A question of expectations…

An anthology of horror stories on the theme of London Fog had my anticipation levels high. The introduction is interesting, so long as you can tolerate the lit-crit language, where words like “gender” and “other” are used as verbs. Dearnley discusses the “transgressive” nature of horror and how fog could be used either literally or metaphorically.

There are fourteen titles listed in the index, although it transpires that several aren’t stories, but essays or extracts from writers such as Sam Selvon, Virginia Woolf, et al. Also, several – both stories and essays – mention fog barely or not at all, and occasionally barely mention London either. It’s a question of expectations – when an anthology is subtitled “Eerie Tales from the Weird City” and titled “Into the London Fog”, then my pedantic mind expects fourteen eerie, weird tales with something to do with London fog. The result was that I found this collection disappointing, even although there are a few good stories in it.

Here’s a flavour of the entries I enjoyed most:

The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen – this story about a woman returning to her closed-up London home during the Blitz is excellent – atmospheric, evocative and scary! I posted about it earlier in Tuesday Terror!

N by Arthur Machen – this lives up to the book’s subtitle, falling distinctly into the definition of weird. Three old men discuss a place in Stoke Newington called Canon’s Park. One tells of a man who saw it and described it as a place of great, almost impossible, beauty. But another of the old men remembers the place from his youth, and declares it to be nothing more than a district of streets and houses. The third man investigates, and finds the place is connected to strange and spooky events! Machen is a great writer, and here he gives some excellent depictions of old London and a tale that is odd, ambiguous and well told.

My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon – despite my annoyance at the inclusion of extracts and essays, I must admit I loved this piece. It’s a reflection on Selvon’s love of London, and the difficulty for a writer of finding a way to write about something that has already been experienced by so many and written about so often before. It is beautifully written – a love poem to his girl and to the city.

Overall, this one didn’t hit the mark for me because it didn’t meet my expectations of it. However, if the idea of a mix of horror and literary essays and extracts appeals to you, then it may work better for you.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.

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a nice little collection of horror stories about london (some fiction, some non-fiction) that i read in about 4 hours - not sure whether that's slow, fast, or average but its fine - on my train to Manchester.

It's nothing revolutionary or especially scary but it was a nice read and something to pass the time :)