77-784: Secret Story may refer to: Books [ edit ] Secret Story , a novel by Ramsey Campbell 2006 The Secret Story , a novel by Cathy Hopkins 2009 Music [ edit ] Secret Story (album) , a 1992 album by Pat Metheny Secret Story , music documentary introducing Secret (South Korean band) Television [ edit ] Secret Story (French TV series) Secret Story (Portuguese TV series) Secret Story (Spanish TV series) Secret Story 2011 (Netherlands) Secret Story (Peruvian TV series) Secret Story (Lithuanian TV series) Secret Story (African TV series) See also [ edit ] Big Brother (TV series) Topics referred to by
154-468: A sin-eater is discovered by a couple holidaying in Wales and brought home ostensibly as a relative, with considerable impact on a community. A haunted house novel called The House on Nazareth Hill (1996), combining the author's M R Jamesian suggestiveness with an increasingly idiosyncratic prose style, is a study of familial psychology and the unchanging nature of social processes, particularly those relating to
231-471: A Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. In the "noughties", Campbell continued his prolific output, publishing multiple novels, along with three short story collections. He reviewed films and DVDs weekly for BBC Radio Merseyside until 2007, and began to contribute a monthly film column, "Ramsey's Ramblings", for Video Watchdog magazine. In 2002, PS Publishing issued
308-522: A Lovecraftian book for Arkham House, the only publisher likely even to have considered it and one of the very few then to be publishing horror." The title story of the collection introduces Campbell's invention of a tome of occult lore similar to Lovecraft's forbidden Necronomicon , The Revelations of Gla'aki (see Books of the Cthulhu Mythos ). The Severn Valley is the setting of several fictional towns and other locations created by Campbell. Part of
385-455: A Summer's Day and Concussion , show the emergence of Campbell's highly distinctive mature style, of which S. T. Joshi has written: Certainly much of the power of his work derives purely from his prose style, one of the most fluid, dense and evocative in all modern literature [...] His eye for the details and resonances of even the most mundane objects, and his ability to express them crisply and almost prose-poetically, give to his work at once
462-457: A book a year, including a collection of letters from his early career between himself and his first mentor August Derleth ( Letters to Arkham: The Letters of Ramsey Campbell and August Derleth, 1961-1971 , ed. S. T. Joshi, 2014) . Both The Seven Days of Cain (2010) and Think Yourself Lucky (2014) explore use of the internet, as characters originally appearing online start to impact upon the real world with disconcerting effects. In 2010, Campbell
539-638: A clarity and a dreamlike nebulousness that is difficult to describe but easy to sense. The book's appearance induced T. E. D. Klein to write an extensive and highly positive review, Ramsey Campbell: An Appreciation in Nyctalops magazine, and critic S. T. Joshi has stated that: its [...] allusiveness of narration; careful, at times even obsessive focusing on the fleeting sensations and psychological processes of characters; an aggressively modern setting that allows commentary on social, cultural and political issues — all conjoin to make Demons by Daylight perhaps
616-489: A collection of Campbell's essays on horror and other areas of interest: Ramsey Campbell, Probably (this volume was expanded to include further material in a 2014 reprint). The collection includes book reviews, film reviews, autobiographical writings and other nonfiction, along with reminiscences and appreciations of authors such as John Brunner , Bob Shaw and K. W. Jeter , and an extensive, negative critique of Shaun Hutson 's Heathen , parodying Hutson's style. Following
693-465: A group of characters involved in a psychological experiment begin to experience fragmentation in their everyday lives (the novel was written during the "terrible nightmare year" of Campbell's mother's last mental breakdown). In The Claw (1983; originally published under the pseudonym Jay Ramsey) a family man is tempted by an African talisman to devour his own daughter and in The Hungry Moon (1986)
770-610: A later development in the Campbell's work, social comedy and confusions inherent in everyday communication. The Kind Folk (2012) is a delicately written evocation of fairy folk, told in the modern day. In 2013, Holes for Faces , a further collection of short fiction appeared, gathering together his work from the 2000s. During the same period, PS Publishing issued two novellas by Campbell: The Last Revelation of Gla'aki (2013) and The Pretence (2013). A third novella appeared in 2016 entitled The Booking, from Dark Regions Press. These were
847-446: A nefarious organisation over three time periods (1950s, 1980s, 2010s) and evokes a cosmic entity by the name of Daoloth. The trilogy draws together multiple themes that have preoccupied the author during his whole career: the cosmic, family, scapegoating, the vulnerability of children, and the seductiveness of totalising belief systems. A new short story collection, By the Light of my Skull,
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#1732870022900924-421: A nefarious organisation. Obsession (1982) involves a group of childhood friends making a wish apiece concerning their futures, the manifestations tormenting them in later life; however, as is common in Campbell's work involving aberrant mental states, it is not entirely apparent that these events have a supernatural origin. In Incarnate (1983), the boundaries between dream and reality are gradually broken down as
1001-487: A number of crimes novels. The first, The Last Voice They Hear (1998), is a tightly plotted thriller which ranges back and forth in time as two brothers become engaged in a cat-and-mouse game redolent of earlier events in their lives. Although written "under protest", Campbell came to think of the book, during composition, as bearing his own stamp, and his next two novels were also non-supernatural. In this decade Campbell issued four short story collections, including, in 1993,
1078-438: A primordial moon entity stokes the religious hysteria of a quiet community. The latter book is a favourite among fans and a multi-character 'small town' horror story along the lines of similar work in this period, a subgenre arguably 'pump-primed' by the likes of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot . In characteristically honest and self-critical afterwords, Campbell has claimed that, despite its popularity, The Hungry Moon, along with
1155-493: A single volume from PS Publishing). Forming his literary apprenticeship with stories modelled after Lovecraft's themes, Campbell's first collection, The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants (Arkham House, 1964), published when he was eighteen years old, collects his Lovecraftian pastiches to that date. Campbell has written, "In 1964 I was several kinds of lucky to find a publisher, and one kind depended on my having written
1232-588: A soon-to-be-published manuscript and the contract he had been offered for it. Campbell says "My jaw dropped when I looked at the manuscript—it turned out to be the Books of Blood ." Campbell wrote the introduction to the first edition. Campbell contributed numerous articles on horror cinema to The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural (1986). The 1990s again saw Campbell publish eight novels, though in
1309-404: A whole book to show to publishers. His English teacher, Brother Kelly, used to have him read his stories to the class. Campbell (as John R. Campbell) submitted Ghostly Tales to "numerous publishers" including Tom Boardman publisher; Boardman rejected it as they did not publish ghost stories, but his rejection letter included encouragement to Campbell to keep writing. This collection of juvenilia
1386-527: Is considered a good entry point for readers unfamiliar with his work. Waking Nightmares (1991), Strange Things and Stranger Places (1993), and Ghosts and Grisly Things (1998) collect much of Campbell's short fiction from this period. Two of this decade's short story collections won awards. In 1999, Campbell was awarded both the Grand Master Award from the World Horror Convention and
1463-467: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ramsey Campbell Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films. Since he first came to prominence in
1540-551: Is more correctly referred to as the Vale of Berkeley or the Severn Estuary ; the real-world Severn Valley refers to an area around fifty miles (80 km) further north. His later work continued the focus on Liverpool; in particular, his 2005 novel Secret Stories (published in the U.S. in an abridged edition as Secret Story (2006)) both exemplifies and satirizes Liverpudlian speech, characters, humour and culture, while Creatures of
1617-433: Is one that many enthusiasts single out as a highlight of this stage of his career. Needing Ghosts (1990), a novella, is a nightmarish work that blends the horrific and the comic; Campbell himself has described the composition of this piece as unique among his work in that it "felt like dreaming on the page" and was written relatively quickly without technical or structural challenges. A sympathetic serial murderer appears in
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#17328700229001694-493: Is regarded by many critics as one of Campbell's finest works. The novel was cut by Star Books, who first issued it in a paperback edition in 1979; it was not issued complete until the US Scream Press edition of 1983. Campbell became even more prolific during the 1980s, issuing no less than eight novels (of which six won awards) and three short story collections. He has written that after moving away from Lovecraft's influence he
