'The Outcast and The Rite: Stories of Landscape and Fear, 1925-1938' by Helen de Guerry Simpson. Plus, Awfully Good Terrifying Tales from EnCrypted Horror by Jasper L’Estrange
What’s more
frightening? Wild and mysterious external forces, or outlandish internal energies
that project our innermost fears onto an unsuspecting world? Over which do we
have more or less control? This collection of short, chilling tales from Helen
de Guerry Simpson explores the subtle differences between the supernatural and
the uncanny, and the sometimes disquieting relationships human beings have with
their environment.
‘Grey Sand
and White Sand’ was the first story I came across from de Guerry Simpson, who
seems to be a largely forgotten author. This was via Jasper L’Estrange’s
YouTube channel, EnCrypted Horror, more of which later. Jasper describes this
tale as ‘a wonderfully vivid piece of writing’, which sums it up brilliantly. The
story tells of an artist obsessed with apprehending ‘the truth of landscape’ and
rendering it precisely onto canvas. His desperate quest to reach beneath the
surface of nature’s unfathomable depths develops into something like the pursuit
of an unattainable woman, a comparison the artist himself makes, talking
directly to the marshland: “That’s a woman, it’s the same with you […] It’s
been good, but it isn’t knowing you. Not as I want to know you”. He comes to
believe that his common-law wife is involved in some kind of conspiratorial
accord with the landscape to thwart his ambitions, and that in order to achieve
them, primordial Nature must be made some kind of offering. Is he suffering
from paranoid delusions? Is it all in his head, or does something greater and
unknowable have him in its tantalising grasp?
The effect
of landscape on an individual is again explored in ‘The Rite’. The dark, almost
obscenely enduring fecundity of an ancient woodland on a torrid afternoon reflects
the psychological and sexual perturbation of a young woman considering her marriage
prospects. Overcome by the realisation that ‘Life ran deep, its meaning and
end…as dark as th[e] wood’ and by ‘a dreadful fear of the darkness that could
so reveal hidden things’, she seeks escape from physical or mental entrapment.
There is a
sense of landscapes being alive, as capable of acceptance or rejection as
people. In ‘The Outcast’, a yew tree fails to grow to commemorate a fallen
soldier who died far from home. But where does he belong? Here, or there? He is
seen as a “foreigner” with “gipsy blood” even by the locals at home; an
individual as rootless as the tree that won’t grow.
And what
about our interior landscapes? In ‘Young Magic’, the child Viola ‘made her
inside world as a place to slip into when the green ordinary world was dull’,
but ‘[g]rown Viola could not make for herself a golden hall in an attic, nor
conjure a pattern of parrots into a tropical forest at night. She had been
robbed by the years of these splendours’. Here, Simpson delves into the power
of a child’s imagination and the potential grief felt at its loss alongside the
progression to adulthood, whilst simultaneously showing how the innocent
imaginings of a child’s ‘inside world’ can prove dangerous if carried into
later years. This point is emphasised in ‘The Man Who Had Great Possessions’ as
the protagonist (a writer) constructs a ‘different place’ for himself in his
head, in which he fancies he can control everything: ‘It was understood that
the things and people were only real when he wanted them; they were permitted
no life except in his thought’. However, one of his creations takes on a life
of her own, and the writer is torn between exorcising her from his mind through
writing about her, and retaining her presence in his thoughts. I was
particularly taken by this story and its allusions to the delicate balance
between the thrill created by our own fantasies and the danger of becoming consumed
by them.
‘Disturbing
Experience of an Elderly Lady’ seems to me to be about class, as a middle-class
widow purchases a stately home and seeks to change it according to her own will
and desires. However, by the end of the tale, the reader is left wondering
whether the house belongs to her, or she belongs to the house. In ‘Teigne’, another
house appears to be alive, exerting a pernicious influence over its inhabitants,
even exacting a kind of revenge. As its handsome fittings are stripped, its owner
loses his appreciation of beauty and where it is to be found: “It isn’t in
these things. Where, then? Can’t you buy it and sell it?”
‘A Curious
Story’ deals with the fear of being forgotten, while ‘The Pythoness’ and ‘An
Experiment of the Dead’ raise questions about life after death and the ability
to communicate with those who have passed. Meanwhile, in ‘The Pledge’ an aging
woman’s shrinking world in reality is countered by the influence of the coastal
landscape on her inner life, which is identified with longing for a lost love: ‘the
passion in her…answered the passion of the sea. Motion, colour; fear and
defiance; all craving and all fulfilment was there’.
The exterior
and interior worlds that form our life experiences and the relative influence
each has on the other, both benign and malign; desire and loss; and above all,
perhaps, fear of loss permeate these stories. Thrilling in its fearful
fascination is the pronouncement by one of Simpson’s characters: “Thought is
alive. Things made with hands don’t matter”. Perception is all.
Alongside
recommending this sadly little-known writer (isn’t it a bit ironic that her
place within the literary landscape seems to have been forgotten?), I also want
to endorse the online work of Jasper L’Estrange, who put me onto Simpson in the
first place. I share here his atmospheric retelling of ‘Grey Sand and White
Sand’, but please have a listen to the many other works he has recorded,
including lots of classic creepy stories from masters and mistresses of the
genre, such as M R James, E F Benson, and Marjorie Bowen. He also showcases work
by modern authors like Rebecca Lloyd on his channel. And Jasper writes some grippingly
ghoulish tales himself, which in my opinion absolutely stand up in terms of
quality next to the better-known eerie yarns. ‘The Southton Mermaid’, ‘What’s
Done In The Dark’ and ‘The Music Lover’ are all great, but I’ll leave you with
‘Strange Bedfellows’ to whet your appetites. Also, demonstrating that he has quite
the sense of humour as well as a talent for writing and reading spooky stuff, check
out his festive specials featuring Take a Break ghost stories: most fun.
I especially enjoyed his Halloween Special Post-Mortem at the end of ‘Strange
Bedfellows’ (don’t skip it!), which includes brief piano renditions of
‘Thriller’ and ‘Monster Mash’, plus his confirmation that ‘I’m not Ian’. Brilliant.
Comments
Post a Comment