Today’s meeting was a bit of an ordeal, to be honest!

(It’s Wednesday right now and I’m at Crafty Coffee on the Hornsea high street hammering into my first cappuccino of the day plus one of Crafty Anne’s freshly baked scones), but I’m slowly feeling a little better. The Eastern wall of the monolithic PS Towers edifice straddles Cinema Street (curiously named, to be fair, in that there is no cinema on Cinema Street) and the stocks sit empty on the greensward while behind us the North Sea crashes at the protective wall unflinching at the stones tossed from the promenade by small boys who have presumably ducked out of school.

But I don’t mind—don’t care a jot, in fact . . . cos we're just a matter of days away from getting hold of the deluxe traycased copies of Ramsey Campbell’s THE WAY OF THE WORM thus completing the extravaganza triptych known collectively as The Three Births of Daoloth.

"Through the auspices of PS Publishing, which has done so much to keep Campbell’s work before the public, he has now produced a late-career masterpiece called “The Three Births of Daoloth.” In three volumes spanning 60 years, the books recount the ongoing struggle of three lifelong friends against inimical forces from beyond the universe, forces determined to dominate and transform the mass of humanity. This is pure cosmic horror, Lovecraftian in its essence, and it brings to mind Campbell’s first published work, “The Inhabitant of the Lake.” No one writing today does this sort of visionary fiction more effectively. In addition, the trilogy serves as a deeply felt reflection on loss, mortality, and the harsh realities of aging."

—The Washington Post

First we had THE SEARCHING DEAD:

Acclaimed horror author Ramsey Campbell has written a novel that is part Lovecraftian horror and part memoir of his youth in 1950s Liverpool. This may sound ambitious but Campbell more than delivers – it is poignant, beautiful, horrifying and very Lovecraftian. It’s one of the most beautiful books of Weird Literature I’ve ever read – and likely a good introduction for people wary of the genre.

—The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

Dominic Sheldrake has never forgotten his childhood in fifties Liverpool or the talk an old boy of his grammar school gave about the First World War. When his history teacher took the class on a field trip to France it promised to be an adventure, not the first of a series of glimpses of what lay in wait for the world. Soon Dominic would learn that a neighbour was involved in practices far older and darker than spiritualism, and stumble on a secret journal that hinted at the occult nature of the universe. How could he and his friends Roberta and Jim stop what was growing under a church in the midst of the results of the blitz? Dominic used to write tales of their exploits, but what they face now could reduce any adult to less than a child...

The first part of the trilogy in its sumptuous traycased edition has been available for almost a year. Published individually, fully illustrated and including a masterful original piece of pen and ink from Glenn Chadbourne.

And then came BORN TO THE DARK, the second volume of Ramsey Campbell’s Brichester Mythos trilogy.

"This is a book that eschews the standard horror novel’s reliance on regular “scary” set-pieces, focusing instead on an evocation of fear that inhabits and invades all aspects of everyday lives: marriage, parenthood, employment; memory, spiritual orientation, dreams; the future, death, the cosmos. BORN TO THE DARKfinishes with a staggering set-piece, but it’s taken 270 pages to build to that, and for me that makes the whole immensely more satisfying."

—Gary Fry

There’s a place past all the stars that’s so dark you have to make your eyes light up to see,” Toby said. “There’s a creature that lives in the dark, only maybe the dark’s what he is. Or maybe the dark is his mouth that’s like a black hole or what black holes are trying to be. Maybe they’re just thoughts he has, bits of the universe he’s thinking about. And he’s so big and hungry, if you even think about him too much he’ll get hold of you with one of them and carry you off into the dark . . .

More than thirty years have passed since the events of THE SEARCHING DEAD. Now married with a young son, Dominic Sheldrake believes that he and his family are free of the occult influence of Christian Noble. Although Toby is experiencing nocturnal seizures and strange dreams, Dominic and Claudine have found a facility that deals with children suffering from his condition, which appears to be growing widespread. Are their visions simply dreams, or truths few people dare envisage? How may Christian Noble be affecting the world now, and how has his daughter grown up? Soon Dominic will have to confront the figures from his past once more and call on his old friends for aid against forces that may overwhelm them all. As he learns the truth behind Toby’s experiences, not just his family is threatened but his assumptions about the world . . .

