Dark Horizons 37

After Chills, I teamed up with Mike Chinn and Phil Williams to edit and produce the British Fantasy Society’s main publication, Dark Horizons. Unfortunately, our first issue of DH took far too long to appear. The editorial note offers apologies but no excuses – and it’s too far in the past to remember all the details. I think that organising a FantasyCon or two, along with launching the Alchemy Press, were involved in some part. Anyway, Dark Horizons 37, edited by the aforementioned team, along with Joel Lane, poetry editor, appeared in 1998 with a cover price of £3.00.

DH37, although neatly produced, used a too-small font, which must have made it hard on the eyes. Dark Horizons included both fiction and non-fiction:

“The Lake” by Linda D Acaster
“Para Dice by the Landing Light” by G W Greenwood. Illustrated by Dallas Goffin
“Worms Feed on Hector: the Gothic Novels of Simon Raven” by Howard Watson (NF)
“A Fence in Rohgate” by D Harrigon
“Terminal” by Simon MacCulloch. Illustrated by Janet Morris
“Heart of the Machine” by Rick Cadger
“Scapegoat” by Alan Casey
“Queue” (verse) by Brian Maycock (R)
“Scraps” by Paul Finch. Illustrated by Alan Hunter
“Roots of a Writer” by Storm Constantine. Illustrated by Bob Covington (NF)
“Jenna’s Home” by Rick Kleffel
“Looking Through the Glass” (verse) by Steve Sneyd
“Horrorscopes: a Lover’s Guide” by Peter Tennant
“Kwaidan Revisited” by John Paul Catton (NF)
“A Rather Improbable God” by David Andreas
“Bio” (verse) by Mark McLaughlin
“The Last Story in the Book” by D F Lewis

Cover art was by Bob Covington with additional artwork by Alan Casey. Only three items were specifically illustrated. Note: R denotes a reprint and NF is non-fiction.

Glancing through DH37’s pages, I note that the first Alchemy Press title, The Paladin Mandates, had just appeared. That year’s Fantasycon, FCXXII, was held at the Albany Posthouse Hotel in Birmingham over the weekend 11-13 September. The Guests of Honour were Freda Warrington and Jane Yolen. Ramsey Campbell was the Master of Ceremonies. And I was one of the organisers – again. Finally, about this time websites were becoming more popular, with the BFS’ first site appearing on the Geocities server.


Originally published on the Alchemy Press website.