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Strange Epiphanies
A mentally disturbed woman is entrapped in Beltane rituals in the Cumbrian fells; a widower mourning his wife falls beneath the mystic allure of Iona; a quest to the Italian Apennines brings a lonely man to a dread Marian revelation; an alcoholic on a Scottish isle is haunted by a deceased chronicler of local legend; in a small German town a sinister doll discloses truths about a murky family tragedy; an unknown journal by a Victorian travel-writer sends a woman on a grim odyssey to Transylvania; in a childhood holiday paradise a man encounters a demented artist's terrifying legacy.
The protagonists in Peter Bell's stories confront the awesome, the numinous, the uncanny, the lure of genius loci, and landscapes undergoing strange epiphanies.
Contents:
Introduction by Brian J. Showers.
Resurrection.
M. E. F.
The Light of the World.
An American Writer's Cottage.
Inheritance.
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians—long-listed for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year 2012!.
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy.
Afterword: Marie Emily Fornario — A Historical Note.
Acknowledgements.
The protagonists in Peter Bell's stories confront the awesome, the numinous, the uncanny, the lure of genius loci, and landscapes undergoing strange epiphanies.
Contents:
Introduction by Brian J. Showers.
Resurrection.
M. E. F.
The Light of the World.
An American Writer's Cottage.
Inheritance.
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians—long-listed for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year 2012!.
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy.
Afterword: Marie Emily Fornario — A Historical Note.
Acknowledgements.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 4, 2019
The stories in Strange Epiphanies are steeped in melancholy and isolation, with characters often suffer from depression or a lingering sadness, who seems drawn to isolated places with a mystic aura over them. Through this brooding loneliness and melancholy, Bell has an incredible sense of place in his prose, with locations that enhance the somber and strange mood of his tales. From a forlorn island in Scotland to the deep, wolf-haunted woods of the Carpathians, these locations often feels like the center point of the stories and out of this he manages to conjure forth a truly excellent atmosphere that lies heavily over these tales. And in the background, there lingers a vague terror, waiting to be discovered.
Bell’s prose is comparable with M.R. James, Reggie Oliver and Robert Aickman, melding old influences with new, always showing a firm grasp over both worlds in his writing. There is a wonderful vagueness over the supernatural element in many of these stories, where the looming sense of revelation feels as much as a psychological manifestation as it does a specter that has taken material form, this creeping uncertainty is reminiscent of the uncanny in the works of both Robert Aickman and Walter de La Mare. This uncertainty manifests itself in his often-unstable characters and shows their tenuous grip on reality slowly beginning to disintegrate.
The tales in this collection are a rare treat to read for the connoisseur of the weird, but one, in particular, stood out for me; “A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians” an almost novella-length tale about an eerie travelogue through the Carpathians during the 1800s, using gothic tropes and the intensely moody setting of the Carpathian landscape to create one of the most distinctive short stories I’ve read in a long time.
Peter Bell’s stories show a mastery of the uncanny short story, through an incredibly atmospheric sense of place and loneliness, the psychological aspect of his characters as well as the looming presence of supernatural dread, he shows himself to be one of the finest contemporary practitioners of the weird and eerie.
Bell’s prose is comparable with M.R. James, Reggie Oliver and Robert Aickman, melding old influences with new, always showing a firm grasp over both worlds in his writing. There is a wonderful vagueness over the supernatural element in many of these stories, where the looming sense of revelation feels as much as a psychological manifestation as it does a specter that has taken material form, this creeping uncertainty is reminiscent of the uncanny in the works of both Robert Aickman and Walter de La Mare. This uncertainty manifests itself in his often-unstable characters and shows their tenuous grip on reality slowly beginning to disintegrate.
The tales in this collection are a rare treat to read for the connoisseur of the weird, but one, in particular, stood out for me; “A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians” an almost novella-length tale about an eerie travelogue through the Carpathians during the 1800s, using gothic tropes and the intensely moody setting of the Carpathian landscape to create one of the most distinctive short stories I’ve read in a long time.
Peter Bell’s stories show a mastery of the uncanny short story, through an incredibly atmospheric sense of place and loneliness, the psychological aspect of his characters as well as the looming presence of supernatural dread, he shows himself to be one of the finest contemporary practitioners of the weird and eerie.
December 24, 2021
Let me begin with the end. The end of the book, that is. It's an utter delight to see a well-researched explanatory essay at the end of this book of outstanding tales. Unlike an academic volume, it's not relegated to endnotes in a smaller font. "Marie Emily Fornario: A Historical Note" tells as strange a tale as any of the others included in Strange Epiphanies. The referent, the fine tale "M.E.F.," which I will comment on later, is bolstered by having this little essay in the back of the book. In fact, the whole volume is given more credence, if you will, once the reader realizes the careful research that Bell has done for this one tale. I have no doubt that he put a huge amount of work, as well as a bit of a personally revelatory experience, into the writing of "M.E.F." - he must have put a similar amount of work and craftsmanship into the other works, as well; and it shows!
The first story, "Resurrection," ticks off all the checks on the folk-horror list. Quite predictable, but still well-written. The emotional state of the protagonist at the end is an interesting twist. I've read my fair share of folk-horror (both fiction and non-fiction) in the past year, so perhaps I'm a little jaded. Despite knowing the trajectory before it happened, this was a satisfactory story. Four stars burning in effigy for this little tale.
"M.E.F." is pretty much perfect from beginning to end. I tend to like creepy stories that hint and infer, rather than openly shock. There's a certain warmth to the narrator not only accepting fate in this tale, but gently, smoothly easing into it. A kind of radiance of oncoming ineffable transformation suffuses the story. It glows with grayness. Five stars for this wonderfully gloomy, yet comforting story.
Similarly, "The Light of the World" has a sense of completeness that is hard to describe. It is wrapped up very neatly, perhaps just a touch too neatly, but only enough to strain credulity a bit, definitely not enough to ruin the tale. A satisfying read about destiny and connections across time and space, like a full literary meal. Having lived in both the UK and Italy, I greatly appreciated the descriptive settings, which Bell brings to light perfectly.
I'm usually a much bigger fan of "creepy" than "scary". "An American Writer's Cottage" was just plain scary. Here are my notes after reading it: I've put the book down, but every flash or shadow has me spooked. I'm hoping to never discover any heretofore-unseen attic doors in this house. I can't even think about that right now. Time for me to go hide under the covers until I can sleep.. I will state that the frisson caused by this one was acute and made for a nice change of mood from the other tales, without clashing with them.
I've read a lot of creepy doll stories in my day, but "Inheritance" has to be among the best. The creepiness is beyond bounds, but what makes the story marvelous is it's strangely redemptive ending, an unexpected conclusion that, through its banality, pushes the story into the transcendent. You may have read a creepy doll story like this, but the resolution is nothing like anything you've read before. Five stars.
