By Horror Haunted

by Celia Fremlin

Spine-chilling tales for dark nights from Celia Fremlin, 'Britain's Patricia Highsmith' (Sunday Times) who is 'Irresistible' (Val McDermid), 'brilliant' (Elly Griffiths), 'a master of suspense' (Janice Hallett), 'packs a punch' (Ian Rankin) and 'got me hooked' (Ruth Rendell)

He was smiling, and covered in blood - face, hands, pyjamas - everything and in his hands - thrust towards her like a birthday gift - was Julie's teddy-bear, soaked and dripping with blood.

This collection of spine-chilling Gothic miniatures from Celia Fremlin is a nightmarish showcase of macabre domesticity: controlling husbands rub shoulders with manipulative wives, parasitic visitors meet fatal accidents, there are nervous breakdowns, toxic relationships, sinister villagers and mob justice. With an unerring nail, Fremlin picks the scabs concealing domestic fault lines and chills our blood.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 1974

About the author

Celia was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England. She was the daughter of Heaver Fremlin and Margaret Addiscott. Her older brother, John H. Fremlin, later became a nuclear physicist. Celia studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.

With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.

Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]

Reviews

[Pam]

Another author unknown to me. I’m filling in gaps in my reading. This author was evidently fairly well known 1960s through 1990s and sometimes called England’s Patricia Highsmith. After reading this collection of short stories, I see the resemblance.

This isn’t “horror” although there is occasionally a touch of supernatural. The psychological tension is far more important. Her stories of women, children, men and families do often inspire dread and discomfort and sometimes a little warped humor such as in Ephemerida when an old discarded woman floats above it all as would a mayfly on its last day. More typical is Place in the Sun, again an old forgotten woman, revisiting her useful healthy days as a young mother.

I definitely recommend this forgotten author and intend to try one of her novels.

[Adrienne L]

This was an interesting collection of short stories by a writer who seems to have vanished into obscurity, which is too bad. Celia Fremlin was definitely a competent, distinct, and witty writer, and these stories are mostly gently macabre and enjoyable. Most of them are very short, and one of the complaints I have is that just when a story really started to get interesting, it would end abruptly. This happened in almost all cases. There is a similar tone in the POV of each story as well, although the protagonists range from teenage girls to young men to middle-aged women (which is the predominant POV here).

The collection started off stronger than it finished, and a couple of the stories were outright duds, but I'm glad I read it and I would be open to reading more by Fremlin.

[Alex Sarll]

That title seems self-explanatory, doesn't it? And the only thing here I'd read before, Don't Tell Cissie, is absolutely a ghost story, albeit a very unusual one, about a female friendship group, and one of those people "Friendly, good-hearted, and desperately anxious to be in on everything, and yet with this mysterious knack of ruining things". And there are other supernatural stories here, timeslips, suburban voodoo, and another ghost or two. But more often we get what I suppose you'd call tales of unease; the postwar consensus can look idyllic as seen from the apocalyptic present, but story after story homes in on someone living in that classic sitcom set-up, husband and wife and 2.4 children, and shows the desperate lengths to which it's driven them. In The Sunday Outing, Pamela always insists the family should go to the beach at the first sign of sun, when James would much rather rest in the garden, and of course he can't do anything as outlandish as explain how he feels, but just once he thinks he's got a foolproof way to get out of it... Had they lived a few decades later, the husband in An Unsuspected Talent could have stayed home with the kids as he clearly prefers, and his wife been ambitious on her own behalf instead of vicariously, but coming when they did, they drive each other up the wall, and that's before the fateful day of his interview for a promotion. And even the people trying not to perpetuate the straitjacket, like the progressive mum in Barry Findlater, only create new ones. But just when you're wondering if the real horror was the conformity we met along the way, you realise how many stories seem locked on for an utterly despairing ending, only to manage last minute swerves (of varying degrees of plausibility) to salvation. An odd, claustrophobic little book, but never a dull one.

[Andy Weston]

This is an uneven collection, both in terms of quality, and in genre. I say the latter, because probably half of them have nothing to do with horror at all. The thing that links them is that they are experimental, as if Fremlin is playing at ideas she may use in a full length novel.

