For fear of little men

John Blackburn

Jonathan Cape Ltd.

Teenager Elsie Kerr is hospitalized with a high fever after being found raped and beaten. When eminent bacteriologist Sir Marcus Levin is asked to consult on the case, Elsie accuses him of the crime, pointing at him and screaming "Devil Daddy!"  Then things really start to get weird: Elsie ages eighty years in a matter of hours, and Sir Marcus finds himself racing to stop whatever killed her from spreading while at the same time trying to clear his name. But the trail will take some unexpected and sinister turns: a grisly corpse half-eaten by pigs, a coven of madmen with a diabolical plot, a grotesque and sacrilegious ritual, and an enigmatic old man who may be unable to die!  John Blackburn (1923-1993) was a master at reworking ancient and medieval legends into chilling tales of modern-day horror, and in Devil Daddy (1972), one of his most bizarre novels, he is at his most inventive. This new edition is the first in over four decades and joins fourteen of Blackburn's other classic thrillers also published by Valancourt Books.  'Even on the warmest night of the year, Mr Blackburn knows how to chill our marrow.' - Scotsman  'A flesh creeper ... Blackburn has few superiors in this genre ... Black magic, satanism, bacteriology, murder, rape ... the required gasp of horror.' - Spectator  'An uncanny thriller. Fiendish ... [A] horrendous mix of modern technology and medieval hocus pocus.' - The Observer

Devil daddy

JONATHAN CAPE.

The face of the lion

For Fear of Little Men

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Sidgwick Jackson Ltd

"The story has a nightmarish excitement and maintains a brilliant pace . . . the best of its kind this season." - Detroit News  "[S]pine-chilling . . . a far-reaching plot linking the horror camps of the Nazis, the frozen wastes of Russia and the work of British Secret Intelligence. . . . [T]his is 'must' reading for horror fans." - Calgary Herald  "I began to read: and then read and read and read." - John Creasey, Books of the Month  "Good, insomniac science-fiction." - Listener  With a plot featuring Cold War intrigue, Nazi mad scientists, and a pandemic that threatens to destroy humanity by mutating people into fungoid monsters, it is not hard to see why A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958) became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and an instant science-fiction classic. After a British ship's crew and a remote Russian village are wiped out in mysterious and horrible fashion, General Charles Kirk of British Foreign Intelligence sets out to investigate. As the plague spreads to England, Kirk's frantic search leads him from the desolate tundra of Russia to the ruins of a Nazi camp, the site of unthinkable wartime atrocities. But who is responsible? Is it a Soviet experiment gone horribly wrong, the work of a depraved madman, or something else entirely? And can it be stopped?  In this, his first and still best-known novel, the prolific John Blackburn (1923-1993) introduced the formula he was to employ so successfully in his career, seamlessly blending mystery, horror, and science fiction to create a thrilling bestseller that readers found impossible to put down. This edition, the first in more than thirty years, includes a new introduction by Prof. Darren Harris-Fain and a reproduction of the scarce original jacket art by Peter Curl.

Scent of New-mown Hay

New English Library

Nothing But the Night

Literature & Fiction

HarperCollins Distribution Services

Beastly Business

Robert Hale, Ltd.

Book of the Dead

Chamber of Horrors: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural

Rod Serling

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

ROBERT GRAVES

Seabury, Quinn

Roald, Dahl

Ambrose, Bierce

H.G.Wells

Robert Aickman

Bram, Stoker

H.P.Lovecraft

Thomas Burke

William Sansom

Emma Blackley

Genre Fiction

GALLERY BOOKS

Iain Crichton Smith was one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, writing in English and Gaelic. His poetry often concerns itself with unsentimental views of life in the Western Highlands and Islands, and his dislike of, and opposition to, dogmatic authority. John Blackburn's SCOTNOTE study guide analyses the religious, political and historical themes and patterns of Crichton Smith's work, and is a suitable guide for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

The Poetry of Iain Crichton Smith (Scotnotes)

Association for Scottish Literary Studies

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Books by John Blackburn