While reading "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians" I was mostly listening to the black metal band Reverorum ib Malacht. There could not be a more appropriate soundtrack to this gothic novella, which is redolent with illness, dreadful forebodings, and sweeping vistas of dark beauty. I hate mentioning the "V" word, but Transylvania + illness + wolves + Vlad = . . . well, you do the math. This was an amazingly realized story. Here is a sample of the beautiful prose:
"We crossed the pass soon after one in the afternoon; already, overhead, it was growing as dark as the hour preceding dusk. As we looked back, dismayed, clouds were seething over the cold, a grey, flowing cataract. The air rapidly assumed a torrid weightiness that sapped the very limbs, and made even breathing a trial. A helm of steely-grey hid Peleaga's brow, as if readying for conflict; yet across his southern slopes fell beams of an angry sun, escaping through a rent in the dismal heavens, colouring the mountain's sheer, black precipices in a dread, coppery lustre. Clusters of lesser summits nearby partook of this exhibition, streaks and splashes of the same fiery pigments colouring the wasteland, as if some great slaughter had been done there, in the old days of the world. At last, after insupportable tension, Vulcan's fire seared the firmament, again and again, like sparks shooting from a multitude of Satan's forges; ushering in a downpour such that we could see not a thing before us, and with blasts so terrifying that our ponies were grievously affrighted."
It is this prose and the method of hinting and inferring that I referenced earlier that steers this V-word story clear of the hackneyed tropes of the past. I sometimes get cagey when I encounter this subject in a story, but in Peter Bell's hands, the old subject takes on fresh new life . . . or undeath. Five stars for this tale, as well.
Finally, From the title to the last paragraph, "Nostalgia, Death, and Melancholy" weave a cohesive triptych of . . . well, just what the title says. This is the kind of tale that seems to meander until you find you're on a one-way path and there's no other way, yet the plot didn't feel forced in the least bit. Furthermore, there's an emotional depth here (nihilistic, to be sure) that one doesn't often find in horror shorts. Five stars here.
What a marvelous collection (plus essay) Bell has constructed here! It has been a while since I've read a collection with so many powerful supernatural stories - and I read a lot of collections of supernatural stories. Strange Epiphanies ensures that Peter Bell will sit on the shelf right next to Robert Aickman, on my shelf, at least. This is one you must find and read and savor. I'll be coming back to this one again in the future.
The first story, "Resurrection," ticks off all the checks on the folk-horror list. Quite predictable, but still well-written. The emotional state of the protagonist at the end is an interesting twist. I've read my fair share of folk-horror (both fiction and non-fiction) in the past year, so perhaps I'm a little jaded. Despite knowing the trajectory before it happened, this was a satisfactory story. Four stars burning in effigy for this little tale.
"M.E.F." is pretty much perfect from beginning to end. I tend to like creepy stories that hint and infer, rather than openly shock. There's a certain warmth to the narrator not only accepting fate in this tale, but gently, smoothly easing into it. A kind of radiance of oncoming ineffable transformation suffuses the story. It glows with grayness. Five stars for this wonderfully gloomy, yet comforting story.
Similarly, "The Light of the World" has a sense of completeness that is hard to describe. It is wrapped up very neatly, perhaps just a touch too neatly, but only enough to strain credulity a bit, definitely not enough to ruin the tale. A satisfying read about destiny and connections across time and space, like a full literary meal. Having lived in both the UK and Italy, I greatly appreciated the descriptive settings, which Bell brings to light perfectly.
I'm usually a much bigger fan of "creepy" than "scary". "An American Writer's Cottage" was just plain scary. Here are my notes after reading it: I've put the book down, but every flash or shadow has me spooked. I'm hoping to never discover any heretofore-unseen attic doors in this house. I can't even think about that right now. Time for me to go hide under the covers until I can sleep.. I will state that the frisson caused by this one was acute and made for a nice change of mood from the other tales, without clashing with them.
I've read a lot of creepy doll stories in my day, but "Inheritance" has to be among the best. The creepiness is beyond bounds, but what makes the story marvelous is it's strangely redemptive ending, an unexpected conclusion that, through its banality, pushes the story into the transcendent. You may have read a creepy doll story like this, but the resolution is nothing like anything you've read before. Five stars.
While reading "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians" I was mostly listening to the black metal band Reverorum ib Malacht. There could not be a more appropriate soundtrack to this gothic novella, which is redolent with illness, dreadful forebodings, and sweeping vistas of dark beauty. I hate mentioning the "V" word, but Transylvania + illness + wolves + Vlad = . . . well, you do the math. This was an amazingly realized story. Here is a sample of the beautiful prose:
"We crossed the pass soon after one in the afternoon; already, overhead, it was growing as dark as the hour preceding dusk. As we looked back, dismayed, clouds were seething over the cold, a grey, flowing cataract. The air rapidly assumed a torrid weightiness that sapped the very limbs, and made even breathing a trial. A helm of steely-grey hid Peleaga's brow, as if readying for conflict; yet across his southern slopes fell beams of an angry sun, escaping through a rent in the dismal heavens, colouring the mountain's sheer, black precipices in a dread, coppery lustre. Clusters of lesser summits nearby partook of this exhibition, streaks and splashes of the same fiery pigments colouring the wasteland, as if some great slaughter had been done there, in the old days of the world. At last, after insupportable tension, Vulcan's fire seared the firmament, again and again, like sparks shooting from a multitude of Satan's forges; ushering in a downpour such that we could see not a thing before us, and with blasts so terrifying that our ponies were grievously affrighted."
It is this prose and the method of hinting and inferring that I referenced earlier that steers this V-word story clear of the hackneyed tropes of the past. I sometimes get cagey when I encounter this subject in a story, but in Peter Bell's hands, the old subject takes on fresh new life . . . or undeath. Five stars for this tale, as well.
Finally, From the title to the last paragraph, "Nostalgia, Death, and Melancholy" weave a cohesive triptych of . . . well, just what the title says. This is the kind of tale that seems to meander until you find you're on a one-way path and there's no other way, yet the plot didn't feel forced in the least bit. Furthermore, there's an emotional depth here (nihilistic, to be sure) that one doesn't often find in horror shorts. Five stars here.
What a marvelous collection (plus essay) Bell has constructed here! It has been a while since I've read a collection with so many powerful supernatural stories - and I read a lot of collections of supernatural stories. Strange Epiphanies ensures that Peter Bell will sit on the shelf right next to Robert Aickman, on my shelf, at least. This is one you must find and read and savor. I'll be coming back to this one again in the future.
December 13, 2021
My first contact with Peter Bell, Strange Epiphanies is a great collection of tales, which left me craving for more (alas, most of his Sarob Press collections are out of print). All seven stories herein are delightful examples of weird literature, crafted out of majestic landscapes and intriguing supernatural lore (M.E.F. is based on a true incident, as is explained in the book's postscript), with a controlled pacing, excellent use of language, and, ahem, almost exclusively crestfallen protagonists (more on this in a moment).
The highlight for me was A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians, a narrative which makes generous use of the journal entry format and blends fact and fiction in a highly satisfying way. What made it stand out, apart from the plot itself and the amazing way that the landscape is brought to life (apparently mr Bell knows how to write about the land, be it the Scottish wilderness or the Romanian mountainscapes), was the minimal focus on the protagonists' inner world, as well as their not being depressed and miserable individuals.
