Ramsey Campbell: Master of Weird Fiction by S. T. Joshi

A brand new PS Publishing book arrived in the post today direct from the publisher: S. T. Joshi's Ramsey Campbell: Master of Weird Fiction. Over 300 pages. Looking forward to delving into this.

The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts - signed editions by Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones, Peter Coleborn, Jon M. Harvey, David A. Riley, Jim Pitts

There are a limited number of editions signed by most of the contributors to the book at Fantasycon left: Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones, Peter Coleborn, Jon M. Harvey, David A. Riley, and of course Jim himself. If you would like one, you'll need to order one soon before these run out.

Fifty Years of Horror - an evening with Ramsey Campbell at Birkenhead Central Library

I went to Birkenhead last night with Jim Pitts for an event held in honour of Ramsey Campbell (50 Years of Horror) at Birkenhead Central Library. A brilliant event, with Ramsey on top form as he opened the session with a lively reading of a brand new story, The Devil in the Detail, if I remember the title correctly. Afterwards, he signed my first edition copies of two Arkham House books of his earliest stories, The Inhabitant of the Lake (1964) and Demons by Daylight (1973), both of which I have had for over 40 years but somehow or other never got round to having signed by Ramsey till now! Luckily, having forgotten to bring my own, Jim Pitts brought his camera with him so we got lasting reminders of the event.
Thank you, Ramsey, for a great evening!

David A. Riley and Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell and Jim Pitts

 

 

 

Some photos of our group signing of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts at Fantasycon

Some photos of our group signing of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts at Fantasycon by most of the contributors: Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones-Editor, Jon M. Harvey, Peter Coleborn, Jim Pitts and David A. Riley.

From left to right: Jon M. Harbey, Peter Coleborn, David A. Riley, Jim Pitts

From left to right: Jon M. Harvey, Peter Coleborn, David A. Riley

From left to right: David A. Riley, Jim Pitts, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones

From left to right: Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones

Mass signing of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts at Fantasycon

We had a great, very lively book signing session for The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts at Fantasycon in Peterborough this weekend, with Jim Pitts, Ramsey Campbell, Jon Harvey, Peter Coleborn, Stephen Jones, and David A. Riley.

To order your own copy of this book follow this link. We have a limited number of copies that were signed by all the contributors below. First come, first served!

Left to right: Jon M. Harvey. Peter Coleborn, David A. Riley, Jim Pitts, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones

The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts

Great progress has been made with The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts: Rolling Back the Years..., the most ambitious project yet undertaken by Parallel Universe Publications. The book will be approximately 220 pages in length and contain hundreds of black and white and colour illustrations, going back to the very earliest days of Jim's career as a fantasy artist in the 1970s  when he became a mainstay for such legendary fanazines as Shadow, Balthus and the British Fantasy Society's Dark Horizons, right up to today, with books such as Brian Lumley's lavish hard cover from Fedogan & Bremer, Earth, Air, Fire & Water, Spectre Press publications like Cthulhu, The Hyborian Gazette and books from Alchemy Press, Shadow Publishing and PUP.
Above is a rough copy of the cover, though that is still very much a work in progress.
The book is scheduled to be published in August/September as a numbered and signed limited edition hard cover, eight and a half inches by eleven. Details of how to pre-order this book (and the offers being made for any who take up this opportunity) will be given shortly. Copies of the book will also be available at FantasyCon, where Jim will be on hand to personally inscribe any books bought. As this is a signed limited edition copies will only be available though the Parallel Universe website or at FantasyCon.
The book includes articles by Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones, David A. Sutton, Adrian Cole, Peter Coleborn, Jon M. Harvey, David A. Riley, and Nick Caffrey.

Alien Worlds

I came across my copy of what may be the only science fiction magazine published in Manchester, Alien Worlds, which came out in 1966 edited by Charles Partington and Harry Nadler. Unfortunately this was to be the only issue.

At 64 pages with stories by some well known, well-established names it was a quality production and has the distinction of having stories in it by two writers who were to become the first two presidents of the British Fantasy Society: Kenneth Bulmer and J. Ramsey Campbell, as he was then known.

Ramsey Campbell's story impressed me at the time - and still does - with its ghoul haunted cinema in The Childish Fear.

It had some superb artwork in it by Eddie Jones (then one of the biggest names in SF art whose book covers became prolific over the next few years), Terry Jeeves, Jack Partington and Jack Wilson. It also had a piece on the forthcoming major SF movie 2001 - A Space Odyssey, as well as a feature, plus pictures from One Million Years B.C.