1771-567: Is set in the real locales of Liverpool and the Merseyside area. The River Severn is an actual river in Wales and western England . Campbell's stories mention various real-world locales, including the Cotswold Hills , Berkeley , and the A38 road . These references place "Campbell Country" in the southern part of Gloucestershire , roughly between the cities of Gloucester and Bristol . This area
1848-507: Is uncertain. All six of the UK paperbacks and the hardcover omnibus omitted the film stills which appeared in the original US editions. 1979 saw the publication of the non-supernatural thriller The Face That Must Die , the story of a homophobic serial killer told largely from the killer's point of view. Initially considered by numerous publishers, including Campbell's British publisher Thomas Tessier at Millington Books, as too grim to publish, it
1925-538: The Massachusetts locales of Arkham , Dunwich and Innsmouth , and moved them to English settings in and around the fictional Gloucestershire city of Brichester , near the River Severn , creating his own Severn Valley milieu for Lovecraftian horrors. The invented locale of Brichester is the main town of Campbell's Severn Valley, and was deeply influenced by Campbell's native Liverpool, and much of his later work
2002-566: The "John". After working four years in the tax office and seven years in public libraries, by 1973, Campbell became a fulltime writer, encouraged by the issuance by Arkham House of his second collection, Demons by Daylight (as by Ramsey Campbell). That collection had been due for publication in 1971, but was held back two years by the death of August Derleth . Demons by Daylight includes The Franklyn Paragraphs , which uses Lovecraft's documentary narrative technique without slipping into parody of his writing style. Other tales, such as The End of
2079-528: The 30-year career retrospective Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961-1991 , published by Campbell's original publisher, Arkham House . This volume, illustrated by Jeff K. Potter, is not a comprehensive collection of all the stories Campbell had published in those thirty years, rather 39 tales which Campbell and his editor Jim Turner thought representative. Drawing on material across his career to that date, it
2156-566: The Alarming and Phantasmal. The Searching Dead (2016) was the first novel in a trilogy of H P Lovecraft-influenced works which, like the novella The Last Revelation of Gla'aki, revisits themes from Campbell's early work. Described by the author as his "Brichester Mythos trilogy", the three-book series, including Born to the Dark (2017) and The Way of the Worm (2018), documents a character's engagement with
2233-544: The Black Lagoon . At least one hardcover omnibus was published, presumably prior to the UK paperbacks: The Classic Library of Horror Omnibus—The Mummy & The Werewolf of London (London: Allan Wingate, 1978). Its existence suggests there may have been two companion hardcover omnibuses collecting the balance of the series (if this were the case they would contain the Campbell-authored novels), but their existence/issuance
2310-487: The Cthulhu Mythos started by Lovecraft, the fictional milieu is arguably the most detailed mythos setting outside of Lovecraft Country itself. In his early writings, Campbell used the setting of Lovecraft's stories, in the fictional New England area of the Miskatonic River valley . At the suggestion of fellow Lovecraftian writer, August Derleth , he rewrote many of his earliest stories, which he had originally set in
2387-505: The Dark . Campbell wrote novelisations and introductions for a series of novelisations of Universal horror films. The series has a rather complex publishing history. They were published in paperback in 1977 in the US, with uniform packaging, by Berkley Medallion Books as The Universal Horror Library . All six of the Berkley editions were published under the house name 'Carl Dreadstone'; all six of
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2464-617: The Devil and The Children of Asshur (published in 1978 and 1979). By the time Arkham House published his second hardcover collection of horror stories, The Height of the Scream (1976), he was beginning to be seen as one of the major modern writers of horror. 1976 also saw the publication of Campbell's first novel, The Doll Who Ate His Mother , which immediately drew acclaim from figures such as Fritz Leiber and T.E.D. Klein . In this and The Face that Must Die (1979), Campbell began to fully explore
2541-452: The English language in thirty years; it is surely one of the half a dozen or so which will still be in print and commonly read a hundred years from now." This story appeared in Campbell's 1982 collection, Dark Companions , alongside other tales from that period commonly cited as early classics: "The Chimney", "Mackintosh Willy", and "Call First". Starting with The Parasite (1980; published in
