In this, the second blow of that one-two punch of GNS brain matter, Graham and I welcome Tara Paulsson to Derry and Toms to talk about her Dad and his work.
Tara will be at Tamworth Castle’s Tales From the Darkside Week on Saturday 28th October and you can find details about ‘An Ode to Guy Newman Smith’s, 1970’s Pulp Fiction Horror’ and how to book at www.tamworthcastle.co.uk/darkside
Graham and Phil return to Derry & Toms to tackle our third adventure in the company of the mighty Professor Cliff Davenport in the first of a one-two punch of GNS-related early Halloween action.
Disturbing violence, saucy language and copious amounts of pus await the unwary traveller.
Phil and I have embarked upon our winter retreat, on this occasion to the incredibly picturesque harbour town of Barmouth.
Yes, Barmouth. The scene of Guy N Smith’s terror double-bill of Night of the Crabs and its subsequent sidequel, Crabs Moon. Now I’m not saying we decided to commit a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels, but we may well have committed a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels.
It was a good choice though.
I’m not going to knock Smith’s literary credentials for a second, but he didn’t really sell Barmouth’s qualities. It’s a really beautiful bit of coast and the key landmarks do not disappoint, with Arthog Bridge being a particularly impressive piece of Victorian engineering. That was obviously wasted on that down-in-the-mouth train driver but not on us.
Amusingly, our digs are in Llanaber – the very site of Professor Cliff Davenport’s boarding house (and scene of his alarmingly immediate bond with Pat). We’re going all in for the authentic experience. Shell Beach awaits.
Amongst our holiday reading we have the final instalment in the Cliff Davenport triptych, CRABS ON THE RAMPAGE. Sadly it isn’t set in Barmouth, but, weirdly, it does feature some of our older holiday stomping grounds up in the highlands of Scotland that we are very familiar with.
Anyway, enough of my holiday snaps.
It’s suddenly February and 2023 is already feeling productive. We’re keeping up a decent pace with the show, I have two more in the can undergoing editing, and Phil and I will hopefully record our thoughts on The Phoenix in Obsidian AKA The Silver Warriors very soon. This month I’m scheduled to revisit the NEL story with Andrew Nette and Dave will be back to pick up the Hawkmoon saga with The Sword of the Dawn.
To add to that, if you missed it, I popped up on the Appendix N Book Club and that was a fine time all round.
In a addition to that, we passed a couple of Podbean milestones in January too…
…and I have to say Podbean, you could put a bit more effort in with your badges.
Still, it’s always good to note progress. Long may it continue. And thanks to all of you for supporting us and making it happen.
That’s all for now though, I have to go down Barmouth beach in search of crevices (I remain unconvinced).
So go steady out there and we’ll catch up again soon… On t’moonbeam roads.
After the Halloween Special we couldn’t stay away. Phil needed questions answered.
Where did they come from?
How did they come to be?
So we read Crabs Moon and discovered the answers to none of these questions. But we did have a hoot and we were joined by Graham (aka @opensussex AKA Apkallu of Enmerkar AKA DECADNIDS) to have a couple of beverages, discuss Crabs’ Moon and to talk in general about the late Guy N Smith and his diverse writing career.
We also raised a glass to the man as this show lands close to a year after his passing.
We reference a Guy N Smith interview from the excellent The Collected Pulp Horror by Justin Marriott and Will Errickson.
Guy’s daughter TARA has re-energised the GNS Twitter and Instagram accounts.
We play this show out with Proditol from the album The Black Corridor by DECADNIDS vs ＮΛＮD.
***warning: unlike Night of the Crabs, Crabs Moon contains references to sexual violence and we do talk about them so please proceed with caution and look after yourselves – this month’s Patreon funds have been donated to The Survivor’s Trust – please do look them up and consider donating***
Phil joins me again for this year’s Halloween Special to look at the classic New English Library killer critter classic, Night of the Crabs by Guy N Smith.
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast 