Killer Crabs and School Kids (1980)

Night of the Crabs (1976)

 

Killer Crabs (1978)

 

The Origin of the Crabs (1979)

Crabs on the Rampage (1981)

 

Crabs' Moon (1984)

....and Crabs: The Human Sacrifice (1988) and Killer Crabs: The Return (2012) but the 1970's were over by 1985 so who cares about those two!

My introduction to the works of Guy N Smith was in the summer of 1980, when one of the first three books - I'm not sure which one - was passed around the boys dormitory of the residential outdoor education centre in Wales for five days of the summer holidays.  We were twelve at the time and overly keen to educate ourselves of the adult pleasures of sex and horror.  We didn't know that to begin with but when one of our number produced the lurid novel, "borrowed" from an older brother, the keenness with which we all demanded a read of certain pages, would have staggered our English teachers beyond belief.  Not being adverse to regular reading myself, I think I managed to read the whole thing, sexy bits and all, in one torch illuminated session.  Although, apart from the general memory of consuming the forbidden fruit and the "bloody stumps" of  hands being snipped off by giant pincers, I actually remember very little of the story itself.

I stumbled over the 3rd book in a charity shop a couple of days ago and at two quid for a near perfect copy, I snapped it up.  I found the 1st book, in similarly excellent condition, about a year before and for only half that price.  I'm going to read them over the next few months to see if and what memories they might shake free.  Could be interesting.  I might also have to invest in book 2

On reflection, that week away in North Wales turned out to be quite an education that I only came to recognised as such many years later.  I'll almost definitely write more about it here.  There were dead sheep discovered on the hillside.  A jukebox battle between Bowie and the theme from MASH, probably any number of ghosts lurking in the corridors and toilets and  kids being mean and horrible to each other almost every hour of the day.  Oh! and.I also proved that Déjà vu was a real thing, by blurting out the impending sequence of events just ahead of them actually happening.  Only my friend Mark heard me though so the rest of the world remains sceptical to this day.

But who cares what other people think!

Steve

Star Quest Roboworld (1979)

 

1979

1978                                            1981

Star Quest Roboworld was one of my first ever book purchases, chosen from the Bookworm book catalogue that they used to run through middle school. It's actually the second book in the series although I didn't know that at the time, I just fell in love with the cover and the promise of the story within. I seem to remember liking it a lot although I never did get round to reading the first or third books in the sequence. Pocket money was limited and I was in the early stages of putting together a collection of Doctor Who paperbacks which were far more captivating, even if the vast majority of them were also written by the prolific Terrance Dicks and published by Target Books.

Artwork, according to The Target Book by David J Howe is by either Jeff Cummins or Bill Donohoe although it doesn't clarify who did which ones.

 

I passed my first copy of Star Quest Roboworld on many years back, However I have since bought another copy, along with the rest of the trilogy.  Primarily I just want to own them again but I reckon they're a quick read so I might find the time to discover how it all started and where it all ends.

 

Steve

The Prince in Waiting Trilogy by John Christopher. Cover art by Stephen Lavis (1981)

1970

1971

 

1972

 

First published dates are beneath each of the images however these are the very handsome 1981 Puffin Books editions with cover art by Stephen Lavis.  John Christopher famously wrote the Tripods trilogy of course along with a great many other books for both children and adults.  I've read more of the latter than the former and didn't buy these until recent years.  However I do remember seeing them in the kids section of most bookshops around that time as well as featuring in the School's Bookworm book sales.  They are gorgeous, aren't they.  For me, Lavis is right up there, along with Heslop, as a leading cover star of the day.

The Nightmare Man (1981)

I stumbled over this TV program almost by accident, having returned home earlier than expected one Friday evening and switching on the black and white portable TV in my bedroom just as it was about to start.

After a brief introduction from the nice voice-over man at the BBC, I sat down to watch, my coat still on.  It didn't take long to become fully engrossed and intrigued by this Thriller?  Horror?  Sci-fi?  show.

However programs of this quality are better watched in all of their Technicolor glory so, waiting for a momentary lull in the drama, I raced downstairs and see if the colour TV was free in the living room.

It wasn't.  So I raced back upstairs to continue as was but mentally preparing for the next episode.

The following week I was ready and waiting in the living room, having claimed squatters rights on the best seat on the sofa.  The trouble was that there were 6 of us in my family and my siblings were not always respectful of a genre TV show.  I don't think it took too many minutes before I was racing back upstairs to watch in peaceful, all be it monochrome, solitude.  At least now I knew how red the reds were though!

 

Steve