2618-451: The French 'new novel', he became interested in expanding the stylistic possibilities of his work. He finished the collection that would become Demons by Daylight in 1968, but it would not see print until 1973. Meanwhile, from 1969 to 1973, he continued to write short stories in which he gradually developed his own voice and themes and left the influence of Lovecraft far behind. Campbell worked in
2695-682: The Lake and Less Welcome Tenants ( Arkham House , 1964)). The manuscripts of Campbell's early tales are housed at the Local History Library of the Liverpool Public Libraries. Campbell first encountered the works of H. P. Lovecraft at age eight (1954), via the story " The Colour Out of Space ", which he found in the Groff Conklin anthology Strange Travels in Science Fiction , and within the next few years read " The Rats in
2772-452: The Liverpool Public Libraries as a library assistant (1966–73) and was acting librarian in charge (1971–73). In 1969, he had written Lovecraft in Retrospect , a violent diatribe against Lovecraft, for the fanzine Shadow , "condemning [Lovecraft's] work outright." However, in his 1985 book Cold Print , which collects his Lovecraftian stories, Campbell disavowed the opinions expressed in
2849-700: The Pool (2009) use locations in and around the author's native Liverpool to eerie effect. Told by the Dead (2003) and Just Behind You (2009) collected Campbell's more recent short fiction, while Inconsequential Tales (2008), collecting a number of unpublished stories, documents his early evolution as a stylist. In 2007, Campbell was awarded the Living Legend Award from the International Horror Guild. After 2010, Campbell continued to publish at least
2926-469: The Pool draws on the city's geography and history. Some of his stories about the fictional Severn Valley can be found in the following anthologies and collections: The story "Cold Print" (1969) marked an end to Campbell's literary apprenticeship, taking the essence of Lovecraft out of the New England backwoods into a modern urban setting. Subsequently Campbell briefly disavowed Lovecraft, whilst working on
3003-605: The US editions featured stills from the relevant films. It is believed this set was made available as boxed set in slipcase, as well as sold individually. Only three of the novels were actually written by Campbell, though he contributed introductions to all six volumes. No US hardcover edition of the series is known. Campbell's contributions to the series were Bride of Frankenstein , Dracula's Daughter and The Wolfman , published as Carl Dreadstone. Three further novelisations which appeared under this house name were not by Campbell but written by other authors. Walter Harris wrote two of
3080-446: The US with a different ending as To Wake the Dead ), and continuing throughout much of the decade, Campbell's full-length novels were consciously aimed at a more commercial audience. It features a point of view of a female protagonist who becomes embroiled in occult practices (with Lovecraftian undertones). In The Nameless (1981), also told from the point of view of a woman, a child goes missing and returns only years later, affiliated to
3157-531: The Walls " and " The Dunwich Horror ", encountered in the Wise and Fraser anthology Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural . At the age of twelve, Campbell attempted to write a novel titled Broken Moon , influenced by Arthur Machen , but it petered out after fifty pages. By the age of 14, he discovered Lovecraft's Cry Horror! , a British edition of the collection entitled The Lurking Fear , and read it in one day, finding
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3234-416: The article, stating: "I believe Lovecraft is one of the most important writers in the field" and "the first book of Lovecraft's I read made me into a writer." Around 1970, Campbell stopped using his first initial "J." on his work, though a few stories earlier than this appeared as by "Ramsey Campbell", and a few after still saw print as by "J. Ramsey Campbell". Campbell later legally changed his name to remove
3311-410: The author would go on to enjoy a long-term relationship with the UK imprint, granting first print rights to most new work. Having spent a number of months working full-time in a Borders store, Campbell wrote The Overnight (2004), about bookshop staff trapped in their hellish workplace during an overnight shift. In Secret Stories (2005; abridged US edition, Secret Story , 2006) Campbell returned to
3388-516: The author's trademark suggestiveness and surreal imagery. In 1987, Campbell published Scared Stiff , a collection of "sex and horror" short stories. In the early 1980s Campbell had crossed paths a number of time in Liverpool at cinemas and various parties with a young Liverpool writer named Clive Barker , who had been working around London as a playwright. Barker asked Campbell if he knew any markets for short stories and eventually asked him to look over
