The Cyclops Goblet (1977)
John Blackburn
With a new introduction by Greg Gbur
Book Description
Bill Easter and his common law wife Peggy Tey, two small-time crooks down on their luck, have been hired to help steal the legendary treasure of Renaissance goldsmith Guido Calamai. Calamai’s masterpiece, the Cyclops Goblet, rumoured to possess the power to kill whoever drinks from it, is under lock and key at the Danemere Museum, the gift of the rich and eccentric millionaire Sir Thomas Moscow. But when the goblet is discovered to be a fake, Bill and Peggy must locate the real treasure, and to find it, they’ll need to break Sir Thomas’s daughter, a murderous madwoman, out of an asylum. From there, the trail leads to a remote Scottish island contaminated with anthrax, where the treasure – and the shocking truth behind its deadly power – is hidden. Unprepared for the horror they will uncover, will Bill and Peggy survive to enjoy their big payday, or will they become the next victims of the Cyclops Goblet?
John Blackburn (1923-1993) was regarded as the best British horror writer of his time, but in The Cyclops Goblet (1977), he shows a different side, infusing a thrilling heist story with elements of horror and dark humour. This first-ever republication of the novel includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur.
John Blackburn
With a new introduction by Greg Gbur
Book Description
Bill Easter and his common law wife Peggy Tey, two small-time crooks down on their luck, have been hired to help steal the legendary treasure of Renaissance goldsmith Guido Calamai. Calamai’s masterpiece, the Cyclops Goblet, rumoured to possess the power to kill whoever drinks from it, is under lock and key at the Danemere Museum, the gift of the rich and eccentric millionaire Sir Thomas Moscow. But when the goblet is discovered to be a fake, Bill and Peggy must locate the real treasure, and to find it, they’ll need to break Sir Thomas’s daughter, a murderous madwoman, out of an asylum. From there, the trail leads to a remote Scottish island contaminated with anthrax, where the treasure – and the shocking truth behind its deadly power – is hidden. Unprepared for the horror they will uncover, will Bill and Peggy survive to enjoy their big payday, or will they become the next victims of the Cyclops Goblet?
John Blackburn (1923-1993) was regarded as the best British horror writer of his time, but in The Cyclops Goblet (1977), he shows a different side, infusing a thrilling heist story with elements of horror and dark humour. This first-ever republication of the novel includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur.
reviews
‘[B]lack comedy doesn’t come blacker . . . This is Gothic diablerie with a smile – a very nasty smile, as though a Charles Addams character had escaped from his picture and perpetrated an elaborate practical joke in prose.’ – The Guardian
‘[A] semi-surrealist, pseudo-Gothic adventure . . . Read on if you can; I could.’ – The Observer
‘John Blackburn is deservedly well established as a . . . thriller writer. The Cyclops Goblet, his twenty-third, shows no falling off: it is admirably assured, and as admirably exciting.’ – British Book News
‘[A] semi-surrealist, pseudo-Gothic adventure . . . Read on if you can; I could.’ – The Observer
‘John Blackburn is deservedly well established as a . . . thriller writer. The Cyclops Goblet, his twenty-third, shows no falling off: it is admirably assured, and as admirably exciting.’ – British Book News
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1939140889 ISBN-13: 978-1939140883 $14.99 US, 136 pp. Trade paper Published 2014 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Blackburn was born in 1923 in the village of Corbridge, England, the second son of a clergyman. He started attending Haileybury College near London in 1937, but his education was interrupted by the onset of World War II; the shadow of the war, and that of Nazi Germany, would later play a role in many of his works. He served as a radio officer during the war in the Mercantile Marine from 1942 to 1945, and resumed his education afterwards at Durham University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1949. Blackburn taught for several years after that, first in London and then in Berlin, and married Joan Mary Clift in 1950. Returning to London in 1952, he took over the management of Red Lion Books.
It was there that Blackburn began writing, and the immediate success in 1958 of his first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, led him to take up a career as a writer full-time. He and his wife also maintained an antiquarian bookstore, a secondary career that would inform some of Blackburn’s later work. A prolific author, Blackburn would write nearly 30 novels between 1958 and 1985; most of these were horror and thrillers, but also included one historical novel set in Roman times, The Flame and the Wind (1967). He died in 1993.
It was there that Blackburn began writing, and the immediate success in 1958 of his first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, led him to take up a career as a writer full-time. He and his wife also maintained an antiquarian bookstore, a secondary career that would inform some of Blackburn’s later work. A prolific author, Blackburn would write nearly 30 novels between 1958 and 1985; most of these were horror and thrillers, but also included one historical novel set in Roman times, The Flame and the Wind (1967). He died in 1993.