The Smell of Evil (1965)
Charles Birkin
With a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert
Book Description
A sinister baron and his wife inflict unimaginable tortures on their young niece to compel her to sign over her fortune.—In the aftermath of World War II, a German woman’s garden is lush and beautiful, for an appalling reason.—Missionaries in Africa get a gruesome surprise when their converts take a biblical text too literally.—A child’s fantasy becomes a deadly game with a macabre ending for his adult playmate.
These are the plots of just a few of the thirteen stories in The Smell of Evil (1965), a collection that reveals Sir Charles Birkin (1907-1985) at his diabolical best. A master of the conte cruel, Birkin induced chills not with ghosts or the supernatural, but by describing in exquisite prose the sufferings of ordinary, decent people who encounter inexplicable cruelty and evil in their everyday lives. An important and neglected figure in 20th-century British horror, Birkin returns to shock a new generation of readers in this edition, which features a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert.
Charles Birkin
With a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert
Book Description
A sinister baron and his wife inflict unimaginable tortures on their young niece to compel her to sign over her fortune.—In the aftermath of World War II, a German woman’s garden is lush and beautiful, for an appalling reason.—Missionaries in Africa get a gruesome surprise when their converts take a biblical text too literally.—A child’s fantasy becomes a deadly game with a macabre ending for his adult playmate.
These are the plots of just a few of the thirteen stories in The Smell of Evil (1965), a collection that reveals Sir Charles Birkin (1907-1985) at his diabolical best. A master of the conte cruel, Birkin induced chills not with ghosts or the supernatural, but by describing in exquisite prose the sufferings of ordinary, decent people who encounter inexplicable cruelty and evil in their everyday lives. An important and neglected figure in 20th-century British horror, Birkin returns to shock a new generation of readers in this edition, which features a new introduction by John Llewellyn Probert.
reviews
“Never fails to shock and surprise you . . . brimming with unexpected twists.” – Sunday Express
“[N]ot for the squeamish. Be warned, if you are at all sensitive, leave him well alone. He deals unflinchingly with such subjects as murder, rape, concentration camps, patricide, mutilation and torture.” – Hugh Lamb
“[M]ore than a definite touch of the great master, Edgar Allan Poe.” – Dennis Wheatley
“Horror and fantasy stories . . . engagingly told.” – Publishers Weekly
“Few writers of horror today approach the standards of Birkin.” – Ulster Star
“With an elegant writing style, Birkin shows his complete mastery of the conte cruel, leading the reader on to some of the most sadistic climaxes in literature. … it is wonderful to see Valancourt Books at last bringing an easily affordable collection to a new reading public.” – David A. Riley, Hellnotes.com
“[A]n impressively smooth and urbane writer, positively dripping with sang froid, and if your tastes lie in old-fashioned tales of the macabre, then this is one lord who should definitely leap to the forefront of your attention.” – Starburst Magazine
“[N]ot for the squeamish. Be warned, if you are at all sensitive, leave him well alone. He deals unflinchingly with such subjects as murder, rape, concentration camps, patricide, mutilation and torture.” – Hugh Lamb
“[M]ore than a definite touch of the great master, Edgar Allan Poe.” – Dennis Wheatley
“Horror and fantasy stories . . . engagingly told.” – Publishers Weekly
“Few writers of horror today approach the standards of Birkin.” – Ulster Star
“With an elegant writing style, Birkin shows his complete mastery of the conte cruel, leading the reader on to some of the most sadistic climaxes in literature. … it is wonderful to see Valancourt Books at last bringing an easily affordable collection to a new reading public.” – David A. Riley, Hellnotes.com
“[A]n impressively smooth and urbane writer, positively dripping with sang froid, and if your tastes lie in old-fashioned tales of the macabre, then this is one lord who should definitely leap to the forefront of your attention.” – Starburst Magazine
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1939140749 ISBN-13: 978-1939140746 $16.99 US, 204 pp. Trade paper Published 2013 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Charles Lloyd Birkin was born in England in 1907 and was educated at Eton College from 1921-1926. His contributions to British horror began in 1932 when publisher Philip Allan employed him to edit the Creeps series of short story collections, which included volumes with titles like Creeps, Shudders, Shivers, Nightmares, Tales of Death, and Tales of Fear. The books, with their sensational dust jacket art and stories by writers like H.R. Wakefield, Lord Dunsany, Russell Thorndike, and Birkin himself (under the name Charles Lloyd) are highly collectible today and were the precursors of later popular British horror anthologies, such as the Pan Books of Horror Stories. Birkin’s contributions to the Creeps volumes were collected in his first book, Devil’s Spawn (1936), the last book published by Birkin before a long hiatus. In 1942, he succeeded his uncle as the 5th Baronet Birkin, and he served in the Second World War in the Sherwood Foresters.
After a long break, Birkin resumed writing following his return to London in 1960, and, perhaps at the instigation of Dennis Wheatley, began publishing new collections of short stories with The Kiss of Death (1964), for which Wheatley provided an introduction. Several more volumes of tales followed between 1965 and 1970, including The Smell of Evil (1965), also introduced by Wheatley. From 1970 to 1974 Birkin lived in Cyprus, which he fled in the wake of the violence that followed the Turkish invasion. He and his wife, Janet, spent their later years in the Isle of Man, where Birkin died in 1985.
After a long break, Birkin resumed writing following his return to London in 1960, and, perhaps at the instigation of Dennis Wheatley, began publishing new collections of short stories with The Kiss of Death (1964), for which Wheatley provided an introduction. Several more volumes of tales followed between 1965 and 1970, including The Smell of Evil (1965), also introduced by Wheatley. From 1970 to 1974 Birkin lived in Cyprus, which he fled in the wake of the violence that followed the Turkish invasion. He and his wife, Janet, spent their later years in the Isle of Man, where Birkin died in 1985.