Which brings me to my only objection about the book: in six of the seven stories, the heroes/heroines are gloomy, anguished people, almost comically similar to each other. The thorough and persistent focus on their personal past and anguish is occasionally unnecessary, and even bothersome, obscuring the plot and the landscape.
Despite this blemish, the collection is definitely recommended, and is way above the average weird literature collection.
The highlight for me was A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians, a narrative which makes generous use of the journal entry format and blends fact and fiction in a highly satisfying way. What made it stand out, apart from the plot itself and the amazing way that the landscape is brought to life (apparently mr Bell knows how to write about the land, be it the Scottish wilderness or the Romanian mountainscapes), was the minimal focus on the protagonists' inner world, as well as their not being depressed and miserable individuals.
Which brings me to my only objection about the book: in six of the seven stories, the heroes/heroines are gloomy, anguished people, almost comically similar to each other. The thorough and persistent focus on their personal past and anguish is occasionally unnecessary, and even bothersome, obscuring the plot and the landscape.
Despite this blemish, the collection is definitely recommended, and is way above the average weird literature collection.
November 22, 2024
It is hard to categorize these stories. There are some apparitions and other clearly supernatural elements, but these tend to be understated until they enter late in narrative abruptly and devastatingly. But they aren't primarily ghost stories. Bell has a keen sense of place and builds a sense of unease, sometimes dread, through his descriptions and characterizations of places. The stories take place in the Hebrides, the countryside of the north of England, rural northern Italy, "a small town in Germany" (not the same as Le Carré), and the Carpathians. Many of the protagonists have suffered the loss of a partner and are mourning, some are broken in various other ways, hitting the sauce too hard, etc. Susceptible in many ways to unnatural events.
Bell is clearly quite knowledgable about British folklore, well read in a lot of the byways of older literature. Several of the stories are based in local legend and folklore. My favorite of the stories is "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians," an apochryphal tale of the Egyptologist, travel writer, and novelist Amelia Edwards traveling in the remote stretches of the Carpathians and the evil she encounters there. It's Translyvania, after all. Bell writes ficitious diary entries in the style of Edwards quite convincingly. A fun book for a winter evening or two.
Bell is clearly quite knowledgable about British folklore, well read in a lot of the byways of older literature. Several of the stories are based in local legend and folklore. My favorite of the stories is "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians," an apochryphal tale of the Egyptologist, travel writer, and novelist Amelia Edwards traveling in the remote stretches of the Carpathians and the evil she encounters there. It's Translyvania, after all. Bell writes ficitious diary entries in the style of Edwards quite convincingly. A fun book for a winter evening or two.
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January 25, 2022Brilliant. Two things set these stories above a lot of other weird fiction in my estimation. First, the balancing act between awe and terror. Peter Bell manages to strike this balance more deftly that most. Second, the quality of the prose. To my eye, there wasn’t a single clunky description or comma out of place.
A couple of stories had a slightly overdone coda that I would have been satisfied without. However, I can forgive that given everything wonderful that came before.
Swan River Press are to be commended for making this available again, now in paperback. Like their limited hardbacks, it's a comfortably readable size and it’s scrupulously produced. I have Peter Bell’s latest book from Sarob Press but now I’ll also have to a keep a look out for his long out-of-print collections from them.
A couple of stories had a slightly overdone coda that I would have been satisfied without. However, I can forgive that given everything wonderful that came before.
Swan River Press are to be commended for making this available again, now in paperback. Like their limited hardbacks, it's a comfortably readable size and it’s scrupulously produced. I have Peter Bell’s latest book from Sarob Press but now I’ll also have to a keep a look out for his long out-of-print collections from them.
June 18, 2012
"One of the finest collection of lyrical and yet chillingly haunting short stories", that's how I would like to describe this collection. Swan River Press has gifted us with another exquisite production that befits the richness of the stories, but let me come to the point (i.e. my thoughts regarding the stories themselves). The contents of this book are: -
(*) Introduction by Brian.J.Showers.
1) Resurrection: was it delusion, insanity, pagansim, morbid depression, or wilful surrender of mind & body to the primoridal ebb & tide of life? You decide, and also think when was the last time that you came across such evocative imagery & narrative.
2) M.E.F: a story of love, loss, haunting, delusion, and mystery. I especially liked the authenticity and the painstakingly detailed adherence to actual events, that act as the backdrop as well as the foundation of the story.
3) The Light of the World: another brilliant (literally, as the glorious descriptions are etched in your mind as you read the story) and yet remorseless tale of love, fear, and obsession.
4) An American Writers Cottage: I knew what would eventually befell the depressed & alcoholic protagonist, but the way the climax was built up was deliciously scary.
5) Inheritance: a scary story, with its enigmatic suggestions that allowed my imagination to run amoc, causing some seriously disturbing dreams. The power of the story should be compared with the feelings that are evoked by writers who fail to appreciate the power of imagination, when they fill their stuff with gratuitous sex & violence.
6) A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians: the last word must have already sent your mind to work about the story, so read it, and sit tight for a while keeping all lights on.
7) Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy: the title says all, but adds in some deliciously shuddering stuff.
(*) Afterword: the historical basis of the story M.E.F.
Overall, after reading the book, I was rather uneasy, and (just to be on the safe side), slept with a light on (you know, imagination IS a dangerous thing). Highly recommended.
(*) Introduction by Brian.J.Showers.
1) Resurrection: was it delusion, insanity, pagansim, morbid depression, or wilful surrender of mind & body to the primoridal ebb & tide of life? You decide, and also think when was the last time that you came across such evocative imagery & narrative.
2) M.E.F: a story of love, loss, haunting, delusion, and mystery. I especially liked the authenticity and the painstakingly detailed adherence to actual events, that act as the backdrop as well as the foundation of the story.
3) The Light of the World: another brilliant (literally, as the glorious descriptions are etched in your mind as you read the story) and yet remorseless tale of love, fear, and obsession.
4) An American Writers Cottage: I knew what would eventually befell the depressed & alcoholic protagonist, but the way the climax was built up was deliciously scary.
5) Inheritance: a scary story, with its enigmatic suggestions that allowed my imagination to run amoc, causing some seriously disturbing dreams. The power of the story should be compared with the feelings that are evoked by writers who fail to appreciate the power of imagination, when they fill their stuff with gratuitous sex & violence.
6) A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians: the last word must have already sent your mind to work about the story, so read it, and sit tight for a while keeping all lights on.
7) Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy: the title says all, but adds in some deliciously shuddering stuff.
(*) Afterword: the historical basis of the story M.E.F.
Overall, after reading the book, I was rather uneasy, and (just to be on the safe side), slept with a light on (you know, imagination IS a dangerous thing). Highly recommended.
June 16, 2012
Writers are often obsessives, repeatedly returning to the same emotional terrain to try and map it more thoroughly. Often, one central idea does more than link a writer's work - it provides an overwhelming raison d'etre for it. This, I think, is the case with Peter Bell, whose stories constantly address the pain of loss or loneliness, and often do so by taking a character out of their familiar context. Thus in the first story collected here, 'Resurrection' an expert in psychiatric medicine who finds herself laid low by depression goes for a short holiday in the Lake District. She finds what seems at first an idyllic valley, but there's a distinct 'Wicker Man' vibe about the place: strange scarecrows, talk of the Beltane Fires, and an odd aside about the number of healthy children born lately. Sure enough, our protagonist is headed for a confrontation with the sort of festival that could never comply with health and safety law. But there is a twist, which is more a matter of emotional perspective than plot.
