Welsh Tales Of Terror (1973)

[Gloomy Sundae]

R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) - Welsh Tales Of Terror . (Fontana, 1973, 1975)

Introduction - R. Chetwynd-Hayes

John Christopher - A Cry Of Children
Arthur Machen - The Shining Pyramid
Angus Wilson - Animals Or Human Beings
Richard Bridgeman - Morgan's Trust
Marie Trevelyan - Water Horse's And Spirits Of the Mist
Caradoc Evans - Be This Her Memorial
Hazel F. Looker - The Lost Gold Mine
Dorothy K. Haynes - Mrs. Jones
Ronald Seth - The Reverend John Jones And The Ghostly Horseman
Glyn Jones - Cadi Hughes
Jack Griffith - Black Goddess
Richard Hughes - The Stranger
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Lord Dunwilliam And The Cwn Annwn

Thanks to my friend Franklin Marsh for providing me with a copy of the '73 edition

[Gloomy Sundae]

Gwyn Jones - Jordan: A giant of a man with a hideously scarred face and body hopping along on an iron leg, and he's only interested in buying one thing - corpses. Jordan is clearly not a man to cheat, but that's exactly what the narrator and his fellow con-merchant Danny try to do, the latter masquerading as a recently dug up body and scarpering once he's been paid for. Come the day when, prayerbook in hand and singing his favourite funeral dirge, Jordan bears down on the tavern to claim what's rightfully his ...

Dorothy K. Haynes - Mrs. Jones: Fat Mrs. Jones wins all the local cookery competitions with ease. One day a crone asks for one of her yummy biscuits but Mrs. Jones rebuffs her with "I don't bake for the likes of you" .... whereupon she's spirited away to the fairy kitchen at the Cove to do just that for eternity.

Caradoc Evans - Be This Her Memorial: Capel Sion: The tragic life and death of the deeply pious old Nanni who prays for death when the minister she raised from an infant announces that he's moving on for pastures new. As RCH points out in his introduction, it's a sly study of religious hypocrisy (notable in the pushy door-to-door Bible-salesman from Hell) and the ending is a killer.

Angus Wilson - Animals Or Human Beings: Welsh Marches. Fraulien Partenkirchen's parents pack their troublesome daughter off to Wales to take up the position of housekeeper to eccentric old Miss Ingelow. The old girl is a fervent anti-vivisectionist and devotes her life to adopting the unfortunate creatures destined for the laboratory. The Fraulien decides she doesn't like pets - not when they're huge buck rats, anyway - and resigns just in time to avoid witnessing Miss Ingelow's grisly death.

Glyn Jones - Cadi Hughes: Begins with the news that Ifan is literally dying by inches and goes on to describe the hideous damage gangrene is wreaking on his legs. The story then gives way to an appraisal of his devoted wife Cadi, a bossy, very practical woman who is already preparing his wake making particular note of her petty spite toward honest pit worker Ifan down the years. Finally, God turns up on the doorstep. I bet you didn't know he was a card-carrying misogynist, did you? Truly bizarre.