3465-503: The basis of Campbell's earliest work, especially The Doll Who Ate His Mother , King argued that the author's strength lies in his hallucinogenic prose and edgy psychology, the way his characters view the world and how this affects readers: In a Campbell novel or story, one seems to view the world through the thin and shifting perceptual haze of an LSD trip that is just ending ... or just beginning. The polish of his writing and his mannered turns of phrase and image make him seem something like
3542-456: The black comedy The Count of Eleven (1991), which displays Campbell's gift for word play , and which the author has said is disturbing "because it doesn't stop being funny when you think it should". A review at the time suggested that the central character might be played in a film by Stan Laurel, an observation that delighted Campbell, who is a great admirer of Laurel and Hardy. Other novels of this decade include The Long Lost (1993), in which
3619-778: The cosmic peaks achieved by Lovecraft", particularly the novel The Darkest Part of the Woods (2003), the novella The Last Revelation of Gla'aki (2013), and three novels that form his Brichester Mythos trilogy (2016–18). With his stories written between 1964 and 1968, beginning with The Reshaping of Rossiter (first draft of The Scar ), A Garden at Night (first draft of Made in Goatswood ) and The Successor (first draft of Cold Print ), Campbell set out to be as unlike Lovecraft as possible. Having discovered writers such as Vladimir Nabokov , Robert Aickman , Graham Greene , Iris Murdoch , William Burroughs and Henry Miller , and such influences as
3696-586: The crime genre with a blackly comic study of a serial killer whose written accounts of his crimes inadvertently win a fiction competition, resulting in further murders. The Grin of the Dark (2007) draws on Campbell's interest in the history of cinema, as a character seeks material relating to a silent film comedian by the name of Tubby Thackeray. The novel also explores the impact of the internet on human consciousness. The author, often critical of his own output, continues to cite this novel as one with which he remains pleased. Thieving Fear (2008) and The Creatures of
3773-503: The enigma of evil, touching on the psychological themes of possession, madness and alienation which feature in many of his subsequent novels. He also continued to write short stories, mainly supernatural, receiving the World Fantasy Award for "The Chimney" (1977) and "Mackintosh Willy" (1980). Campbell has been a lifelong enthusiast of film; early stories such as The Reshaping of Rossiter (1964; an early version of The Scar ) show
3850-490: The equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood ." In a 2021 appreciation of his collected works, The Washington Post said: "Taken together, they constitute one of the monumental accomplishments of modern popular fiction." Campbell was born in Liverpool , England, to Alexander Ramsey and Nora (Walker) Campbell. He was educated by Christian Brothers at St Edward's College , Liverpool. Campbell's childhood and adolescence were marked by
3927-509: The fiction's sense of awesomeness as well as horror extraordinarily appealing. He had also read Arthur Machen's major horror stories by this age, and some works by John Dickson Carr , which led him to write, at 14 years old, a 100-page Carr pastiche (unfinished) titled Murder By Moonlight . This piece was published in 2020 as The Enigma of the Flat Policeman , including annotations from the adult author reflecting on his psychological state at
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#17328700229004004-422: The field, and which drew some of their strength from uniting British and American influences." In 1981, Stephen King published a semi-autobiographical overview of the horror field, Danse Macabre . In a chapter focusing on 20th century practitioners, King devoted a section to Campbell's fiction, alongside that of Ray Bradbury , Shirley Jackson , Peter Straub , Richard Matheson , Jack Finney and others. On
4081-401: The first novellas Campbell had written since 1990's Needing Ghosts . 2015 saw the release of Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach , one of Campbell's few novels set outside the UK; a family holiday on a Greek island involves communion with a familiar supernatural character from literature. Campbell's collection of playful limericks based on famous horror works of fiction appeared in 2016: Limericks of
4158-425: The genre's Joyce Carol Oates [...] as when journeying on LSD, there is something chilly and faintly schizophrenic in the way his characters see things ... and in the things they see [...] Good stuff. But strange; so uniquely Campbell that it might as well be trademarked. King also singled out one of Campbell's early short stories for particular praise: " ' The Companion' may be the best horror tale to be written in
4235-693: The influence of directors such as Alain Resnais , and as early as 1969 Campbell had become the film reviewer for BBC Radio Merseyside . He worked in Merseyside on the Friday edition of "Breakfast" and less frequently on Claire Hamilton's Sunday show. A longer version of his Merseyside reviews appeared on the Radio Merseyside website, where he also reviewed DVDs. His love of old movies features prominently in two of Campbell's later novels, Ancient Images and The Grin of