Once again published individually, fully illustrated and including a masterful original piece of pen and ink from Glenn Chadbourne.

And most recently, the final part of the distressing saga, THE WAY OF THE WORM:

"The Way of the Worm  does represent a sort of culmination and conclusion, though not an especially happy one, and delivers all the apocalyptic awfulness that any cosmic horror aficionado could wish for, combined with a sensitive and searching rendition of grief and loss, all wrapped up in sublime prose. Fully in command of his material after the earlier instalments and innumerable other works, Ramsey Campbell is not about to disappoint."

—lovecraftzine.com

The ground floor of the shop was an extensive labyrinth of counters and displays. Merchandise surrounded me in no order I could grasp: perfumes, kitchen utensils, crockery, electrical equipment, televisions by the dozen . . . Some items I could scarcely make out, given the unhelpful dimness. I might have enquired why the place was so poorly lit if I’d seen anyone to ask, or were my eyes or my mind to blame? I headed for the televisions, which ought to lend me some illumination while I waited to feel equal to venturing outside again. All of them were silenced, and every one was showing footage of a film about a war zone if not a city devastated by some other disaster. A subtitle was gliding off the screens, but I caught the single word WORLDWIDE. I was growing uneasier than I cared to define when I noticed a man, presumably a sales assistant, in the furthest aisle of screens. “Excuse me,” I called, “what’s happening there, do you know?”

He was turning towards me when I began to wish he would do nothing of the kind. Far from growing more prominent as it came, his profile appeared to be shrinking, the long sharp nose and outthrust chin dwindling by the instant. On the whole I was glad of the dimness, which prevented me to some extent from seeing his face. If only this had been the solitary reason that I couldn’t make it out—but as he confronted me across the screens displaying desolation I saw his face implode, sucked inwards like a rubber mask turned inside out. Before the features disappeared into the bulb of flesh perched on the neck he thrust out a hand, if very little of one. As the fingers swiftly atrophied I realised he was pointing the rudimentary lump at the end of his arm at me . . .

* * *

Another thirty years have passed since the events of BORN TO THE DARK. Christian Noble is almost a century old, but his and his family’s influence over the world is stronger than ever. The latest version of their occult church counts Dominic Sheldrake’s son and the young man’s wife among its members, and their little daughter too. Dominic will do anything he can to break its influence over them, and his old friends Jim and Bobby come to his aid. None of them realise what they will be up against—the Nobles transformed into the monstrousness they have invoked, and the inhuman future they may have made inevitable . . .

THE WAY OF THE WORM is the final volume of Ramsey Campbell’s Brichester Mythos trilogy, in which he returns to his original themes and develops them in his mature style. The first volume, The Searching Dead, received the Children of the Night Award from the Dracula Society for the best original Gothic fiction of the year.

A classic story spanning three generations and three volumes and some 800 pages

Presented in three gorgeous traycases, each one includes a piece of original artwork from Glenn Chadbourne and is one of just 26 lettered copies. Each book is £595 but if you buy one book and then a second, you’ll receive a third book free of charge.

  • book 1 for £595
  • books 2 & 3 for £595

If you have already bought the traycased edition of volume 1 then just let us have your details plus £595 and we’ll send volumes 2 and 3 plus two pieces of Chadbourne artwork. It’ll mean you’ll be paying £1190 for all three volumes, the whole kit-and-kaboodle. But, hey, bargain-hunters—there’s one thing to bear in mind: this offer lasts only to the end of March. And we’re allowing only 15 sets.

So, finally, collect all three volumes with the same letter and end up with three books, signed by author and artist, plus three pieces of original artwork; and three bespoke traycases.

And lo, that’s about it for this week.

Phew. Okay horror fans, that’s the deal for this week. The weekend is upon us, the wind is rattling the roof slates and the bushes across in the park. So let’s be careful out there.

Look after each other and happy reading.

Pete

PS Publishing

Grosvenor House, 1 New Road, Hornsea
United Kingdom

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