The Ash-Tree Press Annual Macabre 2004

3.5/5 ( ratings)

For most of its life, the weekly publication Truth—which was more generally concerned with politics, finance, and general muck-raking—ran, in each issue, a short fiction feature called 'Queer Story'. After publication of a number of stories, they were gathered and published as anthologies titled Queer Stories from 'Truth'. The short stories were odd, peculiar, strange, macabre, weird, and at times outright supernatural, and some illustrious names contributed weird tales to the forum, including H. R. Wakefield , A. B. Cox, and Rosemary Timperley.

Jack Adrian has collected together thirty-one of these stories; short, sharp shocks which introduce the supernatural into the lives of everyday people. In his lengthy introduction for this last volume of 'Queer Stories from Truth', Adrian looks at the fascinating history of Truth, and those who published and wrote for it.

CONTENTS:
Introduction by Jack Adrian
Anon: 'The Exchange'; 'A Psychic Mystery'
Violet M. Methley: 'The Damned Spot'; '"Dusty Death"'
George W. Nixon: 'The Escape'
Chris Sewell: 'The Dream Giver'
A.B. Cox: 'Bitter Almonds'
Mark Napier: 'The Cab in Sloane Square'
Anthony Armstrong: 'Goolang'; 'Michael Leinster's Picture'
Helen Sutherland: 'The End of the World'
Myfanwy Price: 'The Spade in the Night'
Aylmer Vallance: 'Exeat '
Douglas Pike: 'The Last Appointment'
Mary Ann Abbs: 'Exit'
H. Russell Wakefield: 'Annyversry'
Frank Batchelor: 'The Fisherman'; 'Open Sesame'
Michael Hervey: 'Strange Company'
Jane C. Butler: 'Little Old Lady'
George A. Whiting: 'The Bright Room'
Alan Raymond: 'Traveller's Tale'
Anne King: 'Thin Air'
Horace Newte: '"Pobson"'
Magdalen King-Hall: 'The Sisters'
Alfred Ridgway: 'The Parson Vanishes'; 'The Man at the Door'
H.L.V. Fletcher: 'Brambles'
Rosemary Timperley: 'Hell, Twice Daily'
E.A. Williams: 'Poltergeist'
Lane Mitchell: 'The Dagger'
Sources and Acknowledgments