I was attracted to it as I didn’t realise she had written any horror, and I found that if interest. With the exception of one story, I can’t recommend this, whereas I really enjoy her psychological mystery novels.

The notes below are for my own purposes, in terms of remembering them, so don’t expect them to make much sense. The number indicates a score out of 5.

Her Number On It - atmospheric set in London in the Underground 4
Tuesday’s Child - a crime mystery rather than horror 3
Don’t Tell Cissie - squabbling old ladies go on a ghost hunt - humorous 4
Sunday Outing - the lengths a husband will go to in order for a quiet Sunday 3.5
Lilac Time - gardening.. 5
The Blood on the Innocents - how not to raise children 3
The Savage Heart - pet care 3
Place in the Sun - last days 1
The End of the Road - 2 this has the last, two stories about suicide
Gate of Death - fear of flying - 3 certainly not a horror story
The Combined Operation - something of a ghost story 3
An Unsuspected Talent - aspiring to a better position in the workplace 3
Ephemerida - housebound 3
The Intruder - a young burgling couple 3
Barry Findlater - imaginary adolescent friends 3 Kitty of the Lower Fourth

[Jorge García]

Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) es una autora británica que escribió novelas y relatos de misterio desde finales de los años 50, y que fue especialmente productiva en los años 60 y 70 (en España se llegaron a editar algunos -pocos- libros de bolsillo).

Su popularidad se apagó y Celia Fremlin se convirtió en una vieja excéntrica que daba de comer a los gatos callejeros y de vez en cuando envenenaba a sus vecinos con deliciosos bizcochos de cianuro o beleño.

Esta parte me la acabo de inventar aunque supongo que a Celia Fremlin no le importarán estos apuntes negros en su biografía.

Por este motivo, la editorial Faber ha recuperado en su serie Finds los cuentos de esta dama del misterio. En mi opinión, se trata de cuentos estupendos, escritos con absoluta maldad y mala leche (con sabor a cianuro), por lo que creo que es una autora que merecería más atención. Por citar a otras autoras próximas en 'negritud' y 'humor negro' (sí, sé que es una manía muy masculina) diría que haría buen equipo con Patricia Highsmith o Shirley Jackson ("oiga, señoras, ¿no les parece que este bizcocho huele demasiado a almendras amargas?").

Es cierto que algunos relatos tienen un tono muy cruel (joder, Celia, ¿no te estás pasando un poco?) pero siempre hay un último giro o contranota que da la vuelta a la 'humorada'.

Ella es así, y así hay que quererla.

[Alice]

4.5 stars. I can't explain what it is about Fremlin's writing that just Get's Me, she just simply Get's Me, you know?

[Royce]

Brilliant story collection from the writer, Celia Fremlin, who I learned about in the NYTimes book review. Recently, Faber published a handful of her books, so I’m eager to dig into Celia’s oeuvre. Her stories focus on ordinary family relationships and situations, twisting them with hints of the macabre, a small sprinkle of dark humor, to create the most engrossing and quite entertaining stories. Each story is original and the narrators’ voices are quite unique. The clever titles of each story seem to portend what will happen in the story. In the story, Her Number on It, the narrator cannot stop shoplifting dresses, until she does. In The End of the Road, a man who recently became blind as a result of a car accident, cannot see until he decides to take his own life. In another story, The Combined Operation, the narrator is about to undergo major surgery, so why does he see the police officer he killed twenty years earlier? Although the stories are short in length, they are rich with details that carry so much more weight, they feel longer, lingering in one’s mind, long after one has finished reading them.

On the title page, Faber states they kept the language used at the time of her writing, which was the 1960’s-1970’s, to “maintain that historical period. “ In my humble opinion, the stories hold up to the test of time, and are fascinating to a reader in 2026. Please stay tuned for future reviews of Celia Fremlin’s work. Highly recommended.

[Coral Davies]

Less a collection nightmarish horror tales (as the book's blurb so claims!) and more an assembly of clever, self-aware vignettes portraying domestic life, with subtle touches of ghostly surrealism.

Fremlin's writing feels both nostalgic and fresh, gothic and modern. A cross between Susan Hill, Shirley Jackson and Muriel Spark. Many of the stories are witty, unashamed and fun.

As with all collections, some ideas work better than others, some stories executed with more finess and panache. Overall though, I really enjoyed this murder of crows.