4312-475: The introduction and afterword to the restored text of The Face That Must Die . Other autobiographical pieces regarding Campbell's life are available in Section V, "On Ramsey Campbell" in his essay collection Ramsey Campbell, Probably: 30 Years of Essays and Articles (ed. S. T. Joshi ), as well as in the novella The Enigma of the Flat Policeman (2020). Campbell's mother "wrote a great deal, novel after novel, but
4389-572: The legacy of H P Lovecraft. Derleth accepted the story in February 1962 and it became Campbell's first professionally published tale, appearing in the Derleth-edited anthology Dark Mind, Dark Heart . Campbell wrote various other tales of the Cthulhu Mythos between 1961 and 1963. Derleth gave the young writer invaluable advice on improving his writing style (their correspondence has been published in
4466-544: The market for short horror stories was very limited ... My solution was to lurch into science fiction as best I could. Little of it sold..." Many of the science fiction tales are collected in Inconsequential Tales (2008); he also wrote the novella Medusa (1973) and the short story "Slow" (collected in Told by the Dead ), but has stated that his science fiction "tried to deal with Themes, too consciously, I feel". Outside
4543-453: The mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T.E.D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", and Robert Hadji has described him as "perhaps the finest living exponent of the British weird fiction tradition", while S. T. Joshi stated, "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit
4620-447: The most important book of horror fiction since Lovecraft 's The Outsider and Others . Campbell has written that "Having completed Demons by Daylight in 1968, I felt directionless, and it shows in quite a few of the subsequent tales." He wrote only four tales in 1970, and five stories in 1971. He has written that "retrospect demonstrates how untimely my decision [to write fulltime] was. Kirby McCauley, now my agent, had to tell me that
4697-433: The novels: Werewolf of London and Creature from the Black Lagoon . The author of the sixth Dreadstone ( The Mummy ) remains unknown. UK editions followed—in 1978, Universal Books (a paperback division of W. H. Allen Ltd ) published The Bride of Frankenstein (by Campbell) together with Harris's The Werewolf of London and the (unknown author) The Mummy under the 'Carl Dreadstone' house name, with similar packaging under
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#17328700229004774-450: The publication of two more crime novels— Silent Children (2000), the story of an eccentric child killer; and Pact of the Fathers (2001), which draws on arcane religious practices—Campbell returned to the supernatural and otherworldly. The Darkest Part of the Woods (2003) successfully evokes the cosmic terrors of H P Lovecraft and was the first of Campbell's work published by PS Publishing ;
4851-537: The radically experimental tales which would be published as the collection Demons by Daylight. He later acknowledged Lovecraft's lasting influence, and his subsequent Cthulhu Mythos tales, collected in Cold Print (1985; expanded in 1993), confirm the transition from pastiche to homage, most notably in such tales as "The Faces at Pine Dunes" and the eerily surreal "The Voice on the Beach" (1982). Later work still seeks to "ascend
4928-415: The rift between his parents, who became estranged shortly after his birth. Campbell's father became a shadowy presence more often heard than seen. Campbell states, "I didn't see my father face to face for nearly twenty years, and that was when he was dying." Years later, Campbell's mother degenerated into paranoia and schizophrenia , rendering his life a living hell—an experience he has discussed in detail in
5005-421: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Secret Story . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Secret_Story&oldid=1242815129 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
5082-417: The second half of this decade he moved away from traditional horror to explore crime and tales of social alienation. Four of this decade's novels won awards. In Midnight Sun (1990), an alien entity apparently seeks entry to the world through the mind of a children's writer. In its fusion of horror with awe, Midnight Sun shows the influence of Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen as well as Lovecraft. It
5159-478: The similarly commercial The Parasite and, to a lesser degree, The Claw , are among the least successful of his works from this period, by turns awkwardly structured, containing too many ideas, and/or tending towards explicit violence. In contrast Campbell has stated his pride that The Influence (1988) and Ancient Images (1989) are subtler, tightly plotted novels of supernatural menace, each with (predominantly) female central characters and generating unease through
