WILL YOU SEND A DINGHY, PLEASE?

THERE’S ALWAYS ROMERO Johnny Mains This interview was conducted with the late George Romero on 7.8.2014 not long after his visit to London Film and Comic Con where I first met him and gave him a copy of an anthology that his short story ‘Clay’ had appeared in. As it was a UK book club edition, George hadn’t seen it before and was thrilled to get it. As with all best intentions, I meant to transcribe the interview straight after, but life, as it is wont to do, got in the way. So, for posterity, here it, never before published – I only had half an hour with George to get as much in as possible. I hope the resulting chat acts as a tribute to how warm and generous George was. He is very much missed. JM: Do you still like doing the convention circuit, and how much of a cut do they take from you? GR (Laughs): Well, they’re all different, sometimes you have to give them a cut, sometimes they just want you to be there, so they’ll fly you out; they’re all different. The circuits are tiring...

Doing the research for my volumes of Victorian ghost literature by women writers, one of the biggest challenges I face is trying to decipher who writers are when they use a pseudonym, or worse, are labeled as 'anonymous'. The reasons for taking on a different name in those days were many. It could be that you wanted to air your grievances with someone, but to do so under your own name could bring ruin to your good name or you wanted to write something that wasn't romantic fiction and women just weren't taken seriously as men at writing. Many of the pen names have been revealed - some during the author's lives - some after their deaths , but the fact that Mary Ann Evans wrote one of the finest novels in existence, Middlemarch, under the name George Eliot, was probably influenced by the fact she critiqued the 'Belle Lettres' section of The Westminster Review which was more commonly known as 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists' section - and when El...

Primarily a children's author Edith Ellen Cuthell (nee Foster) also wrote two-volume biographies of Marie Louise, the wife of Napoleon and Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia. Edith was born on July 27, 1852 in Biggleswade to John Nathaniel Foster (occupation: merchant, later Justice of the Peace) and Frances Mary Foster. She married Lt Col. Thomas George Cuthell of the 38th Foot and later 13th Hussars. Edith followed her husband to India. It is here where she comes into her own and writes the autobiographical work  My Garden in the City of Gardens while living near Kashmir. It was here she was struck down with Dengue fever and was reduced to a near-cripple and her recovery was slow and painful. A collection of short stories called Indian Idylls was published in Calcutta in 1890 by Thacker, Spink & Co and contained the genre story 'In a Haunted Grove'. This was followed two years later by another collection, In Tent and Bungalow which contained 'The Face in the F...

Eveline Forbes (Source: Bystander 1904) Eveline Louisa Michell Farwell, also known as Mrs Walter Forbes (1866 - 1924) was the author of Fingers and Fortune: A Guide Book to Palmistry and several novels including Her Last Run (1888) and  Blight (1897) - a story of a 'scheming woman' who causes much misery to all those around her in her quest for a title, and ended up having to 'take the veil' because that was the only way she would ever find redemption. Eveline was the only daughter of Frederick Farwell and Louisa Whitbread Michell, born and lived at  'Lowlands' on 93 Lower Street, Tettenhall and was home schooled by a governess. In 1871 she moved to Paignton, Devon with both parents, her mother Louisa was originally from Lostwithiel, Cornwall and they would visit relatives there frequently. Her marriage to the Hon. Walter Robert Drummond Forbes of the Gordon Highlanders was listed in newspapers as a 'fashionable' marriage and took place o...

Ethel F. Heddle - portrait by 'F.H.T.' (1899) Ethel Forster Heddle (married name Marshall) (? - 1942) was, in her day, a popular author of 'school girl' novels and prolific contributor to the People's Friend and Young Woman newspaper, where her article, 'A Friendly Chat With the Girls' ran for several years and covered important topics such as women's place in war Ethel in 1923 (source:  The Citizen ) She was the widow of Mr William Marshall B.Sc. and the second daughter of Professor Heddle. Living most of her life in St Andrews, Scotland, she spent some time in Java when she was first married and one of her novels, Strangers in the Land was set there. Her novel, A Haunted Town was set in St Andrews, indeed you can see the skyline on the cover, but she renamed St Rule. She died and was buried in St Andrews and was survived by her son, Lieut. Colonel J.F.C. Marshall, MC who at the time of her death was serving in India and h...