Peter Haining

This superb new anthology contains some of the finest 20th and 21st century writers turning their hand to the supernatural. Expert editor Peter Haining presents an outstanding selection of over 40 modern gems, including: 'Video Nasty' by PHILIP PULLMAN 'The Grove of Ashtaroth' by JOHN BUCHAN 'Haunted' by JOYCE CAROL OATES 'Ringing in the Good News' by PETER ACKROYD 'The Ghost of U65' by GEORGE MINTO 'The Pool' by DAPHNE DU MAURIER 'My Beautiful House' by LOUIS DE BERNIERES 'Vengeance is Mine' by ALGERNON BLACKWOOD

> Here at last is a side-splitting collection of all those authors errors, publishers' boobs, printers' devils, terrible titles, horrendous howlers, comical clangers and all manner of slips committed to paper almost since the invention of the printing press. >Painstakingly researched and tapping into the general public's fascination with the written word, each chapter is wittily introduced and reflects changes in tastes, styles, even printing technology. From Montaigne through Dickens to Kafka and on to the present day, there are curious opening lines, fantastic fictions whose titles are too bad to be true and some of the most suggestive double entendres committed by those who really should have known better!

Anthology: Give yourself the shivers with these fourteen stories by the master scaremongers. 1. The Spell - R. L. Stine 2. It’s a Good Life - Jerome Bixby 3. Drink My Red Blood - Richard Matheson 4. Something Nasty - William F. Nolan 5. The Restless Ghost - Leon Garfield 6. The Thirteenth Day of Christmas - Isaac Asimov 7. Hush! - Zenna Henderson 8. Spotty Powder - Roald Dahl 9. A Baby Tramp - Ambrose Bierce 10. The Man Upstairs - Ray Bradbury 11. Dead Language Master - Joan Aiken 12. Here There Be Tygers - Stephen King 13. The Trick [“Trick or Treat”] - Ramsey Campbell 14. A Toy for Juliette - Robert Bloch

Armed only with a crucifix, a wooden stake, a bottle of holy water, and a rope of garlic, the vampire hunter ventures into the gruesone world of the undead to attempt the inpossible - ending the existence of those who have already died. Although the figure of the vampire has dominated the genre of horror fiction since its first incarnation in nineteenth-century melodrama, vampire hunters are immortal in their own right as the vampire's ultimate nemesis. Never before published in the United States, this chilling collection of fourteen stories shifts the traditional focus of vampire literature from the hunted to the hunter. The Vampire Hunters' Casebook is prefaced with an excerpt from the archetypal vampire hunter, Dracula's Professor Van Helsing, who mysteriously reappears in several of the selections. The collection incudes a range of tales, from Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla," written more than a quarter of a century before Bram Stoker's Dracula, to offerings by such contemporary masters of horror fiction as Anne Rice and Robert Bloch. Also included are editor Peter Haining's own "The Beefsteak Room," and Peter Tremayne's eerie tale written especially for this anthology, "My Name Upon the Wind," which finds Van Helsing transplanted to present-day Ireland. The Vampire Hunters Casebook's singular approach to vampire lore will sweep its readers along on a spine-tingling journey of terror beside the ordinary men and women driven to seek out and destroy these hideous creatures of the night.

This collection looks at the years of innocence, the pains and pleasures of schooldays and the struggles of adolescence in stories by such writers as Seamus Heaney, Roddy Doyle, Flann O'Brien, William Trevor, Bryan MacMahon, Samuel Beckett, Neil Jordan, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, Brian Friel, Maeve Binchy, Brendan Behan and many more.

The protection racket / Dick Francis -- Nobbling the favourite / Nat Gould -- A racing swindle / Thomas Gaspey -- [Silver Blaze]( / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- Won by a neck / Leslie Charteris -- The american invasion / Frank Johnson -- A derby horse / Michael Innes -- The horse that died for shame / Peter Tremayne -- Murder on the race course / Julian Symons -- The body in the horsebox / John Francome -- Calling the tune / Steve Donoghue -- To win a race / Alfred Watson -- Dead Cert / Leon Breaker -- Nat Wedgewood trapped / Jack Fairfax-Blakeborough -- The phantom jockey / Bat Masters -- Thoroughbred / Max Brand -- My old man / Ernest Hemingway -- Saratoga in August / Hugh Pentecost -- The photographer and the jockey / James Holding -- Ellen Keegan's revenge / Mary Ryan -- Straight from the horse's mouth / Edgar Wallace -- A story goes with it / Damon Runyon -- Had a horse / John Galsworthy -- Morning in the high street / Barre Lyndon. The crackler / Agatha Christie -- Something short of murder! / Henry Slesar -- Born gambler / Thomas Walsh -- The later edition / Victor Bridges -- Two and a half per cent / Mark Daniel -- En Famille / Ed Gorman.