The Pan Book of Horror Stories (Pan 70th Anniversary, 2)

This review refers to the reprint of volume 1 of the Pan Horror Stories series, it may appear against other volumes due to a known glitch on Amazon.Bear in mind that this anthology was first published in 1959 and as in all these portmanteau style books, the factor that ties them together 'horror' is often in the mind of the reader. To a modern audience who may be used to far more graphic tales with sex and gore they may appear a little tame but persevere as amongst them are some nice spine-tingling tales. The article by Johnny Mains gives a great insight into the 30 year history of this memorable series.There are some great stories the Lovecraftian 'Horror in The Musuem','House of Horror' and 'Raspberry jam'. Some creepy ones 'The Kill' 'The Copper Bowl' 'W S' and more than a few that have not stood the test of time.The full line up is as followsJugged Hare (Joan Aiken) - pretty weakSubmerged ((A L Barker) almost a pre-cursor of Stand By Me, a young boy discovers a body.His Beautiful Hands (Oscar Cook), Ok-ishThe Copper Bowl ((George Fielding Eliot) nice and with a grisly twist at the endContents Of The Dead Man's Pocket (Jack Finney) so soThe Kill, ((Peter Fleming) a nicely subdued werewolf taleThe Physiology Of Fear (C S Forester) a comment on NazismW S (L P Hartley) a forerunner of Stephen King's 'The Dark Half'The Horror In The Museum (Hazel Heald) a great tale with Lovecraftian themesThe Library (Hester Holland) OK,The Mistake (Fielden Hughes) a tale of premature burialOh, Mirror, Mirror (Nigel Kneale) a strange fairy taleSerenade For Baboons (Noel Langley) OKThe Lady Who Didn't Waste Words (Hamilton Macallister) I won't either, move on.A Fragment Of Fact (Chris Massie) hmmmmThe House Of Horror (Seabury Quinn) well creepyBehind The Yellow Door (Flavia Richardson) an Ok tale of a mad doctorThe Portobello Road (Muriel Spark) a slow moving yet effective story of a murder victim haunting her killer.The Squaw (Bram Stoker) ok and with a grisly end that you will see comingFlies (Anthony Vercoe) excellent nice and with an odd twistRaspberry Jam (Angus Wilson) starts slow but wait till the last page for the true horrorNightmare (Alan Wykes) a weak tale to end the volume on.As in the original printing the tales are represented A-Z by author's surname so the book starts with 2 quite poor tales and one so-so one before The Copper Bowl rescues it. A purely alphabetical listing does not make for sensible editing and if you based your opinions on the first few tales you may have given up and would have missed some real gems.Raspberry Jam is the stand out tale but Flies, The Copper Bowl, The House of Horror, The Horror in the Museum and a few others are well worth reading.Some of my copies of the earlier volumes are a little foxed and decidedly dog-eared and I look forward to future reprints.

*** appears against volume 1 due to a glitch at Amazon ***The 7th volume of the Pan series sadly reverted back to the alphabetical listing by Author which weakened the first volume. It contains the following tales.The Man Who Hated Flies (Charles J. Benfleet) - a so-so tale about reincarnation.The Thing (R. Chetwynd-Hayes) - the first great tale here.The Return (G. M. Glaskin) - a girl returns to find her family home burned down, better on second readingThe Bats (David Grant)The Fur Brooch (Dulcie Gray) - don't accept gifts from spurned loversDream House (Dulcie Gray) - an odd couple rent a stately house, OK.The Streets Of Ashkelon (Harry Harrison) - a missionary tries to bring religion to another planet.The Snail Watcher (Patricia Highsmith) - an obsession goes too far.The Monkey's Paw (W. W. Jacobs) - one of the classic horror tales of all time and worth buying this book for if you have not read it.The Last Experiment (John D Keefauver) - an experiment with sensory deprivation.Mareta (John D Keefauver) - A woman who kills her husbands, the second of 2 not very impressive tales in succession.I'll Never Leave You - Ever (Rene Morris) - a nice voodoo taleA Smell Of Fear (William Sansom) - a woman is stalked by a man with a limp.The Little Room (William Sansom) - a nun's last hours as she is bricked up alive.Street of the Blind Donkey (Rosemary Timperley) - a woman appears to be seeking refuge from her husband in Bruges, with an expected twist.Cannibals (Martin Waddell) - does what it says on the tin.The Old Adam (Martin Waddell) - I really liked this tale of a very odd, non-human, friendship with a decent twist.The Island Of Regrets (Elizabeth Walter) - another decent tale about the strange sole inhabitant of a shunned island.Never Talk To Strangers (Alex White) - a suitably creepy ending that still shocks even though you will probably guess the ending.I would recommend this on the strength of The Monkey's Paw alone, this is a classic horror that has inspired many a book and movie. Also worthy are The Thing, Streets of Ashkelon, and the last 3 tales that finish the volume in a nice creepy style. Despite a few stumbles along the way this is well worth 4 stars and is one of my favourite volumes in the series.