In the world of genre magazines and anthology series, there are always a precious few that take on what can honestly be called a legendary status. When it comes to science fiction, then it's
Amazing Stories in the States and
New Worlds in the UK. And when it comes to supernatural and horror fiction?
Weird Tales, obviously, in the US. But there is a Brit equivalent to that.
The Pan Book of Horror Stories is an anthology series that ran yearly from 1959 to 1989, all but the last five editions under the editorship of publisher
Herbert van Thal. It featured top authors like
Stephen King and
Ray Bradbury and even the occasional tale by such literary big guns as
Muriel Spark and
Ian McEwan, but it became first and foremost a showcase for brand-new talent. It sold in huge numbers and is still revered by horror fans to this very day (thirty years on) with numerous websites dedicated to it.
Running a close second were
The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories and
The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, both of them also yearly and the latter edited by that excellent author of spooky fiction
Robert Aikman before passing on the stewardship to
Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, another genre great.
And it was in these three outlets that I first cut my teeth as a fledgling writer. Here are those stories and others from that period, each with its own introduction as to how it made it into print.
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