[Mark]

I adored this set of short stores by Celia Fremlin. They are separate stories but they are connected by their total despair about human need and misplaced desire. Each story is short but powerful, usually concentrating on how need may backfire, leaving the protagonist devastated. Yes, they are dark but there is almost a bizarre humor to the method in which each plan backfires. I can’t wait to read more from this exceptional author.

[Bea Alden]

As well as being a master of the domestic mystery genre, Celia Fremlin is also an excellent writer of short stories. Each one is carefully crafted, the scene set with believable characters, and each has an ingenious denouement. Many of the stories in this book also include strong elements of fantasy.

[Austen to Zafón]

I would not say that any of these stories qualifies as horror by today's standards. More like suspense and some claustrophobia. Some stories were good, but most were not as good as Fremlin's novels.

[Katt Mudd]

If you like ‘Of The Flesh’ and ‘She’s Always Hungry’ I feel you’d enjoy this 1970s short stories lil spooky romp

[Vika Rion]

Horrifying side of the mundane. Really good collection of short stories

[Whistler's Mom]

"The British Shirley Jackson"?

I'd never heard of Celia Fremlin until a reviewer friend recommended her. Her most famous book is "The Hours Before Dawn" but I haven't been able to acquire it. I did find this book of fifteen short stories. I love short stories and (normally) if I like a writer's short stories, I'll also enjoy his/her books.

I can't decide about this one, although I see her talent. Shirley Jackson has the same effect on me, since I like some of her stories, but shrug at others. Uneven may be the word I'm looking for.

Like Jackson, she writes about normal people in normal family situations. But situations may not be as normal as they look to an out-sider. The horror comes (not from monsters or murderers) but from the realization that we know so little about those closest to us.

Three stories are about elderly people. Now that advances in medical care are keeping us alive longer, old age is the Last Frontier. We may be able to remember enough of our feelings from childhood to guess what a child is experiencing, but none of us has ever been elderly before.

Some sweet old folks have surprisingly gritty backgrounds. An inmate in a home for the elderly once lived in the house when it was a private home. He has vivid memories of what's buried under those lushly-blooming lilac bushes. Did he do his cheating GF a favor to save her from the horrors of old age? I don't think so, but I might when I reach ninety.

Is youth the Lost Land we all wish to return to? "Her Number Was On It" concerns a sad middle-aged wife who seeks excitement in petty crime. Her impatient husband is infuriated, then astonished when his meek wife finds a portal back to the past and reclaims her life. Could he have done things differently or is she simply the lucky one?

"The Gate of Death" is interesting. We are constantly told we must face up to our fears and overcome them, but is that really the best way? Can we decide NOT to? Are there more important things to worry about?

Spouses and parents can be kind-hearted and well-meaning but still inflict damage. In "The Sunday Outing" a loving wife and mother drives her family to despair by insisting that they have FUN. Her husband misses a train and decides to play hookie for a day. Not really so bad, but he returns to a crime scene and very suspicious neighbors and police.

In "Barry Findlater" a doting mother is determined to give her daughter everything a teen girl could want. But teens (like other ages) don't all come from the same factory. What one may long for, another may care nothing for. A little communication goes a long way, but most families are too busy and too anxious not to hurt each other to communicate honestly.

"The Hours Before Dawn" deals with the stresses of motherhood made worse by society's need to brand women as good or bad mothers. The young mother in "The Blood on the Innocents" has the same problem. She does all the right things, yet HER baby is sickly and unruly. Her neighbor does all the wrong things, but her baby is a cheerful and healthy, seeming to thrive on neglect and bad parenting. It also says something about what men value in a woman.

My favorite is "Don't Tell Cissie." Two middle-aged women are still trying to avoid the irritating classmate who insisted on tagging along and ruining everything. They think they've managed it, but find out different. Never underestimate the persistence of the Cissies of the world.

They're mostly good stories and the writing is good. I agree with the editor that Fremlin's work should not be forgotten.

[Rachel]

This is a short story collection with additions that show the mundane reality of everyday life, usually for housewives, before subverting expectations. I largely enjoyed these rug-pulls and liked getting a glimpse into some of these characters domestic lives. In some cases the protagonists were unlikable and expressed worrying thoughts and beliefs, even bordering on being quite unhinged and I loved this complexity.