A similar scenario is played out in 'M.E.F.' but with important variations. Here a widower journeys to Iona, arguably the holiest of the British Isles. He once stayed there with his wife, but it is another woman who comes to influence him. Or rather, it is here absence, for in this story Bell takes a true account of the disappearance of an eccentric aesthete and around it weaves another tale - that of a lonely person seeking some truth that, by connecting them with life in some way, might help them transcend their isolation.
'The Light of the World' explicitly refers to Machen. Again we have a lonely person, beheaved and beset around by depression, seeking some kind of escape. A recurring dream and the strange connection between a Roman temple in Cumberland and the site of an Italian miracle provide the basic armature for an enchanting, disturbing and extremely satisfying tale. Read it aloud (a good policy with Bell's stories) and you get a feel for the powerful rhythm of the language. The central premise - that ultimate truth is unbearable because it is transcendent - is not new, but is seldom tackled by today's horror writers. This is a Machenesque story that Machen would not have disowned. As with all Peter Bell's stories there is a sense of nightmarish inevitability about the way an innocent character is the focus of... what? Possibly God.
Somewhat more traditional is 'An American Writer's Cottage'. This time our solitary, unhappy protagonist retreats to a bleak Hebridean island. Margaret is 'fleeing a particularly dire set of professional and personal circumstances'. Anyone who does this in a Peter Bell story has had it, really. It's just a question of finding out how their particular Nemesis will destroy them. Strange encounters with seals and less easily defined creatures give Margaret little cause of unease at first. The story is a good example of the 'not quite haunted house' genre, where spirits of place count for more than the mechanics of a conventional apparition.
'Inheritance' also has its roots in a venerable sub-genre, that of the Scary Doll. We've read about them and seen them in horror films aplenty, but it remains the case that little simulacra of human beings designed as mere toys have a capacity to unsettle us (well, me) more than vampires or zombies. The doll in this case provides a link to a hidden past of violence and madness. It's a comparatively slight tale, but stands out because it offers a slightly more positive take on life than the others collected here.
Somewhat jauntier in tone (if not in content) is 'A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians'. Here the time-honoured device of the discovered journal reveals a hitherto unexpected episode in life of the celebrated Victorian traveller and author, Amelia Edwards. What could be more natural than that our hero should try to retrace Edwards' steps? I'm not giving anything away by saying that, as vampire stories go, this is a very good one, and the element of historical pastiche works well. There are overtones of Dracula and Carmilla, not least in the full-blooded finale.
The last story, and arguably the best, first appeared in Supernatural Tales but has been revised for book publication. 'Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy' is the archetypal Peter Bell story. A lonely, sensitive and erudite man goes to an unnamed island (but it's the Isle of Man) to attend to the funeral and bequest of his aunt. Sinclair recalls childhood holidays on the island and decides to revisit a much-loved part of the coast. Along the way he conducts some research into Victorian architecture - what could be more harmless? But a link emerges between his own origins, a neglected house, and a symbolist painter who became possessed with visions of chaos, madness and death. All the 'Bellesque' (Bellian?) ingredients come together perfectly in a story that qualifies as a modern classic.
This is one of the best short story collections of recent years, and bears comparison with the classics. In some respects it harks back to the Silver Age of the ghost story, between the wars, but the stories have none of the tidiness that often prevails in the works of Benson and Burrage. Here there is rarely any hope for those who venture any great distance from well-trodden ways.
A similar scenario is played out in 'M.E.F.' but with important variations. Here a widower journeys to Iona, arguably the holiest of the British Isles. He once stayed there with his wife, but it is another woman who comes to influence him. Or rather, it is here absence, for in this story Bell takes a true account of the disappearance of an eccentric aesthete and around it weaves another tale - that of a lonely person seeking some truth that, by connecting them with life in some way, might help them transcend their isolation.
'The Light of the World' explicitly refers to Machen. Again we have a lonely person, beheaved and beset around by depression, seeking some kind of escape. A recurring dream and the strange connection between a Roman temple in Cumberland and the site of an Italian miracle provide the basic armature for an enchanting, disturbing and extremely satisfying tale. Read it aloud (a good policy with Bell's stories) and you get a feel for the powerful rhythm of the language. The central premise - that ultimate truth is unbearable because it is transcendent - is not new, but is seldom tackled by today's horror writers. This is a Machenesque story that Machen would not have disowned. As with all Peter Bell's stories there is a sense of nightmarish inevitability about the way an innocent character is the focus of... what? Possibly God.
Somewhat more traditional is 'An American Writer's Cottage'. This time our solitary, unhappy protagonist retreats to a bleak Hebridean island. Margaret is 'fleeing a particularly dire set of professional and personal circumstances'. Anyone who does this in a Peter Bell story has had it, really. It's just a question of finding out how their particular Nemesis will destroy them. Strange encounters with seals and less easily defined creatures give Margaret little cause of unease at first. The story is a good example of the 'not quite haunted house' genre, where spirits of place count for more than the mechanics of a conventional apparition.
'Inheritance' also has its roots in a venerable sub-genre, that of the Scary Doll. We've read about them and seen them in horror films aplenty, but it remains the case that little simulacra of human beings designed as mere toys have a capacity to unsettle us (well, me) more than vampires or zombies. The doll in this case provides a link to a hidden past of violence and madness. It's a comparatively slight tale, but stands out because it offers a slightly more positive take on life than the others collected here.
Somewhat jauntier in tone (if not in content) is 'A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians'. Here the time-honoured device of the discovered journal reveals a hitherto unexpected episode in life of the celebrated Victorian traveller and author, Amelia Edwards. What could be more natural than that our hero should try to retrace Edwards' steps? I'm not giving anything away by saying that, as vampire stories go, this is a very good one, and the element of historical pastiche works well. There are overtones of Dracula and Carmilla, not least in the full-blooded finale.
The last story, and arguably the best, first appeared in Supernatural Tales but has been revised for book publication. 'Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy' is the archetypal Peter Bell story. A lonely, sensitive and erudite man goes to an unnamed island (but it's the Isle of Man) to attend to the funeral and bequest of his aunt. Sinclair recalls childhood holidays on the island and decides to revisit a much-loved part of the coast. Along the way he conducts some research into Victorian architecture - what could be more harmless? But a link emerges between his own origins, a neglected house, and a symbolist painter who became possessed with visions of chaos, madness and death. All the 'Bellesque' (Bellian?) ingredients come together perfectly in a story that qualifies as a modern classic.
This is one of the best short story collections of recent years, and bears comparison with the classics. In some respects it harks back to the Silver Age of the ghost story, between the wars, but the stories have none of the tidiness that often prevails in the works of Benson and Burrage. Here there is rarely any hope for those who venture any great distance from well-trodden ways.
January 26, 2022
My first contact with Peter Bell, Strange Epiphanies is a great collection of tales, which left me craving for more (alas, most of his Sarob Press collections are out of print). All seven stories herein are delightful examples of weird literature, crafted out of majestic landscapes and intriguing supernatural lore (M.E.F. is based on a true incident, as is explained in the book's postscript), with a controlled pacing, excellent use of language, and, ahem, almost exclusively crestfallen protagonists (more on this in a moment).
The highlight for me was A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians, a narrative which makes generous use of the journal entry format and blends fact and fiction in a highly satisfying way. What made it stand out, apart from the plot itself and the amazing way that the landscape is brought to life (apparently mr Bell knows how to write about the land, be it the Scottish wilderness or the Romanian mountainscapes), was the minimal focus on the protagonists' inner world, as well as their not being depressed and miserable individuals.
Which brings me to my only objection about the book: in six of the seven stories, the heroes/heroines are gloomy, anguished people, almost comically similar to each other. The thorough and persistent focus on their personal past and anguish is occasionally unnecessary, and even bothersome, obscuring the plot and the landscape.
Despite this blemish, the collection is definitely recommended, and is way above the average weird literature collection.
The highlight for me was A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians, a narrative which makes generous use of the journal entry format and blends fact and fiction in a highly satisfying way. What made it stand out, apart from the plot itself and the amazing way that the landscape is brought to life (apparently mr Bell knows how to write about the land, be it the Scottish wilderness or the Romanian mountainscapes), was the minimal focus on the protagonists' inner world, as well as their not being depressed and miserable individuals.
Which brings me to my only objection about the book: in six of the seven stories, the heroes/heroines are gloomy, anguished people, almost comically similar to each other. The thorough and persistent focus on their personal past and anguish is occasionally unnecessary, and even bothersome, obscuring the plot and the landscape.
Despite this blemish, the collection is definitely recommended, and is way above the average weird literature collection.
January 11, 2021
Like many of the stories, the plot ends with a frightening, sinister danger impending and possibly winning out. But equally there is a comfort here. The comfort of the sinister in literature. A wonderful book.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
April 4, 2023
TL;DR: Gorgeous words, enchanting stories; I just wish most of each story’s bite wasn’t confined to a final, few sentences. Recommended.
I’m in love with the work of a few modern authors of dark fiction, most of whom have at some point been published by Rosemary Pardoe and/or Sarob Press. As for Peter Bell, it’s too early to tell… I do think I will end up loving him, but he has a few tics that get on my nerves. Then again, this is his earliest collection—maybe those tics are just growing pains. Time, as always, will tell.
Prior to Strange Epiphanies, I only had a few of Bell’s stories under my belt. So far, he’s been Big Hit or Kinda Miss. His prose has a bewitching quality to it but his stories are as often as not too half-baked or merely suggestive for my taste. Also, I get frustrated with any storytelling that gets bogged down in details. On the flip side of that, I love when stories are informed by solid research into history or any other given subject, but there should be a proper balance. For example, it’s lovely to read a story where the landscape comes alive on the page, not so much when I feel like I’m at a gardening seminar. Don’t let’s get lost in the details! That’s one reason I’m not into high fantasy. When the page is littered with proper nouns, often unusually spelled, my eyes glaze over. This isn’t high fantasy—the locations are very real, but they’re often spelled very strangely. Not a problem if there’s one or two, but fifty in a dozen pages is probably forty too many. Bell will have me enthralled with a locale but instead of harnessing the florid descriptions to further the given story, sometimes he’ll push it to the point that it almost starts reading like a genuine travelogue or geography book. (Or, if I remember correctly, once in a story not in this collection: a locomotive history textbook.)
Here are a few of my thoughts on each story:
Resurrection - strong start, folk horror, the most predictable of the bunch. A big biatch going through some stuff gets away from it all in a rural village with some unusual customs.
MEF - another good one. A widower and his grief visit a remote island where he becomes fascinated by a local legend.
The Light of the World - again, a pretty good one with a fine balance between story and research. Once again a man is bothered by a strange old couple years later and half a continent away—but they haven’t changed at all.
An American Writer’s Cottage - once again, pretty good. Once again, a troubled soul looks for solace from their problems in some remote land. That’s really the theme of the book: people visiting lonely places to succumb to their grief or misery. Like dogs and cats do when it’s time to lay down and die. (One reviewer claims this story really frightened the wits out of him/her.)
Inheritance - not bad, but even though the other stories weren’t scary or very creepy, this is the least unsettling of the bunch. ‘The requisite haunted doll story’ pretty much sums this one up.
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians - and here we have some hellish combination of 19th c. travelogue and proto-vampire story, with the former being the bulk of the tale. I was into it at first, as the diary entries from the 19th c. are pretty evocative as well as convincing (they’re supposed to be written by Amelia Edwards—of the much anthologized “The Phantom Coach” fame.) But here is the straw that broke the camel’s back; the story that prompted me to write the above preamble and then put the book down for a few days. There is a lot wrong with this one. It’s just too, too much, for too, too little payoff. My main issue: you have 25 pages of mostly just the diary entries excessively detailing Edwards’ trip through Transylvania with occasional hints of that overly familiar vampire story simmering in the background followed by just 7 pages of someone in the present day retracing her steps—with about half a page left for a Jamesian wallop. But it doesn’t wallop so much as quietly thud. If you’re extremely familiar with the Carpathians, you may like this one a lot. (Similarly, if the Hebrides is your favorite neck of the woods, then you won’t stumble over the, to me, exotic locales that permeate the book.)
INTERLUDE: a good, horrible little story from Charles Black’s “A Taste for the Macabre.” Back to Bell:
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy - a man returns to the place his family used to vacation and finds the title, in more ways than one. More ways than two, even. This one also suffered from too little weirdness or horror. And I’d say this criticism can be applied to the entire collection. Now I’m wondering if this isn’t a bug but a feature of Bell’s work. I guess I’ll find out in the next collection!
I’m in love with the work of a few modern authors of dark fiction, most of whom have at some point been published by Rosemary Pardoe and/or Sarob Press. As for Peter Bell, it’s too early to tell… I do think I will end up loving him, but he has a few tics that get on my nerves. Then again, this is his earliest collection—maybe those tics are just growing pains. Time, as always, will tell.
Prior to Strange Epiphanies, I only had a few of Bell’s stories under my belt. So far, he’s been Big Hit or Kinda Miss. His prose has a bewitching quality to it but his stories are as often as not too half-baked or merely suggestive for my taste. Also, I get frustrated with any storytelling that gets bogged down in details. On the flip side of that, I love when stories are informed by solid research into history or any other given subject, but there should be a proper balance. For example, it’s lovely to read a story where the landscape comes alive on the page, not so much when I feel like I’m at a gardening seminar. Don’t let’s get lost in the details! That’s one reason I’m not into high fantasy. When the page is littered with proper nouns, often unusually spelled, my eyes glaze over. This isn’t high fantasy—the locations are very real, but they’re often spelled very strangely. Not a problem if there’s one or two, but fifty in a dozen pages is probably forty too many. Bell will have me enthralled with a locale but instead of harnessing the florid descriptions to further the given story, sometimes he’ll push it to the point that it almost starts reading like a genuine travelogue or geography book. (Or, if I remember correctly, once in a story not in this collection: a locomotive history textbook.)
