By Amy Boyle
“It is not what we know that scares us, it is what we do not”
A.G Phillips
On Friday 26th February I had the pleasure of attending the launch event for Horrifying Tales, a new anthology of short stories centring on eerie late 20th Century children’s television and the terrifying elements of childhood. Newly published by Greenteeth Press, the anthology hosts a variety of writers and stories that have a timeless feel about them.
Hosted by York St John University, with speaker Rob Edgar, a Lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John; the event saw readings from four of the anthology’s authors and a lively and nostalgic discussion about children’s television and the inherently scary and dark nature of many of our cherished childhood shows. I was indeed taken back to a time in which checking under the bed and inside cupboards for monsters and ghouls was common practice – when sleeping with the light on caused arguments about sky-rocketing electricity bills.
Horrifying Tales is Greenteeth Press’ third published anthology. Founded in 2018, their first publication was an anthology entitled Pondweed, and Horrifying Tales has now added to the press’ growing collection of publications produced by writers from underrepresented backgrounds and published with accessibility in mind.
The anthology features fourteen new and seasoned writers who capture the childhood sensation of being truly terrified. The cover design by Dan Hunt is inspired by the 70’s and has the desired effect of grounding the book in nostalgia, as well as encouraging readers to venture back in time and reflect from the minute they pick up the book.
The live readings during the event were particularly captivating. Attendees listened to Clara Barley’s Scared for Life, Liz Hudson’s Three Matches, Paul Childs’ The Conductor and Errol-Graham Harsley’s Remember the Bear. This last reading particularly resonated with me, as it took a more fearful view of ‘Bear in the Big Blue House’ – a childhood television show that I remembered fondly, until I read and bore witness to this chilling re-telling of it. Many of the anthology’s perceptions are profound – acting as adult retellings or re-analyses’ of childhood culture that are viewed differently through adult eyes. Through my Publishing MA at York St John, I had the opportunity to proofread and provide editorial comments for the anthology before it was published. As such, I’d read the book in its pre-edited form and had already experienced the thrills and chills of its texts. However, there was something about hearing the texts read aloud that added another dimension of horror to the stories themselves.
The event reminded me of ‘Goosebumps’, a childhood television show that truly terrified me. I can vividly remember the first episode I ever watched – Say Cheese and Die – about a stolen cursed camera that when used, led to the vanishing of those within the photograph. Another of my first encounters was an episode entitled The Haunted Mask in which Carly Beth, against a shop owners wishes, steals a Halloween mask that quickly begins to merge with her face. At a young age, these stories frightened me, and although there was always some kind of resolve – the people in the photographs returned, and Carly Beth got her face back – there was something very chilling about these stories of naughty children that were taught lessons of good behaviour in the most frightening of ways.
Despite my fear of the show, however, there was something equally engrossing about it, to the point that I wanted the DVDs, I purchased the books, and I even forced my mum to buy me one of the old ‘Goosebumps’ board games titled One Day at Horrorland.
The fact that I was so keen to have the board game – to immerse myself in a world that haunted my nightmares – I think pointed to my own desire to confront the horrors that plagued my sleep – and perhaps reflected on an innate human draw to the terrifying and gruesome. Reading Horrifying Tales, and listening to readings from the writers themselves uncovered for me forgotten childhood memories, filled with wonder and horror about a world that both terrified and intrigued me.
Read with pleasure, but at your own risk.