Ashley Lister Last week on the Ash and Col podcast we were discussing the classic short story W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw. “Monkey’s paw?” said Mrs. White curiously.“Well, it’s just a bit of what you might call magic, perhaps,” said the Sergeant-Major, without first stopping to think.His three listeners leaned forward excitedly. Deep in thought, the visitor … Read more
‘I came to you because I want to tell my story,’ the man on Dr Harper’s couch was saying. The man was Lester Billings from Waterbury, Connecticut. According to the history taken from Nurse Vickers, he was twenty-eight, employed by an industrial firm in New York, divorced, and the father of three children. All deceased.‘I … Read more
by Ashley Lister The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns … Read more
By Ashley Lister Last week I said I was going to start writing about supernatural aspects of various counties throughout the UK. Then, having written about Ghost Stations on the London Underground, I grew bored with the topic. Partly this is because I’ve got very little interest in geography. And, because I’m worried that this … Read more
Having completed my personal A-Z of Horror last week, I thought it would be fun to look at spooky things in England on a county-by-county basis. Using the 48 Ceremonial Counties of England (I don’t know what that means either), I’ve decided to look at each county starting from the most populous and working my … Read more
Since I started writing this feature, I’ve been expecting to look at zombies for this instalment. However, the more I think about it, the more I realise that Zippy from Rainbow represents a far greater horror than any of the undead. For those of you unaware of Zippy, he’s a puppet who appeared on … Read more
People often ask me, “What scares you?” It’s a reasonable question to ask someone who writes in the horror genre. I suspect there’s an assumption with this question that, if I’m writing about a subject, that subject probably doesn’t really scare me. You can’t be scared of ghosts if you’re writing about them. Your hand … Read more
Some people say that taboo language doesn’t belong in the well-written horror story. Picture the scene: you’re walking through an empty house in the middle of the night. It’s dark but there’s no electricity so you can’t turn on a lamp. A sliver of moonlight cuts through a window and you see, standing before you, … Read more
Witches come across as a type of woman who is mightily pissed off. There is good reason for this. According to writer and historian Ellen Castelow, “Witchcraft was made a capital offence in Britain in 1563, although it was deemed heresy and denounced as such by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. From 1484 until around … Read more
I grew up when video nasties were a real thing. Nowadays they’re a chapter in the history books akin to superstition: something close to the idea of burning witches or knocking on wood for good luck. To contextualise this, VCRs (Video Cassette Recorders) were first made commercially available in 1976. Prior to this, if … Read more