Here are a few of my thoughts on each story:
Resurrection - strong start, folk horror, the most predictable of the bunch. A big biatch going through some stuff gets away from it all in a rural village with some unusual customs.
MEF - another good one. A widower and his grief visit a remote island where he becomes fascinated by a local legend.
The Light of the World - again, a pretty good one with a fine balance between story and research. Once again a man is bothered by a strange old couple years later and half a continent away—but they haven’t changed at all.
An American Writer’s Cottage - once again, pretty good. Once again, a troubled soul looks for solace from their problems in some remote land. That’s really the theme of the book: people visiting lonely places to succumb to their grief or misery. Like dogs and cats do when it’s time to lay down and die. (One reviewer claims this story really frightened the wits out of him/her.)
Inheritance - not bad, but even though the other stories weren’t scary or very creepy, this is the least unsettling of the bunch. ‘The requisite haunted doll story’ pretty much sums this one up.
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians - and here we have some hellish combination of 19th c. travelogue and proto-vampire story, with the former being the bulk of the tale. I was into it at first, as the diary entries from the 19th c. are pretty evocative as well as convincing (they’re supposed to be written by Amelia Edwards—of the much anthologized “The Phantom Coach” fame.) But here is the straw that broke the camel’s back; the story that prompted me to write the above preamble and then put the book down for a few days. There is a lot wrong with this one. It’s just too, too much, for too, too little payoff. My main issue: you have 25 pages of mostly just the diary entries excessively detailing Edwards’ trip through Transylvania with occasional hints of that overly familiar vampire story simmering in the background followed by just 7 pages of someone in the present day retracing her steps—with about half a page left for a Jamesian wallop. But it doesn’t wallop so much as quietly thud. If you’re extremely familiar with the Carpathians, you may like this one a lot. (Similarly, if the Hebrides is your favorite neck of the woods, then you won’t stumble over the, to me, exotic locales that permeate the book.)
INTERLUDE: a good, horrible little story from Charles Black’s “A Taste for the Macabre.” Back to Bell:
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy - a man returns to the place his family used to vacation and finds the title, in more ways than one. More ways than two, even. This one also suffered from too little weirdness or horror. And I’d say this criticism can be applied to the entire collection. Now I’m wondering if this isn’t a bug but a feature of Bell’s work. I guess I’ll find out in the next collection!
September 21, 2023
full post is here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2023...
First I will say that I love this author's work. This book is no exception. From the first page onward (and as is the case with all of the stories I've read by this author so far), what stands out is the author's stunning evocation of place. In his introduction to Strange Epiphanies, Brian Showers, the founder of Swan River Press, notes that what Bell does here is to
"scratch beneath the top soil to unearth the true genius loci -- the unsettling spirit of place -- and show its effects on those who tread these exposed surfaces. Landscapes, that with each turn, Peter skews and rearranges into something resembling nightmare."
Strongly allied with his emphasis on genius loci, Bell's work here also draws on history as well as local/ traditional folklore including (but not limited to) Beltane fire rites in the first story "Resurrection" -- the opening of which reminded me so very much of the beginning of Robert Aickman's "The Trains," selkies in "An American Writer's Cottage" and even vampires in "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians." Upping the eerieness, his stories are populated with characters with troubled, damaged psyches who, in the isolated settings in which they find themselves, are more than susceptible to the influences and strange pulls the genius loci seems to exert on them. In this sense, I would argue, the landscape (with the inclusion of its spirit) can be viewed as a character present in each tale.
Going back to this book's introduction, Brian Showers says that the stories in Strange Epiphanies are "stories of revelation," which may bring to mind "mystical enlightment or awe," but he warns readers that "we must always remember that not all revelations are welcome ones." There is just something in the way that the author captures the sadness, loneliness and isolation of his characters throughout this book that truly speaks to me; combining those very human traits with the resonances that in these stories seem to emanate from the landscape itself is a stroke of genius on his part. Bell's work here is truly one of the best works to come from Swan River Press, and it is a story collection I know I will read again in the future.
So very highly recommended -- I can't even begin to express how very much I loved this book.
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2023...
First I will say that I love this author's work. This book is no exception. From the first page onward (and as is the case with all of the stories I've read by this author so far), what stands out is the author's stunning evocation of place. In his introduction to Strange Epiphanies, Brian Showers, the founder of Swan River Press, notes that what Bell does here is to
"scratch beneath the top soil to unearth the true genius loci -- the unsettling spirit of place -- and show its effects on those who tread these exposed surfaces. Landscapes, that with each turn, Peter skews and rearranges into something resembling nightmare."
Strongly allied with his emphasis on genius loci, Bell's work here also draws on history as well as local/ traditional folklore including (but not limited to) Beltane fire rites in the first story "Resurrection" -- the opening of which reminded me so very much of the beginning of Robert Aickman's "The Trains," selkies in "An American Writer's Cottage" and even vampires in "A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians." Upping the eerieness, his stories are populated with characters with troubled, damaged psyches who, in the isolated settings in which they find themselves, are more than susceptible to the influences and strange pulls the genius loci seems to exert on them. In this sense, I would argue, the landscape (with the inclusion of its spirit) can be viewed as a character present in each tale.
Going back to this book's introduction, Brian Showers says that the stories in Strange Epiphanies are "stories of revelation," which may bring to mind "mystical enlightment or awe," but he warns readers that "we must always remember that not all revelations are welcome ones." There is just something in the way that the author captures the sadness, loneliness and isolation of his characters throughout this book that truly speaks to me; combining those very human traits with the resonances that in these stories seem to emanate from the landscape itself is a stroke of genius on his part. Bell's work here is truly one of the best works to come from Swan River Press, and it is a story collection I know I will read again in the future.
So very highly recommended -- I can't even begin to express how very much I loved this book.
December 27, 2025
Bell, Peter - Strange Epiphanies
Superb introduction to Mr. Bell. Nicely chosen, themed, and affordable (PB).
Amanda alights from the train in Greendale. Her depression worsening, she hopes a break in the country might sweep her dark clouds. Amanda had arrived ere a major village celebration, which she found unwelcome. During the “Resurrection” her anxiety mounts along with her hostility.
He was on a search, a pilgrimage, to find a cairn or marker for one “M. E. F.”.
Marie Emily Farnario, had been a fey creature who came to an unfortunate end on the moors. Like all obsessive hunters, our pilgrim ignores his practical sense and takes greater risks.
Another guilty survivor, another pilgrimage in “The Light Of The World”. From the empty wastes of Cumberland to the fiery heat of Italy, Franklyn seems guided by two ravaged figures.
Most of the protagonists are solitary travelers, and inexperienced, complaining ones at that. The majority of global wanderers are NOT soloists, and I wish writers would abandon this trope.
“A Midsummer Romance In The Carpathians” steers closest to Horror. A tale of hints and feints, suggestion over clarification. This would fit snugly into any Stoker tribute.
Superb introduction to Mr. Bell. Nicely chosen, themed, and affordable (PB).
