Short-Listed for “Best Anthology (2007)”
by the British Fantasy Society

Spawned from Horror and Fear come the familiars of Terror — 12 awesome tales to haunt your days and chill your dreams — every single one now published for the first time.

• The Drum of Terror that beats its own terrible rhythm
• The Boy that cowers at his own shadow
• The Creatures that lurk beneath the waves
• The Door that appears from nowhere
• The Terrible truth of the Northern Lights
• The Explorers that travel to Heaven

All these never-before-seen stories:

• “The Door”, by GUY ADAMS
• “And Then There Was Blood” and
  “In Each Dark Body There Lies”, by JAMES COOPER
• “In the Absence of…”, by GARY FRY
• “One’s a Crowd”, by RHYS HUGHES
• “Thumbwood”, by DAVIN IRELAND
• “The Kraken”, by MICHAEL KELLY
• “Sacrificial Anode”, by GARRY KILWORTH
• “Hum Drum”, by GARY M^cMAHON
• “Pale Light in the Jungle”, by SIMON STRANTZAS
• “Dissertation on a Mouthful of Seaweed”, a novella by JOHN TRAVIS
• “Bathtub Fiction”, by CAROL WEEKES
• PLUS! AN INTRODUCTION BY: MARK MORRIS!!

All that — plus! a packet! of crisps! — for a bit more than a fiver! (reader must supply own crisps)

Reviews:

The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories is, I hope, the forerunner of many subsequent volumes. It’s a slim book, but inside there some chilling and disturbing tales from some excellent authors who are really beginning to make names for themselves.

— John Berlyne; SFRevue
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Fans of the old [Pan Book of Horror Stories] collection that come across The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories will no doubt be taken back to similar days with just a glance at the cover. An homage to the classic collection, The First Humdrumming Book brings together eleven of Humdrumming’s regular authors who take us down a number of paths, some cryptic, some brutal, others delightfully absurd, but all of them into the darkness…
     A nice collection of stories in the tradition of the classic anthologies from yesteryear. Very recommended.

— Cesar Puch; HorrorWorld
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The book is presented in the style of the original Pan Book of Horror Stories edited for nearly three decades by Herbert van Thal and Clarence Paget. … It’s very well done and neatly packaged and will clearly attract anyone interested in the original series.
     …
     Rhys Hughes is, in my view, one of the most creative writers of the last decade. He has brilliant, surreal ideas which he pushes to the limit and spares nothing. “One's a Crowd” is the story of one totalitarian state that overthrows and replaces another. … In taking the story beyond where others would finish, Hughes not only satirises the whole concept of state control, with a generally horrific image, but takes the reader to a new level of perception, which is what all good fiction should do. … “In the Absence of….” by Gary Fry … is a genuine character study, of a boy who is frightened of his own shadow. Fry takes us into the mind of both the boy and his mother and, as a consequence, we also experience their fears and share the final resolution. It’s the best story in the volume, well written and frighteningly realized.

— Mike Ashley; Dead Reckonings (No. 3)
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