Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types

by Johnny Mains, Stephen Volk (Introduction)

Shadow Publishing is delighted to publish Johnny's second collection of horror yarns, Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types. The book contains 12 stories, some reprinted from various sources and some new to this collection.

Table of Contents:

The Song of the Syrinx: Introduction by Stephen Volk.
Aldeburgh.
Mrs. Claus and the Immaculate Conception.
Cure.
The Tip Run.
Head Soup.
Dead Forest Air.
The Rookery.
Prim Suspect.
The Jacket.
'I Wish'.
George V.
The Were-Dwarf.

Genres: Horror

173 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Martin Cosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit it; I'm a product of the Pan Book of Horror Stories collections. I remember seeing Volume 7 on the window sill in our dining room when I was nine years old. No doubt my parents weren't banking on me reading it. However, once I had, I was hooked, and the tales have stayed with me ever since. 'Dulcie' by Hugh Reid really caught my imagination, and 'Never Talk to Strangers' by the mysterious Alex White gave me nightmares. I don't still have the book, in fact I haven't seen a copy for 35 years, but it's still crystal-clear in my mind.

I was reminded of this golden age while reading this excellent collection of 12 stories, 'Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types', by Johnny Mains. There's an exuberance about the stories here, fresh ideas given a chance to shine through unfettered, easy prose. 'Aldeburgh' kicks off proceedings, and gripped me right from the start. It can be described as a sequel to 'A Warning to the Curious' by M.R. James; and a worthy one at that. The tale comes to life through expertly crafted atmosphere and characterisation, propelling it along almost breathlessly to a suitably dramatic conclusion. 'Cure' shocked me with its simplicity, making me wonder why I had never thought of that particular idea before. 'The Tip Run' suggests a shocking end to one of life's most innocent pleasures, and adds a new dimension to the term 'finders keepers'. The intriguing 'Head Soup' introduces us to Peter Van Basel, famously elusive horror writer. Matthew Jolks manages to track him down, determined to interview him for his fanzine, Sliced. The outcome of their meeting is surely not what he would have expected, however, as the true source of his horror is revealed. Dead Forest Air tackles an historically horrific subject deftly and with a modern twist. In 'The Rookery', Roger, a gamekeeper with a broken marriage, teaches his son how to shoot, and desperately wants the boy to live with him. He gives Sean a promise that is kept only by way of appalling tragedy. Perhaps my favourite story here is 'I Wish', which is a modern-day version of 'The Monkey's Paw', another classic tale from the Pan books. It brings the tale bang up to date, with EastEnders, 'Modern Warfare on the PS3' and troops fighting in Afghanistan; and it translates well. Mains uses the vernacular very effectively here in setting the atmosphere.

There's a lightness of touch about these tales that is most appealing. They are absorbing and easy to read, carrying off their proud links to the past with a flourish, yet are very much part of the present day. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, reading it in two sittings, and I look forward to more by this author. If you enjoy traditional horror stories as much as I do, I'm sure 'Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types' will strike a similarly favourable chord with you too!

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavily influenced - admittedly so, by the author himself - by The Pan Book of Horror Stories series, these are enjoyably retro tales, some given a modern makeover, though others seem curiously dated. A couple of them are rather too sunk in such nostalgia, and the blatant rewrite of W.W. Jacob's The Monkey's Paw goes a bit far. Some of the tales, though, are excellent: The Tip Run and The Rookery are dark and delicious pieces of horror, and Cure is a very striking tale which could have been expanded much beyond its meagre six pages.

Mains's prose style is, at best, unadorned, often clumsy, and prone to awkward run-on sentences - and the punctuation is a horror story all of its own.

[James Everington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnny Mains' Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types, is as varied a selection of horror writing as you could hope for from a single-author collection. From the dark humour of the fantasitically titled 'Mrs Claus & The Immaculate Conception', to the just plain dark 'Cure', there's a real range of styles here.

Mains is obviously very clued up about the history of horror stories, but my only real criticisim is that in a couple of places his influences seemed too obvious and unfiltered by his own style. In particular, 'I Wish', a modern-day rewrite of the classic tale 'The Monkey's Paw', didn't work at all for me.

But for the most part Mains uses wears his influences lightly and well, and never better than in the first story Aldeburgh. A sequel to MR James's A Warning To The Curious, featuring James himself as a character, this could have been a disaster. Instead it's a well told and creepy homage, and one of the best things in the book.

Other highlights include the delicious twist of 'The Tip Run' and the very dark and bleak 'The Rookery'