Amanda alights from the train in Greendale. Her depression worsening, she hopes a break in the country might sweep her dark clouds. Amanda had arrived ere a major village celebration, which she found unwelcome. During the “Resurrection” her anxiety mounts along with her hostility.
He was on a search, a pilgrimage, to find a cairn or marker for one “M. E. F.”.
Marie Emily Farnario, had been a fey creature who came to an unfortunate end on the moors. Like all obsessive hunters, our pilgrim ignores his practical sense and takes greater risks.
Another guilty survivor, another pilgrimage in “The Light Of The World”. From the empty wastes of Cumberland to the fiery heat of Italy, Franklyn seems guided by two ravaged figures.
Most of the protagonists are solitary travelers, and inexperienced, complaining ones at that. The majority of global wanderers are NOT soloists, and I wish writers would abandon this trope.
“A Midsummer Romance In The Carpathians” steers closest to Horror. A tale of hints and feints, suggestion over clarification. This would fit snugly into any Stoker tribute.
February 25, 2023
[Swan River Press] (2021). SB. 193 Pages. Purchased from Amazon (U.K.)
Adeptly Introduced by Brian Showers of the superb Swan River Press.
Seven short, strange stories.
All very well written and interesting.
“Resurrection” reworks a well-worn trope - David Pinner (“Ritual”), Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”), Robert Sheckley (“The Altar”)… - but is expertly executed with various quirky touches.
“Inheritance” generates a lingering disquiet; subtly gnawing - all from the description of a fleeting view, via the window of a train in a “…dark tunnel-like cutting…”, of a ‘childish’, grotesque figure…
Adeptly Introduced by Brian Showers of the superb Swan River Press.
Seven short, strange stories.
All very well written and interesting.
“Resurrection” reworks a well-worn trope - David Pinner (“Ritual”), Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”), Robert Sheckley (“The Altar”)… - but is expertly executed with various quirky touches.
“Inheritance” generates a lingering disquiet; subtly gnawing - all from the description of a fleeting view, via the window of a train in a “…dark tunnel-like cutting…”, of a ‘childish’, grotesque figure…
April 30, 2022
Resurrection ~ ★★★★
M.E.F ~ ★★★★
The Light of the World ~ ★★★★
An American Writer’s Cottage ~ ★★★
Inheritance ~ ★★★
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians ~ ★★★★
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy ~ ★★★★
Marie Emily Fornario: A Historical Note (essay)
M.E.F ~ ★★★★
The Light of the World ~ ★★★★
An American Writer’s Cottage ~ ★★★
Inheritance ~ ★★★
A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians ~ ★★★★
Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy ~ ★★★★
Marie Emily Fornario: A Historical Note (essay)
December 7, 2024
'Inheritance', in particular, was beautifully chilling.
October 29, 2025
Adding Bell to my list of authors I need to read everything by.
January 23, 2014
I was eagerly anticipating Peter Bell’s collection of short stories, ‘Strange Epiphanies’, as I had enjoyed his Haunted Histories booklet ‘On the Apparitions at Gray’s Court’ so much. The latter evoked such an atmosphere of menace and an unsettling sense of a building containing an unseen presence that I had the disturbing feeling that it was truth and not fiction.
There are 7 stories in this slim volume and a postscript on Marie Emily Fornario whom I had previously encountered through EC mailings. The introduction by Brian J Showers of the Swan River Press sets the scene perfectly, reminds the reader of Grays Court and what awaits within the following pages.
The first tale, ‘Revelation’, features a female psychiatrist, Amanda, who travels to Cumbria to escape depression and finds another fate awaiting her in local Beltane rituals. In other stories, a bookseller is led to Carpathia through a rediscovered travel journal by a Victorian writer and the island of Iona works its mystery on a widower still in mourning. Several of Bell’s protagonists seem to go willingly to their fates as if their life choices or decisions had inevitably led them there. A life changing event has occurred such as death or illness and they leave their familiar surroundings and routines and go to meet the unknown.
My personal favourites were ‘Inheritance’ in which a creepy large Victorian doll reveals a suppressed family tragedy, mainly because I’ve always found dolls of this nature disturbing in their makers’ attempts to simulate a real child especially with the eyes. ‘Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy’ was another standout story as the protagonist, Sinclair, revisits his aunt’s seaside hotel after her death to sort out her possessions. Bell evokes the unsettling feeling of revisiting a childhood place and finding the modern world imposing on your memories as you try to preserve them. Sinclair rediscovers the last forgotten building of a famous architect filled with the final paintings of his suicidal wife as she descended into madness. Too late Sinclair realises that the painting of the story’s title was drawn from the life…..
In ‘ Afterword: Marie Emily Fornario A Historical Note’, Bell recounts the strange and lonely death of a well-connected London bohemian who became fascinated with the allure of Iona. MEF’s grave on the deserted landscape is marked by a cairn for which the author searched for without success for some time. In fact he’d virtually given up and then, literally stumbled on it, and felt ‘a strong sense of déjà vu and of a presence.’ I had previously read several of his accounts of his travels in Scotland and the mystical quality of Bell’s writing and the obvious love that he has for this part of the UK comes through strongly.
I also enjoyed Bell’s use of Holman Hunt’s celebrated painting ‘The Light of the World’ as a sinister object of terror in a young boy’s imaginings in the story of the same name. Bell also has a strong, descriptive sense of place and genius loci as Brian J Showers describes in the introduction.
I thought that this was a wonderful collection of stories which I will re-read again and again.
Swan River Press are to be congratulated on doing such an excellent job of packaging the book so well. The days of the small press being seen as amateurs are long gone and it may well be that authors may be looking to them for innovative and interesting ways of producing books. The dust jacket of Strange Epiphanies features a deserted landscape echoing the feelings of isolation which some of Bell’s characters know too well. The beautiful image on the hard cover demonstrates the small press’s ability to be able to take risks and produce attractive editions for their market as with Tartarus Press. A forthcoming publication, ‘Longsword’, with its striking cover looks set to continue Swan River Press’s high standards.
I cannot recommend ‘Strange Epiphanies’ highly enough.
There are 7 stories in this slim volume and a postscript on Marie Emily Fornario whom I had previously encountered through EC mailings. The introduction by Brian J Showers of the Swan River Press sets the scene perfectly, reminds the reader of Grays Court and what awaits within the following pages.
The first tale, ‘Revelation’, features a female psychiatrist, Amanda, who travels to Cumbria to escape depression and finds another fate awaiting her in local Beltane rituals. In other stories, a bookseller is led to Carpathia through a rediscovered travel journal by a Victorian writer and the island of Iona works its mystery on a widower still in mourning. Several of Bell’s protagonists seem to go willingly to their fates as if their life choices or decisions had inevitably led them there. A life changing event has occurred such as death or illness and they leave their familiar surroundings and routines and go to meet the unknown.
My personal favourites were ‘Inheritance’ in which a creepy large Victorian doll reveals a suppressed family tragedy, mainly because I’ve always found dolls of this nature disturbing in their makers’ attempts to simulate a real child especially with the eyes. ‘Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy’ was another standout story as the protagonist, Sinclair, revisits his aunt’s seaside hotel after her death to sort out her possessions. Bell evokes the unsettling feeling of revisiting a childhood place and finding the modern world imposing on your memories as you try to preserve them. Sinclair rediscovers the last forgotten building of a famous architect filled with the final paintings of his suicidal wife as she descended into madness. Too late Sinclair realises that the painting of the story’s title was drawn from the life…..