I particularly enjoyed ‘Her Number On It’ which contained themes of the lingering impact of wartime trauma, survivor’s guilt and mourning lost youth. I also appreciated ‘The End of the Road’ which depicts the complex thoughts someone may have towards their caregiver after becoming blind in later life as they adapt to their situation. Another stand out for me is ‘Don’t Tell Cissie’ which is a ghost story centred on a female friendship group. Although this has a spooky atmosphere, I couldn’t help laughing at how Cissie kept inserting herself and the response from the other women.

I don’t see these stories as strictly just horror though. They have some fantastical elements and in some cases are quite bizarre. Regardless, I found myself enjoying all of them and found this a delightful collection.

[Evan]

En helt grei novellesamling. Overbevist om at noen av dem er å finne i enkelte engelskbøker for ungdomstrinnet. Noen er morsomme, men litt for mange av dem glir over i en form for magisk realisme i løpet av de tre siste setningene. Likevel er ikke dette nok til å virkelig dra ned boka i mine øyne, fordi Fremlin har en spesiell evne til å plassere leseren i handlingen uten å beskrive omgivelsene overdrevent mye, og det kan være vanskelig i en novelle. Tror jeg, jeg har ikke studert litteraturvitenskap.

Favorittene mine fra denne boken var "The sunday outing" og "Don't tell Cissie".

[Lauren]

Overall not my favourite story collection but some stories did stick out for me and gave me Stephen King vibes. It’s like not out right horror but it’s enough to make you double take or for you to get a sudden rush of goosebumps once you get to the end.

Standouts for me
- Her Number On It
- Tuesday’s Child
- The Sunday Outing
- The Savage Heat
- An Unsuspected Talent

[Tammie Cindie]

I really wasn't a fan of this. I didn't realise that it's short stories but that's my fault for not looking inside to see it. They weren't horror at all and they seemed pretty rushed. each story is roughly 10 pages and the main part would be the last page and it didn't explain much so I had to re read the page. Maybe it's just me but they weren't very good

[Amber]

3.5 - not a short story person usually, but enjoyed this overall. some were...not my favorite. not bad, just kind of nothing. but quite a few were very good! and I enjoyed her writing style regardless.

[Robert Hepple]

First published in 1974, 'By Horror Haunted' is a collection of 15 short stories with a haunting theme, some ghost stories, some crime and some just plain eerie. The title is a quote from Poe's 'The Raven', so it all fits the theme rather well. All are superbly written.

[Pamela]

Very uneven collection.

[Hannah Mckeirnan]

A wide spread of tales. A fresh take on horror in mundane daily life.

[Meryl Haworth]

Not my usual but an enjoyable read. A collection of domestic noir short stories.

[Emily]

Picked this up in the horror section, but would consider it more psychological thriller with some supernatural themes? Some stories stood out more than others. It was fun to try and guess where each story was going to go when the inevitable twist was revealed.

[Harms]

I stumbled upon this novel simply by chance; while browsing shelves at my local bookstore. The yellow cover drew me in, the premise seemed interesting and so onto the top of the book stack it went.

However that’s entirely the issue. Everything about this novel draws you in, everything except the stories themselves.
The author is clearly very talented, her prose is excellent. But there is little to no depth to the stories she presents. Every single one of them feels either to rushed or not rushed enough. With entire pages of useless filler that does little to expand the world building or progress the plot of that chapters story.

I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this novel more, having recently found a new love for both the horror genre and anthologies.
Unfortunately I spent most of this novel wanting to move on to the next story as quickly as possible and hoping that it would be more entertaining than the last.

2 Stars.

[Carys Morley]

3. Some ok. Some good. Few great.

[Boris Cesnik]

Confounding stories that invite you, plead you, beg you and force you to keep reading until you don't have a choice but face the un-ending.
The horror is in simple gestures, petty words and silly thoughts that put together reveal the only way to appreciate the narrative - be haunted. There is no other way.
You do feel the horror but don't know where it is or where it comes from. It's there in each line and between, underneath, above and beyond the language, the scenes, the actions, the characters, their lives, their psychology, their intentions, their destiny.
You better start worrying about your everyday life.
Humanly haunting, simply horrifying.