The new Solaris anthology House of Fear will be launched at Foyles bookshop on Tuesday September 27th. The event is free, and will offer you a chance to buy a copy of the book signed by all attending contributors. There should be plenty of us there. The launch of Solaris’s metro-themed anthology End of the Line last year went off very well indeed. The venue was packed and the panel discussion of ‘terror on the Underground’ was highly entertaining. All of which bodes well for this year’s event.
House of Fear is an anthology of haunted house stories. There’s something about the haunted house tale that makes it perennially interesting for both readers and writers. There’s a lot of noise made about the relationship between the age of so much of Britain’s housing stock and our obsession with ‘dark places,’ and I’m sure there’s a lot in that. But not all haunted houses have to be old. Given the right collection of circumstances even a room in a Travelodge can emit bad vibes. (Now there’s an idea…. ) I think our love of these stories stems mostly from the fact that all of us, at some time or other, have experienced something that might be described as a haunting, even if only in the shape of a vague unease.
I’ve never seen a ghost, at least not to date, but certain places, certain houses, have engendered in me moments of extreme and unexplained foreboding, the need to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Everyone I’ve ever asked can describe a similar experience. The chief fascination of the haunted house story is its universality.
My contribution to House of Fear, ‘The Muse of Copenhagen’ was first conceived during a visit to the Blackwater country in the late summer of 2010, and more particularly a walk at sunset along the promenade at Maldon to where John Doubleday’s magnificent statue of Earl Brithnoth commands the surrounding marshes and commemorates the heroic men of Essex who strove – without success – to repel the Danes from these shores in the August of 991. One of the things I most treasure about England is its unexpectedness, its hidden places. I like picking a spot on the map I’ve never visited before and just heading out to see what is there. On that trip I found the beach at East Mersea where my mother used to paddle as a child. I found wetland bird reserves and more of the pastel-painted beach huts that have obsessed me since I was four. I also found this story.
I’ve seen the proofs and I can tell you there are some great stories in House of Fear. And though they share a common theme, no two stories in the anthology are remotely alike. That’s the infinite versatility of the haunted house story for you – there are as many variations as there are houses to haunt, and that’s precisely what I most love about it.
It’s easy to reserve your ticket for the launch. Just click on this link here and then ‘add to basket.’ It should be a great evening.
Brythnoth statue, Maldon, by John Doubleday
(Photo by Oxyman)