Stephen Jones: The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 23

STEPHEN JONESlives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, four Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards and three International Horror Guild Awards as well as being a twenty-one time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/director and genre movie publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: Another 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H. P. Lovecraft’s Book of Horror, The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost Stories and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written Coraline: A Visual Companion, Stardust: The Visual Companion, Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, The Essential Monster Movie Guide, The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide, The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide, The Illustrated Frankenstein Movie Guide and The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide , and compiled the record-breaking The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series, The Mammoth Book of Terror, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, The Mammoth Book of Dracula, The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, The Mammoth Book of Monsters, The Very Best of Best New Horror, Shadows Over Innsmouth, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, Dark Detectives, Dancing with the Dark, Dark of the Night, White of the Moon, Keep Out the Night, By Moonlight Only, Don’t Turn Out the Light, H. P. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural, Travellers in Darkness, Summer Chills, Brighton Shock! , the Zombie Apocalypse! trilogy, Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts, Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead and A Book of Horrors , along with books by or about Clive Barker, Leigh Brackett, David Case, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Basil Copper, Charles L. Grant, James Herbert, Robert E. Howard, Rudyard Kipling, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Karl Edward Wagner. A Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, he has been a guest lecturer at UCLA in California and London’s Kingston University and St. Mary’s University College. You can visit his web site at www.stephenjoneseditor.com .

The Mammoth Book of Fun Brain Training

The Mammoth Book of Hard Bastards

The Mammoth Book of Dracula

The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 10

The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8

The Mammoth Book of Tattoo Art

The Mammoth Book of Bob Dylan

The Mammoth Book of Mixed Martial Arts

The Mammoth Book of Codeword Puzzles

The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance

The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction

The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 24

The Mammoth Book of Gorgeous Guys

The Mammoth Book of Really Silly Jokes

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22

The Mammoth Book of Undercover Cops

The Mammoth Book of Weird News

The Mammoth Book of The Best of Best New Erotica

The Mammoth Book of Antarctic Journeys

The Mammoth Book of Muhammad Ali

The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 9

The Mammoth Book of Conspiracies

The Mammoth Book of Lost Symbols

The Mammoth Book of Body Horror

The Mammoth Book of Steampunk

The Mammoth Book of New CSI

The Mammoth Book of Gangs

The Mammoth Book of SF Wars

The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance

The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies

I would like to thank David Barraclough, Kim Newman, Vincent Chong, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin ( sfsite.com ), Peter Crowther and Nicky Crowther, Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker, Gordon Van Gelder, Andy Cox, Joe Morey, Ellen Datlow, Charles Black, Debra L. Hammond, Douglas A. Anderson, Gavin Grant, Nicholas Royle, Val and Les Edwards, Sandra Ferguson, Johnny Mains, Brian Mooney, Andrew I. Porter, Philip Harbottle, Conrad Williams and, especially, Duncan Proudfoot, Max Burnell and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Ansible, Entertainment Weekly and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.

INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2011 copyright © Stephen Jones 2012.

HOLDING THE LIGHT copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2011. Originally published in Holding the Light . Reprinted by permission of the author.

LANTERN JACK copyright © Christopher Fowler 2011. Originally published in Red Gloves: Deviltry: The London Horrors . Reprinted by permission of the author.

RAG AND BONE copyright © Paul Kane 2011. Originally published in The Butterfly Man and Other Stories . Reprinted by permission of the author.

SOME KIND OF LIGHT SHINES FROM YOUR FACE copyright © Gemma Files 2011. Originally published in Gutshot: Weird West Stories . Reprinted by permission of the author.

MIDNIGHT FLIGHT copyright © Joel Lane 2011. Originally published in The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies . Reprinted by permission of the author.

TRICK OF THE LIGHT copyright © Tim Lebbon 2011. Originally published in House of Fear: Nineteen New Stories of Haunted Houses and Spectral Encounters . Reprinted by permission of the author.

BUT NONE SHALL SING FOR ME copyright © Gregory Nicoll 2011. Originally published in Zombiesque . Reprinted by permission of the author.

ABOUT THE DARK copyright © Alison Littlewood 2011. Originally published in Black Static , Issue 25, November 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S TALE copyright © Daniel Mills 2011. Originally published in Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction , Issue 36, Spring 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE TOWER copyright © Mark Samuels 2011. Originally published in The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales . Reprinted by permission of the author.

DANCING LIKE WE’RE DUMB copyright © Peter Atkins 2011. Originally published in Rumours of the Marvellous . Reprinted by permission of the author.

AN INDELIBLE STAIN UPON THE SKY copyright © Simon Strantzas 2011. Originally published in Nightingale Songs . Reprinted by permission of the author.

HAIR copyright © Joan Aiken Estate 2011. Originally published in The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction No. 696, July/August 2011. Reprinted by permission of Small Beer Press and the author’s estate.

MIRI copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2011. Originally published in Blood and Other Cravings . Reprinted by permission of the author.

CORBEAUX BAY copyright © Geeta Roopnarine 2011. Originally published in Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds . Reprinted by permission of the author.

SAD, DARK THING copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 2011. Originally published in A Book of Horrors . Reprinted by permission of the author.

SMITHERS AND THE GHOSTS OF THE THAR copyright © Agberg Ltd. 2011. Originally published in Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense . Reprinted by permission of the author.

QUIETA NON MOVERE copyright © Reggie Oliver 2011. Originally published in The Eighth Black Book of Horror . Reprinted by permission of the author.