Death Of A Bookseller.

Was given a proof copy of this fantastic new book by first time writer Alice Slater. Its a tale of two retailers, both booksellers but both very, very different people. Given the amount of deatil in regard to book selling and the life of retailers and their relationship with their product and the people who buy it, I could not help but imagine that she must have at some point worked in bookselling. The book is so laden with an eye for the day to day details and the way book shops are run, she has just got to have spent some time in the trenches of retailing. she carries the scars all right. And while it may be set in a microcosm of the real world, in the bubble of book selling, it also works as a nicely observed thriller with a growing sense of unease as we get to better understand the foibles of the protagonists. After all, these characters are not aware they protagonists in any bodies story but their own. Hardly the stuff of Thomas Harris nightmare visions of the depravity the human soul , but it offers an unsettling glimpse into a very real world where no one is entirely bad nor entirely good. None of us live inside a thriller narrative while no one gets to spend their time in a situation comedy. We are just serving life terms in life stories of our own making. i did feel the book felt very london centric, which is not to rift on its location. how much book selling in London would differ from bookselling in another English city is beyond me. i meant that it feels as though the store itself would not feel out of place in a Richard Curtis script. How that defines its authenticity is anyone's guess. How real is the paper world of such a notion, its subjective I suppose, based more on the notion of how real you want it to be. In anyones story we are in the mind space of another human being anyway. It only has to feel as real as the story requires it to feel. And on that level it does feel completely real. As I grow older I wonder if the past can best be defined as a place as opposed to a mind space, maybe both. The only palete we have to draw upon are our own memories, the only canvas the here and now. On that leve, alone, I really enjoyed this fast moving and well observed book.

Cybermen The Stuff Of Nightmares.

In the Ninth Doctor Episode Dalek The Doctor came across the head of a Cyberman on display in a glass case in the warehouse of demented billionaire ( Are there any other kind?)Von Statten. It was a nod to previous encounters, a slight foreshadowing of horrors yet to come and a reminder this was still the show we grew up with. "The stuff Of Nightmares" was how he enigmatically described them. Mind you this Doctor could talk about marmalade and make it sound enigmatic. He was quite right. The Cybermen, their history and their twisted evolution is truly the stuff of nightmares and a notion that should serve as a cautionary tale for those attempting to expand their existance beyond all reason. Dig out this old issue of the superlative Fortean Times to learn more. There you go; your mission should you choose to accept it is to track this issue down, in whatever way you might. Mind you, no cheating, use of time vechiles would not be playing ball. Think of the temporal displacement for one thing....

( With special thanks to the marvelous Joanne for use of her Jodie cosplay. Tag, shes it!)

The Fiends In The Furrows.

Saw this book on a recent book trawl and snapped it up as soon as I saw it. Folk Horror, whether in book form or filmic form is a gripping genre that quietly yields all amnner of antiquated horrors. Yet Foklk horror has never really made a transition to the mainstream (Although I would not discount some episodes of Emmerdale I have seen over the last couple of years.) So this was an unexpected but welcome find. Nine stories all exploring new and old areas of intrest with regard to folkloric tropes, if they can be said to exist. All nine stories celebrating various aspects of the folk horror tradition. Or at the very least the loose tennents that are the muddy roots of its unsettled furrows. I am not familiar with any of the contributors but in their work they traverse the seperate themes that combine to hold up the lore; strange rituals, even stranger people, paranoid communities existing in timeless isolation. All following their own muddy muderous paths. I jumped in the very night I picked this book up and I am glad I did. Trudging home from the bookshop I picked it up in through an uncleared morass of sopping fallen leaves which set the tone it felt the appropriate time. One story in particular raised the hairs on the back of my neck. A descent into manmade depravity in all too famil;iar places followed. But I will not say which story it was. You can find that out for yourself. The editors of this collection made strong and diverse choices and nothing as simple as a "my favourite" should detract from their bold choices. A great anthology plucked from a fertile field. I doff my flat cap to Nosetouch Press the publishers. Who knows what I mean by this.

Teddy The Cosplaying Dog.

From The Titanic to The Daleks. Teddy slips effortlessly through them all. I think he came to cosplaying late in his dog life but its proved a rich furrow for his paws to plow. Long may he continue.

Amazing World Of Doctor Who.

Because it is.

Ghost Story For Christmas

Look what Big Finish are bringing to the Festive Feast of Christmas this year. I am constantly surprised by the Big Finish Torchwood stories. Again and again they have delivered top notch dramas, mostly quite disturbing and always inventive. Imagine a line of audio stories where the series producer was Robert Aickman and that might indicate the unsettling nature of some of the work. A story may start with something as inoccuos as a cofee cup sitting in an unusual place and it degenerates into a terrifying tale of duplicity and alien incursions. And much as I enjoy the breadth and range of the various character driven tales I do have a fondness for the Queen Victoria stories. In the Doctor Who continuity it was Queen Victoria who sets up Torchwood so it is entirely fitting that she should champion some of the series most startling episodes. They really are that good and worth sekking out.And I shall be seeking out this yuletide treat.

Jet Black R.I.P.