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In Camera and Other Stories
Five tales of psychological suspense and the possible supernatural, featuring such characters as a satanic baby and a man who may have turned himself into a cat.
In Camera
Beelzebub
Blind Bill
Charlie Ferber
Henry Marlborough
In Camera
Beelzebub
Blind Bill
Charlie Ferber
Henry Marlborough
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
152 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
70 people want to read
About the author
Robert Westall
122 books110 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
Robert Westall was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England in 1929.
His first published book The Machine Gunners (1975) which won him the Carnegie Medal is set in World War Two when a group of children living on Tyneside retrieve a machine-gun from a crashed German aircraft. He won the Carnegie Medal again in 1981 for The Scarecrows, the first writer to win it twice. He won the Smarties Prize in 1989 for Blitzcat and the Guardian Award in 1990 for The Kingdom by the Sea. Robert Westall's books have been published in 21 different countries and in 18 different languages, including Braille.
From: http://www.robertwestall.com/
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 7, 2025
Five late—I assume—tales, all novellas. Each is a rewarding example of plain straightforward storytelling: craftsmanship it only takes an artist decades to cultivate.
"𝐈𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
That Saturday morning, Phil and I'd been up the Portobello Market and Phil had acquired yet another camera. A 1930s Zeiss Ikon. He had three Zeiss Ikons already, but you know what collectors are. But what had really turned him on was that this Zeiss had a roll of exposed film still inside it. A random slice of somebody else's life, Phil called it, and vanished into his precious darkroom to develop it, leaving me to finish getting dinner ready, because John and Melanie were coming. Ambitious cook, Phil. Always does the main dishes, soaking them overnight in wine or oil, till you can't tell whether you're eating beef or lamb. But he's not keen on doing all the fiddly bits....
Chums deduce the photographer when they develop troubling photos from a camera purchase d at a flea market.
"𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐳𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐛" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
Mrs Parsons, Polborough's senior registrar, does the paperwork for a young mother's slightly greenish newborn.
'Is the baby a girl or a boy?' The woman just smiled. The smile came from deep inside her like water slowly oozing up round your feet when you stand in a wet field. As if there was some huge joke that Mrs Parsons would never, never be told. 'Oh, come, my good woman, you must know!'
'Oh, he'm male all right. Just like his father afore him, and haven't I got cause to know it! But cold as clay his father was, in the dark o' night.' Her slow smile invited questions now.
Mrs Parsons said 'Male' briskly, and wrote it down....
'𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
A blind man leads the sighted to save a young woman. All from his armchair.
"𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
A young woman finds her independence and is heated in avoiding inappropriate suitors by Siamese cat. Charming, historical, and very touching.
"𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
"Henry Marlborough" is an unalloyed masterpiece of supernatural melodrama.
Zillah Salisbury finds communion with the titular historical figure's three-century-old grave marker in her town cemetery. She believes that she is making a supernatural connection with his spirit, using it to fortify herself against the social pressure of parents and suitors to conform, conform, conform.
Zillah builds a room of her own, populated with items of furniture and art from Henry's time. She also finds a growing career as a local antiquarian journalist and ultimately a hugely popular historical novelist. All these steps toward her independence and maturity Zilla believes are cemented by Henry. The cost to Zilla is a falling away of her family and her first husband, all of whom she stares down when they attempt to drag her back into the trap of proprieties for her class and gender.
It's a brilliant story, one that is worth the price of the book.
𝘐𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢 is very much worth seeking out.
"𝐈𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
That Saturday morning, Phil and I'd been up the Portobello Market and Phil had acquired yet another camera. A 1930s Zeiss Ikon. He had three Zeiss Ikons already, but you know what collectors are. But what had really turned him on was that this Zeiss had a roll of exposed film still inside it. A random slice of somebody else's life, Phil called it, and vanished into his precious darkroom to develop it, leaving me to finish getting dinner ready, because John and Melanie were coming. Ambitious cook, Phil. Always does the main dishes, soaking them overnight in wine or oil, till you can't tell whether you're eating beef or lamb. But he's not keen on doing all the fiddly bits....
Chums deduce the photographer when they develop troubling photos from a camera purchase d at a flea market.
"𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐳𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐛" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
Mrs Parsons, Polborough's senior registrar, does the paperwork for a young mother's slightly greenish newborn.
'Is the baby a girl or a boy?' The woman just smiled. The smile came from deep inside her like water slowly oozing up round your feet when you stand in a wet field. As if there was some huge joke that Mrs Parsons would never, never be told. 'Oh, come, my good woman, you must know!'
'Oh, he'm male all right. Just like his father afore him, and haven't I got cause to know it! But cold as clay his father was, in the dark o' night.' Her slow smile invited questions now.
Mrs Parsons said 'Male' briskly, and wrote it down....
'𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
A blind man leads the sighted to save a young woman. All from his armchair.
"𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
A young woman finds her independence and is heated in avoiding inappropriate suitors by Siamese cat. Charming, historical, and very touching.
"𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)
"Henry Marlborough" is an unalloyed masterpiece of supernatural melodrama.
Zillah Salisbury finds communion with the titular historical figure's three-century-old grave marker in her town cemetery. She believes that she is making a supernatural connection with his spirit, using it to fortify herself against the social pressure of parents and suitors to conform, conform, conform.
Zillah builds a room of her own, populated with items of furniture and art from Henry's time. She also finds a growing career as a local antiquarian journalist and ultimately a hugely popular historical novelist. All these steps toward her independence and maturity Zilla believes are cemented by Henry. The cost to Zilla is a falling away of her family and her first husband, all of whom she stares down when they attempt to drag her back into the trap of proprieties for her class and gender.
It's a brilliant story, one that is worth the price of the book.
𝘐𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢 is very much worth seeking out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2025
One of the rarer Point Thrillers and certainly a harder to find Robert Westall release. I ended up paying around £20 inc shipping to get a copy from the US. Completely worth it.
What Westall was doing in the Point Thriller series is beyond me. This is marketed as YA, but I don't think there's anything YA about it. Some of the themes are quite adult. He's a British author and this British reader is sourcing his books from the US.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this collection. I think Blind Bill was my favourite, with In Camera and Henry Malborough close behind. Westall's themes are very strong and the prose is well written, lending itself well to describing quite English villages.
What Westall was doing in the Point Thriller series is beyond me. This is marketed as YA, but I don't think there's anything YA about it. Some of the themes are quite adult. He's a British author and this British reader is sourcing his books from the US.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this collection. I think Blind Bill was my favourite, with In Camera and Henry Malborough close behind. Westall's themes are very strong and the prose is well written, lending itself well to describing quite English villages.
August 18, 2008
I was very impressed by these short stories. I know Westall mostly as a children's fantasy writer, but these short fiction pieces work very well for adults. I was reminded a bit of Roald Dahl, although Westall isn't as cynical.
You get a handfull of short suspense stories -- some supernatural, some not. They're all pretty good, but I think my favorite was "Charlie Ferber," about a magician and a cat by the same name, who may or may not be same creature.
You get a handfull of short suspense stories -- some supernatural, some not. They're all pretty good, but I think my favorite was "Charlie Ferber," about a magician and a cat by the same name, who may or may not be same creature.
April 20, 2011
Man, I love Robert Westall, even if none of these are his best stories, and none of them are really what I'd consider horror or even much in the way of ghostly, with maybe an exception or two. Still, though, a good read, even if it can't quite meet with his best work.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews