protect the innocent, Peter Cus...
There are books that leave you speechless. And then there are books that cause such a knot in your throat that you can't think of speech, lest it profane the thoughts that keep on crowding your mind after the last page has been read. This was such a book. Thank you Stephen Volk. Thank you so much.
Like everyone else, I was drawn to WHITSTABLE by its portrayal of real-life acting legend Peter Cushing as the main character. I was curious to see what Stephen Volk, a screenwriter for low-budget horror films, would do with a story about Cushing, who was himself a pioneer in B-movie horror.WHITSTABLE has all the elements of a cult literary classic, though I was initially skeptical as to whether or not Volk could pull it off. I've seen a couple of movies Volk has written (GOTHIC, OCTANE), and th...
‘Whitstable’ is a haunting, beautiful and elegiac tale, where the quiet man of horror movies is brought again to life in wonderful tribute.It’s a horror story which plays on painful personal reality, but you have to say always with the greatest of respect. In the early 1970s Peter Cushing genuinely did lose his beloved wife and entered a funk so terrible that he considered suicide and went as far as telling the press that he wanted to die.Into this black void steps a fictional little boy who mee...
Peter Cushing is one of my favourite actors & Whitstable is a novella that sets this real life English gentleman into a fictional world.Cushing had appeared in many Hammer films as vampire hunter Doctor Van Helsing, & here a young boy mistakes Cushing fort his alter ego & requests his help. I was expecting a light hearted, tongue in cheek tale, but Whitstable was a far more serious venture.Author Stephen Volk brilliantly captures the real life actor in a dark & unsettling story. The year is 1971...
I am a fan of Stephen Volk. I had the good fortune to narrate his “After the Ape” for the TalesToTerrify podcast, and the story still follows me around to this day. His short story “Hounded” is one of the best Sherlockian tales I’ve ever read. He has an ability to go for the jugular in all he writes, and Whitstable (2013) is no exception.A loving tribute to one of my all-time favorite actors, Peter Cushing, Whitstable draws on real history and finds the man a new widower and utterly lost without...
WHITSTABLE by Stephen Volk (Spectral Press)Review by Gary Fry I was born in 1971, a few years later than a number of my peers, and in the horror world, that short span of time seems to make a critical difference. For instance, I didn't get into the Hammer Horror scene in the same way as others, probably through lack of exposure on TV and at the cinema (but also because I was a chicken-shit kid). Anyway, the main impact this seems to have had is to deny me a substitute father in the form of the
Stephen Volk was the screenwriter for GOTHIC, GHOSTWATCH, THE AWAKENING.This book is about a "fictionalized" incident in the life of Peter Cushing. Volk has created a masterfully powerful tale about the man and his lot in later life, after his wife has died. The story unfolds entirely from Cushing's third person point of view.PETER CUSHING was one of the handful of actors who defined the horror movie. Whether playing Baron Frankenstein witnessing the awful results of his brilliance or Professor
This is a refreshing and very different novella that is a must for children and youth of the 1970s. It is an insight into a very sensitive period in the life of one of our greatest actors, Peter Cushing. It takes place in the weeks following his wife's death and supposes how he coped with it, bringing the characters he has played on the screen to life. Any fans of the Hammer movies will be particularly drawn to this. Volk obviously is one such fan. There is a mention for almost every film he app...
I have just finished Whitstable and have been touched, mesmerized and even humbled by such an awesome piece of writing. It is 1971 and Peter Cushing's adored wife Helen has succumbed to emphysema and he does not feel he has the strength to carry on alone. However somewhere deep within him Cushing finds the will to face another lonely day, just as his beloved Helen would have wished. As he strolls along the seafront perchance he meets young Carl Drinkwater who greets him as Van Helsing and as the...
It's often said that good horror is allegorical, taking real world terrors and recasting them in fantasies that can be safely explored and processed. In this utterly compelling novella, Stephen Volk inverts the idiom at the same time as he illuminates it. The story stars Peter Cushing, the quiet man of horror and an icon who exuded decency on screen and in real life. It is shortly after the death of his wife Helen, and Cushing is a shattered shadow of himself, hiding away in his home in the seas...
Whitstable is a stunning character portrait, and a sober meditation on the impact of grief. That the story concerns one of the greats of British Cinema, Peter Cushing, could have been problematic in any number of ways in the hands of a lesser writer. Luckily, Mr. Volk wields his meticulously rehearsed narrative with a truly deft hand, bringing Mr. Cushing to life in a very respectful way that falls short of idolisation or hero worship. instead, we get an achingly real portrait of a man on the ed...
Steven Volk has written a profoundly sensitive portrayal not only of Peter Cushing but also of grief and growing old. Those aspects of the story were a solid five stars for me. I wish I'd liked the plot involving the "real life monster" better, but it somehow felt like it was only a framing device for the real story about Cushing's emotional turmoil. Still, an excellent read and a very touching book. Clearly a labor of deep love for a legend of horror.
Stephen Volk has written his novella, “Whitstable,” to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Peter Cushing’s birth in May 1913, by creating a tale of Cushing’s tortured and self-absorbed life as he grieved the recent death of his wife, Helen. Cushing has fallen in to complete despair, cut himself off from all forms of comfort and support, wanting only to face his own death and joining his love. While on a solitary visit to the beach, He is approached by a young boy, Carl, who recognizes him a...
To the very best of my knowledge, I have never read a short story, novella or novel by Stephen Volk. I do, however, know of him from his columns in bimonthly horror magazine Black Static, as well as his work as screenwriter for the BBC’s seminal Ghostwatch, paranormal TV series Afterlife, and more recently the horror film The Awakening.So Whitstable is my first encounter with Volk’s prosaic fiction, a hugely ambitious novella from Spectral Press, a small independent publisher which has lately be...
“Whitstable" was definitely my “Top Book of 2013”. I’m an enormous Peter Cushing fan and knew a fair amount about his life story, but nothing prepared me for the emotional highs and lows of this beautifully written novella. Stephen Volk really channels Cushing’s despair and mental turmoil after the loss of his beloved wife Helene, yet “Whitstable” is not maudlin in the slightest, just a captivating, imaginative read. Compelling, compassionate and evocative... this haunting tale will stay with yo...