In ‘ Afterword: Marie Emily Fornario A Historical Note’, Bell recounts the strange and lonely death of a well-connected London bohemian who became fascinated with the allure of Iona. MEF’s grave on the deserted landscape is marked by a cairn for which the author searched for without success for some time. In fact he’d virtually given up and then, literally stumbled on it, and felt ‘a strong sense of déjà vu and of a presence.’ I had previously read several of his accounts of his travels in Scotland and the mystical quality of Bell’s writing and the obvious love that he has for this part of the UK comes through strongly.
I also enjoyed Bell’s use of Holman Hunt’s celebrated painting ‘The Light of the World’ as a sinister object of terror in a young boy’s imaginings in the story of the same name. Bell also has a strong, descriptive sense of place and genius loci as Brian J Showers describes in the introduction.
I thought that this was a wonderful collection of stories which I will re-read again and again.
Swan River Press are to be congratulated on doing such an excellent job of packaging the book so well. The days of the small press being seen as amateurs are long gone and it may well be that authors may be looking to them for innovative and interesting ways of producing books. The dust jacket of Strange Epiphanies features a deserted landscape echoing the feelings of isolation which some of Bell’s characters know too well. The beautiful image on the hard cover demonstrates the small press’s ability to be able to take risks and produce attractive editions for their market as with Tartarus Press. A forthcoming publication, ‘Longsword’, with its striking cover looks set to continue Swan River Press’s high standards.
I cannot recommend ‘Strange Epiphanies’ highly enough.
February 13, 2019
Strange Epiphanies, from Swan River Press, is a collection of short stories by Peter Bell. Swan River Press specialises in horror fiction of the macabre and supernatural tale variety, taking its cue from the work of writers such as Sheridan Le Fanu, Arthur Machen, M.R. James and others. The emphasis is very much on a slow build of tension and fear with little or no graphically portrayed gore. Old style horror, beautifully written, and all the more genuinely chilling for its implied denouements.
And Strange Epiphanies fits this category perfectly. In ‘M.E.F.’, based on a true story, a grieving widower visits the Scottish island of Iona on the anniversary of his wife’s death on a nearby island. They had both formed a fascination for the story of the death in 1929 of Marie Emily Fornario (the M.E.F. of the title), a visiting aesthete with an interest in the local folklore. The widower is visiting Iona one last time with the intention of finding the exact spot where Marie died and, as he attempts to garner clues from books on relevant associated topics and journeys out into the wild landscape of the island, he is slowly but surely drawn into the reverberations of that terrible event, which echo down through the decades to today.
‘The Light of the World’ tells the story of a bereaved man who rents a cottage in the wild Cumbrian north country in an attempt to shake off his deep depression by getting away from it all. A knock at the door of his cottage in the tiny village he has fetched up in reveals a bizarrely macabre old couple on his doorstep who confront him with an obtuse and vaguely sinister religious message that sets him on a course of discovery that ends in enlightenment of a sort that he could never have predicted.
The main focus of ‘Inheritance’ is a valuable porcelain doll, whose provenance uncovers a sad and horrific tale of cruelty, neglect and madness. The work of a forgotten and underappreciated artist provides the sense of unease and gathering malice in ‘Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy’. And the vestigial presence of an American author haunts the wild and untameable landscape of ‘An American Writer’s Cottage’.
All of the above are perfectly pitched and highly effective stories, but the absolute standout stories, for me, are ‘Resurrection’ and ‘A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians’.
‘Resurrection’ is an evocative and original spin on the basic premise of The Wicker Man that captures brilliantly the close community of the remote village that features in the story and ends on a note radically different to the film that manages to outdo it for chilling effect.
‘A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians’ is a vampire story of the classic sort, told in diary form through the eyes of the travel writer Amelia B. Edwards and those of the woman who accidentally discovers Edwards handwritten account a century later. Bell manages to capture the voice of the Victorian writer with stylish precision and what unfolds is a beautifully written travelogue full of incident and descriptive detail, with a gathering sense of impending doom and a suitably spine-tingling ending.
A major feature of Bell’s writing is the landscape, which is sumptuously described and dominates the work to the extent that it almost constitutes another character in each of the stories. The sense of menace and melancholy sown into the pieces emanates primarily from the locales in which they are set and is in large part the reason I can’t recommend Strange Epiphanies highly enough.
And Strange Epiphanies fits this category perfectly. In ‘M.E.F.’, based on a true story, a grieving widower visits the Scottish island of Iona on the anniversary of his wife’s death on a nearby island. They had both formed a fascination for the story of the death in 1929 of Marie Emily Fornario (the M.E.F. of the title), a visiting aesthete with an interest in the local folklore. The widower is visiting Iona one last time with the intention of finding the exact spot where Marie died and, as he attempts to garner clues from books on relevant associated topics and journeys out into the wild landscape of the island, he is slowly but surely drawn into the reverberations of that terrible event, which echo down through the decades to today.
‘The Light of the World’ tells the story of a bereaved man who rents a cottage in the wild Cumbrian north country in an attempt to shake off his deep depression by getting away from it all. A knock at the door of his cottage in the tiny village he has fetched up in reveals a bizarrely macabre old couple on his doorstep who confront him with an obtuse and vaguely sinister religious message that sets him on a course of discovery that ends in enlightenment of a sort that he could never have predicted.
The main focus of ‘Inheritance’ is a valuable porcelain doll, whose provenance uncovers a sad and horrific tale of cruelty, neglect and madness. The work of a forgotten and underappreciated artist provides the sense of unease and gathering malice in ‘Nostalgia, Death and Melancholy’. And the vestigial presence of an American author haunts the wild and untameable landscape of ‘An American Writer’s Cottage’.
All of the above are perfectly pitched and highly effective stories, but the absolute standout stories, for me, are ‘Resurrection’ and ‘A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians’.
‘Resurrection’ is an evocative and original spin on the basic premise of The Wicker Man that captures brilliantly the close community of the remote village that features in the story and ends on a note radically different to the film that manages to outdo it for chilling effect.
‘A Midsummer Ramble in the Carpathians’ is a vampire story of the classic sort, told in diary form through the eyes of the travel writer Amelia B. Edwards and those of the woman who accidentally discovers Edwards handwritten account a century later. Bell manages to capture the voice of the Victorian writer with stylish precision and what unfolds is a beautifully written travelogue full of incident and descriptive detail, with a gathering sense of impending doom and a suitably spine-tingling ending.
A major feature of Bell’s writing is the landscape, which is sumptuously described and dominates the work to the extent that it almost constitutes another character in each of the stories. The sense of menace and melancholy sown into the pieces emanates primarily from the locales in which they are set and is in large part the reason I can’t recommend Strange Epiphanies highly enough.
September 15, 2012
Excellent book, including the appearance. Recommend to any ghost/strange story enthusiast.
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