Where Human Pathways End

by Shamus Frazer, Richard Dalby (Editor)

When four of Shamus Frazer's supernatural tales appeared in two anthologies in 1965, editor Charles Birkin hailed him as a 'welcome newcomer'. Yet this 'newcomer' had, in the mid-1930s, been acclaimed as a master of satirical irony, and a natural successor to Evelyn Waugh. In the intervening thirty years, Frazer had been a teacher in England, a Marine serving in Europe during the Second World War, and a lecturer in Singapore, where he wrote several school texts, one of which, THE CROCODILE DIES TWICE, has become a standard text.

Although Frazer turned to the supernatural tale late in his career, his flair for the genre was clearly recognised by the praise his stories received. Five of his weird tales were published before his death in 1966, but the author had completed a further five; and he had intended to publish all ten stories together in a single volume, WHERE HUMAN PATHWAYS END.

Ash-Tree Press is proud to make this collection available for the first time. In his introduction, Richard Dalby looks at the varied career of Shamus Frazer, while the author's widow, Joan Neale Frazer, provides a glimpse of the colourful private life of the writer. In these ten tales and one poem set where human pathways end, the dead and the un-dead meet in settings both domestic and fantastic, where the weird and horrific are never far away, and where the human protagonists find - often to their cost - that they have no place.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

119 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 2001

About the author

James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer was an English novelist and short-story writer, who taught for some years in Singapore.

Reviews

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where Human Pathways End: Tales of the Dead and the un-Dead by Shamus Frazer

(Ash-Tree Press 2001) is a small collection of horror stories, some supernatural and some not. Several will resonate for the reader who appreciates strange tales. 

There is no hoary, clichéd material here.

Full review:
http://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2021...

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up, in a less forgiving mood I'd give it two stars, because sometimes it's better to let the forgotten authors molder in peace, instead of hunting up their efforts in a bid to earn a bit off a guy whose copyright had lapsed. These are period pieces, very much so, with the period's mores and stuffiness, and can definitely jar modern sensibilities, without much in the way of redeeming themselves. Frazer wasn't a great writer when alive, his output didn't improve afterwards. You have been warned.