5236-720: The time of composition. On leaving school at age sixteen, Campbell went to work in the Inland Revenue as a tax officer (1962–66). Campbell sold various early stories to editors including August Derleth and Robert A.W. Lowndes . His concept of what was possible in the Weird genre was highly influenced by Lovecraft for the next few years. In December 1961, Campbell completed the story "The Church in High Street" (previously titled "The Tomb-Herd") which he sent to August Derleth at Arkham House , an imprint singlehandedly responsible for preserving
5313-468: The title 'The Classic Library of Horror'. A further two years would elapse before the rest of the series was issued in the UK. The last three of the series were issued by Star Books (a W. H. Allen imprint) in 1980 (with different packaging from the 1978 titles) and these three appeared under a different house-name—'E. K. Leyton'. These were Campbell's remaining two novels of the series, Dracula's Daughter and The Wolfman , together with Harris's Creature from
5390-463: The world of horror, he wrote a series of fantasy stories starring Ryre the Swordsman, who battles enemies on an alien world called Tond. Initially published in various anthologies, these stories were finally gathered in the collection Far Away & Never (Necronomicon Press, July 1996). In 1976 he 'completed' three of Robert E. Howard 's unfinished Solomon Kane stories, Hawk of Basti , The Castle of
5467-576: The young's quest for independence and the threat this presents to others. Campbell had earlier published a non-supernatural novel called The One Safe Place (1995), which uses a highly charged thriller narrative to examine social problems such as the deprivation and abuse of children, and in 1998 he turned away for a more sustained period from the supernatural work with which he was associated. By this time, horror had become commercially less successful and publishers were taking fewer chances on publishing such material, all of which encouraged Campbell to write
5544-409: Was "determined to sound like myself" but also that "The Chicago and San Francisco tales of Fritz Leiber were now my models in various ways. I wanted to achieve that sense of supernatural terror which derives from the everyday urban landscape rather than invading it, and I greatly admired—still do—how Fritz wrote thoroughly contemporary weird tales which were nevertheless rooted in the best traditions of
5621-418: Was 11 years old (1957–58) and were influenced by a magazine from Bolton , Lancashire, called Phantom . These early tales formed a self-illustrated collection of sixteen stories and a poem entitled "Ghostly Tales". Campbell intended to submit these to Phantom , but his mother, who regarded literary success as a possible way of financing her escape from her disastrous marriage, persuaded him to wait until he had
5698-648: Was also released in 2018, gathering together some of Campbell's more recent works, some of which—as has been the case in his later fiction—deal with older age. Visions from Brichester (2017) collected all of the author's Lovecraftian short fiction not originally published in The Inhabitant of the Lake . PS Publishing issued the first of a two-volume retrospective focused on Campbell's most representative short fiction across his entire career: The Companion & Other Phantasmagorical Stories (2019). St Edward%27s College Too Many Requests If you report this error to
5775-427: Was commissioned to write the novelisation of the movie Solomon Kane , which was based on the swords and sorcery stories of Robert E. Howard (some of which Campbell had completed in his early career) . Ghosts Know (2011), one of the author's few latter-day non-supernatural excursions (on the surface, at least), explores the mendacity of stage mediums/psychics in the context of a missing person story; it also showcases
5852-414: Was largely unpublished aside from a handful of short stories in writer's magazines." She encouraged her young son to send his writing off from an early age. Growing up in the blitzed landscape of post-war Liverpool, Campbell avidly consumed the work of Lovecraft , Ambrose Bierce , Franz Kafka , Fritz Leiber , Graham Greene , and the cinema of film noir . Campbell's earliest tales were written when he
5929-608: Was published thirty years later, as a special issue of Crypt of Cthulhu magazine titled Ghostly Tales: Crypt of Cthulhu 6, No 8, whole number 50, Michaelmas 1987, edited by Robert M. Price . It is of interest that, though the stories are mostly mainstream spectral lore, one story ("The Hollow in the Woods") can be considered a very early mythos yarn. Another issue of this magazine Crypt of Cthulhu No 43 (Hallowmas 1983), titled The Tomb-Herd and Others collects various early stories, including some early drafts of tales later published revised in Campbell's first book, The Inhabitant of
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