Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth

So, more Gothic creepiness from the wonderful Mr Priestley in Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth, and a good read for RIP IV.

Robert Harper is returning to school, desperate to get away from his stepmother with whom he has been spending his time while his father is fighting the Boers in South Africa. Robert is travelling by train, and we first meet him on the platform with said stepmother, an emotional woman who has a premonition that something will happen to Robert, involving a tunnel and a kiss. Robert shakes her off, gets on the train and finds himself in a  carriage which slowly fills up with a number of gentlemen also travelling to London.

Robert dozes off, and when he wakes up he finds that all the other passengers are asleep except for a young woman with red hair, dressed completely in white, who is sitting opposite him. The train has stopped at the mouth of a railway tunnel, and to while away the time the mysterious woman tells Robert a number of sinister stories, while he struggles to keep awake…..

Another really enjoyable collection, with a little mystery at its heart – who is the woman in white? What (if anything) does she want with young Robert? Why is everyone else solidly asleep?

Favourites in this collection are:

• The Glasshouse – you really shouldn’t get too close to some of those plants….
• The Crotach Stone – beware the auld folk….
• Sister Veronica – art appreciation and nuns…

And the illustrations by David Roberts are equally creepy.

This is my second read for RIP IV

 

Today I have mostly been … driving in the sunshine

So today being the last full day here in Ayrshire we decided just to point the car east and go for a drive. We were rewarded by glorious warm autumn sunshine, beautiful scenery, peace & quiet whenever we stopped to admire the view, and a number of beautiful houses to covet, all of course in the middle of nowhere and totally impractical. Still, you can dream, can’t you?

 

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves

So The Kingdom Beyond the Waves is sort of a sequel to The Court of the Air (which I reviewed here) in as much as it takes place a few years after the events of that book and features some of the same characters but that’s as far as it goes. It’s possible, I think, to read this as a standalone novel, and a very enjoyable piece of steampunk it is too.

What we have is an adventure-quest-type story. Amelia Harsh, she of the gorilla-sized arms who appeared briefly in the first novel, has a bit of an obsession with the lost land of Camlantis, a perfect society blown into the sky to be hidden rather than fall prey to the barbaric hordes seeking to destroy it. She is funded in her search by the wealthiest man in Jackals, Abraham Quest, equally obsessed. She heads into hostile jungle territory on a submarine with a crew of liberated prisoners and a mercenary army of extremely effective female warriors. It becomes clear, however, that she has not been told the whole story, and there is danger and treachery aplenty before she reaches the end of her search….

As I said, this is very enjoyable, although I will be honest and admit that it took me longer to get into, mostly because I found it difficult to immediately engage with any of the main characters. But once again the world of Jackals and the other societies that surround it are so wonderfully imagined and constructed that I persevered, and there came a point when all the subplots and the main story came together and everything clicked in such a way that I was really keen to find out how all this was going to be resolved. Great stuff.

 

OMG – she’s only gone and done it!

Yes, I have finally succumbed and watched Twilight.

The verdict is here.

It’s not pretty…..

 

Today I have mostly been …. visiting Cardoness Castle

Cardoness Castle is near Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway and was built by the McCulloch family as a fortified house which would protect them during their various feuds with neighbouring families.

It’s a really dramatic building, easily spotted from the main road and really enjoyable to visit if you (a) love old ruins (which I do – I could insert a joke here about the Book God but will resist the temptation…) and (b) can guarantee some reasonable weather which we managed to do once again today.

I chickened out, though, and let my fear of heights prevent me from getting to the very top of the building where you have a magnificent view of the local countryside which is, after all, the point.

 

Today I have mostly been …. at the most southerly point in Scotland

So today we decided to brave the potentially awful weather and head down to the Mull of Galloway, which is the southernmost point in Scotland.

And is very, very, very windy.

Getting out of the car and into our weatherproof gear was a logistical feat which tested our skill, and once outside it was all we could do to stay upright. And as you can see from my very wonky picture of the lighthouse, I didn’t do a very good job of that.

But being blown around by a strong wind is extremely exhilarating, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

 

Today I have mostly been …. tasting whisky

Well that’s only a little bit of what I’ve been up to on what has turned out to be the sunniest day of our holiday so far. We drove to Wigtown which is the most bookshoppy town in Scotland, famous for its book festival (which has just finished), and very pretty in a typically Scottish way.

We sampled several of the bookshops but came away virtuously empty handed, and headed off to the main attraction, a tour of the Bladnoch Distillery which involved refreshing my memory on how whisky is made, tasting some of the output, and buying a bottle to take home, as you do….

 

Today I have mostly been …. visiting Culzean Castle

So after a hearty Scottish breakfast we  drove back the way we came yesterday and visited Culzean Castle, home of the Marquesses of Ailsa (if that’s the plural of Marquis), a stately-home-type-castle set in wonderful grounds on the Ayrshire coast. And for quite a bit of our visit we had lovely winter sunshine as I had hoped, though to be truthful it was the first day this autumn that I actually felt cold and my sheepskin gloves were produced.

The castle is well worth visiting; I hadn’t been there since a school outing back in the 1970s and was surprised by how much I had remembered and how interesting it all was. Eisenhower was given an apartment here to mark his commanding Scottish troops during D-Day and there’s an exhibition on his life with some fascinating memorabilia. The decoration by Robert Adam was stunning; I particularly loved the blue drawing room. And the grounds are fantastic, sheltered and warmed by the Gulf Stream so there are palm trees growing quite happily and a couple of seasons ago they even had a banana crop.

And there are some really good shops, including an excellent second-hand book shop and a wonderful toy shop where I gave in to my inner toddler and bought myself a large puppet dragon, christened Thorin. He may make an appearance here once I’ve decided where to keep him when I get back home.

A good day; now just thinking about what wine to have with dinner…..

Hey, it’s a tough job  but someone’s got to do it!

 

Today I have mostly been …. driving in the rain

Well, actually we have mostly been driving in the rain since we left home yesterday morning (Monday) and it’s now Tuesday evening, but are we disheartened? No, because no-one in their right mind ever comes to Scotland in October for the weather, and as long as you have the right (but not necessarily trendy or flattering) clothing you can cope with anything.

Anyway, after an overnight stay in Northumberland we are now settled into our fabulous hotel in Ayrshire, all this via a drive along the Tweed valley. We had a comfort stop in Kelso where I took the only picture I’ve been able get today during the 10 minutes it wasn’t raining, so here’s what’s left of Kelso Abbey.

To be fair, the sun did come out a little bit late this afternoon, and I’m hoping all will be well tomorrow.

 

Gunnerkrigg Court Volume 1: Orientation

I think I found out about this from Neil Gaiman’s blog, but of course I can’t find the reference now and it’s entirely possible that I’ve made the whole thing up and picked this up from somewhere completely different, so if it was you that pointed me in the direction of Gunnerkrigg Court then thank you because it’s absolutely brilliant.

So this is ostensibly a classic boarding school story; Antimony Carver (known as Annie) has just started her first year at Gunnerkrigg. Her mother is dead, her father isn’t around, and she is an odd and self-contained girl with some interesting knowledge and unusual talents.

This first volume is about her settling into the school, her friendship with Kat, and the strange, sort-of-Gothic things she comes across, including a Minotaur (possibly the Minotaur), demons, robots, shadows, mythical creatures, Gods and demi-gods.

This is great stuff. I love the artwork, I love Antimony herself (and what a cool name that is), and all of the other characters are fascinating in their own way. I particularly like Reynardine and will be interested to see how he develops. For although this is the first part of the story to be published in book for, this began life as a webcomic, and the adventures continue here. Well worth a visit.