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With The Horrors: The Great Short Fiction Of Ramsey Campbell, 1961-1991 check out website: www.tor.com and www.panmacmillan.com and www.herebedragons.co.uk/campbell
The stories within these covers are chosen to represent not only
Ramsey's development as a writer but also typical examples of his style. There
have been previous editions of 'Alone With The Horrors' but this one differs in
that the first story in the volume has been changed. Instead of 'The Room In The
Castle' which was his first professional publication, it has been substituted
with 'The Tower From Yuggoth'. Although originally published in a fanzine, Ramsey
regards this story as the one that started his career as a writer in 1961. Like
many of his early stories and some later ones, it is heavily influenced by the
work of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulu mythos. 'The Tower From Yuggoth' feels longer than it is but, considering it was written when Campbell was only fifteen, it is a remarkable piece. It shows some of the hallmarks typical of much of his work - the atmospheric descriptions and the supernatural phenomena.
Lovecraft's
work is typified by the malevolent lurking horrors stumbled on by the overly inquisitive.
The inexplicable, by current scientific knowledge, is likely to happen. Another
Lovecraftian story is 'The Voice On The Beach' from 1977 where first the narrator's
friend, then the narrator are seduced onto a sandy stretch of coast from where
strange apparitions and voices on the breeze emanate. Misplaced
curiosity is likely to cause his downfall, to lead him into situations that shock.
In 'The Brood' (1976), it is the woman who appears to take stray animals into
a derelict building that ensnares Blackband's curiosity. The horror tends to creep
up on the protagonist. There is a slow change from the mundane to the unexpected
and life-threatening as it also does in 'Midnight Hobo' (1978). Here it is the
wish to discover what is under the bridge that leads to Roy's downfall. In
any collection like this there is the temptation to look either for themes or
hidden influences, to try and analyse the psyche of the writer. To do this here
would be a mistake though there are common threads that can be unpicked from these
stories. Campbell is a great observer of people, especially of their eccentricities.
An isolated, strange piece of behaviour that in the observed individual may be
unusual can, in the imagination of a writer, be exaggerated and have fanciful
interpretations put upon it. In 'Call First' (1974) one man's habit of phoning
to tell his wife that he is leaving the office becomes the turning off of the
zombie burglar alarm. In 'Baby' (1974), an elderly woman is seen daily pushing
a pram along a parade of shops. What has she got inside it? Why does she never
buy anything? Many of the main characters are solitary. Being alone, especially in a strange place or in the dark, can set the imagination working overtime. In every shadow or round every corner may lurk the ultimate horror. For most of us, that is all it is, imagination. For Campbell's characters, the unexpected is awaiting. He can evoke menace in almost any situation and being lost on a hillside in the fog is scary enough without anything else that might be going on in 'Above The World' (1977). Lost in the countryside and looking for direction at a cottage in 'Again' (1980), Bryant isn't expecting to encounter a witch. Loners often have an obsession. We all have obsessions but most of us balance them with other influences in our lives. If you live alone, the
obsessions takes a greater prominence. Others often think people like this are
eccentric or weird. Sometimes the obsession can lead to strange places. In 'Cold
Print' (1966), it is the desire for a particular type of book that leads Sam Strutt
into trouble and in 'Out Of Copyright (1977) it is the desire for perfection in
a manuscript that causes Tharne to release a demon. As children, we
have an innate sense of adventure. Some of our strongest memories are of events
from that time. It is not surprising then that Campbell draws on those familiar
experiences and twists them. In 'Apples' (1984), a Halloween game of bob-apple
turns nasty whereas 'The Guy' (1968) is a ghost story set on bonfire night. Children,
urged on by curiosity and without the staid influence of adults can find themselves
in trouble, as do the boys who decide to visit the catacombs at lunch time in
'The Interloper' (1968) or the girl fascinated by the graffiti in 'The Man In
The Underpass' (1973). Writers often admit to taking snippets, incidents from real life and weaving them into their narratives. Campbell is no exception. He uses places that he is familiar with or has visited to help create the ambience, like the oppressiveness of the darkness in the caves of 'The End Of A Summers Day' (1968) or in the ghost train of the old funfair in 'The Companion' (1973) or it might be some very trivial thing like the graffiti in a shelter that lead to 'Macintosh Willie' (1977). Little the world can offer escapes Campbell.
It will be absorbed, twisted and the darker side of 'What If...' emerges be it
a derelict cinema a basement or the horror of having to watch a neighbours holiday
slides. He doesn't often go for straight twist in the tall stories but the one
in this collection, 'Heading Home' (1974), is a real gem. If there
is any discernible trend over the thirty years of stories covered by this volume
it is that as the situations and characters become more familiar, there is a greater
tendency to look over your shoulder. The next one could happen to you. Pauline
Morgan
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Ramsey
Campbell is one of the most highly regarded and prolific writers in the horror
genre. A volume as slim as this one could never hope to encompass even a fraction
of his output. This is, therefore, a snapshot of the first thirty years of his
career. 
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